Article

How to Write a Client Onboarding Email

How to Write a Client Onboarding Email

Charlie Bedell

You put in a lot of hard work to attract, educate, and build relationships with prospective clients and then – success! – they decide to go with your organization. But what happens after this?

A lot of people think this decision point is when they’ve “won” the client. In reality, clients fully commit when they achieve their first big win with your organization. This is where client onboarding comes in as a vital step in making sure new clients reach their full value potential.

Continue reading to learn more about client onboarding and how to provide the best onboarding experience for your new clients.

What is client onboarding?

Client onboarding is a way to guide new clients towards the best and correct use of your products or services. This increases the chance of clients’ success – of achieving quick wins with your organization – and helps create value for the time and money they’ve committed. It’s an important step in a larger strategy for continuing to build relationships and communication pathways with new clients.

How does client onboarding work?

The best client onboarding process sends personalized, targeted emails to new clients. Emails are an excellent way to communicate with clients since you likely already have their email address and can easily customize email content to fit their specific needs.

The first onboarding email should be sent within the same day new clients commit to use your organization. Then, you can send additional onboarding emails in the following days, weeks, and months to continue to connect and communicate with new clients.

These emails don’t need to be time-consuming. Find an online software that offers an automated drip email campaign feature so you can create onboarding emails and schedule them to send automatically at specific time intervals.

What are best practices for client onboarding emails?

Onboarding emails should be between 60 and 130 words. Keep these messages short and simple; you don’t want to overwhelm new clients still learning the ropes. Email content should be concise, scannable, and presented in short paragraph “chunks” of information. Make sure to include hyperlinks to your website, blog, FAQs, support team, and any other resources clients might need.

4 types of client onboarding emails

As you start to develop your onboarding email cadence, it’s important to offer clients a variety of information throughout their onboarding process. Find different types of onboarding emails you can use below.

1. Initial welcome and introduction

The first onboarding email you send should welcome and introduce new clients to your organization’s onboarding process. It should set expectations for how the process works and what their next steps are.

Consider including the following resources in this first message to new clients:

  • A welcome video introducing them to your organization and key employees they’ll be working with
  • Links to helpful resources on your website such as the blog, FAQs, or tutorials
  • Forms or agreements to sign
  • The address or contact information for your organization
  • Who to contact for questions

Keep this message light, simple, and welcoming. Get clients excited about working with your organization and the value they’ll receive by working with you. Emails with a lot of technical information can wait for later in the onboarding process.

2. Contact information

Now that new clients have been welcomed into your organization, it’s important to help them transition away from sales and towards their new point of contact. This can be confusing for clients as they move away from a familiar sales rep or administrator and need help with more complex questions. By sending a second onboarding message specifically addressing this transition, you can ensure new clients feel supported rather than “dropped” once you’ve closed the sale.

In this email, thank clients for choosing your organization, and introduce them to the person or team who they can contact for help. Some organizations like to include a picture of the client's new contact to add a personal touch to the message. Make sure to also include an email address and phone number, too.

This email doesn’t need to be detailed or in-depth: provide clients with the information they need to be successful and don’t overdo it!

3. Resources to get started

Your first two emails in the onboarding process should be purposely light. By the third email, it’s time to offer information about your product or service that new clients will need to get started. This message helps remind clients why they came to your organization in the first place and how you can help them.

Think about the 3 to 5 items clients need to perform, complete, or consider when they start to use your product or service. List these in your email with links, graphics, or other multimedia to engage clients and encourage them to access the resources you’ve provided.

This is also a great email to give clients access to any support documents you have, including:

  • Knowledge base and how-to articles
  • Downloadable content
  • Video tutorials
  • Blog articles
  • Links to outside sites such as official government or association webpages

This email will likely be a bit longer than the previous two simply because of the amount of information you want to offer clients. However, continue to maintain simplicity and concision in your writing.

4. Deeper dive into features, offerings, or helpful tips

You’ve provided the necessary information and resources for clients to successfully onboard in past emails. Now, this fourth message is an opportunity to spotlight value-add features, offerings, and tips for your product or service.

Organizations choose to structure this email differently, but they typically include:

  • List of features or offerings: Consider including any new, useful, or popular features or services that new clients might not be familiar with yet.
  • Highlight of one “aha!” moment: Have you noticed existing customers raving about a certain feature or offering lately? Use this email to highlight it, offering detailed information and case studies or quotes from customers.

The purpose of this email is to reduce time to value for your clients, getting them to try new features or services and accomplish their goals sooner. Quick, early wins for clients mean better customer retention and a lower churn rate.

Use this last email type to extend the life of your onboarding communications with new clients. In the future, you can send updated features or offerings deep dive emails periodically. This helps clients continue to get value from your organization long after their first interaction.

Conclusion

Onboarding new clients can sometimes be a difficult transition, and it’s up to you to provide clients with the information they need to orient themselves with your products or services. A strategic onboarding email cadence offers the information, communication, and engagement clients need to be successful with your organization. A simple email can go a long way!

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