Life would be much easier for marketers if there was just one perfect type of email that always worked. They could just copy the same email and send it to everyone. But that’s not really a good idea.
Imagine getting the same email from different companies all the time. You’d get annoyed and probably block all marketing emails. Then you might miss out on important stuff, like news or discounts. That could make email marketing less effective.
That’s why it’s important to use different types of email marketing and send the right content to the right people. In this guide, we’ll show you how to do that.
Types of email marketing
There are two main kinds of email marketing: inbound and outbound. All emails and campaigns fit into one of these categories based on who they’re meant for and what they’re trying to do.
Inbound Email Marketing
Inbound email marketing is about sending emails to people who are already on your email list. These emails target customers at different points in their journey as buyers. They’re usually based on detailed descriptions of your typical customers, called buyer personas. Inbound email marketing aims to do things like make people more aware of your brand, get them more engaged, or make them more loyal customers. To do this, it uses carefully planned-out campaigns.
It’s important to know that inbound email marketing only sends emails to people who have agreed to get marketing emails.
Outbound Email Marketing
On the other hand, outbound email marketing aims to reach a broader audience—people who aren’t on your email list yet. The goal is to make more people aware of your brand, especially those who haven’t heard of your product or service yet.
Outbound email marketing mostly relies on research about the kind of people who would be interested in your product or service, called an ideal customer profile (ICP). Because of the way it works, outbound email marketing doesn’t need consent from the people it sends emails to.
If you want to learn more about the differences between inbound and outbound email marketing, check out this blog post.
Types of email marketing campaigns
As we mentioned earlier, all email marketing campaigns fall into two categories: inbound or outbound. That’s why we decided to organize different types of email campaigns based on this.
Inbound Email Marketing Campaigns
Inbound email campaigns can be split into two groups: recurring and one-off. Most marketing campaigns are usually recurring, but we might also see standalone campaigns sometimes.
Recurring email campaigns
Recurring email campaigns are sent regularly, following a set schedule, and targeting a specific audience. They can be sent weekly, monthly, or yearly. These campaigns are great for building relationships with customers, giving value to subscribers, sharing regular updates, or promoting content.
The details like content, schedule, audience, and purpose of recurring campaigns are typically part of the email marketing strategy. This ensures that every email matches your brand’s style and business goals.
To make things easier, most recurring campaigns are automated using marketing automation and email marketing software. These tools let you create email templates with customized details that are sent out according to a preset schedule.
Advantages of recurring email marketing campaigns:
1. Helps maintain consistent communication.
2. Builds a strong relationship with the audience.
3. Can boost engagement.
4. Keeps subscribers informed about updates or promotions.
5. Improves your sending reputation with ISPs and spam filters since scheduled emails seem less like spam.
Disadvantages of recurring email marketing campaigns:
1. Might overwhelm subscribers if you send too many emails.
2. May not be suitable for all audiences.
Onboarding campaigns
Onboarding campaigns are a great way to introduce new subscribers to your product or services and help them get familiar with your platform. They usually start with a welcome email followed by a series of emails that teach users how to use specific features.
For instance, HubSpot has an onboarding campaign consisting of eight emails. The first email welcomes you, tells you what to expect in future emails, and suggests some tasks. Each subsequent email guides you through using different parts of the platform. The final email offers additional resources and upsells from HubSpot Academy.
Drip campaigns
Drip campaigns are a set of emails that get sent automatically when users take certain actions. You can set these up using your email marketing tool by creating workflows for different triggers. Once a user does something specific, like signing up for your emails, they’ll start getting a series of emails automatically.
For instance, let’s say you run a blog about musical instruments. When someone signs up for your emails, you can send them a series of emails with recommendations for blog posts, highlights of different instruments, or descriptions of various types of instruments.
Likewise, if you have an online store and someone adds an item to their shopping cart but doesn’t buy it, you can send them a series of emails with suggestions for other products or reminders to complete their purchase.
Seasonal campaigns
Seasonal campaigns are sets of emails sent out during certain times of the year. These might align with the season or holidays. These campaigns can include both helpful info and deals.
For instance, if you’re doing email marketing for hotels, you might start your campaign a month before summer. You’d suggest cool places to go or talk about fun things to do at your hotel. Once your subscribers are interested, you could offer them a discount.
One-off (or standalone) email campaigns
A one-off (also known as standalone or ad-hoc) email campaign is a single email sent just once. These emails don’t follow a set schedule. Marketers typically use them for special occasions like a one-time sale, announcing a new product or update, promoting an event, or adding variety to their content strategy.
Even though they don’t have a schedule, one-off email campaigns still target a specific audience.
Advantages of a one-off email marketing campaign:
1. Allows marketers to test different subject lines, messages, designs, and formats.
2. Makes it easy to quickly inform subscribers about changes, news, or limited-time offers.
3. Can showcase aspects of your brand that aren’t usually part of your regular emails, like your history or values.
4. Adds diversity to your content strategy.
Disadvantages of a one-off email marketing campaign:
1. Can disrupt the usual flow of communication with subscribers.
2. Might lead to spam complaints since subscribers aren’t expecting the email.
3. Requires more resources since the design and content are different from regular campaigns.
Trigger-based email campaigns
Trigger-based campaigns, also known as triggered emails, are sent when a user takes a specific action. They’re similar to drip campaigns, but instead of a series of emails, only one email is sent. These actions could be events, behaviors, or engagement with your website or app.
Marketers use various types of automated trigger-based campaigns, such as confirmation emails, welcome emails, or abandoned cart emails.
For instance, when a customer, whether new or returning, makes a purchase, a confirmation email containing a receipt or invoice is a triggered campaign.
Here’s an example from Postable: It’s a straightforward confirmation email that includes details like the order number, purchased items, and total order amount, personalized for each customer.
Promotional email campaigns
Standalone promotional email campaigns have one main goal: to boost sales. They’re sent only once, usually during slower times. You can spot them easily because they include discounts that aren’t part of the usual offers.
Alternatively, one-off promotional email campaigns might have coupon codes, vouchers, or special deals aimed at specific groups of people who don’t usually buy your products. For example, if customers over 40 aren’t big buyers, you might send them a special offer to try and increase sales.
Event campaigns
Event email campaigns are prime examples of standalone campaigns. They’re tied to a forthcoming event you’re organizing, like a conference, webinar, or awards ceremony. Typically, these one-off event campaigns are used when the event is relevant only to specific segments of your audience.
Outbound Email Marketing Campaigns
Outbound email marketing campaigns aren’t as varied as inbound ones because many of them follow similar formats and traits. However, we’re focusing on a lead generation campaign because it’s the most prevalent type of outbound email campaign.
Lead generation campaign
An outbound lead generation campaign is designed to introduce a product or service to a new audience. This audience is divided into groups based on an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). The most common approach involves detailed, data-driven personalization.
For instance, instead of just using the recipient’s first name, experienced marketers delve into shared interests or the recipient’s specific challenges, crafting a lead generation campaign tailored to those details.
Typically, lead generation campaigns include an initial cold email followed by several subsequent emails. The first email highlights the recipient’s problem and suggests a potential solution. Each subsequent email reinforces the previous information while adding more value by emphasizing different aspects or benefits of the product or service. The final follow-up taps into the fear of missing out (FOMO) to urge the recipient to take action.
Welcome email
Welcome emails mark the first (and most crucial) communication sent to your subscribers. As per the benchmark report by GetResponse, welcome emails boast an average open rate of 68.59% and a click-through rate (CTR) of 16.05%.
Clearly, a welcome email needs to leave a positive first impression and lay the groundwork for a lasting connection.
Imagine meeting someone for the first time, and they immediately start talking about their studies at Harvard without even saying hello. You’d likely feel confused, annoyed, and maybe even lose interest after the first sentence.
Likewise, welcome emails should begin with a simple thank you to show appreciation to the subscribers. Then, you can introduce your product and inform them about what to expect in future emails. It’s also helpful to let them know how often they’ll hear from you.
To enhance the usefulness of welcome emails, consider including links to additional resources such as technical documentation, getting-started guides, your blog, or even social media profiles.
Tips for welcoming new subscribers:
1. Express gratitude for selecting your product or service.
2. Avoid making your email overly promotional, as it might deter them.
3. Utilize email automation to ensure a timely welcome for every subscriber.
4. Tailor the tone of the email to suit the preferences of your target audience.
5. Emphasize providing value and ensure the email is informative.
Onboarding emails
We talked about onboarding campaigns before, and onboarding emails serve the same goal: to assist users in getting started. For some businesses, a single email is enough, and they don’t need a whole campaign.
Onboarding emails should contain all the necessary information to kickstart users. Ideally, they should address most of the questions that new users might have. This helps reduce support inquiries and enhances the user experience.
Tips for onboarding subscribers:
1. Offer clear and succinct instructions.
2. Use headers to enhance readability.
3. Ensure consistency in both design and content.
4. Incorporate relevant CTAs for each stage of the onboarding journey.
Transactional emails
Transactional emails are akin to trigger-based emails, but they lack any promotional content. When users request a password reset or sign up for an account, they receive an automated email. Since users trigger these emails themselves, their open rates are typically higher.
These emails include post-purchase confirmations, registration confirmations, and other types of confirmatory messages.
However, the effectiveness of transactional emails is usually gauged by deliverability rates and speed. Users don’t want to wait long to access their accounts, nor do they want important transactional messages to end up in their spam folders. Therefore, in this case, deliverability is more important than open or engagement rates.
Transactional emails should prioritize accessibility over heavy design elements and images to ensure they can be viewed on any device or email client. However, maintaining a simple style that aligns with your brand identity is still recommended for consistency. Creating transactional email templates for various triggers can streamline the process.
Tips for effective transactional emails:
1. Utilize a clear and prominent call-to-action (CTA).
2. Prefer plain-text format over HTML whenever feasible.
3. Perform a sender reputation audit to ensure delivery of transactional emails.
4. Craft subject lines that are clear and descriptive.
5. Develop transactional email templates tailored to various triggers.
6. Personalize emails and include signatures to enhance credibility.
Email newsletters
Newsletter emails are routine emails sent on a specific schedule, like weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. They typically include a summary of news within your company or industry, recent blog posts, or highlights from your latest podcast episodes.
Often regarded as top-notch lead-nurturing emails, newsletters are valued for their informative nature. They can be brief, containing links to additional resources, or longer, depending on your objectives and the preferences of your audience. Additionally, you can create segmented lists and send different newsletters to various buyer personas.
Promotional emails
While newsletters and welcome emails focus on increasing engagement rates, promotional emails are geared towards driving sales. They feature various special offers ranging from simple discounts to contests and giveaways. However, discounts alone may not always be sufficient to persuade customers to make a purchase. Highlighting the benefits of the product can greatly enhance their effectiveness.
Just as there’s no Rick without a Morty, promotional emails often incorporate FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). FOMO elements may include expiring offers, one-time sales, or exclusive memberships. The primary objective is to instill a sense of urgency, prompting users to make decisions swiftly.
How to promote effectively without being too pushy:
1. Offer meaningful discounts that truly entice customers; a mere $1 off might not cut it.
2. Instead of solely focusing on discounts, explain the reasons why users should consider purchasing your products.
3. Get inventive with your messaging and craft compelling, memorable copy.
4. Choose the right timing for sending your emails. According to Campaign Monitor’s report, Mondays see the highest open rates (22.0%), while Tuesdays boast the highest click-through rates (2.4%).
5. When planning your promotional email schedule, align it with seasons, holidays, and local or company events. Users often anticipate discounts during these periods.
Survey emails
Survey emails are an effective method for boosting engagement. They transform a one-way communication into an intriguing conversation, enabling users to interact with your emails and demonstrating your interest in their opinions.
In addition to their engaging nature, survey emails provide an opportunity for research. For instance, if you’re planning to launch a new SaaS solution, you can ask your current audience about the features they desire in such a product. Alternatively, you can inquire why they stopped using your services or validate hypotheses regarding changes in your marketing metrics.
Product update emails
The last type of email we’ll discuss is the product update email. It serves to demonstrate ongoing growth and introduce new features to generate interest.
It’s important to avoid sending emails for every minor bug fix, as this approach won’t yield significant results. The updates highlighted in your emails should either be major improvements or enhance user experience in some way.
When sending product update emails, you typically have two choices: provide a summary of recent updates or dedicate an entire email to the most significant one.
Cold Emails
It begins with a cold email. A simple subject line, a touch of personalization and creativity, and a few proposals.
Unlike inbound marketing emails, cold emails can’t rely on fancy designs. Since they’re unsolicited, they’re already under scrutiny. A complicated HTML layout with heavy design elements would only make it harder to bypass spam filters.
How to do it correctly:
1. Demonstrate familiarity with the recipient and begin the conversation with genuine compliments to create a positive impression.
2. Get straight to the point and present your proposal promptly.
3. Clearly outline what you can offer and how it benefits them.
4. Include links to helpful resources for further context on collaboration or partnership. Additionally, consider creating a virtual business card with these links and contact details for easy sharing.
Follow-up emails
You might receive responses from your initial cold email, but chances are, you won’t. That’s why follow-up emails are crucial in outbound campaigns, including outbound lead generation campaigns.
In your first follow-up email, summarize your proposal once more. Adding a personal or distinctive touch can help your message stand out in their inbox.
Ways to improve the chances of recipients reading your outbound emails:
1. Fine-tune the timing between cold emails and follow-ups for optimal engagement.
2. Experiment with various subject lines to gauge your target audience’s preferences.
3. Incorporate a personal touch to increase response rates.
4. Ensure compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations at all times.
Read Also – Guide to Cold Email Marketing
Wrapping things up:
Phew, we covered a lot of ground on various email marketing campaigns and strategies, didn’t we? Feel free to use these insights as inspiration to craft outstanding emails and campaigns.
Here are some final suggestions:
1. Ensure all your emails include unsubscribe links.
2. Monitor your sender reputation regularly to enhance email deliverability.
3. Experiment with different types of email marketing to find what works best for you.
4. Segment your audience based on buyer personas.
5. Keep your emails diverse and engaging.
6. Maintain consistency in your designs and tone of voice.
7. Avoid overwhelming your subscribers with too many emails.
8. Prioritize building long-term relationships over quick sales.
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