Informational
emails are one-to-many emails you can send to folks to bring them up to speed
in regards to your latest content, product announcements, and more. Note: You
should only send them to people who have opted in to receive emails from you.
1) New Content Announcement Email
This
is one you probably already know and love. You know, the one where you announce
your next sale, ebook , webinar, coupon, free trial ... and the list goes on.
This email is used to describe and promote a particular marketing offer -- one
single offer -- with a call-to-action that links to a targeted landing page
made for that specific offer.
When
it comes to designing an email for a specific offer, the main component to keep
in mind is the offer itself. You want the copy to be brief but descriptive
enough to convey the offer's value. In addition, make sure your email's
call-to-action (CTA) link is large, clear, and uses actionable language. You
can also include a large CTA image/button underneath to make the action you want
email readers to take crystal clear.
2) Product Update Email
Product
emails are tricky. People generally don't want to receive these often, and
they're typically not as interesting or engaging as something like
an offer email. That said, it's important to keep these emails simple and
straightforward.
Many
companies choose to send weekly or monthly product digests to keep their
customers or fan base up-to-date with the latest features and functionalities.
And no matter how much a customer loves your business, it's still work for them
to learn how to use new features or learn why a new product is worth their
investment.
Rather
than inundating your contacts with a slew of emails about each individual
product update, consider sending a sort of roundup of new updates or products periodically.
For each update you list, include a large, clear headline, a brief
description, and an image that showcases the product or feature. It's also
worth linking to a custom page for each
3) Digital Magazine or Newsletter
Do
you maintain a business blog for your company? Are you a magazine or media
outlet? No matter which of these categories you fall into, many companies
choose to send a roundup of stories or articles published weekly or monthly.
And if you truly want people to read these email roundups, it's critical that
you share them in a visually appealing way.
Within
these roundup emails, it's a good idea to use an image paired with a headline,
a brief summary or introduction, and a CTA for recipients to read more. This
simple format will allow you to use visuals to attract the reader to each
article while still giving you the ability to feature multiple articles --
without sending a super lengthy email.
4) Event Invitation
Email
can be a great vehicle for promoting an upcoming event you're hosting. But if
you want to invite your contacts to an event and motivate them to register,
it's extremely important to clearly showcase why that event is worth their
attendance.
A
great way to do so is through visuals. A lot of events cost money to attend,
and most cost a pretty penny. So if you want to attract registrants, cut down
on the copy and show potential registrants why the event will
be awesome.
5) Dedicated Send
Every now and then, you may want to send a dedicated email to a
certain group of people. For example, if you're hosting a conference or event,
you might want to send a dedicated email just to event registrants to alert
them of any new event updates they should be aware of (like in the screenshot
above). Or if your business is community based, it might be a good idea to send
a monthly email to welcome all your new members.
6) Co-marketing Email
Co-marketing
is when two or more complementary companies partner together for some mutually
beneficial task, event, or other promotion. The main draw of co-marketing is to
leverage the audience of another company to increase your reach.
Sometimes
the relationship results in a strategic announcement; other times it's as
simple as a joint webinar. Let's use the latter for an example of how
co-marketing emails work, and why they're so beneficial: Let's say you and
another company decide to do a webinar together on a particular subject. As a
result, that webinar will likely (pending your arrangements) be promoted to the
email lists of both of your companies. This exposure to a list that is not your
own is one of the key benefits of co-marketing partnerships.
When
it comes to the email your business sends, make it clear that this offer or
event is the result of a partnership with company X -- especially if your
co-marketing partner is particularly popular or impressive. To do this, you can
adjust the company logo in your email to also include the other business' logo.
Furthermore, make sure your copy mentions both businesses, and create a custom
graphic or image to visualize the offer or event.
7) Social Media Send
Wait
... what does social media have to do with email? Well, if you're making good
use of LinkedIn Groups or Google+ Events, email has everything to
do with social media.
As
the administrator of LinkedIn Group, when you send a LinkedIn Announcement,
you're directly reaching a LinkedIn user's inbox. And when you create a Google+
event, sending the invite directly sends you into users' email boxes as well.
Without having to create lists or collect email addresses, you
automatically have access to users' email, but be sure to tap into these
resources with care.
When
it comes to these social media emails, you don't have the option of using email
software that allows you to customize the layout or add images. You're at the
mercy of copy alone. This is where leveraging white space is very important.
Keep your paragraphs short, your sentences brief, and your thoughts clear.
Optimize these emails for the scanning reader, and use bullets or numbers to
deliver your main points.
8) Internal Updates
Don't
neglect a very important audience for your company: your employees. Many
companies, especially if they're on the larger side, choose to send internal
updates or newsletters to their employees to keep them in the know about the
latest company information -- whether it be new product updates, marketing
offers, or events.
With
these emails, it's less about the beauty, and more about the clarity. The most
important formatting tip for these types of emails is to arrange the
information in a simple and helpful way. Once you've nailed your formatting,
it's simply a matter of highlighting the most critical information associated
with each offer or update so its messaging is crystal clear to everyone.
Transactional Emails
Transactional
emails are one-to-one emails that are triggered by specific actions, such as
completing a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. Note: You'll need specialized software in order to set up transactional emails.
9) Confirmation Email
How
frustrating is it to book a flight or register for an event and not
receive an automatic confirmation email? I
know that personally, every time I make an online transaction, I wait
impatiently to see that my transaction was complete. After all, nobody wants to
worry that they're first payment wasn't processed, only to click the payment
button again and get charged twice.
What
bothers me most about so many businesses' confirmation emails are two things:
when the subject lines are vague, and when the information I actually want to
confirm isn't immediately evident when I open the email. Confirmation emails
should be just that -- confirmation emails.
To
avoid any confusion, keep these emails simple, with just a brief summary
of the information your recipients would want you to confirm. Try not to
fuss with the design, as they simply want to know that the
action they took was completed so they can save the information, have peace of
mind, and move on.
10) Form Submission Kickback (Thank-You) Email
Whenever
a prospect, lead, or customer fills out a form on one of your landing pages, a
kickback email should automatically get triggered after their submission.
Depending on the form, these kickback emails are often referred to as thank-you
emails. These emails are mainly for the sake of fulfilling your promise to the
user, and storing the information you promised them safely in their inbox.
How
frustrating would it be if you downloaded an ebook, and then forgot where you
stored the link to the PDF? Kickback emails solve that problem.
These
automatic emails should make the CTA big and clear. Keep in mind that the CTA
should link to the direct offer -- NOT to the form. In these emails, simply
thank the reader for their form submission, and give them what you promised,
whether it be a link to the PDF of an ebook, instructions on how to activate
their free trial, or the coupon they requested. Furthermore, don't
overcomplicate the appearance of these emails. The reader isn't looking for additional information,
but rather the offer or content they already know they redeemed.
11) Welcome Email
Another
type of transactional email, the welcome email is the perfect option for
thanking and providing more information to people who have signed up for your
newsletter, product trial, or other offer.
The
elements you include in a welcome email will depend on the specifics of what
you're offering. But in general, you can use the email to showcase your brand's
personality and to highlight the value that recipients can expect to
receive. If you're welcoming new users to a product or service, the welcome
email is a great place to explain how everything works and what users need to
do in order to get started.
Remember:
First impressions are important, even when they happen via email.
12) Lead Nurturing Email
Depending
on the specific action a persona takes, you may want to enroll them in a lead
nurturing campaign. Lead nurturing emails consist of a tightly connected series
of emails containing useful, targeted content.
As
their name suggests, these emails are used to nurture leads through the
marketing funnel into a position of sales readiness. For example, let's say you
sent your list a marketing offer email. You might then set up a lead nurturing
workflow that triggers another email about a complementary offer or piece of
content to everyone who converted on that initial offer. The logic is
simple: By identifying a particular group of contacts that you already know are
interested in a specific topic, you and can follow up with more relevant and
targeted content that makes them more likely to continue their relationship
with you.
In
your lead nurturing emails, it's important to call out why recipients are
receiving the email. For example, you could say something like, "We
noticed you're into [topic x] since you downloaded our [Topic X] ebook, and we
thought you might want to learn more about [topic x] ..." Once you've
addressed why recipients are getting email from you, you can format your lead
nurturing emails similar to the way you'd set up your general marketing offer
emails.
Other
very important considerations to make when crafting your lead nurturing
campaigns are the planning, setup, segmentation, and timing of your nurturing
emails.
At
the end of the day, your emails should not only be visually appealing, but they
should also be valuable. Focus on sharing the key information in the most
appropriate format depending on the type of email you're sending -- and the
audience you're sending it to.
