Email remains key to a successful marketing strategy. More than one-third of marketers ranked email as “the most effective” marketing channel in their organization in a Litmus survey. The same survey found four in five would rather give up social media than email.
So, now that we’ve established the importance of email, what types of campaigns should you be sending? We’ve outlined eight types of emails to include in your mix. Plus, we share our top four email marketing tips AND two advanced email tactics!
1. Welcome email campaign
Your welcome email campaign is your opportunity to engage your audience and give a great first impression. Think about how you can bring them value and be creative. Maybe you have an offer you can share, such as a free ebook or research study, a free trial, or a discount. There’s no better way to engage an audience than saying thank you for signing up!
Check out the example below from project management tool Asana. They welcome you, tell you how it will make your life easier, and how to get started using it.
2. Lead nurturing campaign
2. Lead nurturing campaignWhen you attract a lead, they may not be ready to purchase, particularly if you’re selling something that is higher cost or requires more of their time. A lead nurturing campaign can help engage them with informative content — helping drive them through the buyer journey to purchase.
3. Promotional email
A promotion campaign offers a limited time deal, new product or service, or exclusive content. Generally, a promotional email should focus on one clear call to action.
Take a look at the example below from Digital Marketer. The offer is clear and provides value (save 73%? wow!).
4. Abandoned cart
When a user puts a product in their online shopping cart, but then doesn’t complete the purchase, they’re showing a high degree of intent. Don’t let that momentum go! Sending a “You forgot something” email helps remind them to return and purchase. And, if they still don’t purchase, send them another reminder with an offer.
5. Re-engagement campaign
Not everyone in your list is opening and engaging with your emails. A re-engagement campaign can help reconnect with these users or remove them from your list so you aren’t sending negative signals to email service providers, affecting your deliverability.
6. Newsletter
An enewsletter shares timely news and information with people who are interested in what you have to say — because they subscribed. Be careful to consider what is truly newsworthy, though, since you want to keep these subscribers engaged.
7. Sales sequence
A sales sequence isn’t really a marketing email, but it’s still worth considering if you’re in B2B. This type of campaign is a sequence of scripted, yet personalized emails your sales team can send to prospects over a given time period.
8. Transactional email
Transactional emails are not marketing or sales emails — they facilitate a transaction between your company and your customer. Examples of these emails include order confirmation, shipping information, password reset, or registration confirmations.
Bonus: Top Email Marketing Tips
Here are our top tips for successful emails.
Segment your list
Segment your email list into smaller lists of users based on common criteria. For example, if you’re a B2C marketer, you could segment your list based on interests, purchase history, or location.
If you’re a B2B marketer, you might segment your list by industry and even job role. Why? Today, it takes on average six people to make a decision in B2B sales. And a head of marketing will likely care about different things than a CFO.
If you have a robust email marketing tool, you can even segment your list based on website activity.
Personalize
Segmentation is one form of personalization, but you can do more. For example, data show including your recipient’s name in the subject line can increase open rates. In addition, you can personalize your “from name” of your marketing emails to come from the account manager or sales person a user has already interacted with.
The more data you have in your database about your users, the more personalized you can make your campaigns.
Pay attention to the preheader
Often businesses will prioritize the subject line, but treat the preheader like an afterthought. But a good preheader can determine whether someone opens your email. You should give it the same amount of attention as your headline.
Look at the examples below. The first ignores the prehead — and it autopulls in the first content from the email, “Morning Memo View Online AUGUST 11, 2021.” Yikes.
The second uses that valuable real estate to the max, “Discover key stats about content marketing in 2021 and trends to lookout for.” I’m opening it!
Don’t buy email lists
Don’t buy email listsWhat do high quality purchased lists and unicorns have in common? ? They’re both figments of your imagination.
Just don’t buy lists. Take the time to build your own list of engaged subscribers who have opted in to receive your emails. If you still don’t believe me, read this.
Two More Advanced Email Marketing Tips
Try a double open strategy
Creating an email takes time and resources, from the planning to the copy to the creative to the testing. When you send an email, use your email marketing tool to monitor who doesn’t open your email. Then, wait several days and send the same email with a different subject line to those users who didn’t open. Then, calculate how many more people engaged with your email than if you had just sent it once.
Use frequency capping
You can avoid sending too many emails to users by using frequency capping in your email marketing tool. Frequency capping will limit how many emails a recipient can get in a set time period.
Get started with our Email Marketing Campaign Checklist
