Welcome emails are often the first direct point of contact between a brand and a new customer. Beyond the content, they also provide an opportunity to showcase your visual identity and make a lasting first impression. In a world where consumer attention is constantly pulled in different directions, the design of your welcome emails plays a crucial role in capturing their interest. A well-designed welcome email, combining aesthetics with efficiency, can not only enhance your brand perception but also guide the recipient toward a desired action, such as making a first purchase or signing up for a loyalty program.
What emails should be in your welcome sequence? What content should you include? How should you design and write them? Get inspired by the real-world examples from Dartagnan’s Email Builder clients in this roundup of 10 highly successful welcome emails. Together, we’ll analyze the key elements of their design, the creative choices that make them stand out, and how these best practices can inspire your own campaigns.
1. Keep it simple for your first date
Welcome Email by Jacquemus:
📩 Subject: Welcome!
🚀 Goal: Customer Relationship
For its first welcome email, the renowned fashion brand Jacquemus opted for an extremely minimalist email design and structure, reflecting its brand and creations.
The hook is achieved through a stunning cover photo. Just two brief lines of text to say welcome, all in a minimalist font. The strategically aligned CTAs, like the navigation bar at the top of the email, cleverly direct readers to the website.
Beyond that, the photo mosaic does the job. No additional text needed. The visuals are highly effective in conveying the brand’s spirit.
2. Start building a strong customer relationship in your Welcome Emails
Welcome Email by Balibaris :
🚀 Objective: Customer Relationship – Branding
 📩 Subject: We’re Telling You Everything From the Start |  📩 Subject: A Surprise in Your Mailbox? 💌 |
In these two welcome emails, part of their Welcome sequence, Balibaris builds a perfect flow that helps establish a well-crafted customer relationship.
The first email “literally” tells the brand’s story, craftsmanship, and ethos. Then, the offer of an exclusive surprise gift in exchange for the customer’s address is introduced. It’s subtle and skillfully done to gather data without being overly commercial.
The copywriting and direct address to the recipient create a sense of closeness. It’s well-executed, classy, and elegant. Well done!
3. Immerse your customers in your brand’s universe
Welcome Email by Lacoste:
📩 Subject: Lacoste Story. Crocodile Tale.
🚀 Objective: Branding
Lacoste uses playful email design to tell the brand’s story:
- Vintage-style photos
- A header GIF that impressively shows the evolution of the logo
- Animated vintage visuals to maintain a modern touch
It’s top-notch design!
Welcome Email by Evaneos:
📩 Subject: Your Next Journey Starts Here
🚀 Objective: Branding
In a much more classic yet highly effective style, Evaneos introduces its positioning beautifully:
- A well-editorialized email
- Titles that highlight the brand’s positioning and values
- A staggered layout to energize the structure
And voilà, job done!
4. Offer a promotion right from the first Welcome Email
Welcome Email by La Redoute
📩 Subject: Welcome! -20% on Fashion & Home 🎁
🚀 Objective: Promotional Offer + Customer Experience
With this first email, La Redoute sets up a highly effective strategy. They start their welcome email sequence with a promotional offer, prominently featured in both the subject line and the header section.
The email is split into two parts: a photo section and a text section on a colored background. This composition effectively highlights the offer and maintains consistency throughout the email.
The two-column layout featuring Fashion and Home allows for the introduction of La Redoute’s product catalog, encouraging the customer to take advantage of the promotion on specific catalog items. It’s smart and typically quite effective.
5. Showcase your product range in Welcome Emails
Welcome Emails by Devialet
📩 Subject: Get Ready to Dive In
🚀 Objective: Product Promotion + Branding
Devialet, known for its breathtaking emails and universe, continues to impress.
The goal of this email is to reinforce the brand’s luxury and high-quality positioning, establish the brand’s presence, and introduce the star products. Mission accomplished!
- The visuals and photos are of top quality, reflecting the excellence of the products.
- The alternating black and white backgrounds create a chic and elegant effect, while the minimalistic approach enhances the overall aesthetic.
- The product visuals, treated in PNG format, overflow from the frame, creating an attention-grabbing effect. The design is both innovative and captivating.
- The perfect copywriting adds to the overall feel, with an almost epic tone that emphasizes the brand’s unique user
Bravo Devialet … This is quite unique !
6. Guide your customers step-by-step through their shopping experience
Modz
📩 Subject: We’re Revealing All Our Secrets…
🚀 Objective: Shopping Experience – User Experience
Modz’s welcome email offers some great ideas, sharing best practices with new customers to ensure a successful shopping experience. What we like:
- The step-by-step numbered approach, which is highly instructive.
- The two-column layout with an illustration on the left and explanatory text on the right, making the message very clear.
- The inclusion of GIFs, especially the visual in the two-column section, which adds energy to the email.
7. Start promoting your loyalty programs in Welcome Emails
Welcome Emails by Le Printemps
📩 Subject: Your Printemps Club Card in This Email
🚀 Objective: Loyalty Program – User Experience
Le Printemps perfectly demonstrates how to make the most of email marketing, and this loyalty program email in their welcome sequence is a prime example. What we love:
- A dedicated email for promoting the loyalty program.
- Boldly using a photo in the header: even for a technical action, they maintain brand image and make the process more engaging.
- A very clear structure: header + benefits + tutorial.
- The tutorial includes a small GIF for adding the loyalty card to a mobile wallet.
- Use of the “Border Radius” feature to align with brand design, especially in the header (did you recognize the Printemps “P”?).
In terms of customer experience, it’s hard to do better. Well done, Le Printemps!
8. Familiarize your new customers with your different points of sale
Welcome Emails by Lulli sur la Toile :
📩 Subject: Welcome to LULLI
🚀 Objective: Branding – Brand Universe – Shopping Experience
In an omnichannel experience, we often focus heavily on the digital aspect, and in the rush, sometimes forget to properly promote our physical stores.
That’s why we love this GIF section from Lulli, which highlights their various points of contact and sales locations. Not only does it add animation to the email, but the photos also effectively underline the chic atmosphere of their boutiques. It’s a great way to entice new customers to visit in person.
9. Launch your community through Welcome Emails
Welcome Email by Maisons du Monde:
📩 Subject: Tons of Décor Ideas to Inspire You
🚀 Objective: User Community – Customer Relations – Brand Universe
Building customer loyalty also involves engaging them with your communities. Maisons du Monde nailed this by dedicating a page on their website to their community. The idea? Display photos of Maisons du Monde furniture in real customers’ homes, Instagram-style, with the option to click and buy the featured item. Clever!
In this email, Maisons du Monde brings the web experience closer to the inbox by creating a photo grid section that mimics that same environment. The CTA leads to the dedicated page. Perfect execution.
The rest of the email showcases impressive consistency:
- A section pushing social media channels, paired with a mobile mock-up.
- A selection of Maisons du Monde’s customer-favorite products.
- Maisons du Monde Magazine, which fosters community engagement.
- A final section highlighting the brand’s CSR commitments and associated products.
A flawless demonstration.
10. Invite your customers to discover more
Welcome Emails Sequence by Maisons du Monde:
📩 Subject: Looking for a Gift Idea?
🚀 Objective: Shopping Experience – Brand Universe
Closing a welcome email sequence isn’t easy. The goal is to ensure this isn’t the end of your dialogue but the beginning of a shared journey.
How do you do that? By inviting customers to explore your product catalog to set up future promotional campaigns. Or, like Maisons du Monde, by taking a slightly different approach and offering something original.
Maisons du Monde smartly promotes their gift cards, moving beyond just pushing the product catalog and enriching the shopping experience. What we like:
- The two-column layout to showcase both the digital and print versions of the gift card.
- The use of background design in the “Décor Makeover” block.
- The four-column layout to present the various advantages of the gift card.
- The introduction of the product catalog at the end of the email, coherent with the journey but not overly pushy.