This email marketing guide is all about those four kinds of emails that you should include in your email marketing strategy and set your goals. They are-
- Welcome Emails
- Newsletter Emails
- Promotional Emails
- Re-engagement Emails
Communication has become so fast and quick through various communication channels and, many people have started doubting if email marketing still works or if, can be a tool for communication. Surprisingly, yes! Email Marketing has held its position for businesses that aim to connect with their audience.
Even if new social media options have gained much popularity, emails haven’t left their authenticity and so, they hold their position and continue to deliver the highest returns on investment (ROI) in the marketing space. But, not all emails are equal or similar to each other.
They’re different with different benefits and qualities and play specific roles in your overall email marketing strategy.
Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are the first interaction that happens between your brand and a new subscriber. It’s the first impression that you leave on them and set the tone for the connection that’ll move forward.
A subtle and interactive welcome email can leave a great impact on how your subscribers understand your brand and if they’ll keep up with you for a long duration.
Many successful businesses use a series of welcome emails to introduce themselves, their products, and services to new subscribers. For example, a brand in the e-commerce industry might start by thanking the subscribers which will be followed by another email that gives them an idea about their products and services highlighting their best-selling products.
This will be followed by the third email offering a discount code to make the subscriber take their first action. But why do they do it? There might be reason.
Yes! There is a reason; well, reasons.
- The welcome series gives a start to the trust-building process. When you send a timely, personalized welcome email with a positive note, it can start building trust between your brand and subscriber from the first interaction itself.
- When someone signs up for your email – they’re truly into you; most engaged at that time. Sending them welcome emails can make them open it intentionally for immediate interaction and boost engagement rates.
- Just like we discussed above, many businesses extend a discount code to their new subscribers. This action of offering a discount entices the subscriber to make the purchase and this serves as an opportunity for immediate conversions.
Excited to send welcome emails and interact with your audience? Wait! Before you take the step ahead, here are some best practices to own and apply!
Timing and Frequency
Most of the time, how effective your welcome emails are depends its timing. If you’re sending a welcome email immediately after they sign up, they might still have a fresh mind to consume what you say and offer. This also sets your brand image as fresh and fast.
But, if you’re delaying it, it may result in low or lost engagement. Prefer sending your subscriber a series of email with proper timing to nurture the relationship.
Personalization and Segmentation
Do you know what works best when sending emails? Personalization. And, when you personalize your first email i.e., a welcome email can make them feel valued by you from the first interaction itself.
Use their name and preferences to craft the email. The more you personalize and provide relevant content, the more engagement comes your way.
Set Expectations
You’re already aware of how you can use your email marketing to introduce your brand. One more way to use it is to set expectations. Use it to tell the subscribers what they expect from your brand and emails.
This can include the content type they’ll receive, the number of emails in a time frame, and the offers and benefits they can use.
Newsletter Emails
Newsletter emails are the regular emails that you send to your subscribers to update them with your business updates etc. It can be a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly email. It’s not some promotional kind of email but, an email focused on providing value through gathered content, news of the company, and industry insights.
It isn’t for sales or promotion but, to provide value to the subscribers.
Some of the top brands like Airbnb and The New York Times have gone ahead of every other brand and company in the case of newsletters. On one side, Airbnb’s newsletters focus on providing information like travel inspirations, the experiences of the visitors, and often, the hosts’ stories.
On the other hand, The New York Times sends a mix of news stories which are latest and on the top, opinion pieces and lifestyle articles. While their intention of sending newsletters is different, their motive for sending them is the same. Want to know? Wait no longer!
- Relationship building
Newsletters help keep your brand at the top of the minds of the people by regularly providing them with value. This helps in building a long-term relationship with the audience.
- Keeping the Audience Engaged And Informed
Sending the newsletters regularly helps keep the subscribers updated with the latest offers, news, and industry trends. This builds their interest and keeps them engaged.
- Driving Traffic To The Website
When you update your audience about the company news, trends, etc, including links to your blog posts, product pages, or other resources that complement the newsletters can drive notable traffic to the website and boost engagement as well as conversions.
Now, while we’ve known so much about the newsletters and how they can change the game, let’s see the practices to adapt to boost this game!
Content creation and Storytelling
A top-tier newsletter never fails to provide valuable content that resonates well with the audience. This may include blog posts, articles, videos, and even just tips related to the industry.
Here, storytelling can keep your audience engaged and make them feel connected by sharing the behind-the-scenes stories and customer success stories.
Design And Layout Of Emails
Crafting and sending a clean, visually appealing design is important for keeping your subscribers interested and engaged. Using a layout that’s consistent and goes well with the brand identity keeps your brand identity fresh and authoritative.
But, make sure that your newsletter email is mobile friendly as a great portion of these emails are seen from mobile phones.
Frequency And Timing
Most importantly, make sure the frequency of your emails is perfect for your subscribers. How can you know if the frequency and timing are right? By testing different schedules and observing the engagement rates.
Timing determines the engagement rate; aim to send newsletters at the time periods when they are most likely to check the emails.
Promotional Emails
The targeted messages designed to boost sales or, any other similar action such as signing up, or downloading a resource come under promotional emails. These emails consist of special offers, discounts, and product announcements that entice the subscribers to take action.
These emails are a crucial component of any email marketing strategy that focuses on revenue generation.
Top retailers like Amazon and Sephora are famous for their effective promotional emails. Their promotional emails feature personalized product recommendation, discounts, and time-sensitive offers that makes the subscribers take quick action. These promotional emails help them and every other brand in –
- Driving Sales Directly: Promotional emails are the most effective emails that boost sales when combined with personalized content and compelling offers.
- Engaging The Customers: Sending regular promotional emails keeps the audience engaged and provides them with awards for each purchase.
- Measuring The Effectiveness: As said, promotional emails drive a lot of engagement. Due to this, it gives you so much data about the effectiveness of the emails.
From open to click-through to conversion rates, you get to measure how successful your campaigns have been, and helps you to make further informed decisions.
What can you do to make these promotional emails stand out and give you an enhanced result?
Craft Compelling Subject Lines
What’s the first thing that you notice when an email arrives? Subject line. Similarly, just like you, your audience also observes your subject lines first and decides if they’re going to open the email or not.
Using a subject line that’s made to entice the user to take action, create urgency, and be concise at the same time can maximize the open rates of the email and even the click-through rates!
Creating Urgency And Clear CTAs
Promotional emails are meant to make the subscriber take action immediately. Use phrases like “limited time offer” or “Get now!” to create a sense of urgency. A more clear CTA like “shop now” or “claim discount” can direct the subscriber to what to do next.
Personalising Content
Giving content a personal touch can make people engage with the content and develop interest. Similarly, personalizing the promotional emails based on the subscriber’s behavior like their past purchases and browser history etc can increase relevance and engagement.
Re-engagement Emails
Emails that help you reconnect with the subscribers who’ve been inactive for a long time are re-engagement emails. These emails help in maintaining a healthy list that’s active. It maximizes the ROI of your marketing efforts by bringing all those subscribers back to you.
For better understanding, very well-known brands like Spotify and Netflix use re-engagement emails to get the users who’ve either canceled their subscriptions or stopped using their services.
These emails consist of new content, offer discounts, or highlight what the users are missing while they’re away. But do you know what, they have a hidden intention (no more hidden) behind it. We’ll let you know.
- Re-engagement emails help in reducing the churn rates by bringing the subscribers back to active might or, they would’ve been lost.
- When you reach out to inactive subscribers with the re-engagement emails, this acts as an opportunity to rebuild the relationship and remind them of the value and why they signed up for your emails at first.
- Acquiring new subscribers and then turning them into customers takes more time than sending re-engagement emails to the existing subscribers and reminding them of your value. So, this helps generate a higher ROI from the existing lists.
Want to win back your inactive subscribers but with more chances of getting them back? Here are some practices you can adapt to increase the chances of them coming back to you.
Identifying Inactive Subscribers
Before you send them a re-engagement email, first identify who’s inactive. What if you’re sending the email to an already active subscriber – they’ll get confused for sure. To be sure of inactive subscribers, you can consider segmenting your email list on criteria like the last time an email was opened by them, or link clicked by them, or, a purchase made by them.
Crafting Win-Back Messages
Content matters. Whether it is a blog, a newsletter, a podcast, a social media post, or, even a re-engagement email. It can make or break your business. If you’re sending a re-engagement email, it should cover the concerns about why they disengaged at first and then give them a reason to come back.
It can be a new product, a special discount or even just simply asking for feedback.
Using Incentives
What’s better than giving something to get something? It’s like giving from one hand and receiving from the other. An effective way to get back your subscribers is to give away a compelling offer, it can be a discount, a free resource or, a limited-time subscription!
Conclusion
Email marketing is more powerful- more powerful than every other marketing channel if used right. I personally recommend using email marketing tools for it. The right type of email for the right situation can save your business from losing things and also, build your business to be successful.
Welcome emails start a relationship on a positive note, the newsletter keeps them updated and engaged, promotional emails boost conversions and, re-engagement brings the lost people back.
By applying these emails in the right situations, you can create an effective email marketing strategy that actually delivers results! Don’t forget to regularly review the metrics, test different ways to reach them, and continue to provide them with value. The right step can bring you success.
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