Week 2

Types of email marketing

You will examine the most common types of marketing emails. First, you’ll learn about emails that greet customers, like acquisition emails and welcome emails. Next, you’ll learn about emails that entice subscribers, such as newsletters and promotional emails. You’ll focus on emails that keep customers, known as retention emails. Then, you’ll explore how to craft catchy email copy, write sample subject lines, and create preview text for marketing emails.

Dedication to study

Videos: 24 min
Leitura: 1 h 20 min
Teste: 1 Teste com avaliação

Learning Objectives

Identify common categories of marketing emails.
Write effective preview text and subject lines using best practices.

Content

Emails that welcome subscribers
Email that entice subscribers
Email that keep customers
Review. Types of email marketing

1. Emails that welcome subscribers

Welcome to week 2

Video Duration: 1 minute

Hi there, I’m going to provide you with some knowledge that will bring you one step closer to becoming the best email marketer you can be. In this upcoming section, we’ll equip you with the skills required to craft successful emails. You’ll explore what goes into successful emails, and I’ll show you examples of eye-catching copy. Keep in mind, the content in your email will change based on what you hope to achieve for your brand. There are all kinds of email types that achieve different things. So I’ll start by introducing you to the common types of email used in email marketing campaigns. We’ll start with acquisition emails, which are used for acquiring new customers. Then, we’ll talk about welcome emails, the emails you send to welcome new clients and introduce yourself as a brand to them. Then, newsletters. These are the emails you use to tell stories or fill clients in on any relevant offers or anecdotes from within the company. After that, we’ll discuss promotional emails. These are sent out when you want to let customers know about current sales or offers. Finally, there are retention emails. These are the emails that will help you keep your customers coming back, and you’ll get plenty of practice crafting emails so that you’ll be ready if you ever have to create email marketing campaigns on the job. These next few lessons will involve lots of learning. Are you ready to get started? Meet me in the next video.

Types of email marketing: Acquisition emails

Video Duration: 4 minutes

I mentioned previously that different email types will accomplish different goals for your company. Let’s look at one of those email types now. As a company, it’s very likely that one of your main goals is to gain more customers. What is the strategy for acquiring customers? How do brands get people interested enough to take action? How do brands turn a potential customer into an existing customer? The answer to all of these questions in email marketing is acquisition emails. Acquisition emails are exactly what they sound like. They are emails sent to acquire or bring in new customers and they’re integral to the growth of a company. To relate this back to our coveted marketing funnel, think of acquisition emails as part of the awareness section. This is the portion of the funnel where you are trying to create buzz around your company, do your market research, and grow your brand by acquiring new customers. One secret to a good acquisition email is giving your potential customer something before they even know they want it. I don’t necessarily mean it has to be a material item. Although, you can offer items like downloadable guides, product catalogs, PDFs, or free trials. You can give them an indirect compliment, or some positivity, just something that makes them feel good. You can also provide them with some new or educational information. Or you can offer a glimpse into what your product will give them. Another aspect of acquisition based email marketing that can make all the difference between a successful campaign and an unsuccessful campaign is copy. Sometimes in acquisition emails, a company is speaking to someone who is already interested but hasn’t fully committed to the product yet. But more often than not, the emails are being sent to brand new recipients who have never come in contact with your brand before. Using witty, unique, and inclusive copy can be a huge difference maker. Email copy refers to the text in your email and subject line. Taking these factors into consideration, what does an effective acquisition email look like? Let’s go over some great examples. This email from a social media based photo and video editing company is offering a tutorial on how to make attention-grabbing social media videos. This is a great example because right away you can see that they’re offering something new to their potential customers. They’ve included specific details on how the audience might use topics like seasonality and mood to create more engaging posts. It’s short and straight to the offer. Their email copy is light and vibrant and the use of the line “Spring into action with video” at the top is a play on words. They are urging customers to both take advantage of a new season and take quick action with their video posts. Next up, this cosmetics company offers an interactive email that invites customers to match products to suit their own skincare needs. By making the email interactive, this company gives potential customers valuable information that feels personalized just for them, and an offer to help them act on what they just learned by making a purchase. This email is effective because they use a clear call-to-action throughout the whole message. The banner at the top of the page offers customers 10 percent off if they shop for one of these products now. There’s a small “Shop Now” button below each item in the body. Not only are they getting a discount, they’re also getting a mini skincare lesson. Finally, the subject line that went along with this email read, “Our number 1 most asked question,” and acts as a teaser, encouraging interested parties to click in and find out if it’s a question they’ve had themselves. This is a great tactic for getting people to open your emails, which brings them one step closer to being a customer. There you have it. That’s a brief introduction to acquisition emails, and there are lots more to explore.

Types of email marketing: Welcome emails

Video Duration: 3 minutes

So far, we’ve spent some time getting acquainted with acquisition emails. Now, we’ll look at a different type of email, the welcome email. Welcome emails are emails that are sent out to brand new customers or subscribers. Think of a welcome email as a virtual first impression you make with someone. If you were to welcome someone into your home for the first time, how would you do that? You might offer them water or a snack. If you’re hosting your first ever meeting at your workplace, you’d choose the conference room most suited for your colleagues. You’d make sure it was big enough, comfortable enough, and you may prepare some kind of presentation, right? In the same way that you would be very thoughtful about welcoming someone into your home, you’ll want to be thoughtful about sending your welcome emails. Welcome emails fall into the consideration bucket of our marketing funnel. Remember this is the section of the funnel where users have already elected to subscribe to your marketing emails. So they are looking for more information. By clicking subscribe, these customers have decided they want to receive additional information on your business. This is a great time to nurture your leads by sending goods or services that your potential customers would be interested in purchasing. So when you’re creating your welcome emails, ask yourself, what do you want people to know about you? Which aspects of your business’s identity feel like they absolutely must be included? A good welcome email includes a conversational and inviting tone. And a brief summary that tells customers what makes your brand unique or tells your brand’s story. Welcome emails should also include a call- to-action. In case you’re not familiar, a call-to-action is a concise instruction that tells the customer what to do next. These can be anything from statements telling customers to buy a product or even just a subtle button in an email that says get started and sends users to a landing page where they can create an account on your website. Whether or not your call-to-action is subtle or more direct will depend on what your subscribers engage with more often. Companies will send welcome emails to thank first-time subscribers or customers who have purchased a product. They also may send a welcome email when you download their app, encouraging you to use the app for the first time. Sometimes companies will send a welcome email to encourage people to buy a product by including a discount code. Let’s explore an effective welcome email to give you a better idea of what they include.

This example email from a kitchenware company is exactly what a welcome email should be like. For starters, it offers incentives like a free shipping code right at the top. They know you’re more likely to click the shop tableware button now that they have presented you, their customer, with a free shipping code. This is a great tactic. Then, the email includes a letter about the company’s background straight from the founder. Not only does this add a personal touch, but it makes the email copy feel conversational and inviting, especially when in the note from the founder, where the founder mentions their company’s goal to make all meals feel special. The email is concluded with a few calls-to-action as you are prompted to follow them on social media and shop in their online store. There you have it. Now, you know that a good welcome email includes a conversational and inviting tone, a brief summary that tells customers what makes your brand unique or tells your brand’s story, and a call-to-action. Meet me in the next video and we’ll talk about another type of email.

Test your knowledge: Types of emails

Practice Quiz. 4 questions. Grade: 100%
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2. Email that entice subscribers

Types of email marketing: Newsletters

Video Duration: 5 minutes

We’re still moving along on our journey into the various types of email marketing. So far, we’ve learned about acquisition emails and welcome emails. In this video, I’m going to share one of the most effective types of emails with you, the almighty newsletter. A newsletter is an email sent to subscribers on a regular basis, containing news and informational content relevant to the company and of interest to subscribers. Newsletters are a great way to advertise your product, build up trust and show your expertise, create lasting relationships with your customers, and inform and educate them. Newsletters fall into several buckets in the marketing funnel because they exist at many stages of marketing campaigns. Newsletters can fall into the consideration stage when readers are still getting to know your brand. The conversion stage when they’ve decided they like your brand and want to support it. And the loyalty stage, when they keep coming back for more products and content. They’re an incredibly versatile aspect of email marketing. To really use newsletters effectively, you’ll want to make sure you’re being thoughtful in the creation of your newsletter. Newsletters should include only relevant content that you think your readers will enjoy. Recall that at this point in your campaign, you’ve done the necessary research on who your audience is, so you have this information. Newsletters should also include mentions of trending topics, pop culture, or current events, so that the content feels informed and fresh. They should always include catchy, clever writing that makes them stand out among the dozens of emails your readers get every day. We won’t get into design too much, but that is another important aspect of an effective newsletter. You want something clean that feels on-brand for your company. Let’s expand on those concepts for a moment. When it comes to including relevant information, think about, whether you have big news coming from your company. Are you launching a new product or service? Is there a new update from your company that you’re subscribers would want to know about? Of course, your newsletter content doesn’t always have to be strictly about your company. Maybe you are a wellness company who sells products that relate to mental health. You can include external resources like articles featuring anxiety-reducing breathing exercises from reputable therapists or specialists. There will sometimes be cases where you don’t necessarily want to drive traffic to other sites. Just be thoughtful about what you do include. Some of the best newsletters out there include articles that don’t try to sell a product and instead include articles relevant to subscribers’ lifestyles. While you’re including that relevant information, be sure to cover trending topics in your newsletter. Consumers typically have an interest in the latest trends. To remain relevant throughout the ebbs and flows of what is top of mind to consumers at any given time, keep the content topical and fresh. Your writing style and tone is a huge part of whether or not your subscribers feel connected to your brand. Make sure the style and tone you write in is not only catching on brand but also genuine. It should be clear that your intent is to add value for your subscribers in some way. This is a huge part of relationship-building between you and your base. Are you writing a newsletter for a hospital? You’ll want to use an on-brand empathetic style to make them feel comfortable. But if you’re writing for a rideshare company, you might get away with using a more casual, humorous style of writing. Now, I want to share an example of a great newsletter with you. This is a furniture company’s newsletter and it’s sent out bi-monthly. Let’s talk about what makes it effective. This newsletter accomplishes all of the things I mentioned earlier. It advertises the company’s products, it shows the company’s expertise on furniture, and it creates a lasting relationship between them and their subscribers because it is sent out regularly and it informs and educates their readers. In this example, you can see a headline that reads, “Pull up a chair ” which already sets an inviting tone. The copy below that refers to a current event that forced many people around the world to stay at home for an extended period of time. Then they offer a chair for each type of subscriber. Under the headline for the remote worker, they have an image of an office chair and it links to a landing page where you can purchase the chair. Under the headline for the new family addition, there is an image of a soft rocking chair for a baby’s nursery. Under the headline for the poolside lounger, there’s an image of an outdoor lounge chair with a link to purchase. There are other types of chairs too, but you get the idea. They’ve done a great job advertising their products and establishing their expertise on the best chair for each type of person. The copy below the chairs educates and informs the readers on comfort levels, dimensions, and more product details. Generally, this newsletter is a fun and interactive way to create buzz about the furniture company’s various chairs. If you are tasked with writing a newsletter someday, take your time and really be thoughtful about what you hope to give to your readers. Remember, the aim is to advertise your products, build up trust and show expertise, create lasting relationships, and inform and educate your customers. I’ll meet you back here shortly.

Reading. Duration: 20 minutes

Writing marketing emails is something that takes a lot of practice and patience. You won’t learn every skill you need to be a professional writer in this program, but you can use these tips to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success when crafting emails.

Write to add value

As a digital marketer, your goal is to convince people to open, read, and click on the links in your marketing emails. To achieve this goal, write content they will want to engage with. Every email you send should add value to the subscriber in some way. Whether you’re introducing them to new products or services, making them laugh, or teaching them something new, each element in your emails needs to be thoughtful and intentional.

Subject line

A subject line is the first text recipients see after your name when an email reaches their inbox.The subject line is your subscribers’ first impression of the email, so it’s important to make it compelling.

When you write your subject line:

Keep it brief. Your subject line should be about 6-10 words total. If it’s too long, it may be cut off from being viewed entirely by your subscribers.
Pique readers’ curiosity. Write a subject line that makes readers interested in the content of your email. If you’re sending emails to a list of people who added items to their cart but abandoned it at some point during the checkout process, you might include a subject line like: “These items are too good to leave in your cart.”
If you’re offering something, be clear about it. Whether it’s an experience, a new piece of information, a discount, or something else, make sure subscribers know there is a benefit to opening your email.
Consider personalizing it. If you use an email marketing tool, you will have the capability to personalize emails by using first names. This is a great way for subscribers to feel like you’re talking to them specifically. Depending on which tool you use, the way you do this will be a little bit different, so read up on your specific tool.

Preview text

Preview text is another important aspect of your marketing emails. Preview text is next to an email’s subject line in the inbox and gives extra insight into what’s inside the email. It may be secondary to your subject line, but it’s still visible from readers’ inboxes; they see it before they click into your email. Your preview text tells readers exactly what to expect in opening the email.

When you write preview text:

Make sure to include the most important piece of information from your email. What is the main point you are attempting to communicate? That should be your preview text.
Make sure it aligns with what your subject line says. The subject line and preview text should work together to entice subscribers to open the email.
Sometimes, you may want to maintain a sense of mystery. Writing preview text that teases the content can be an effective way to get readers to open an email. Preview text like: “The recipe you didn’t know you needed…” might be an effective way to make your subscribers curious about the contents of your email. Before you do this, think about your goals and objectives and whether this makes sense for your brand.
Keep it between 35-50 characters. Your preview text should be brief enough that your subscribers can read it quickly.

Body

The email body is where most of your content will be. You can test out different approaches when it comes to your email body, because what is right for other companies may not be right for you.

When writing your body:

Maintain a second person perspective. This means you will always want to write your emails as though you are speaking to your subscribers. You want the email to seem personal and specifically crafted for your readers. Second person—also referred to as “you” language—helps create a sense that the writer is talking directly to you, the reader. This makes readers feel engaged and involved. A phrase like “Here’s a discount for you,” is more powerful than “Here’s a discount for our readers.”
When possible, break up blocks of text with white space. You don’t want your email to seem overwhelming to the reader, so be brief and include visual breaks in between your text.
Include a compelling call to action. Your readers are more likely to do what you ask of them if you ask them clearly. If you want them to buy an item, encourage them to do exactly that. Sometimes, emails will have several calls to action—especially in newsletters, where several products, services, or links are likely being shared.

Key takeaways

Writing compelling content is a huge part of email marketing, and it takes time to get it right. If you follow the tips provided here, you’ll have a much better chance at growing your open rates. When you craft a subject line, preview text, and email body, make sure to be thoughtful and intentional. Also, feel free to test different email copy to see what your audience responds to best.

Types of email marketing: Promotional emails

Video Duration: 3 minutes

We’ve learned a lot about email marketing so far. We’ve explored acquisition emails, welcome emails, and newsletters, and there’s still so much to learn. In this video, we’re going to talk about another type of email, promotional emails. Promotional emails are emails that are sent out to inform your subscribers of your new or existing products or services. There are countless reasons you may want to send promotional emails. Maybe your company is having a sitewide sale, maybe you like to celebrate your customers’ birthdays by offering them 10 percent off of their order, maybe your brand is celebrating five years in business, maybe you’re launching a new product, contest or giveaway, maybe you’re offering some kind of free downloadable content for a holiday. Regardless of the reason for your promotional email, the goals will always be speeding up the buying process, encouraging subscribers to take some kind of action and/or creating new or repeat customers. Because of these goals, emails tend to fall into the consideration and loyalty buckets of the marketing funnel. Promotions give your subscribers and your customers a reason to keep coming back and in turn to purchase something. Since promotional emails can be packaged in so many different ways, there aren’t necessarily strict rules about what they should entail or include. However, here are some tips you can use to help guide you as you craft a promotional email. Keep the email’s focus on the promotion itself, keep it concise and announce the promotion in the subject line. Your promotional email should focus on the promotion itself rather than product features or details. If there are additional product features or details you hope to include, link to them, so that your audience can click through to a landing page and read further. Promotional email should be concise, so keep the body of your email brief and to the point. The body of your email refers to the text in the main content of your email. A learner should be able to read your promotional email in just a couple of minutes. Besides, your audience doesn’t need to read one thousand words on your company and its products or services because they already have some interest in your brand’s products, and the body copy isn’t the only thing you need to consider. Marketing studies show that 47 percent of emails are opened based on their subject line alone, which means you should spend considerable time crafting a subject line. Be sure to announce the promotion in your subject lines. This doesn’t necessarily mean the subject line always has to say discount code for 20 percent off inside, but it should hint that something special is inside and it should be relevant to the promotion. Including the promotion in your subject line gives your audience an idea of what to expect. It can get them excited, create anticipation, and ultimately lead to more effective campaigns. What does a great promotional email look like? This example from a grocery delivery app is a great promotional email because it follows the general rules I outlined earlier. There are no unnecessary details about products or the brand itself. The focal point of the email is the banner at the top with a code that gives you free delivery on an order of scones fresh from the grocery chain’s bakery. If you decide to act on this offer, you just click on the button that says, Order Now and you’ll be sent through to make a purchase. The subject line, free delivery on something sweet makes it clear that there’s some kind of promotion inside the email. Let’s review quickly. When creating a promotional email, you’ll need to make sure your email focuses heavily on the promotion itself rather than the product features. You’ll want it to be concise and to the point, and you’ll want to introduce or tease the promotion in the subject line. Now that you understand the importance of an effective promotional email, let’s keep this momentum going.

Test your knowledge: Newsletters and promotional emails

Practice Quiz. 5 questions. Grade: 100%
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3. Email that keep customers

Types of email marketing: Retention emails

Video Duration: 4 minutes

So far in this section, we’ve explored acquisition emails, welcome emails, promotional emails, and newsletters. What’s next? In this video, we’ll explore retention emails. A retention email is an email sent to a current customer with the intent of keeping them as a customer. Retention emails are all about timing. When sent at the right time, they can be incredibly effective, and if you commit to sending them, you can keep more of your customers coming back again and again. That’s why retention emails fit into the loyalty bucket of our marketing funnel. This is the stage where you’re dealing with active customers. The goal here will always be to keep customers happy, because if your customer is happy, your brand is happy. There are lots of types of emails that fit under the retention category. For instance, if a customer puts an item in their online cart, but doesn’t purchase it, that company may send a follow-up email. This retention email is called a cart abandonment email, and it encourages customers to purchase the item they left behind. If after a customer does make a purchase, a company sends a follow-up email asking for feedback on that customer shopping experience. That is also a form of retention email. Getting customer feedback is a great way to make customers feel heard, and it also ensures any necessary improvements are made. If a company notices certain users aren’t really engaging with their newsletters or promotional emails, they may send a special offer to those customers to encourage them to engage a bit more. That also fits under the retention email category. Regardless of what kind of retention email you are sending, there are few things to keep in mind when you’re writing them. Remember that the goal is to keep current customers coming back. There are a few things you can do to ensure your customers come back. Retention email should include: personalization, a clear call to action, and a great deal of empathetic and inviting language. You might be wondering what I mean by personalization. In email marketing, personalization means you get to know your customers and tailor your emails based on who they are. Lots of email marketing tools allow you to segment your list, so that you can develop content specifically tailored for certain groups of people. We’ll get more into segmentation later. But for now, just know that segmentation is the practice of categorizing contacts by a predefined set of identifiers, so that each email feels relevant to every subscriber. After you’ve segmented your mailing list, how can you develop that tailored content? Sometimes, it will be as simple as using their first name in emails and subject lines, a trick that email automation tools will allow you to do. Another great personalization tactic is sending a follow-up email with tips on how to use the product that the customer purchased. It shows you care about each individual customer, and that you can anticipate what their challenges and needs might be. Be clear about what you’re asking in your emails, by including an obvious call to action. Are you hoping to get them to buy again? Maybe you can give them a discount code. Are you sending an email out to existing customers to tell them about the new loyalty program that just launched, request that they sign up for it. Perhaps, one of the best ways to keep a customer around is to help them feel heard and supported. The same is true for loved ones, colleagues, and anyone else we come in contact with. Empathy is just as important when it comes to a business to customer relationship. Using language like, “How did we do and how is your experience?” helps a customer understand that their opinions matter, and that just might result in them coming back again. Now, please note that this type of language may be best used in its own email, that you might send out just to get feedback. But you also may find that adding how you’re shopping with us at the bottom of the email with a scale from 1-10 for them to choose from, goes a long way too. In addition to getting feedback, make sure to use thank you language to make it clear you are grateful. Help them feel appreciated, because you are appreciative of their business, and they should know that. Let’s look at an example of a good retention email. This retention email from a vacation rental and lodging site does a great job, and including the features we covered. For starters, it’s personal, because they’ve created individualized highlights for every host. When a customer clicks on the button that says, “Get your host highlights,” they’ll be sent to their profile to view a highlight that is specific to them. They include a clear call to action, which is for the customer to click on the button, and go check out their highlight. Finally, the language this company uses is incredibly inviting, and shows a great deal of gratitude. Using phrases like, “we can’t thank you enough,” is a great way to show that your business recognizes how lucky they are to have each and every customer. There you have it. They’ve personalized the email, they’ve included a clear call to action, and they used empathetic and inviting language, all the keys to an effective email.

Identify: Types of email attributes

Ungraded Plugin. Duration: 30 minutes

Understanding types of marketing emails

Miguel creates campaign emails for Now Flowers, a flower delivery service. Using your knowledge of different email types, help him decide which preview text best accompanies his subject lines.

What’s the right preview text?

Select the appropriate preview text based on the sample subject line.