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Chalking out an email marketing campaign is no mean feat. You have to build an organic and high-quality email list, identify the unique interests and preferences of every single contact in there, and ensure that your email designs are accessible and optimized for mobile audiences. But, even after doing all this, you might still struggle to secure the results you are chasing after if you are not sending the right types of emails to your audience.
At its core, email marketing is all about communication, and communication is, well, multi-faceted in nature. Simply sending promotional and marketing emails won’t get you far; email marketing is way more nuanced than that. To effectively hold the attention of your subscribers, you must send them emails whose content is substantially differentiated. And that can only be possible when you have various types of emails in your repertoire. Wondering what all they are? Read this article to find out!
Newsletter Email
If your business is new to email marketing, one of the very first emails you’d be advised to send out is the newsletter email. Email is an excellent channel for establishing yourself as a figure of authority in your domain. How successfully you are able to do this depends entirely on the quality of your newsletter. You can hire a full-service email marketing agency to get the most out of your email strategy.To drive the email marketing efforts in the right direction, let’s look at how to create winning newsletters.
- Make sure your content is original. More often than not brands populate their newsletters with content that is redundant and which is easily available elsewhere. Remember, people subscribe to newsletters with the hope of uncovering new insights and perspectives. Hence, if you are not building your newsletter around your own expertise, you will never be able to attract a sizable reader base.
- Your newsletter design has to be top-notch. Impress your audience with a stunning email template. No matter how invaluable and insightful your content is, it will not be able to hold the attention of your readers if it’s not visually appealing. Ensure that the content is easy to navigate and the design, visually uncluttered. Moreover, it must also abide by all the email accessibility best practices.
- Be mindful of your sending frequency. One of the major reasons why people unsubscribe from newsletters is because they feel dismayed by the frequency with which they receive them. Figuring which user is okay with what kind of frequency is pretty challenging. So, the best course of action is to invite your subscribers to specify this for themselves by adding an “Update Preferences” link in your newsletter.
- Add a gripping CTA (call-to-action). Of course, the primary objective of a newsletter is to position your business as a thought leader, but that’s not the sole intent. At the end of the day, you want your newsletter to convert your readers into recurring customers. To put those wheels into motion, your newsletter must have a compelling CTA.
Falling short on inspiration for your newsletter? These examples should help.
A natural sleep aid brand, Sandland, in this newsletter email, discusses a breathing technique aimed at providing their readers with a good night’s rest. The soft tones in the background complement the email content and are extremely easy on the eyes as well. If you happen to open this email in a hurry and are unable to scan through all the content, you can just as well click on the CTA which will lead you to a video demonstration of the same. Quite a smart tactic, if you ask us.
When you buy a product or service from a business, don’t you secretly wish they’d tell you the best ways to use it as well? Well, that’s precisely what Apolis has done in their newsletter. Safe to say their subscribers will be happily whitelisting them.
Welcome Email
The first kind of communication that subscribers receive from you, welcome emails go a long way toward setting expectations and inspiring customer loyalty. An impactful welcome email must:
- Express gratitude to the reader for subscribing. Further, it should explain to them what they can expect from the brand in the days to come.
- Offer subscribers a relevant action. Ask them to check out your blog, go through your website, or follow you on social media platforms.
- Include an incentive. Let your new subscribers know how stoked you are to have them on board by giving them a special code, a promo code, or a gift coupon.
- Allow them to opt out. It’s not necessary that the tone of your welcome email be received well by all. And if you continue to send emails to these recipients, they’ll eventually report you as spam. Therefore, it is essential your welcome emails contain an unsubscribe link.
Promotional Email
Of course, no email marketing quiver can ever be complete without promotional emails. However, with the high volume of emails being exchanged daily, customers across the globe have grown quite allergic to businesses that toot their own horns via their emails. Here’s what you can do to make your promotional emails stand out.
- Make it about the customer. Don’t list the salient points of your offerings in and of themselves; instead tell your customers how they can add value to their lives.
- Include social proof. Nothing wins over the trust of a prospective customer faster than a positive testimony from another fellow customer. After all, if your products are spreading joy, why not share it with the world?
- Send personalized product recommendations. A customer, who has in the past, expressed interest in, say, the home decor section, will want nothing to do with a promotional email dealing with electronic appliances. To strike the right chords, you must send every segment unique promotional emails.
Survey Email
Surveys have always been an important part of every email marketers toolkit but with the introduction of Apple’s MPP their stocks have risen even higher. Survey emails let you solicit customer feedback and stay on top of your customer’s pulse. With there being no way now to figure out whether subscribers are opening your emails or not, surveys are a good means of inviting interaction.
Wrapping It Up
Apart from the ones listed above, there are still quite a few- milestone emails, announcement emails, customer appreciation emails, and discovery emails, to name a few. However, if you are just starting out, including the four types of emails mentioned above is pretty non-negotiable. Now that you have a blueprint, go ahead and wow your subscribers with stunning campaigns!
Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion and free responsive HTML email templates in addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration & migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz and eats and breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.
