Email welcome campaign lessons from Sainsburyâs DM

A few weeks back I got a new Nectar card and used it for the first time last Saturday, clocking up my very first Nectar points.

Impressively on the following Tuesday the postman delivered me a piece of DM from Sainsbury’s.

This was no co-incidence, the opening line of the DM is “As you’ve recently picked up your first Nectar points at Sainsbury’s…” – a great lead-in line that immediately makes the content relevant to the reader.

A slick piece of marketing, triggering a DM shot from first use of a Nectar card, the design is a great example of how to welcome new customers

The DM design and content shares many best practices with email design best practice

• A distinctive circle attracts the eye as the starting point
• The headline “We’re here to help you get started” has clarity and tells the reader immediately what this is about – no need for hype here
• The first paragraphs speaks to the individual
• The brown signs give visual clues to direct your eyes across the pages
• Copy is chunked and easily scanned
• Icons and images are functional and support the message, no pointless pictures of a stock happy shoppers

The DM format is a horizontal foldout but the same concepts for eye-path flow can be adapted to vertical email design.

The messaging of the DM has clear purpose addressing in a logical order

• The different ways to collect Nectar points
• What you can do with the points you’ve collected
• A next step to finding out more

Welcome campaigns are about education, providing customers with key useful information so the relationship can continue to develop.

Finally when turning the last foldout of the DM there are vouchers that incentivise the Nectar point collecting habit.

So there it is; great design, brand education and incentives to continue the habit that’s just started.

The key ingredients of every Welcome campaign, whether in DM or Email.