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9 Email Campaigns You Should Be Using To Reach Your Customers
This is a guest post from InvoiceBerry.
At its core, email marketing delivers a message to your readers. The message, depending on your niche, can push your customers to a certain action, provide incentives, updates, news and more.
Email marketing campaigns aren’t random. They’re planned and written in advance, and demand a proper understanding of your target market in order for you to organize them depending on your different segments. While a lot of what you send depends on your niche and what you’re trying to accomplish with your emails, some of the different email campaigns overlap across industries.
If you’re interested in learning about the many email campaigns that can boost your sales and increase your engagement, read on.
Creating an effective email campaign can be challenging for most small business owners, but when done well, the benefits are endless. Regardless of your niche and industry, emails are a great way to engage with your customers directly.
Not to mention the ROI for effective email marketing is massive.
For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $38. The bottom line is email marketing can be very profitable, in addition to being a great way of finding out more about your target market.
All this and more can be done through email. And to make things better, you can even automate your email campaigns and schedule them in advance. These automatic emails should be personalized, timely, and relevant to your different customer segments depending on the occasion.
When done well, automatic email campaigns can be spread throughout the week, designed and scheduled in advance, custom tailored for each different situation.
Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Easier said than done – you might be thinking.
While it’s true that mastering the art of email marketing to boost your sales is a challenge for most SMBs, you have to start somewhere.
And what better way to start than familiarizing yourself with the different email campaigns you can use to reach your customers.
1. The welcome email
If you’ve ever signed up for any newsletter ever, you’re already familiar with this one. This is the most common email campaign and the one with the highest open rate as well—an astounding 82%.
Your welcome email is the email your customer receives during the 24 hours after they opt-in to your list. It’s a simple email that greets them and thanks them for subscribing.
In this email, you should lay out what kind of content and emails they should expect from you in the future. Will they receive monthly emails? Any special offers or discounts? How often?
The Sidecar approach: a simple “thank you’, their mission, what you can expect, and more.
You don’t have to answer all of the above questions straightaway, but in general, the more they know, the better.
Though your welcome email may not necessarily be your most sales-driven one, it’s the email that’s most likely to be opened and sets the tone for your future emails.
2. The offer email
The promotional email is another classic email campaign you’ve probably received many times. The offer email comes in many shapes and sizes, from special offers to discounts to flash sales. Your customers will want to know about the special sale: This is one of the main reasons why they signed up in the first place!
Make sure to send out some kind of special offer every once in a while to keep your subscribers satisfied and coming back for more.
Offer emails also typically have a high open rate because you’re offering clear and obvious value to your subscribers.
The type of offer depends on your niche. If you’re not in retail, you don’t have to cut down on your prices. You can still offer free shipping, for example, or free versions, free trials, or something else entirely.
3. The free gift email
Everyone likes free stuff. What better way to retain your customers and increase retention than with free gifts?
The free gift is a great and a simple way to keep your subscribers engaged and keep them opening your emails. It also can lead to improved customer loyalty.
So what should you include as a free gift? Ideally, your free gift should be something related to your product or service. A free trial only for a limited time, free packs, resources, and so on are all valid gifts your customers might enjoy.
Offering a free gift also shows you care about them and sets you up for your future emails. If you want your emails to be opened, be sure to sprinkle some free value every now and then in your campaigns.
4. The newsletter email
Do you maintain a blog or publish new stories or articles weekly? Your customers probably want to know about that. But even if you don’t create your own original content, you can still create a newsletter that promotes curated content to keep your brand top of mind.
Regardless of your niche, it’s a good idea to send an update or a roundup at least once a week.
Like with the offer email campaign, value is the name of the game.
Make sure your emails are visually pleasing and the content you’re putting in front of them is worth reading. If your content is great and helpful to your customers, don’t be afraid to point them in the right direction.
However, too many newsletter emails is a guaranteed way to have your readers unsubscribe. So be sure not to overdo it. To find the right balance, you can experiment with A/B testing to figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Tips, a roundup of your published content and/or new guides are all valid reasons to send a newsletter update email.
5. The transactional email
Transactional emails are what happens when your customers trigger a specific action. Did they sign up for an event? Bought something? Item shipped? They’ll want to know about it.
Keep these emails simple. Repeat their purchase to them (so they can confirm it’s what they ordered) and give them any additional information they should know.
Transactional emails are the norm now and have a high open rate (30% to 40%). So, if you want to take advantage of that, you can include a customized call-to-action or a little P.S. at the end of the letter to provide an additional incentive.
6. Abandoned cart email
This is essential for eCommerce and if you’re not using it, you could be missing out on potential revenue.
If you have the right tracking tools on your site and your customers are logged in, you can tell when they’ve put items in their cart but later abandoned it. A good abandoned cart email includes a relevant call-to-action and copy to remind the prospect of all the benefits of the product they put in their cart.
Abandoned cart emails can recover lost revenue. Make sure you’re always experimenting with them to see the most returns. At an average open rate of 41%, abandoned cart campaigns can potentially provide another way to increase sales.
7. The survey email
A good email campaign isn’t a monologue, it’s a dialogue.
You can’t expect to keep sending your customers emails without asking them for their input. As good as your data is, it’s just as important to hear what your customers are saying.
If you want feedback on your products, don’t be afraid to ask for it. You can then use that information to double down on your product or marketing efforts based on their needs.
This email is typically sent within the first few weeks after their interaction with your company, asking them to take a few minutes of their time to rate your efforts.
Now, you might think survey emails are a chore and your customers are going to be too lazy to open them, let alone actually fill them in. But surprisingly enough, the typical survey response rate for emails is 15%-20%.
Your customers want a say in your future products and/or services. If they signed up for your newsletter, chances are they like your website and want to see it improve.
8. The review request email
Like the survey email, the review request asks for subscribers for their input. Or as the name implies, for their review.
After you’ve delivered on your promises, it’s your turn to ask for something. You could request anything from testimonials to a simple 1-5 rating. Again, you know what will work best for your specific company and industry.
Your reviews, in turn, attract other customers interested in your product or service. Did you know that over 90% of consumers read online reviews?
If you want to convince prospects on the fence, leverage social proof as part of your bigger product strategy. People are thirsty for information and feedback, and social proof is a great way to eliminate any reluctance on their end.
9. The re-engagement email
Finally, after all is said and done, you might still have some inactive subscribers. These contacts might have changed emails, become disinterested, or just completely forgotten about your services.
This is, unfortunately, normal.
As a way to bring your dead subscribers back to life, consider sending out a re-engagement campaign.
Here’s how:
- First, segment your subscribers who haven’t been opening your emails for some time (weeks, months, etc.) and target them separately.
- Then, plan out your email strategy and content, how you will approach them and provide value.
- Finally, offer some kind of an incentive to spark their interests again through effective copywriting.
Simple text usually works. But Animoto also focuses on the design.
The goal of these emails is more about branding and engagement than making a direct sale. You want to win them back first before you can do anything else.
To do this, you can incorporate emotion, humor, and brand personality to connect with your subscribers, depending on your brand and target market.
You want to grab their attention first, provide some kind of value (i.e. why they should come back) and then stand back and react accordingly.
Wrap up
All in all, email marketing is one of the most effective ways to interact and engage with your customers. Before you so much as send out a single email to your subscribers though, you should plan your goals and establish the benchmarks for what you’re hoping to accomplish.
To make email marketing work for your business, you need both subscribers and effective emails. Once you get a general sense of what you’re trying to accomplish, you can focus on the content you’ll include in your emails.
Remember: regardless of the email campaigns you choose to send, you always want to focus on providing value to your subscribers’ lives.
Uwe is the founder of online invoicing software InvoiceBerry. Small business owners and freelancers can create, send and manage their invoices, quotes and credit notes with the help of InvoiceBerry in minutes. In his free time, Uwe likes traveling around the world while exploring new cultures and cuisines.
