Posted by Leveraging promotional emails as part of a business marketing strategy can help bring exposure to your brand, build customer engagement and confidence, as well as boost revenue. For a more effective campaign, use SendPulse to create promotional emails that give you more than a 60% open rate and to monitor your subscribers’ responses to the emails you send.
Email annotations for Gmail’s Promotions tab
These annotations are displayed in the inbox preview on both Android and iOS (scheduled to roll out on desktop early this year), giving you a great opportunity to highlight key information like deals, expiration dates, and promo codes.
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The email ranking is based on Google’s specific filters, and your customer engagement metrics will impact the visibility of your emails. Using Gmail annotations will help your email qualify as a ‘Top deal’, although it’s not guaranteed. All other promotional emails are placed in the ‘Remaining promotions’ section.
33 Promotional Email Examples
Be careful with special offer emails. It’s the kind of stuff that people can get annoyed with. When you send a special offer, segment your audience and use personalization to ensure the offer is relevant. You don’t want to send a discount code to someone who just paid full price yesterday.
Headspace
Headspace’s promotional email is one of our favorite examples. The hero image conveys friendly, positive vibes that help reinforce the benefit that the recipient will receive from Headspace. It makes a subtle and very engaging combination.
Moo’s promotion lures you in with 10% off for their great quality print products. The brand again builds up trust with a promise “if your order’s not exactly how you pictured it, we’ll reprint it for free!” That efficiently eases anxiety about making a purchase.
Space NK
Moo 2
Moo uses the image ‘Last chance’ and body copy ‘Offer ends midnight 2 January 2019’ to create a sense of urgency to act fast. Without a limited time offer, recipients may decide to leave the purchase until later, and some will likely forget about it completely.
Cialdini’s six influences of persuasion include the principle: scarcity. This is based on the premise that people are more likely to do something if they believe the opportunity to do so may not come again. We don’t like to miss out, so we want to do something while we have the chance.
500px
Most 500px users are familiar with “Plus” and “Awesome” accounts. They are mentioned frequently in emails and calls to action to upgrade are all over the site. So when an email shows up offering a discount, there is a foundation of knowledge in place.
CrashPlan
Special offers are often seasonal and CrashPlan did something interesting with this holiday email. If you give CrashPlan to someone else, you get two free months for yourself. This is useful to people are the holidays and the added incentive makes it an especially useful email.
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Starbucks
In this email, which is sent only to “members”, they offer a buy three, get one free deal for a very limited time. Nearly all Starbucks offers are time-sensitive. This is because they need people to actually come to visit a location, not just order things online.
How to Write Successful Promotional Emails
With an expected 5.6 billion email users by 2019, email marketing has become one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach customers. However, sending out emails for a product or service does not guarantee that you will make a sale; you can’t even be sure that they will reach your subscribers’ inbox. You can use SendPulse to quickly create professional promotional emails without the need to know HTML.
Personalize the email subject
People are more likely to open emails with personalized subjects. Rather than sending out mass duplicated emails, marketers should include customers’ data, such as their name and last order details. Aside from the subject, the content should also fit the profile and preferences of the target audience. Plus, the promotional email should stick to the subject line, remember to stay on topic.
Keep it concise but powerful
Once a recipient clicks on the email, there is a tiny window of time to grab their attention. Rather than using ‘technical’ words that will likely tire the reader, one should use easy-to-understand language. Also, long paragraphs can be overwhelming. Short, relevant, and strong ones work best. At the same time, the email should be catchy and engaging.
Focus on a singular message
Having more than one message in your promotional email makes it less effective. Cluttered emails are harder to read, and the subscribers are likely to miss the primary goal of it. Instead, a marketer’s goal should be to ensure that the content and call to actions emphasize the primary objective of the promotional campaign. Use words or phrases that prompt action. Active calls to action can increase click-throughs and lead to sales.
Make the email mobile-friendly
A large percentage of the target audience will view the promotional email on their mobile devices. Therefore, it is necessary to make the email mobile-friendly and easy to go through. Including subheadings, images, and lists will enable the subscribers to quickly grasp the central message of your email and navigate to sections easily. All the email templates created with SendPulse are mobile-friendly and responsive.
Thoroughly proofread it
Proofreading, even though obvious, is mostly ignored. However, typos and poorly written content can hurt your brand by diminishing your credibility. It is essential to go through your emails and remove any mistakes that may be present.
What to Put in Your Promotional Emails
Marketers must be careful to avoid them ending up in spam. For those who need help with writing emails, SendPulse has a great email editor where users can drag and drop to create and edit templates. Users can also choose from more than 130 templates of marketing emails. You don’t need to know HTML.
- A sender’s name. To avoid recipients moving your promotional email to their spam folders, you must make it clear who sent the email. For this purpose, use your business name alone or add your name.
- An attractive subject line. The subject line affects the open rate of your promotional email. It should, therefore, be captivating and about 6-10 words in length. A/B test different variants of your subject line to discover the best one.
- Main message. Highlight the promotion or offer you are selling to subscribers. It can be text accompanied by images. This section can be subdivided to make it more optimized.
- Calls to action. Sell the message using action-oriented words. However, marketers should be wary of using words that make the message too pushy.
Ensure success with your business’s promotion emails
Using email to communicate your special offers, deals, and promotions is definitely worth your while. Just be sure to follow the tips and guidance above so that you maximize your results. To recap, here’s how to write a promotional email:
Meet The Author
Kristen McCormick
Kristen is the Senior Managing Editor at WordStream, where she helps businesses to make sense of their online marketing and advertising. She specializes in SEO and copywriting and finds life to be exponentially more delightful on a bicycle.
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Sources:
https://www.getvero.com/resources/guides/lifecycle-marketing/promotional-emails/
https://sendpulse.com/support/glossary/promotional-email
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2020/07/21/promotional-email-examples
Email promotion
The tone of the email should be personal while being profession at the same time. It should speak to the reader as if they are talking to a knowledgeable friend who is a well-wisher and wants to help you with your requirements.
Promotional Emails Guide: 35 Best Examples [Tips+Ideas]
Digital marketing has come a long way, but we cannot deny the fact that email marketing is still one of the most widely used and effective ways to keep in touch with your target audience. So, it is essential to remember that the competition out there is cutthroat, and you want to stay at the top of customers’ minds. If you are looking for the best promotional email examples for your business or promotional email templates to get some inspiration, you have come to the right place.
In this article, I am going to cover everything you need to know regarding building a promotional email campaign — including basics like what exactly are promotional emails, what you need to look out for, tips for writing an effective promotional email and some great examples that you can use as reference.
1. Limited-Time Offers
While time-sensitive offers work well-converting on-the-fence prospects, you need to ensure that your campaigns reach as many prospects as possible within a limited time. Combined with website popups, email marketing is the best way to achieve that.
Further Reading
3. Subscriber-Special Offers
Monki subtly calls you a future customer by saying, “We see #monkistyle in your future.” And in case you’re wondering, the hyperlink on #monkistyle takes you to a page full of customer photos (read: social proof and a sense of belonging.)
How to Execute an Email Marketing Campaign
1. Use an email planning template.
It’s imperative to make a plan before you start emailing your entire customer database. That’s why HubSpot created this free email planning template to help you iron out who you’re emailing, who you’re suppressing from your contact list, and what the email’s message is. Download the template now to get your email campaign planning organized.
2. Identify your goal for the campaign.
Different email campaigns will have different outcomes, requiring different tactics to get there. Once you determine the purpose of your campaign, you can then create the targets you want to hit. Include specific metrics in your goal so that you can determine if your campaign was a success based on quantitative data.
3. Understand who you’re emailing.
Have you ever heard the saying from Meredith Hill, "When you speak to everyone, you speak to no one"? What Hill is getting at here is that if you’re watering down your message to apply to your entire audience, you’re leaving opportunity on the table — opportunity for creating high-value, specific, relevant content that speaks directly to the recipient.
With this in mind, the key to a great email marketing campaign is identifying your audience and using email segmentation to ensure you’re delivering to the right people at the right time. If you can accomplish this and build it into your strategy, you can get more creative and specific with your messaging.
4. Put yourself in the shoes of the buyer persona.
After you’ve identified the outcome and the goals you want to hit, you now need to strategize how to provide value to your buyer persona so that they convert, engage, or take the action you want them to take. Some things to ask yourself might include:
5. Build a targeted list and define enrollment criteria.
You know who you’re targeting and what you want them to do. From there, you must build the segment. Thinking about your buyer persona, what properties do they all have in common? How does your CRM describe those properties?
6. Determine the timeline you want the campaign to run.
You may be running a seasonal campaign that only requires one or two emails, or you might be building a long-term top-of-mind nurturing campaign. Tailor the length of your email sequence to the length of the buying cycle and stage the persona is at in the buyer’s journey. In other words, deliver the right message at the right time.
7. Plan your emails and follow-ups.
Over the course of the campaign’s timeline, you may want multiple touchpoints. You may also even consider follow-ups based on the actions that each recipient takes. Plan these emails out, outlining the core message and take-away for each email.
Keep in mind that you can’t expect a single email to do everything. Your email campaign can be made up of multiple emails, so consider taking your email recipients on a journey with each email serving a single purpose. This will increase the odds of each email being successful in its role toward reaching your goal.
For example, if you’re doing a lead nurturing campaign, you might have a few educational emails to take them from the awareness stage to the consideration stage before providing more conversion-focused content.
8. Write click-worthy subject lines.
The subject line is the gate keeper of the rest of your email. Your buyer persona will not be exposed to your content unless they first click the subject line. With that in mind, use this precious real estate for copy that compels them to read further. You can do that by:
9. Write copy that’s suited for them.
Once you know the purpose of each email you’re sending and you have the subject lines, you can write the copy that will engage your list. Consider where your audience is in their buying journey and provide the type of content that they’ll find useful. For example, it doesn’t make sense to promote products if you’re emailing a segment of subscribers who are largely in the awareness stage of the buying journey.
10. Create your brand assets.
Few people want to read an email that simply gives them a wall of text. Visuals help your recipients quickly understand the point of the email. In fact, intentional and well-placed imagery can increase click-through rates, so put thought into not just what you want to say but how you want to say it, using visuals to support your message.
11. Put it all together with a comprehensive email builder.
12. Include clear calls to action.
Don’t confuse your email contacts by providing too many options. For each email you send, there should be a single action that you want the reader to take. Then, instruct them to take that action and set expectations for what will happen when they do.
Sources:
https://www.mailmunch.com/blog/promotional-emails
https://www.drip.com/blog/promotional-emails
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/email-marketing-examples-list
Email promotion
AS the promotional email examples above show, there are a lot of angles you can take with your promotional emails. Yet whatever direction you decide to go, there are a few marketing strategies and best practices you can always follow to engage users, rather than annoy them.
Promotional email template
Looking to promote a new product or service? You may want to use emails for your promotional campaign. You can either design your own promotional email marketing template or you can use one of the many available online. We’re providing you with a few templates to fill in here, so all you need to do is add your own content.
A promotional email template allows you to remain consistent with your branding and maintain a professional appearance. It also saves you time, as you can create a custom template once then use it over and over again for future promotional campaigns.
If you use a promotional email campaign template, you can be sure that your email clients will always know who the message is from and what it’s about. Plus, if you use the same template every time then they’ll start to recognize it. This will make them more likely to open future emails from you.
It may be tempting to just send out a promotional email without using a template, but we strongly advise against this. A promotional email template will help ensure that your promotional campaign is successful and your email recipients remain engaged with your brand.
Promotional Email Examples and Strategic Recommendations
Showcase the brand’s ‘why’
Have an environmentally conscious company? Consider touching on how a product’s materials are sourced or how the product and its production process benefit others or the environment. For example, this email from Bellroy focuses on the recycled aspect of their bag and features a GIF showing a fun transformation from empty plastic bottle to bag. It’s a great way to show rather than tell their email subscribers what their new collection is about.
Share your social proof
Everlane uses consumer-generated content and quotes from its existing customers to promote its bestselling sneaker. The promotional message of this email is built entirely around what their customers have to say about the Tread sneaker, from a big quote at the top of the email to the sneaker’s rating and photos by customers on social media. The single call-to-action – to shop the trainer – makes it easy for the recipient to know what to do. Lastly, notice how the subject line (“Tread: the reviews are in”) makes clear that this isn’t just any promotional email – it contains the reviews of actual customers.
Focus on product benefits
“Benefits over features” is an important rule of copywriting and this marketing email by bag brand Coach is a great example of how you can apply that rule in your email marketing. By listing five reasons to love The Charlie Bag, it speaks directly to its target audience. Each benefit is illustrated by a product image and all of this against a simple white background, keeping the focus on the product.
Demonstrate your value
Have fun with gifs and emojis
Blume uses the dreamy cloud icon in its subject line to match the text (“Daydreaming ’bout that glow”) and the name of its Daydreamer cleanser. The hero image showcases the product while the brilliant Mrs. Doubtfire GIF grabs the reader’s attention and is relevant even for those who haven’t seen the movie.
Use holidays to promote products
Is your product a great gift for an upcoming holiday? Or maybe there’s a national day that allows you to celebrate your products or customers? Send an email that talks about the holiday, get customers excited, and promote your best sellers. See how Sugarfina used National Green Juice Day to talk about green gummy bears – cute emoji, strategic copy that talks about healthy ingredients, and fun CTAs.
Share tips on how to use the product
Think of ways your promotional email campaigns can help old and new customers alike use your products, like clothing brand Petite Studio does here. Its email highlights five seasonal products by listing outfit ideas for an entire week. The subject line “5 days, 5 looks” hints at what’s inside and is repeated at the top of the email in bold letters. Images, GIFs, and quick styling tips entice customers to click and buy. Also note the multiple CTA buttons throughout the email that link to each of the five products and help increase click-through-rates.
Remove doubt
If you have products that are a bit harder to use or a little more “out there”, consider creating an email campaign to reassure your subscribers. oVertone knows that their customer base may be hesitant to dye their hair silver, so they emphasize that “it’s worth it” and add a link to a blog post that includes tips on how to make the color work for you.
Use customer reviews
Men’s care brand Harry’s starts this promotional email with a cheeky subject line (“You like us, you really like us”), followed by a twist on the “You’ve got mail” phrase at the very beginning of their email. These elements work together with the concise copy at the top of the email to introduce the four products this email promotes by pairing them with customer reviews. It’s a great way to let your customers do your marketing for you.
7. Promotional Emails That Reconnect With Inactive Customers
How can you reengage with – and crucially win back – your inactive customers in an effective and non-intrusive way? Given that up to 50% of your customer base could be inactive , and that it costs significantly more to acquire a new customer than it does to keep an existing one, customer retention is no joke.
However, this ‘give us another chance’ example from Dropbox combines humour, creative brand imagery and concise copy that highlights its best features to great effect. It also plays cleverly on one of modern life’s most sobering fears – losing those treasured files and photos that we forgot to backup – but in a comfortable and non-threatening way.
I also like the way Dropbox pulls on our heart strings here, the well-placed emoticon plays well with the cutesy cartoon imagery. Who would have thought we could feel an emotional connection for a cloud-based file hosting service?!
Bonus Learning Points…
So what is a promotional email, exactly? While you might think some of these examples aren’t the most obvious promotional email samples (you’d be right) it’s worth remembering that all emails you send can – and should – promote specific aspects of your business or organization. And anyone still entertaining the misconception that email marketing is ‘old school’ or irrelevant should wake up and smell the proverbial coffee!
Emails are here to stay, and while statistics inevitably vary the agreed email marketing ROI seems to be somewhere around a whopping 4,000% ROI, or $40 for every 800 spent. Need to arm yourself with some great up-to-date stats that emphasize the positive impact and value of a solid email marketing campaign to your business? Campaign Monitor has compiled a useful list of 70 such stats which are worth a read .
- Tell your branding story clearly , build rapport with your customers and build towards that first sale.
- Personalization is essential if you want to ensure your different customer groups only receive relevant content, at the right time. If segmentation , dynamiccontent and email automation are not already an integral part of your current email marketing strategy, then it’s about time for a review…
- Easy does it . Offer extras, free content, add value and build a strong relationship before prompting sales directly, if your customers trust you, they are much more likely to buy from you.
- Send emails from an address that customers can reply to , that’s how a conversation works isn’t it? Those dreaded “[email protected]” addresses are sure to make your readers’ blood run cold.
- Keep your content attractive and relevant
Don’t lose sight of the action you want your customers to take next, whether to discover more about how your company will add value to their lives, or to grab that great deal that’s about to expire. Ensure your visual and written content is designed to get them clicking those enticing call to action buttons.
These days it’s much more likely that online retail customers will be interacting with your emails and website from a smartphone or tablet than a desktop. It’s also hard to understate the damage a bad mobile experience can inflict, so it’s imperative you invest in a mobile-friendly email marketing platform like Mailigen .
Sources:
https://www.liveagent.com/templates/promotional/
https://www.mailcharts.com/email-examples/product-promotions
https://www.mailigen.com/blog/promotional-email-examples/