As both a marketer and a consumer, I receive (and judge) a lot of emails. With the mass amounts of emails sent every day, your brand needs to stand out.
If you have an email list not being utilized for email marketing, you are missing out! No matter the size of your list, there are many worthwhile campaigns you can run to keep an audience engaged with your brand and your website.
Keep reading for 7 types of emails your brand should be sending, as well as an awesome example of each one.
Email Campaigns for B2C Companies
1. Promotional Emails
If you’re an Ecommerce brand that ever runs sales, promotional emails are a no-brainer. Promotional campaigns remind your email subscribers of upcoming sales and encourage them to return to the site to purchase.
Favorite Example: Social Print Studio’s Product Emails
Social Print Studio does an amazing job of writing fun and engaging copy along with creative images to show off their products. Even if I’m not in the market for one of their products, I can’t help but read their emails all the way through.
2. Nurturing Emails
If you’re an Ecommerce brand with shopping cart functionality, you can run a nurturing campaign to anyone who has abandoned their cart on your site. Nurturing campaigns gently remind indecisive or comparison shoppers of the item in their cart and encourage them to come back and buy.
Favorite Example: ModCloth’s Abandoned Cart Email
This email from ModCloth is full of personality, while also being helpful by showing the exact product with a link back to your cart.
Email Campaigns for B2B Companies
3. Educational Emails (Non-Promotional)
If your brand does not run sales, an educational email is a great option. Even if you think you have the most boring brand out there, you have knowledge that your target audience is interested in.
Favorite Example: Trello’s Educational Email Newsletter
The below example is from Trello, a collaboration tool for businesses. While this isn’t the most exciting service around, their newsletters are anything but boring. Each newsletter is filled with tips and helpful advice on organization, time management and more. While they aren’t outright selling their tool in these emails, the content of the email is so engaging it’s hard not to go to their site!
4. Lead Follow-Up Emails
If someone submitted a form on your website, downloaded a white paper, etc., don’t you dare leave them hanging. They deserve a follow-up. Lead follow-up emails are a staple with B2B brands. You’ve probably received some pretty annoying follow-up emails in your lifetime, but I promise it’s not just sales reps faking an interest in your day-to-day.
Favorite Example: Optimizely’s White Paper Download Follow-Up Email
In this email, Optimizely keeps it simple while helping the user out. The email has a clear call-to-action (download the white paper) and offers helpful links for more of Optimizely’s content without being salesy.
Email Campaigns for All!
5. Company Newsletter
Newsletters are an easy and fun way to showcase what’s new within your company and show off your brand personality. Whether these are weekly, monthly or quarterly, starting to share more about your brand is always a good idea for building a relationship with your audience.
Tips:
- Set the expectation up front for what will be in your newsletter as well as how often they can expect to receive it.
- Keep your layout consistent as well as consistent with your company branding.
- Keep the content valuable – no one will stay subscribed to a newsletter if they aren’t interested in the content.
Favorite Example: NordicClick’s Coffee Break Newsletter
This one may be a bit biased, but I really love the newsletter my agency puts out each month for our clients/fans. Each month it showcases the best content from our digital marketing blog as well as fun recurring sections like “View from the dock” and “Question of the month” that showcase NordicClick’s brand personality.
We’re not saying you should subscribe, but we’re also not saying you shouldn’t… if you know what we mean.
6. Emails to Ask for Reviews
Whether you’re looking for product reviews or asking for feedback on your brand, reviews are an important part of your brand’s online presence. Sending an email asking for reviews can be a straightforward way of doing this.
Tips:
- Try to make these emails as personalized as possible
- Stay consistent with your brand voice
- Only send to those who recently visited your store or recently did business with you
Favorite Example: Smooth Viking’s Product Review Request
The email below is part of a fantastic follow-up email campaign from men’s haircare brand Smooth Viking. Not only are their emails dripping with personality, they’re also genuine, polite and courteous. They make you want to say good things about the brand. A review feels like a natural next step.
7. Oops Emails
Mistakes happen with email campaigns from brands of any size or status. Sending out a creative apology to those affected can prevent any backlash as well as delight your audience.
Favorite Example: Staypineapple Hotels’ Email Faux-pas Apology
I received the cute and clever email below from Staypineapple Hotels after I had received an email with the wrong name on it. It made me laugh and I loved the brand even more after receiving it.
Hopefully these ideas will jump-start your creativity when brainstorming email campaign ideas to delight your audience. Not sure how your brand should start utilizing email marketing? Learn more about how we can help!
Want to up your email game? Browse our Email Marketing capabilities to see how we can help.
