5 Email Campaigns to Level Up Your Marketing Game

Email marketing is hands-down one of the most effective digital marketing techniques around.

Just look at the numbers. Email marketing revenue has grown from 7 million dollars in 2020 to nearly 10 million dollars in 2023.

Therefore, the question is not so much about whether or not email marketing still works. The question should be how to use email marketing effectively to optimize your ROI.

What is an email marketing campaign?

An email marketing campaign is a pre-planned email series intended to nurture potential customers. The ultimate goal is to elicit engagement and, ultimately, generate sales.

Each email series has a specific call to action (CTA) that asks the subscriber to take a desired action. That action can be to sign up for the mailing list, add products to shopping carts, or book a call.

5 email campaigns to level up your marketing game

So whether you’re just joining the email marketers train or are already a seasoned email marketer, this article is for you. These are the different types of campaigns you can implement to up your email marketing game.

1. Welcome emails

Welcome emails are the first emails you get from a brand when you sign up, subscribe to a newsletter, or submit your email address. It’s the first impression a brand makes with a new blog or newsletter subscriber, for example.

To build a relationship with a new customer, welcome emails can include videos, a sign-up form, special offers, or simply a nice greeting.

Welcome emails are important in ecommerce, retail, or SaaS email marketing because they’re an opportunity to move individuals further along the client lifecycle.

Here’s an example of a welcome email from Food52:

Recipients are more likely to trust what the email above says because it was signed by Food52 founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. Even their faces are seen in the email. The exclusive offer for new subscribers is the icing on the cake because it will incentivize subscribers to take action.

Welcome emails have a 50-86% higher open rate than regular email newsletters. So sending a great welcome email gives you a chance to educate people about your brand when they are most receptive to hearing from you.

It’s also an email marketing best practice to send welcome emails in a series—say, three to five emails—to avoid cramming too much information about your brand into a single email. You can schedule your welcome email series for three days after signup from a new contact.

The thing about welcome emails is that you need to send them at the right time. It should be in your subscriber’s email inbox as soon as they sign up for your mailing list. So, it’s best to automate the sending of welcome emails. Use marketing automation software, like Campaign Monitor, that provides automation workflows.

There are other things you can do to make a good first impression with your welcome emails. You can grab your recipients’ attention with an engaging email subject line. Also, get them hooked with special offers they can’t resist. You should include an “unsubscribe” button for their benefit—although they won’t use it if you draft a killer welcome email content.

Just like you’d like to make a good first impression when you meet people for the first time, incorporate that mindset into how you send your welcome emails. It could be the start of a lifelong relationship with potential customers.

2. Cross-channel promotions

This is a marketing strategy that involves promoting a product or service through multiple channels. The goal is to reach a wider audience and increase engagement and conversion rates.

The image below is an example of an email campaign aimed at promoting a brand’s social media following:

Handy, a home cleaning and installations marketplace, incentivizes email subscribers to follow its social media account through the email copy (“Follow to win prizes,” “Candy from Handy,”).

The thing about cross-channel marketing is that while you use different channels for promotion, they should provide a unified and consistent customer experience. So, when they see your Facebook post and your email, they’ll know both are from your brand.

For example, if you check out Handy’s Facebook post doing the same promotion, you’ll see that it has the same feel as the Handy email. Notice the Handy logo:

For effective cross-channel promotions, create buyer personas that give you better insights into your customers’ journeys. Their behavioral or purchase patterns can highlight where you should follow up with an email campaign after promoting your brand on other channels.

You can also leverage influencer marketing as part of your overall cross-channel marketing strategy. Let’s say you want to launch a new product. You can use an email finder to get the contact information of key influencers and ask them to promote your new item. Then promote your influencer’s post on your product via email, for example.

3. Special events

Special events could be anything your business is hosting or participating in, such as an anniversary, a grand opening, a webinar, or a conference. Email marketing campaigns are one of the most effective ways to promote special events.

The image below shows a special events email for a webinar.

The email displays a special “free place” offer that encourages people to attend the event. It also contains useful information, including the date, time, and what to expect.

Campaign Monitor has said that emails about events have a 28% open rate. You might even increase that number by implementing more email marketing best practices:

• Adopt email personalization. Send content subscribers will be interested in. Use their first name in the email as much as possible.
• Create a buzz about the upcoming event. Send multiple emails in intervals about the event without necessarily giving away too much.
• Induce fear of missing out (FOMO) in subscribers (words, such as “Now,” or “Only a few slots remaining” can get them to take your desired action).
• Ensure your calls to action are bold and visible for maximum impact.

A successful email marketing campaign for special events consists of a series of emails that span from before the event to after the event. Don’t forget to send a thank-you email after the event. They give your customers a sense of value, which gives them the incentive to do business with you.

4. Sales emails

Sales emails should be part of your email marketing campaigns. Their primary goal is to convert a subscriber into a paying customer.

See how Uber’s sales email encourages customers to place food orders.

One notable thing about the email above is that it induces FOMO, which can lead to more engagement. Additionally, the offer is written in bold. Notice that the CTA immediately after the offer encourages subscribers to act.

In addition to those best practices, keep your email content simple. Focus on benefits, too. So, instead of saying your shoes have boost technology (a feature), say they can help you jump higher, for example.

Don’t make the mistake of bombarding your email subscribers with too many sales emails. You’ll only annoy them. The result is that they’ll unsubscribe from you.

5. Re-engagement emails

Re-engagement emails are a critical component of any email marketing campaign strategy. These campaigns aim to bring back inactive subscribers and re-engage them by offering relevant content, special deals, and personalized experiences.

Here’s a re-engagement email from Redbubble:

This email is effective because the email subject line, "We Miss You," carries emotion. It conveys the brand's feelings about not doing business with that particular client.

Additionally, Redbubble offers an incentive in the email to encourage the client to take action (10% off). Notice that the benefit is highlighted in the CTA, too. If you click on the CTA, you get 10% off. Who doesn’t want that? The result? The recipient is more likely to click on the CTA.

In your email, emphasize any new improvements in your brand. Remember, you want to re-engage inactive subscribers. So, you need to give them something new that will pique their interest in your product again.

Another tip is to segment your list of inactive email clients. You can separate them by inactivity period, location, or other interests. The more tailored your email content, the higher the chances of those subscribers taking action.

Sending re-engagement emails will either help you win back inactive customers or tell you which customers can’t be re-engaged. Knowing this last one will help you purge your email list of inactive customers and reduce your bounce rates.

Take it one step at a time

Email marketing remains a vital component of any comprehensive marketing strategy. If you want to succeed as a business, you need to jump on the bandwagon.

You learned five email marketing campaigns you should run. These are welcome, special events, sales, re-engagement, and cross-promotion email campaigns.

Don’t worry. You don’t have to run these all at once. Start with one and then add some more as you gain more experience in running campaigns.

Keep in mind that a campaign is seldom just a single email. In creating all those emails, though, you need to stay creative. Bear your audience in mind, too. You’ll see your email marketing campaigns will reap the best results.

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