Tag Archives: automated emails

This post has been updated as of May 2019

Today’s marketers are going beyond one-off emails. They’re using email marketing and automation to support their marketing strategies and are seeing results.

These automated emails are personalized and relevant. They’re triggered by a subscriber’s actions or other conditions like time or a date, so relevant content gets delivered just when a subscriber wants and needs it.

What are the brands with the best email marketing and automation?

Today, we’re sharing 5 brands crushing it with email marketing and automation, as well as some lessons you can learn from them. The marketers at these companies are using email marketing and automation to welcome subscribers, increase engagement, and educate their audience.

1. ZURB connects with subscribers

ZURB is a product design company located in Silicon Valley, and caters to a large community of aspiring and accomplished designers, as well as company CEOs. They use email to educate their subscribers and are focused on delivering valuable, educational content on design.

According to Daniel Codella, Marketer, ZURB has several newsletters for different products and business groups. When he first heard about email automation, he shuffled his feet, thinking it’d be confusing. “Eventually, I jumped in, and I found it really easy to use,” he told us. “When I was done creating our automated welcome email, I thought ‘Is that it?’ It was so easy.”

ZURB implemented automated welcome emails so that, when a fan signed up for the newsletter, they automatically received a tailored email. ZURB iterated on these emails and achieved fantastic results. The welcome emails now see upwards of 70-75% open rates and 40-45% click-through rates.

Zurb welcome email

What you can learn from ZURB:

  • Email marketing and automation is easy to implement, no matter your level of technical know-how.
  • Subscribers will be more engaged and invested in your emails if you give them a timely welcome.
  • You can easily dip your toe in the marketing automation waters by automating something simple, like a welcome email, and it can result in huge gains.

2. Mumsnet’s personalized experiences

Marketing automation lends itself to personalized experiences, and Mumsnet, the largest parenting site in the UK, provides one of the most inspiring examples out there.

Mumsnet understands that parenthood is a journey, one that begins the moment a woman finds out she’s pregnant. If you find out you’re expecting and share your due date, Mumsnet will send you email newsletters throughout your pregnancy to help you learn about the different stages, based on how far along you are.

“The pregnancy newsletter is fully automated and uses the mother’s due date as the trigger to send emails,” said Shamim Mirzai, CTO at Mumsnet. “We record the due date through a custom email signup form and use that custom field to schedule emails that the expectant subscriber will receive. This approach is a really effective use of automation, and it’s creative too.”

What you can learn from Mumsnet:

  • Your customers are on a journey. Use email marketing and automation to join them.
    • Get creative with your triggers.  You can trigger automation of many things like dates, actions or inactions, joining a list, joining a segment, leaving a segment, and more.

3. BuzzFeed’s automated courses

BuzzFeed has made substantial waves in the media world, becoming one of the most visited sites on the planet. But BuzzFeed does a lot more than share puppy GIFs—it has a thriving email marketing program that leverages automation.

BuzzFeed has developed over 20 email newsletters that are catered to subscribers’ specific interests, such as Health and Beauty, Pets and Animals, or BuzzFeed News. Email is one of the top five referrers of website traffic. Email subscribers are super engaged too. Visitors from email spend three minutes longer on their website than those from other channels.

Many aspects of these newsletters are automated, but one of our favorite examples of BuzzFeed’s use of automation is their educational courses. BuzzFeed automated their “4-Week Get Fit Challenge.” After a subscriber signs up for the course, they get a series of emails with tips on how to get in shape.

What you can learn from BuzzFeed:

  • Even the largest media sites rely on email automation to drive engagement.
    • Packaging content into an automated email course allows you to stay in touch with subscribers on an ongoing basis.

See more examples of how publishers are using email marketing and automation to succeed.

4. Apartment Therapy Media teaches

When someone needs advice on which sofa bed to buy or how to roast a whole chicken, they turn to Apartment Therapy or The Kitchn, its sister site. The company’s mission is to help people make their homes more beautiful, healthy, and organized by connecting them to helpful online resources.

Email marketing and automation has proven to be a great way for Apartment Therapy to connect with its audience, and the team uses Campaign Monitor to expand their following, distribute their content, and drive traffic to their website.

Apartment Therapy has found that automated emails allow them to educate their audience and disseminate email efficiently. The team at The Kitchn uses automation for their baking school, a series of lessons sent straight to subscriber’s inboxes. Once a subscriber signs up for a class, they’re taken through daily lessons on various aspects of baking. The subscribers are super engaged, with open and click-through rates higher than 55%.

What you can learn from Apartment Therapy:

  • Automated email courses can lead to very high engagement.
  • You can tailor content to specific segments of your audience, delivering the right content at the right time to the right subscriber.

5. On celebrates the start, and supports throughout

On, a Swiss-based running shoe company, uses email marketing and automation to connect with runners all over the world. The company leverages automated emails to provide fans with a seamless customer experience.

On cares about much more than the finish line. On celebrates the start of the running adventure, so, when customers subscribe, they get an automated welcome email sharing the latest collection. In this automated email, subscribers also receive a shoe selector guide, so they can pick the right shoe for them.

And On takes it a step further than just sending a welcome email. Because On cares deeply about providing their customers with an all-around amazing running experience, and part of that means helping them decide when it’s time to buy a new pair of shoes. After buying a pair of shoes, customers can give On information about the kind of runner they are, how many miles they run, and so on.

Using this data, On sends automated emails to their customers, reminding them about when they should start shopping for their next running shoe. It’s an easy calculation for On, and it provides a great experience for customers.

What you can learn from On:

  • You can implement email marketing and automation in multiple areas of your business.
    • You can automate your sales efforts, so that customers know when it’s time to repurchase.
    • It’s worthwhile to support customers throughout their entire journey—from start, to middle, to finish, and then repeat, as needed.

Other companies crushing it with email marketing

The 5 brands we’ve shown you above are not the only brands crushing it with email marketing. Need some more email marketing automation examples to prove it?

Jaybird – adding a soundtrack to your life

Every audiophile knows the value of great sound. That’s why many turn to Jaybird for high-performance earbuds that sit comfortably when you wear them.

What sets Jaybird apart?

Besides performance and comfort, they also offer the added advantage of being sweat-proof—something everyone who values fitness finds difficult to find in earbuds.

However, no matter how great a device may be, it can only shine when people actually get to hear about it. That’s why Jaybird decided to trust one of the best email marketing companies to power their email campaigns.

email marketing examples from jaybird

Source: Campaign Monitor

Jaybird’s emails feature a vibrant design. This makes the company appealing to music and active lifestyle lovers (their main target audience).

Here’s what you can learn from Jaybird:

  • Target your audience: Know your audience and send highly segmented and targeted emails.
  • Build trust in your emails: Jaybird did this by including brands that endorsed them in their email design.
  • Inspiration encourages engagement: Jaybird doesn’t just sell earbuds. The company encourages customers to be the best that they can be. The engagement that the inspiration drives is a sure contributor to the success of their email marketing campaigns.

UNICEF New Zealand – changing the world one email at a time

It doesn’t take much to change the world. All you need is a vision and good automated workflows.

nonprofit email automation examples - unicef email

Source: Campaign Monitor

While UNICEF New Zealand isn’t in the business of making profits, the organization is one of the best email marketing automation examples in our books. This is because most—if not all— of the email marketing campaigns achieve goals of transforming the world, one life at a time.

Here’s a lesson to glean from UNICEF’s campaigns.

Timing is everything. Most of the emails UNICEF sends out to donors are time-sensitive. To ensure that the emails get results on time, it needs an automated workflow that’s precise, as well as a great email marketing platform.

Rip Curl – riding the waves of success

Rip Curl is an Australian company that designs, manufactures, and sells surfing sportswear and accessories. Considered one of the three biggest companies in their niche worldwide, the company attributes a part of the success to email marketing, making Rip Curl one of the best email marketing automation examples.

email marketing and automation examples - ripcurl email example

 

Source: Campaign Monitor

How does Rip Curl ride the international wave of success in such competitive waters?

Here are a few lessons from Rip Curl’s email marketing campaigns:

  • Show, don’t tell: Rip Curl understands the power of showing product in action. The company’s emails are designed to sell products with as few words as possible, but with as much action as possible.
  • Experiences sell: Marketers have known for a long time that people’s buying behavior is directed by feelings, rather than logic. Rip Curl packs a lot of emotional triggers in their emails—both in the images and the copy.

Wrap up

Email marketing and automation allow companies to connect with subscribers at the right place and time. They leads to a more engaged audience with subscribers who want to open, read, and take action on your emails.

Automation is spelling huge wins for companies like the brands we’ve shared, as well as many others. By learning from them, you too can be one of the future email marketing automation examples others can emulate.

Whether you’re the sole marketer at a startup or part of a marketing team at a large brand, there’s room to creatively use email marketing and automation to crush your goals.

If you need to up your email marketing game, check out our guide on how retailers can use email marketing and automation to achieve their marketing goals.

This post was originally published in July 2016

 

Article first published September 2016, updated May 2019

Marketing automation is designed to simplify the email marketing process for your entire digital marketing team.

These automated emails are highly effective and have the ability to drive massive revenue and results for businesses, as they achieve 86% higher open rates, produce a 196% increase in click-through rates, and generate 320% more revenue than standard promotional emails. With stats like that, marketers can’t deny the power of marketing automation.

What is B2B marketing automation?

Marketing automation is the process of software automatically sending campaigns to your customers and prospects based on triggers you define. As opposed to one-off email campaigns that you create and send to a whole list of people, automated emails are set up once and then sent out each time a subscriber meets your pre-defined trigger.

What is marketing automation primarily used for?

Marketing automation is an excellent and powerful way to engage with your customers, and is particularly useful for marketers who are looking to streamline email campaigns to reach the right subscribers at the right time.

What are marketing automation platforms?

Marketing automation platforms are the providers of the automation software. These platforms provide marketing teams with various technologies to help them spread their marketing efforts across multiple channels, including email, social media, and websites.

What are the benefits of marketing automation?

When it comes to marketing automation, there are simply too many benefits to list. However, there are a few that are worth noting:

  • Reduces repetitive tasks: Freeing up the marketing team’s time.
  • Personalization: Making the customers feel as if they’re more than another face in the crowd with unique messaging.
  • List segmentation: Allows you to deliver relevant content to the right readers.

Even better, automation has reportedly resulted in 80% ROI, +46% growth, +26% more leads, and more productive marketers.

9 examples of B2C marketing automation

1. Welcome email series

Welcome emails are your first chance to make a great impression on subscribers. Using marketing automation, you can create a stellar experience for your subscribers with a one-time welcome email or a series of emails that help onboard them.

Broadway.com, the online retailer of tickets for Broadway shows, is a great example. They place a subscribe form at the bottom of their website to capture subscribers, and, when someone completes the form, they send them a welcome email with valuable discounts to incentivize their first purchase.

Broadwaydotcom Automated Welcome email

By sending the email immediately after someone subscribes, Broadway.com maximizes opens, clicks, and purchases by presenting the subscriber with discounts while their business is still top of mind.

Sending a welcome email like Broadway.com is a simple way to drive revenue back to your business.

Check out this next example from Topshop:

Topshop - Automated Welcome Email

Right off the bat, Topshop engages their newest subscribers with an immediate offer to get them shopping and offers a small discount.

You can also send a series of educational or onboarding emails like Birchbox does. Birchbox first sends a welcome email after subscribers have signed up. Then they follow up the welcome email with an automated series of messages, including beauty tricks, makeup tips, and special offers to keep their subscribers loyal and engaged.

Birchbox – Automated Welcome Series after Sign Up

2. Reminder emails

Sending a reminder email based on a date is a great opportunity to not only deliver a timely message to your customer, but also keep them buying your products and services over time.

Nissan collects relevant information about their customers, including the purchase date of their car.  They can then use the purchase date to automatically trigger a reminder email six months after the car was purchased to schedule the first service appointment. Maintenance fees after the car is sold account for a huge portion of Nissan’s overall revenue, so this is an important part of their strategy.

Nissan Automated reminder email

3. Birthday or anniversary

Sending your customers, a special offer on their birthday or anniversary is another highly effective strategy to drive revenue while increasing customer happiness at the same time.

The first step is to collect your customer’s birthdate and add it to your email list. Many companies, like jewelry retailer Monica Vinader, make this a required field through the online checkout process, while others ask for this information when someone signs up for their email list.

Monica Vinader Automated birthday email

Once you have your customer’s birthdate in your email list, you can set up an email to automatically send on his or her birthday. While the leading message should be celebrating your customer’s birthday, this email is an excellent opportunity to generate revenue, so try including a special birthday discount to encourage recipients to make a purchase.

You could also use this to recognize the birthday or anniversary of someone signing up for your product, making their first purchase, or other user or company milestones.

Check out this example from Birchbox:

Birchbox birthday email

4. VIP

It’s simple to set up a series of automated emails that can make your VIP customers feel special and keeps them engaged and spending.

Sephora does an excellent job with their VIB (Very Important Beauty) Program, which offers early access to new products and special promotions for customers who spend a certain amount of money.

Once someone spends the required amount, they’re entered into the VIB segment of the email list and automatically receive an email introducing them to the VIB program.

Sephora Automated VIP email

This email welcomes them to the program and provides an exclusive VIB-only offer that encourages them to make additional purchases.

You can do something similar using data you have to trigger a customer journey based on someone entering a VIP segment. We even provide pre-built segments for this purpose.

Check out this engaging example from Converse that similarly welcomes their VIPs and offers a discount:

Converse Automated VIP email

5. Re-engagement

You can encourage email subscribers who haven’t purchased in a while with an email-exclusive offer, “Save on your next order” discount, or abandoned cart deal like Nau does in the example below:

Nau Automated reengagement email

That’s one of the things that makes marketing automation so powerful—you can trigger emails to be sent based on your subscribers’ actions or non-actions, such as opening an email, not making a purchase in three months, or not clicking a link in an email.

6. Survey & feedback emails

Sending out surveys to gain feedback on products, services, and updates is another excellent marketing automation example. These are typically sent out after triggers, such as purchases, or program, site, or product updates.

These emails allow the consumer’s voice to be heard, which helps to increase the overall customer satisfaction rate.

Twitch - Examples of B2C Marketing Automation

Source: Really Good Emails

7. Review & testimonial emails

Have a new customer? Alternatively, do you have a repeat customer?

A purchase is an excellent trigger for marketing automation, especially when it comes to requesting product reviews or service testimonials.

marketing automation examples for b2c businesses

Source: Really Good Emails

8. Product updates & launches

Product updates and launches are an excellent way for a brand to reach out to their customers, and, with the use of marketing automation, it’s simpler than ever. Take this email from Apple introducing the iPhone 8. This would be an excellent email to send out to Apple consumers who have previously purchased an iPhone in the past because it shares with them what they can expect from what’s next.

iphone - marketing automation b2c examples

Source: Really Good Emails

9. Newsletters

Newsletters used to be considered one of those “one-off” emails that would be sent out when something needed to be announced. Nowadays, email newsletters are set up to automatically go out to subscribers on a given basis, such as:

  • Weekly
  • Bi-weekly
  • Monthly
  • Quarterly

Instead of single announcements, these email newsletters give a general view of what the brand has been up to. They even provide other curated materials, tips, and other useful information to subscribers.

Wrap up

Time to put this inspiration into action to drive revenue and results for your B2C business. Campaign Monitor’s marketing automation features make creating compelling customer journeys a snap.

Take the stress out of your marketing efforts and let Campaign Monitor help automate your campaigns today.

You’ve probably called customer service before when you’ve experienced an issue. During a service call, you’ll often be forced to deal with an automated phone menu, one that asks you to “briefly explain the reason you’re calling.”

This system tries to diagnose your problem without ever connecting you to a real person.

While this can simplify customer service for companies, navigating through the predetermined prompts can be endlessly frustrating for you as the customer, especially when all you want to do is speak to a real human.

Unfortunately, your customers might be feeling the same way about your emails.

If your marketing automation strategy isn’t right on the money, your customers could have that same frustrated feeling, especially when receiving frequent or robotic emails. Their time is valuable, too valuable to receive unhelpful emails.

If that hits too close to home, it’s time you use marketing automation to humanize your emails. Read on to discover four tips to implement right now to make sure your emails don’t sound like they’re coming from a machine.

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is at the center of any good email strategy, allowing you to set up your emails to be sent automatically based on a workflow or customer journey you’ve established. These emails can be triggered by anything, including behavioral changes, purchases, and even time factors.

When you group multiple automated emails into a single workflow, you have a drip campaign. This strategy is a powerful way to send emails automatically (without using valuable time and resources to email customers manually).

On the surface, manual emails may seem like a better approach to humanizing your process, but what if you have a million customers in your database? Even fifty subscribers can be too many. It would be impossible to individually email each one, especially if you want to communicate during every designated touch point of the customer journey.

But despite that, only about half of companies are using marketing automation.

But even with a powerful drip campaign, you need to take steps to make sure your emails are scalable and feel authentic. You can accomplish this with segmentation and personalization.

How segmentation helps marketing automation

You probably already know not to send the same message to all of your customers at the same time. After all, why should a longtime customer and new subscriber receive the same message? They’re at completely different points in the buyer journey.

Segmentation is one of the best ways to group your contacts. This tactic is critical for running successful email campaigns because you can deliver catered messages to specific groups of people, during times when they expect to receive communication from you.

There are many ways to segment your contacts. You could do basic segmentation based on demographics and purchase history, or you might go as in-depth as targeting them based on their preferred email device.

The bottom line: The more you know about your contacts, the better segments you can create. This knowledge will help your marketing automation, and your emails will seem more human.

How personalization helps marketing automation

Sending to the right group of people at the right time is just one piece of the puzzle. You also need to make sure your marketing automation uses personalization for your contacts.

This starts with gathering the right information. The more you know about your customers, the better you’ll be able to offer them personalized experiences. For instance, if you understand their purchase or behavioral habits, you can cater content in your emails based on their interests.

You do have to be careful with personalization. As great a tool as it can be, if you make a mistake, it can backfire. Consider the example from Pinterest, which accidentally sent congratulatory wedding emails to single women. People who received the message in error quickly pointed out the mistake on social media.

However, when done well, personalization can go a long way at improving your authenticity marketing and improving email performance.

4 basic tips to make your marketing automation seem more human

The simplest ways to make your marketing automation seem more human is to use a good mix of segmentation and personalization. But this isn’t the only way to make your customers feel like they’re talking to a real person.

Here are four basic tips you can use to create a human element.

1. Personalize the email subject line

If there’s one easy personalization win, this is it. Adding a personalized element to an email subject line can increase open rates by up to 26%. It can be as simple as using the first name of the contact, which you should have in your database.

Adding a personalized element to an email subject line can increase open rates by up to 26%. It can be as simple as using the first name of the contact, which you should have in your database.

Image Source: Netflix

If you go this route, just make sure you proactively address and fix a potential (and unfortunately common) error with personalized subject lines. Create a default name that can be put to use, if for whatever reason there’s no first name attached to any customers.

Otherwise, you’ll see the “first name” code in the subject line. For instance, if you’re a beauty company, your default name could be “good-lookin’,” or if you run an extreme sports website, you could go with “thrill-seeker.”

2. Be conversational

There will always be a debate between marketers over using HTML emails or plain-text emails. If used properly, both are fine, as long as your customers engage with them.

Although formatting can play a big role in humanizing your automated marketing, you should be paying more attention to the copy in your emails. You should be writing your emails in a conversational tone.

This means avoiding stuffy words unless they’re necessary. Studies have found big words don’t make you look smarter, and unless your content is extremely technical, you should avoid technical jargon altogether.

Television journalists are taught to write their stories to be understood by a mass audience. Email marketers might want to think the same way, at least for most industries.

3. Send emails from a real person

Receiving an email from a no-reply address can feel deeply impersonal.

Brands will sometimes do this to signify the email account isn’t monitored. Although they’re doing customers a favor by letting them know they shouldn’t respond, you could also turn customers off by doing this.

Email marketers should always be looking for ways to engage with their contacts. Customers will feel a stronger human connection if they are able to ask questions and get real responses. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to use your real email address, though.

For instance, if you change the “From” field to something like Ros at Campaign Monitor but retain an admin email, then Ros doesn’t have to worry about Out of Office notifications or email bounces flooding her inbox every time an email is sent to a customer list.

You can easily create a dummy account specifically for email sends and filter out the bounced back emails. Then you can concentrate on responding to the real inquiries.

4. Don’t just set it and forget it

One of the great things about marketing automation is that once you turn it on, it does most of the work for you. But that doesn’t mean you can just forget about it.

Brands that aren’t testing their emails are missing out on vital opportunities to improve their authenticity marketing. As with all email campaigns, you should be A/B testing everything you can to determine how your customers are interacting with your content.

Remember, customers are more likely to engage and respond to emails if they feel there is a personal connection. Tinker with your copy and the many elements in your email body to find which messaging feels the most genuine.

Wrap up

Personalization and segmentation are the two best ways to make your marketing automation emails seem human. If you’re sending timely messages to the right people, the experience will seem more authentic and unique.

To deliver an authentic experience with automation:

  • Use personalized subject lines
  • Use conversational language
  • Send emails from a real person
  • Follow-up whenever possible

It’s so important to pay attention to email content. Personalize the copy as much as possible. This can be done with a name in the subject line or with dynamic content that’s based on behavior or past purchases.

Finally, test constantly to see what’s working. These simple tips will add a human element to your emails in the age of technology.

A good newsletter is hard to beat when it comes to driving traffic to your website, building cult loyalty with your audience, and driving revenue. The most important part of building a successful newsletter that manages to accomplish all that? People want quality content they can count on.

With a well-written newsletter, marketers can engage subscribers and organically grow their lists.

In our quest to shed light on some of our favorite newsletters, we’ll be sharing a different recommendation every month.

Today in the series, we’ll be talking about Lifehacker.

(Be sure to check out our last post about Total Annarchy if you missed it!)

lifehacker - newsletters you should follow

Introducing Lifehacker

Lifehacker is a website providing a daily roundup of articles to help you—well, hack life. Lifehacker gives you basic how-tos when it comes to everyday struggles, like getting to the gym in the morning, making sure your kids eat, and making a great marinade.

Lifehacker has both in-house writers and contributors. This system provides a constant flow of content that’s carefully managed and curated to fit with their brand voice and resonate with their audience.

And with all its content, Lifehacker has one primary focus: making life easier.

The Lifehacker newsletter is a smart encapsulation of the site’s overarching goal. Each email contains an assortment of interesting, clickable headlines and hooks.

lifehacker newsletter - newsletters to follow

For instance, the top piece of content in every email often contains the biggest hook and typically includes an image. The top story is also the most clickable, which means the headline has a dual purpose, working as both the headline and the email’s subject line.

In this case, the email subject line is “Get Paid $10,000 to Move Your Family to Italy.” When subscribers open the email, that’s exactly what they see, ensuring that readers get exactly what they want. And giving your subscribers what they want is the best way—and maybe the only way—to ensure they keep opening your email newsletters day after day.

This is also a clever way of making your content go twice as far.

After the initial hook, Lifehacker offers timely articles while also promoting specific subcategories on the site:

What are some good newsletters? Lifehacker newsletter

And if you’re eager for more, the newsletter provides additional article snippets, including sponsored spots and write-ups from sister brands, like Kotaku and Gizmodo.

How it started

If Lifehacker rings a bell, it could be because it began as a Gawker.com brand several years ago.

As a refresher, Gawker.com was an online publication hub specializing in niche news stories and gossip content. Gawker became a household name in less than two decades, thanks to its youthful voice and juicy articles.

The scandalous content Gawker was known for, however, arguably became its undoing. After a Hulk Hogan story went viral, Hogan sued (with the help of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel) and eventually bankrupted the company.

But some Gawker brands live on (and Gawker itself may return to life, though the brand’s future is not looking bright). In 2016, Univision purchased Gawker media assets, some of which included Jezebel, Gizmodo, and of course, Lifehacker.

How did Lifehacker start? Lifehacker was originally a brand of Gawker.com but is now owned by Univision.

Source

Despite changing hands, Lifehacker continues to be a popular source for information and entertainment for plenty of its devoted readers.

In fact, the site has earned over 46 million visits and ranks #17 for Technology News globally. In short, Lifehacker’s content answers real questions many real people have. Clearly, a lot of people are interested in making their lives easier.

Who it targets

Lifehacker has a wide variety of content available to readers, but primarily, audience interests are technological. Software, technology, and news & media are the largest categories for their readers. Thus, Lifehacker promotes these types of stories and similar ones in their newsletter.

But you can easily get a lot from this subscription, even if your interests lie outside the tech space. If you’re simply looking to read more, Lifehacker’s newsletter is a great place to start, because the content is brought directly to you.

Still, if you don’t like a lot of mail in your inbox, Lifehacker may not be ideal. With daily reading suggestions and limited preference controls, Lifehacker is less about a personalized experience and more about widespread appeal.

What you can learn from it

Lifehacker is an excellent read for both newsletter readers and email marketers. Here’s why:

As a reader

There’s no shortage of content to read on Lifehacker. This newsletter can give you access to articles on a variety of subjects, from a number of different authors.

As a subscriber, you’ll get a well-rounded selection of helpful, low-stakes “news,” directly to your inbox every day. Subscribing is also a great way to find new and interesting authors you enjoy.

As a marketer

With a helpful yet authoritative voice, Lifehacker is perfect for marketers looking to improve their clicky content. What are people reading about? Which headlines grab attention? What makes readers want to click?

These questions are huge for marketers, and Lifehacker is essentially a masterclass on this very phenomenon: clickable content that doesn’t feel like clickbait.

newsletters you should follow - how to get people to click lifehacker

How can you give just enough information to leave readers wanting more? Consider making your marketing content more exciting by simply promising to answer widespread questions that resonate with a diverse audience.

We all know personalization is extremely important for marketers, but Lifehacker has another lesson in store. Appealing to a wide variety of readers can truly be a boon for business.

Wrap up

Lifehacker is a prominent, well-loved publication, and the Lifehacker newsletter effortlessly provides access to interesting reads. So, if you want everyday hacks in your inbox, it may be time to sign up.

Are you thinking about building a newsletter? Already have one? If so, consider how you can incorporate the tactics used by Lifehacker into your own work.

Want to see your favorite newsletter listed here? Tell us in the comments below. Or start your own newsletter by signing up with Campaign Monitor today.

If you’re just dipping your toes into the world of email marketing, it can be difficult to know where to start. Luckily, email marketing is surprisingly straightforward. While it can involve a number of different skill-sets, from analytics to design to copywriting, its purpose is simple. Email marketing is about connecting with customers, potential or existing, via email.

That connection may be in the name of acquisition, retention, or relationship-building. Maybe you want to connect with consumers but don’t quite know how. If that’s the case, you’re in the right place. In this email 101 course, we’ll discuss email marketing: why it’s a worthy investment and how to implement it. Let’s get started.

Why should you invest in email marketing?

There are numerous types of marketing, and numerous ways to connect with consumers. Because of this fact, an email list may seem no more effective than any other type of marketing.

However, email has proven its status as a major player in both marketing and sales, time and time again. With a 4400% ROI and a $44 return on every $1 spent, email is much less risk and much more investment.

Plus, when you send targeted, personalized emails to your customers, your levels of customer engagement increase. Even if consumers aren’t opening each and every one of your emails, they’re likely seeing them and thus, keeping you in mind.

So, how can you turn your email marketing strategy into the professional powerhouse it was destined to be?

Email 101 tips for marketers (who want to go pro):

  1. Pick an email service provider
  2. Build a strategy
  3. Grow an email list
  4. Personalize and segment your emails
  5. Automate your emails
  6. Use analytics to improve

Step 1: Picking an email service provider

An email service provider—or ESP—is the hosting platform you choose to create and send your emails. ESPs can help you design your emails, automate send times, segment lists, and much more. Only you know what type of ESP will best fit your needs, so do your research and read up on the different providers available.

Step 2: Building a strategy

Once you’ve chosen an ESP that supports your goals, it’s time to develop your strategy. Consider what you’re hoping to achieve from email marketing. You may want a newsletter to provide revenue, either through affiliate income or as a way to send traffic to your site.

email marketing 101

As you can see above, Marnie Craycroft uses her emails to advertise products, digital items, and courses. Through her newsletter alone, she gains thousands per month.

Whatever your reasons for perusing this email marketing 101, setting goals is an important part of the strategizing process. Start researching the average open and click-through rates for your business type and size.

If you’re already sending regular emails, you may be all too familiar with open and click-through rates. How do your numbers compare with the averages? Aim for better numbers as part of your goal-building, then consider some ways to improve.

Step 3: Growing a list

Whether you have an existing list or none at all, growing your list is an important part of connecting with your customers one-on-one.

A big part of growing your list is simply informing people about your business. Who are you? What is your business all about? Make sure you’re utilizing numerous resources to introduce your services to potential customers.

This means establishing yourself as a thought leader and giving prospects plenty of opportunities to sign up for your list.

Become a thought leader

Contributing to forums is an excellent way to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Quora and Reddit are both platforms that boast massive audiences. By targeting these types of resources, you can easily find niches that fit within your business.

You may also consider utilizing writing resources, such as Medium and HARO. Like Reddit, Medium appeals to a wide audience and therefore, many subcultures. You can easily republish items from your blog, or you can create new pieces.

Help a Reporter Out, or HARO, is another resource businesses can benefit from. Reporters and sources can connect with each other for stories and PR opportunities.

email marketing 101

 

Publish gated resources

Now that you are up-to-date on industry trends and the questions people (both prospects and existing customers) are asking, use that knowledge to create high-value, long-form content that answers those questions.

You can “gate” these content pieces, which refers to requiring an email address in order for readers to access to the content, and grow your email list organically with people who you know are interested in your expertise and offerings.

 

Advertisements or sponsorships

If you are open to paid opportunities, consider sponsorships or advertisements.

If, for instance, you have a tech product, you might advertise your business on tech-centered podcasts. By considering your target audience and mapping out where to find them, you can successfully widen your reach through advertising opportunities.

Sponsorships are another way to advertise your company in a natural and interesting way. This might involve your company putting on an event, sponsoring a conference, or something even more unique.

Fast Company, Episode 1 – Presented by Church’s Chicken from Church’s Chicken on Vimeo.

The above video is taken from a sponsored event from Church’s Chicken: the World’s Fastest Drummer competition. While the content is sponsored by a business, the story is unique and attracts a specific audience. Plus, there’s something to be said for this subtle advertising approach.

No matter what approach you take, growing a list of highly engaged subscribers is one of the best things you can do for your email efforts—and for your entire digital marketing strategy.

Step 4: Personalizing and segmenting your emails

Considering your audience continues to be important, even after you’ve gained subscribers.

For example, consider how you sort junk mail from the mail that actually matters. Junk mail is impersonal, typically fails to address you by name, and more often than not, seeks to appeal to a mass audience.

Your subscribers want information that feels relevant and useful. If it doesn’t feel catered for them, it will be that much easier to discard. Because of this, it’s crucial to personalize your emails, so you’re sending a strategy-first email, rather than just batching and blasting.

Segmentation is another key tool when it comes to personalization. Think of it this way—shopping at the same store as someone doesn’t necessarily mean you share similar locations, shopping habits, or purchases. Therefore, customer emails shouldn’t look exactly the same, either.

Encourage your users to give you information regarding themselves and their preferences. You can do this through a quiz, encouraging profile customization, or sending a questionnaire.

Additionally, track analytics on their behaviors as customers. Do they purchase from you frequently, or do they only open your emails once a year for a birthday coupon? Use available information to tailor your list and appeal to individual needs.

Segmentation is often separated into four major areas: geographics, demographics, psychographics, and behavioral.

email marketing 101 tips - how to start email marketing

If this seems overwhelming, spend some time studying the ESP you’ve chosen. See what types of segmentation options are available, and gradually build up to a comfortable level of segmentation for your own subscribers.

Step 5: Automating your emails

Once you’ve implemented segmentation, consider automation. Automation is extremely useful for a couple of reasons. First, automation is an easy way to make users feel important. This is because you’re incorporating a proactive retention strategy, rather than relying on reactionary methods. Secondly, automation encourages users to complete a sale, browse new products, and repeat previous orders.

What types of emails count as automated emails? Welcome emails, shipment emails, blog updates, and birthday emails are all examples of autoresponders that simplify your customers’ lives.

 

In this email from BarkBox, you can see how automated birthday emails can be an organic way to pull customers into your shop.

Step 7. Using analytics to understand your subscribers and improve your strategy

You’ll never make everyone happy, but you sure can try with email marketing. With analytics, you can easily record how many times your emails are being opened, how many customers are clicking through, which emails perform best, and more.

This data is incredibly valuable, as it can provide the information you need to understand your readers’ habits. With valuable data in hand, you can easily improve your process.

For instance, you may notice your open rates drastically increase when you send emails during a certain time frame, or on a specific day of the week. If that’s the case, you may consider changing your email schedule to better suit your readers.

Wrap up

There’s no question that email marketing is valuable, but understanding it and implementing it may feel like a huge step. No matter where you are on the spectrum of strategizing, targeting, growing, personalizing, and improving, we hope this primer helped. Luckily, even a small step in the right direction can yield pretty powerful results. Start experimenting and let us know what has worked for you.

People are pursuing startup-related opportunities all over the world, meaning your startup may need a strong advantage to face the competition. Thoughtful planning can give your business a competitive edge. This planning may include the adoption of various strategies. Specifically, it may be time to focus on email marketing for your startup.

If you’re worried about the financial implications of email marketing, a newsletter campaign is actually a fiscally responsible way for startups to increase revenue. Today we’ll discuss how email marketing for startups is both an inexpensive and invaluable step you can take for your business.

Let’s get started.

What makes a startup a startup?

First thing’s first. Do you define your company as a startup? After all, there are subtle differences between startups and small businesses, so it’s important to gauge the group to which your budding business belongs.

Email Marketing for Startups

Startups vs small businesses

Most startups expect extreme growth, target mass audiences, and rely on investors for funding. Small businesses, on the other hand, often pursue small-scale (yet steady) growth, appeal to niche audiences, and typically rely on internal funding.

Where does your business belong? If you have a software company you’re looking to scale and eventually sell, it’s probably a startup. This is different than a mom-and-pop pizzeria, which is more likely to fall in the small business category.

Whatever your business, email marketing can help.

Email marketing for startups: 5 lessons to live by

  1. An email list for your startup is priority
  2. Email marketing can drive revenue
  3. Good copy matters
  4. Automation can improve your brand
  5. Customization will appeal to your audience

While email marketing is crucial for both startups and small businesses, startups should absolutely implement email marketing if they are attempting to scale quickly.

Email marketing is extremely valuable in terms of growing your list of interested and loyal users. And while word-of-mouth marketing is technically more valuable, the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

How to get the word out

For instance, let’s say you send customers a coupon code. The only requirement? They must refer a friend. If the majority of your customers refer a friend, you could potentially grow your email list size in a matter of hours.

Tictail illustrates this type of marketing in their email below. Referrals not only provide incentive to your users, but there’s a strong word-of-mouth element, too.

Email marketing for startups examples of startup emails

Source: Really Good Emails

1. An email list for your startup is priority

Consider, for instance, the various ways you might choose to market your startup. You could take out a banner ad, raise awareness on your blog, discuss your business on social media, or include information in an email (or all of the above, if you’re looking to cover all bases).

While each of these methods can provide you with new customers, some of them also include caveats.

Email lists perform better than other marketing efforts alone

For instance, banner ads may provide direct sales, but most people are more likely to survive a plane crash than click on a banner ad. Additionally, the ROI of banner ads is sometimes among the lowest produced by online marketing campaigns, compared to 4400% ROI on an email marketing strategy.

Blog posts—especially those that are optimized—are a valuable way to share information, but an email list gives you more control over what readers are seeing and reading.

And while social media is an awesome way to build relationships, 3.03 billion people use social media, compared to the 4.1 billion people who use the internet. That’s ~74% of all internet users. Just to put that in perspective, 92% of online adults use email.

How you can grow your email list

Since the success of email marketing is measurable, knowing how to grow a list is necessity. This is especially true for startups needing traffic on a budget.

Videofruit founder Bryan Harris suggests inviting people you know to join your list—people who may be interested in your project. In his example, he adds friends to his list (with their consent), then asks those friends to refer others. Once he has a small subscriber base, he incentivizes the referral process by offering a giveaway.

How to grow your email marketing list when you're a startup - how to grow your email list

You can also highlight your referral incentives through your website. If you get a fair amount of traffic, consider making a landing page with basic information about your contest or givewaway, then make signing up easy.

If your startup doesn’t have an affiliated blog, create one. Your blog posts can be used to offer content upgrades, such as PDFs, ebooks, and classes. You can see this firsthand in the post below from A Beautiful Mess, which provides details and instant access to a paid video class.

email marketing ideas for startups

2. Email marketing can drive revenue

Not only do newsletters facilitate consistent interactions, but they also provide a chance to introduce sales funnels. You can provide information about your paid services or products, or you might even give customers the opportunity to convert from unpaid to paid.

Introducing a sales funnel in your email

There are a number of ways to encourage sales in your emails. A traditional approach might be to send a promotional email regarding a new product. This approach is a classic, easy way to generate leads and pull traffic to your site.

But you can encourage sales through more than just promotional emails. Consistent newsletters with educational information, testimonials, and discount codes are subtle ways to push your product and stay relevant with users.

Notice how Thrive Market employs each of the above mentioned techniques in their newsletter below. In the email, Thrive couples a discount code with information about how the service works, and the email then leads into testimonials from satisfied customers.

Email marketing for startups

Source: Really Good Emails

For a user on the fence, this email provides a financial perk, proactive information, and positive reviews from other everyday customers. The email offers more than just a promotion—it’s giving a full story on why the customer should spend money with Thrive.

The balance of freemium and premium

Earlier, we discussed using email marketing to convert free users into paying customers. To do this, you must be willing to engage your users, as well as convince them of the value of your paid content. (In other words, why is paid content better than the free stuff?)

You can see an example of this in the email below. Vecteezy offers users a chance to upgrade freemium content, just by clicking on the provided CTA. The selling point for the paid content is convenience. Users can utilize files however they want, no strings attached.

Email marketing for startups - use email marketing to grow

By offering a balance of freemium and premium content, you’re gently pushing users to try a paid option. This is an important opportunity for startups, since freemium is the dominant business model among internet startups and mobile app developers.

Free content can often generate a wide, international user-base, making it ideal for growth and trust-building. Still, companies need their products and services to provide a reliable source of revenue. So, if you’re not going after the freemium-premium balance with your email marketing, consider how you might push it going forward.

Third-party revenue streams

You use your email list as a way to generate sales for your business, but you can also use newsletters as a place for affiliate marketing and targeted ads. For startups looking to generate revenue, this option can be highly beneficial.

The example below is taken from the The Hustle, a daily tech-centric newsletter. As you can see, the deals section conveniently allows users to review the deals or skip the sponsored content altogether.

Email marketing tips for startups

3. Good copy matters

Conversions are important for any business. Before users convert, however, they must first be willing to click your messages.

To convince customers to open your emails (and hopefully buy from you), the copy has to interest them. If you’re wondering how to write this copy, consider first what interests you.

When you visit your inbox, which email do you open first? The one that promises something interesting. Something click-worthy. Emails that drive curiosity, utilize FOMO, and include numbers, just to name a few.

Hooking users with subject lines

Brands that sell long-term products have to make emails especially interesting to gain clicks. Warby Parker uses the subject line, “A little something,” in the email below. By implementing a curiosity gap, Warby Parker encourages curiosity among customers. The intention? Customers will open the email, whether or not they need new glasses.

 email marketing for startups examples

Reeling in users with header pretext

You have more opportunity than just the subject line. You also have a chance to engage readers with your header pretext. If the subject line is the hook, think of the header pretext as the reel.

Take the example from Glassdoor below. The subject line is “8 Secrets Recruiters Won’t Tell You.” To supplement the headline, there is additional header pretext that says, “Top wellness perks and salary advice, too.”

If you’re a job-hunting professional, this offers the complete package: recruiter secrets, wellness information, and financial advice. Instead of relying on a single strategy, Glassdoor is appealing to users through the curiosity gap and authoritative copy.

tips when it comes to email marketing for startups

4. Automation can improve your brand

There are certain emails we count on receiving, even if we don’t realize it. Receipts and confirmations are just a few digital documents we rely on, and in the same way, your emails should proactively work to meet the needs of your customers.

Welcome emails

What better way to set the right tone than through a welcome email? This is a quick way to establish your site, while also guiding customers to your store. If your startup is new, this is a perfect opportunity to differentiate your brand and personalize your product.

email marketing tips for startups copy

Source: Really Good Emails

Notice how the above email from Rapha uses the welcome process to explain the newsletter, discuss benefits, and most importantly, provide a direct link to the shop.

Replenishment emails

Replenishment emails also illustrate the proactive nature of a good email marketing strategy. These emails prompt users to refill and repeat orders, giving customers a convenient way to continue buying.

email marketing ideas for startups and email marketing tips for new businesses

You can see Rockin’ Wellness’ replenishment email above, which prompts users to purchase another month’s supply just in time.

Abandoned cart emails

Abandoned cart emails are an equally convenient and effective way to convert customers. While ~75% of shoppers leave sites without completing purchases, remarketing efforts can garner an email open rate as high as 57% among customers.

In short, most customers are going to ditch their cart before completing checkout, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to buy. And abandonment emails can achieve a success rate as high as 29%.

email tips for startups

Source: Really Good Emails

Above you can see an example from Winc, which encourages users to finalize the checkout process, using two separate CTAs and a promo code.

5. Customization will appeal to your audience

Customizing emails for every recipient on your list is unrealistic, especially when it comes to email marketing for startups (which are, by definition, businesses made to grow fast). Still, you can positively tailor your users’ experience through A/B testing, targeting, and segmentation.

A/B testing

If you consistently advertise products and services in your emails, you may want to experiment with sales copy and graphics. But what if this new approach confuses users? What if it backfires?

Luckily, you don’t have to make a leap without reliable data. A/B testing is a great way to test new methods while also maintaining a traditional strategy, so you can gauge the top performer.

What’s more, you can A/B test almost anything, so take advantage of this opportunity when possible. After all, it’s virtually risk-free.

email marketing tips for startups

Targeting and segmentation

While A/B testing is a perfect way to gather data during your campaign, you can use segmentation to customize your emails prior to launch.

Maybe you’ve seen the highly specific shirt ads on Facebook, with phrases such as, “Never underestimate a mother who listens to Iron Maiden and was born in August.” Companies that make these shirts use data and algorithms to target users, advertising shirts that are highly customized.

While this example is a bit extreme, it does illustrate how marketers target users through data. Age, location, and behavior are just a few data points marketers use when segmenting emails and customizing user experiences.

Wondering how you can use segmentation for your unique customers? Below is an example of segmentation based on financial behavior. You might also choose to segment based on user niches or usage frequency.

lessons on email marketing for startups - email marketing for small business

Wrap up

Whether you’re building a fast-paced startup or a brick-and-mortar small business, you can apply these lessons of email marketing for startups (and small business ventures) to your brand.

Email is a great way to drive revenue and growth for your company, and you can easily see results with a bit of care, automation, and knowledge of your user-base.