18 Best Email Marketing Examples, Campaign Types & Templates

Email marketing is a powerful tactic to communicate with customers and prospects regularly. You can easily convert visitors into leads and paying customers with the right strategies. It’s also an effective customer engagement technique that helps you build relationships with your existing customers.

In this blog, let’s look at how businesses use email to grow their business. We’ll also share relevant email marketing templates and tips to help you get started.

What Makes Great Email Marketing Campaigns?

According to the Content Marketing Institute, 76% of B2C marketers use email for organic distribution marketing. Even in the B2B industry, 81% of marketers use email newsletter campaigns to maximize customer engagement.

With almost all marketers turning to email to engage their customers, here are some things that separate effective email marketing campaigns from just ‘okay’ ones:

• Clear and Compelling Message – Your email content must be concise and compelling. The email should have a clear message that resonates with your subscribers and a persuasive CTA (call-to-action) that encourages them to act. Avoid jargon or overly technical language, and focus on the benefits and value your product or service can offer.

• Personalization – Email personalization is key to building solid customer relationships. Using their name, segmenting your audience, and tailoring your message to their interests and preferences can increase engagement and conversions. Personalization can also help you stand out from other generic emails in their inboxes.

• Mobile Optimization – With most emails being opened on smartphones, optimizing your email for mobile is crucial. Ensure your email is easy to read and navigate on smaller screens, use concise subject lines, and keep the email design simple and visually appealing.

• Measurable Results – A great email campaign should be measurable, with clear objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) that allow you to track and evaluate the success of your campaign. Use analytics tools to track open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and other essential business metrics. Then, use these metrics to improve and refine your email campaigns continually.

How to Create Effective Email Marketing Campaigns

33% of marketers send weekly emails, and 26% send emails multiple times monthly. That’s much competition in your subscribers’ inboxes. So how do you ensure your email is opened and read? We’ve compiled a list of seven musts, check them out:

1. Determine Your Goals – Asking yourself what you want to achieve from your email marketing campaign is the first and crucial step toward success. And the answer should influence your actions throughout the whole process.

Do you want to drive sales? Find potential customers and turn them into existing ones? Or retain old paying customers? These are all reasonable goals to have at the back of your mind. 

However, your primary focus should continuously be developing customer relationships. This is the key to the long-term results of your email marketing campaigns.

2. Engage with Compelling Content – Here’s a simple truth that marketers tend to forget. Content, even the most engaging, won’t be effective if your customers know nothing about it.

Do you post intriguing content in your blog regularly? Then, tell your customers about it! Send out email notifications inviting your customers to engage and share them to gain new subscribers.

3. Personalize Each Email – Which email opening looks more inviting? “Dear customer, here’s our offer” or “John, here’s an offer just for you”?

Addressing your subscriber with their first name makes a huge difference when you need to stand out in their inbox. 

But email personalization goes beyond that. Reference past interactions, offer personalized recommendations, or celebrate milestones and events with your customers. Leverage customer data to create meaningful experiences for each recipient.

4. Use Captivating Image – Plain text is good only for scaring away your subscribers.

In the meantime, vibrant, interesting images combined with text in large fonts inside are a match made in customer engagement heaven.

5. Optimize for Multiple Devices – People access emails on 14’ screen laptops, 34’ monitors, 6’ screen smartphones, 10’ inch tablets, and… well, you get the gist of it. As one size email doesn’t fit all, your design should be responsive – automatically optimized for different devices.

Another thing to remember – while the number of mobile users is snowballing, the size of mobile screens doesn’t. So, try to fit your catchy subject line below 50 characters.

7. Include a Meaningful CTA – You’ve created a stunning design, written a compelling copy, and wrapped it all into your email. Then, your subscriber opens it, reads it, and…?

Once your customer is hooked, provide them with a concise CTA urging them to act. Stick to strong action words like “buy,” “subscribe,” “support,” “read more,” etc. 

8. Use an Advanced Email Builder – A drag-and-drop email tool can be a real-time-saver; it allows you to quickly create a beautiful email and focus on more complicated parts of the email marketing campaign.

Most builders also come with premade templates, so all is left is to choose the best one to fit your needs and drag in your brand elements, desired images, and edit text. Again, no graphic design or coding background is needed!

7 Email Marketing Examples (Transactional & Engagement)

Both transactional and engagement email campaigns are a great way to build trust and develop long-term relationships with your target audience. They can be a powerful tool for building a loyal customer base. 

Below you’ll find admirable examples from brands from all over the world:

1. Welcome Email Template by Food52

Welcome emails are one of the oldest marketing tactics, but they still perform exceptionally well. They allow you to show your appreciation for the user when they sign up for your service or newsletter.  

In addition to making a great first impression, welcome emails encourage users to check out your offerings. Here is an example of a great welcome email campaign by Food 52: 

Look at the fine details of the email — particularly the pre-header. Notice the “We brought snacks” at the top of the email.    

Now, look at the subject line:

A clever hack, isn’t it? It sure does grab attention instantly. So simple yet so good!

Key Takeaways

• Keep your welcome email short and simple; 
• Pay attention to the pre-header; 
• Give instant value in the form of a discount code or special offer.

Fun fact: did you know that 74.4% of consumers expect a welcome email?

2. Abandoned Cart Email Template by ASOS

Customers often abandon their carts without meaning to do so, for example, because the website crashed, because the process was complicated, or because the site timed out:

The statistics above are pretty eye-opening. Abandoned cart recovery emails really could earn you some extra cash. Just look at the following abandoned cart email: 

The email campaign is symmetrical and aesthetic and has a clear call-to-action (CTA). The most important thing is that the background is white, and the text is black, so the item preview will always stand out!

A well-crafted abandoned cart email can do. Did you know that according to the Baymard Institute, 69.23% of carts are abandoned? The number can reach an unbelievable 78% in some industries. 

That’s just too much possible revenue to justify companies that need to take advantage of the abandoned cart workflows. It’s remarkably effective as a sales recovery tactic. According to Getelastic:

• 44.1% of all abandoned cart emails are opened
• 13.3% of them are clicked.
• A whopping 35.3% lead to purchases back on site.
• On average, each abandoned cart email is worth $5 in revenue!

Our suggestion is to recover your sales using the abandoned cart method and include in the email a voucher with offers like free shipping, 10% off the whole cart, or a free item. If the email exploits the scarcity principle – it says the stock is limited or the time to use the voucher is running out, the chances of making a sale are even higher. 

The best part of this – it could be automated. Once you set it up, the emails will be sent automatically – you can relish the results.

Check how the cart recovery automation workflow looks:

Key Takeaways

• Have a minimalist design and play cleverly with the copy in your abandoned cart email; 
• Appeal to the FOMO and remind them about what they’re missing out on;
• Add an additional incentive like a discount voucher, free shipping or something else. 

3. ‘Thank You’ Email Template by Austrian

Your customers want to feel appreciated and appreciated. If you do so, they will keep coming back. So, to increase your chances of retaining your customers, you should always send a ‘Thank You’ email. 

These emails are used after a sale or purchase to ensure that the customer knows they are important to you and the company. You can send an email thanking the customer for their purchase and/or completing a task on the website, like signing up for a newsletter. 

Here’s an example of a ‘Thank you’ email by Austrian Airlines: 

This Thank You email thanks the flyers for their patience and loyalty and provides a 25% off coupon on their next flying experience with the airline. Notice how the email has space for personalization and makes the subscriber feel special through a heartfelt note. 

Key Takeaways

• Keep the text short, focused, and warm in tone; 
• Add images that show care, compassion, and gratitude; 
• Provide a special offer or incentive when you’re thanking your subscribers. 

4. Company Announcement Email Template by Clay

Announcements allow you to contact people and keep them informed about your company. Announcements are a great way to drive engagement, get more signups, and build rapport with current customers.

You can share news about the latest happenings, upcoming promotions, media features, or any other information you want to communicate to your subscribers. You can also use an announcement email to tell them about a new product, release a new app, send a promo code, and more.

Look at this company email from Clay: 

The email shares about their Product Hunt launch with subscribers, urging them to support them by checking out their Product Hunt listing. 

The simple email copy with a big, clear CTA button clears out the intention of the email with just a glance. Something your announcements should do. They could’ve told them more about what to expect through the launch and made it more about the reader, though. 

Key Takeaways

• Be straightforward and clear about what you bring for the reader; 
• Write shorter paragraphs. Instead, encourage the subscriber to find out more by clicking your CTA; 
• Try to make it about the subscriber instead of yourself. 

5. New Article Email Template by DocuSign

New article emails inform subscribers about your website’s latest blog or article. Such emails are used to generate traffic and boost online engagement. Email content should focus on highlighting the latest blog post and what it means for them as a reader.

New article emails can be automated using a marketing automation suite and triggered every time you publish a new blog post. You can even start a curated newsletter containing all the blog links you published last month. 

Look at this new article email example by DocuSign: 

The email has a bold header announcing the new post’s topic and a clear CTA — Continue Reading to take the recipient to the website. The post-script message also makes the reader curious about the previous post. 

New article email campaigns help maintain an ongoing relationship with your readership and keep your email lists engaged.

Key Takeaways

• Automate your new blog announcements through a marketing automation solution;  
• Give the reader a glimpse into the new post that makes them want to read more; 
• Add social links to the footer of your email;
• Always try to send contextual blogs to segmented email lists. 

6. Follow-Up Email Template by Revue

Follow-ups are effective for getting more out of your email marketing campaigns. An email follow-up sends a reminder or other promotional message to a lead after interacting with the brand. The goal of a follow-up email is to create a sense of urgency and encourage your leads to take action.

Follow-up emails allow you to continue engaging with your leads and nurturing them through their buying process. They typically feature a call to action, such as requesting a callback, providing a special promotion, or requesting the buyer to complete a survey. 

Look at this follow-up email by Revue: 

Notice how the email has a plain and simple format and has been sent by a human. This makes it look like a personalized follow-up effort. The contextual image adds another level of fun to the whole follow-up game. 

Follow-up emails are generally sent 2-4 days after signup or first interaction and can include an offer to your audience as a reward for their interest. You should ideally use a marketing automation solution to schedule follow-up emails for subscribers and prospects.

Key Takeaways

• Always personalize the follow-up email and send it as a personal note; 
• Don’t add too much information in a follow-up email; 
• Keep it simple and straightforward. 

7. Getting Started Email Template by Grammarly

A ‘getting started’ or onboarding email is sent when a visitor first signs up for a service, joins a community or makes a purchase.

These emails help users familiarize themselves with your brand, introduce them to your services, and provide a welcoming experience. You can increase user satisfaction, retention, and revenue by providing helpful information to users during the onboarding process.

Such emails are a great way to start nurturing subscribers who’ve signed up but still haven’t purchased anything from you. You can use an onboarding email to educate users, introduce them to new features, get them to complete the signup process, or provide additional offers. 

Here’s an email to get started by Grammarly:  

The email does a great job of sharing the next steps in the user’s journey and making them aware of what else they can use the product for. A clever upsell tactic embedded within the onboarding email. 

Key Takeaways

• Break down the email as digestible blocks and make it appear like a tutorial; 
• Add an incentive to complete the onboarding steps or share the benefits; 
• Add a support or contact button/link within the email. 

11 Email Marketing Examples (Promotional & Relationship)

If you’re a newbie in the email marketing industry and need help figuring out where to start, we’ve also curated the best promotional and relationship email marketing examples for inspiration. They’re so good that they’ll leave you wondering what took you so long to create one. See for yourself:

1. Nurturing Email Template by Framebridge

You’re dead wrong if you think that nurturing your subscribers is all about sending just promotional content most of the time. Avoid the mistake of sounding too pushy or cheesy. 

Sincerely help your customers; they will trust you much more than if you’d choose to go down the sales road.

Just look at that email newsletter:

It’s funny, aesthetic, and promises to give some real value to the subscriber! If that does not improve the brand’s overall image, nothing does. The thing you should take note of is how the CTA is placed strategically to attract clicks. 

Key Takeaways 

• Add a strategic CTA to invite users to check out more about you or your product;
• Personalize the content based on the stage in the buyer’s journey; 
• Educate your users and show them how you simplify their lives. 

2. Survey Email Template by Sender

Survey emails are a standard method of getting customer feedback and insights. They allow you to gain valuable insights into the behavior of your customers, which you can use to improve your product, create an advertising campaign, or refine your offer.

There are many types of surveys you can send via email. One of the most common survey email types is asking your customers if they would recommend you to their friends or family, known as the Net Promotor Score survey. 

The net Promoter Score (NPS) survey template asks this question to give you a quick look at what your customers think. 

If you were to include a link to a survey in an email, this would greatly benefit your business.

It’s always more expensive to acquire new customers than to keep your ones. You may be losing a portion of potential sales because you need to be made aware of the things irritating some people.

Feedback is essential in avoiding precisely this situation. If you were to send a thank you email to people that rated you 8-10 and a feedback form for those that rated it lower than 7, you would surely gain loads of new information. Use this information wisely – it’s essential in creating a word-to-mouth effect over time.

3. Event Reminder Template by General Assembly

Forgetting in the age of short attention spans is common. Instead, it’s a widely known internet phenomenon – tons of people signup for a webinar or event, yet a fraction of them attend it. 

Help forgetful people out by sending them event reminders by email. This will help you increase the turn-around ratio and push potential leads further into the buyer’s journey. 

Here’s a great reminder template from the Email Design Workshop:

The email design is eye-catchy and straightforward. You should also create something like that. If it’s too much work, customize a template and use email automation to your advantage. 

Key Takeaways

• Create an eye-catchy and appealing design. Use a drag-and-drop builder to create the email design easily;
• Add details about the event, including date, time, and location (in case of an offline event); 
• Schedule the reminders as automated drips at least a week before the event date. 
• Keep your emails educational and entertaining;
• Thoroughly research what your target audience prefers and what your brand is well-suited to offer;
• Send simple but value-packed newsletters. 

4. Video Email Template by Niice

Videos are an excellent tool for driving engagement from your email list. They can be used to explain your product or service or promote a contest or event relevant to your business.

A video email can get better engagement than a simple text-only email. You can send product review videos if you run an eCommerce business or a walkthrough video of your restaurant to your subscribers. The following email from Nice has a video header welcoming the new subscriber and sharing a few useful tips: 

The email is a personal note from the product team to tell the new user how they can use their product. The different blocks summarizing the video content make the email more accessible for people who don’t want to see a video immediately. 

Key Takeaways

• Choose a mobile-responsive and professional email template;
• Add a complementing copy to the body of an email; 
• Don’t set the video to autoplay or overburden the reader to play the video. 

5. Educational Email by Treehouse

Every business needs to educate its customers, and educational emails can help you deliver consistent value to them and enhance the lead-nurturing process. 

Here’s an email marketing campaign example from Treehouse:

Subject line: Featured Product Email Design from Treehouse

This email is excellent since it comprehensively explains the course’s value and helps customers understand how it will benefit them. The design is visually appealing and gives a superb educational overview of the course. It’s brief and gives potential customers a taste of what Treehouse provides.

Key Takeaways

• Identify what your customers want to learn about and when they want to learn about it;
• Offer valuable insights to help customers understand your products or services better;
• Use a visually-appealing design to attract and engage readers.

6. Re-Engagement Email by Animoto

You typically send re-engagement emails to customers who aren’t engaged with your emails. When done well, these emails can reduce churn rates and increase customer engagement.

Here’s an example from Animoto:

Subject line: Did you still want to hear from us?

Animoto asks a straightforward question: Did you still want to hear from us? Their primary goal is to allow recipients to update their email preferences through a CTA button that stands out and takes them to the preference center.

Key Takeaways

• Ask inactive subscribers questions to help them remember why they signed up for your newsletters;
• Give customers a reason to stay engaged by showing them how they’ll benefit from your emails;
• Show subscribers how much you’ll miss them if they unsubscribe.

7. Newsletter by Bloomscape

Newsletters offer ongoing value while highlighting critical niche or industry-related topics.

Email newsletters can include case studies about your services or products, a weekly round-up of blog posts, information about upcoming webinars and company events, or even a behind-the-scenes look at your business.

Here’s an example from Bloomscape:

Subject line: New Twists on Classic Favorites

Bloomscape includes many beautiful plant images and descriptions of plants you may like (Smaller Twists on Big Time Favorites), provides a valuable “Plant Mom” tip, and displays new arrivals.

The email is simple but contains thoughtful touches. Bloomscape’s email is effective because it helps customers plan their next purchase. 

Key Takeaways

• Keep your emails educational and entertaining;
• Thoroughly research what your target audience prefers and what your brand is well-suited to offer;
• Send simple but value-packed newsletters. 

8. Promotional Email by Headspace

Promotional emails are exactly what they sound like — marketing emails you send to your target audience informing them about a current promotion. You can create promotional emails for just about any offer you’re running, including limited-time offers, exclusive deals, and seasonal or holiday promotions.

Here’s an example from Headspace:

Subject line: 👋Just until tomorrow: 20% off

The image conveys a positive, friendly vibe that reinforces the benefit you’ll get from Headspace. It’s a subtle and engaging mix. The email is also simple to follow.

Headspace also adds an offer end date to create scarcity and encourage readers to act fast.

Key Takeaways

• Use a positive, friendly tone to convey your message;
• Offer a clear incentive in the subject line and a bold CTA to prompt action from the recipient;
• Use a simple design to help readers follow along easily.

Pro tip: A/B test your subject lines before finalizing the best one for your email marketing campaign.

9. Upsell/Cross-Sell Email by Evernote

Upselling is convincing customers to buy a better version of the product they were already going to buy. In contrast, cross-selling involves selling a complementary or related item alongside the product customers intend to purchase.

Here’s a marketing email example from Evernote:

Subject line: Year-end offer: Buy 1 year, get 6 extra months

The email encourages customers to upgrade to a premium plan by showing them the benefits of doing so. The email also adds a generous offer—an additional six months when you purchase a one-year premium plan.

Key Takeaways

• Entice customers by giving them a discount offer;
• Use your product’s benefits to tell people what they want to hear;
• Keep your message and tone positive.

10. Product Promotion Email Template by Fast Times Skateboarding

Product promotion emails are a great product marketing tactic used to acquire new customers. They invite users to try out your product or service, help generate additional sales and increase conversion rates.

A promotional email generally contains the following:

• A compelling subject line.
• A call to action to opt-in.
• A preview of the message.
• The text of the email itself.

They typically include a call-to-action (CTA) to convert visitors into customers. They can be sent out weekly or monthly, depending on how frequently you want to promote your product. 

The email has a central theme right from the beginning — the product and its features. The cool infographic with the product in the middle is definitely an attention-grabbing feature of the email. 

Key Takeaways

• Make your product the hero of your email — Add infographics, utility, benefits, and more; 
• Add a CTA to check out or shop the product on your website; 
• Don’t stretch the email. Make sure to wind it up within 5-7 lines. 

11. New Arrivals Email Template by Forever 21

New arrivals email is all about emailing your current email list about a product or service that has just arrived at your store. New arrivals email is a great tactic to boost your sales. It can build excitement around upcoming promotions and highlight the best features of your product.

You can use contextual CTAs linking to the product pages on your site to attract leads and close sales using such an email. Here’s an example by Forever 21: 

The email has personalized recommendations for all the new things at their online store. The star ratings tell the users that though the products are new, they are equally loved by shoppers with similar tastes. You can mix and match different ideas, like adding a timer to create FOMO or including a discount code to encourage your users to buy immediately. 

Key Takeaways

• Choose a fun, creative, and aesthetically pleasing email template; 
• Add links to your product pages in the email; 
• Use some social proof or incentive to encourage users to check out the product on your website. 

How to Improve Your Email Marketing Overtime

Once you get a hold of how to create successful email marketing campaigns, the next step is to keep improving them. Here are seven things you can do:

1. Respect Your Subscriber’s Time

Promotions… When a subscriber receives one in an email, the initial thought is often about a discount they don’t need. So, the email is regarded as next to nothing.

Save customers time and effort – if they open your email, ensure its content is straight to the point. This will at least engage them until you communicate your message.

2. Improve Your Presentation Skills

Not all content is engaged with the same. 

The visitors who come to your website already decided to read your content. While in the email marketing case, they’re presented with content and then have to choose to engage.

So, if you’re looking for a ’yes’ from your readers, you’ve got to invest in content presentation. Think animations, interactivity, simplicity, and attention-grabbing details. Leave your subscribers no space to doubt that your content is worth engaging with.

3. Know Your Audience

When creating an email, remember that it’s not about your brand. It’s about your customer. 

Spend time painting a picture of a regular customer. What’s their job? Ethnicity? Age? The answers will help you better understand their schedule, preferences, and sensibilities in an overall manner and craft a concise email that successfully hits the target.

4. Highlight Your Brand Identity

Here’s another reason to add to an extensive list of why we love email marketing  – if used correctly, it’s a fantastic way to develop a brand identity.

You can create a strong brand image in all email content you deliver through the tone, color scheme, presentation of content, and all other factors. Once the subscribers know your quality content, they’ll be more likely to engage.

5. Design Captivating Emails

Text-only emails? Yuck.

A good email is also a beautiful email. So don’t miss out on this part – find captivating, customizable templates that work for your brand and create emails that are easy to read and nice to look at.

Sender has a rich library of free email templates to cover your needs. Find yours and customize it with their intuitive drag-and-drop builder.

6. Remember That Simplicity is Crucial

On average, consumers spend 10 sec on brand email. So, better make this time count. 

Instead of beating around the bush and risking losing your reader’s interest, keep it short and engaging. If you’re worried that concise text lacks flavor, diversify the types of content in each campaign and watch email engagement yield results. 

7. Plan Your Email Follow-ups

Following up with an engaged audience can open up new revenue streams for your business. Always follow up with those who opened your initial campaign but haven’t interacted with you since. 

You can follow up by either sending regular emails or scheduling automated campaigns for interested prospects. You can create a single, one-time follow-up email or go full out on an elaborate drip sequence. 

Plan your email follow-ups based on the ticket size of your product or service and the time you want to invest in each. The more affordable a product, the simpler should be your follow-up sequence. The more high-ticket item, the more the need for multiple follow-ups in your email nurture sequence.

Key Takeaways