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Email marketing is the leading method of reaching your audience. However, getting your audience to interact and engage with your email marketing campaigns isn’t always as simple as you’d hope.

There are plenty of email personalization examples out there to help give you ideas, but do they really help walk you through the process? 

Our friends at Liveclicker decided that enough was enough, and put together a handy guide on real personalized email examples that are making an impact on readers—and they’ve shared some of their knowledge with us.

What is email personalization?

Before we dive into the email personalization examples offered to us, it’s important to understand exactly what email personalization is.

Simply put, email personalization is the act of personalizing an email to your reader. Moreover, while some may believe that simply slapping a reader’s name to the top of the email is enough personalization, that simply isn’t the case.

To truly personalize your email campaigns, you need to get to know your audience, their needs, and what it is they’re expecting from you. 

Our friends over at Liveclicker decided to create a wonderful step-by-step guide for digital and email marketers on how to go about the email personalization process, and did so by coupling their points with some high-quality, excellent real-world email personalization examples.

Real-world email examples to inspire you

We’ve gotten our hands on a copy of their latest LookBook and have been given permission to share some of their tips with you.

Acquisition

Contrary to popular belief, acquisition is more than simply gaining new followers and adding to your ever-growing email list. 

Gaining new followers and subscribers is a vital piece of the email marketing puzzle, but the acquisition process shouldn’t end once you’ve gotten that follower to opt in to receiving your digital marketing materials. 

Acquisition also means getting to honestly know your readers and what it is they’re expecting from you. To truly personalize your email campaigns, you need to take the time to get to know your audience on a deeper level. 

Get to know readers.

We’re talking about getting to know your readers on a much deeper level so you can adequately segment them later and personalize their overall experience with your brand. 

There are many ways marketing teams can go about this; however, polling your readers or giving them an option to complete a preference profile on your site are the leading examples of how to best get to know your readers on a much deeper level.

This example by MasterCuts is great because they utilize the polling option to better get to know their clientele. Once they know which hair category best suits this reader, they’ll be able to segment them into a list that best suits the reader’s needs and provide them with tips, products, and more that are completely personalized to their needs.  

This real-world example email shows you how to ask your subscribers for relevant information in a way that delivers the data and experience you both need.

Source: Liveclicker

Welcome subscribers with open arms.

There’s no better way to encourage your subscribers to open up about themselves than the tried and true welcome email series. It can be a one-off email that leads to further personalization, or it can include several different emails that introduce the reader to the brand on a deeper level before getting to know them more one on one. 

A welcome email done right will include a variety of different things:

  • Welcoming imagery
  • Positivity
  • Customer testimonials
  • Valuable links
  • Additional promotions
  • Ways to connect with the brand outside of email
  • Fresh content and more

Take this example by Soma, which offers several of these pieces for the reader, including new arrivals that the reader may be interested in as well as extra savings.

Source: Liveclicker

Growth

Growth, in some cases, may mean simply growing your list. That’s not the case here. Instead, growth means growing relationships with new subscribers into long-lasting relationships. This is done through personalization, and there are a variety of ways to manage audience growth, all while increasing engagement and sales. 

Keep your readers close.

During the sales process, once your subscriber has made that conversion to customer, you don’t want to lose them to third-party shipping sites. Believe it or not, when you send them email receipts with information that leads them to another site, it can cause you to lose customers. With ads so prevalent online, you never know where your readers may end up.

So, instead of sending them shipping information through a third-party site, send them an email from your site with up-to-the-minute tracking data.

The following email update from Spanx does an excellent job of this. They could’ve directed their customer to the UPS website to track their package; however, by keeping the reader on their business site, they can keep the attention on their brand—with no ads from competitors showing up. They even entice the reader to check out further products by offering booty bucks.

This email from Spanx does a great job using personalization.

Source: Liveclicker

Retention

You’ve gotten the subscribers; now you must nurture the relationship to ensure that they keep returning to you for the solution to their needs. 

This means that your emails need to continue providing readers with relevant, high-quality, engaging content. Highly personalized content keeps readers engaged while avoiding brand burnout. 

Fifty-three percent of marketers say that ongoing, personalized communication with customers results in moderate to significant revenue impact.

So how does a brand keep subscribers engaged while avoiding brand burnout? By rewarding loyalty and keeping the reader excited about what the brand has to offer.

Loyalty should be rewarded.

Rewarding your subscribers for being active and engaged is a great way to keep them coming back for more. Did you know that 70% of email readers open emails from their favorite brands in search of a deal, discount, or promo code? Rewarding your faithful customers with points that can go towards a purchase or a loyalty coupon code is a great way to encourage them to keep coming back for more.

Create a sense of excitement.

Another valuable way to retain your customer’s loyalty is to create a sense of excitement around them engaging with and doing business with your brand. It can be done in many different ways, including:

  • Tracking bonus points towards a purchase
  • Tracking time until the next big promotion
  • Notifying them of a chance to double rewards/points for a purchase

The possibilities are truly endless, so don’t be afraid to get creative.

Take this example by beauty brand Ulta. Not only do they keep their loyal customers updated on their membership and their loyalty points, they even take the time to thank their customers for their continued business by offering them an exclusive coupon code. 

This thank you email from Ulta does more than just check off a box. It uses personalization to deliver a great customer experience.

Source: Liveclicker

Bonus tip: Holidays count, so don’t leave them out!

Believe it or not, some email marketers are hesitant to send out holiday campaigns simply because people’s inboxes are continually being bogged down by hundreds, if not thousands of holiday email campaigns. Chances are that most of those emails get tossed directly in the trash bin.

However, that doesn’t mean you should ignore the holidays. If you’ve been working hard to create high-quality email personalization examples throughout the year, then you’ve collected a loyal fanbase. These are the readers that are going to seek your holiday email campaigns out over other brands. 

There are countless examples of excellent holiday email campaigns out there; however, don’t be afraid to get a little goofy and have some fun with more non-traditional holidays.

Ever heard of United Against Ironing Week? Neither did we, until our friends at Liveclicker showed us this amazing example by Chico’s promoting their wrinkle-free clothing line by emailing users during this unique holiday—which was created by the brand themselves.

 

This is a great real-world email example from Chico's.Source: Liveclicker

Want to use a non-traditional holiday that isn’t so made up? What about Opposite Day? Beauty brand Sephora decided to celebrate Opposite Day with their readers by offering a special opportunity for their loyal customers to try a product that they wouldn’t normally use.

This is an excellent example of how to build brand loyalty while also having a blast celebrating oddball holidays.

Wrap up

Our time with Liveclicker and discussing their LookBook helped give us so many ideas for excellent email personalization examples, and, while we shared some excellent tips with you here, they offer so much more to readers in their extensive guidebook.

Here’s a short look back at some of the top points that we learned from reading this guidebook:

  • Acquisition is more than growing your list
  • Growth means more than adding subscribers and should focus on the relationship between you and your subscribers
  • Retention is vital, so make sure you’re paying attention to those who are sticking around and continue supporting your brand

Ready to elevate your next campaign? Get your copy of the LookBook today.

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This blog provides general information and discussion about email marketing and related subjects. The content provided in this blog ("Content”), should not be construed as and is not intended to constitute financial, legal or tax advice. You should seek the advice of professionals prior to acting upon any information contained in the Content. All Content is provided strictly “as is” and we make no warranty or representation of any kind regarding the Content.
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