An e-mail onboarding program, which consists of a series of communications specifically developed to address new e-mail sign-ups on your list, is recognized as the single greatest marketing moment marketers will have to connect with a new prospect, but many fail to take advantage of the opportunity. It is important to develop a relationship immediately after registration because the probability of a response drops dramatically after 24 hours. In fact, only 49% of marketers send a welcome or thank you message in the first 24 hours of registration.

Onboarding programs that "welcome" a prospect to your company reinforce the value of relationships and privacy commitments. A study completed by Return Path in 2008 looked at messages from leading brands after customers signed up for e-mail and found that 60% of brands failed to send welcome messages.

Creating and sustaining a relationship with customers after they have subscribed to your e-mail marketing program is a critical part of customer acquisition because the subscriber has expressed a high-level of interest in your company. New sign-ups are up to 3.7 times more likely to click on e-mails than customers that have previously been on the file, so this is the time to engage them with relevant, timely and consistent messages and information. It is important to demonstrate what your company stands for because this is the "honeymoon" period when they are most open to engagement and have the highest click percentage. This period lasts up to 8 blasts, unless an onboarding program is firmly in place. Once their click rate falls, it is extremely difficult to re-engage them at the same initial level.

Offering something special in your onboarding e-mails is a great way to retain these new sign-ups/prospects. Incorporating a coupon, a percentage off, free shipping, a bonus download of a whitepaper or free Webinar is a great method to show your appreciation and convert sign-ups into buyers.