Figuring out how to run a successful email marketing campaign is tough, especially when you start out and don’t know what that means!
You need to learn how to write a good email and make sure it gets opened, clicked through, and remembered every single time.
A lot of us are struggling and going through this but not everyone!
Many brands, businesses, and e-commerce companies achieved their email marketing success, and now they capitalizing well on it.
So the best you can do is to learn from the best. And what better could be than actually going through these successful emails?
It will tell you :
- What kind of copy and content works for the emails?
- How to design your emails to get more engagement?
- What kind of subject lines you should write?
- What kind of emails you can send?
- What is the number one strategy you can learn from top-notch brands?
- What kind of email marketing campaigns you can run?
So without further ado, let’s get into it straightway, the best successful email marketing examples to learn from.
Headspace
What To Learn: Nailing the chance to impress subscribers through welcome emails.
As per Constant Contact, the average rate of open welcome emails is 50% to 60%, making it the best chance to impress your subscribers.
If you nail your chance to impress and develop a relationship with your subscribers in the welcome email which has the most chance of getting opened, you get things right at the beginning.
Welcoming emails are crucial as here, you offer a promise to your subscribers and also what they can expect from you.
Headspace, a meditation app, nails its welcome emails proposing their offer, telling the audience what to expect and all the required information.
Here’s what they send to their subscribers as welcome emails :
Image Source: SendGrid
They also use very clear CTA buttons to help subscribers move in the right direction.
Not just their welcome emails, if you see their customer retaining emails sent when their users miss a day or do not open the application, it is really great.
Here’s what they send to retain customers and users :
Image Source: Medium
They put a heading that reads “ It’s okay to miss a day” as without guilt-tripping their app users, they are trying to reconnect with them with relatability.
The brand connects with the new meditators addressing the common issues faced by them as maintaining consistency.
On top of this, they propose helpful tips to maintain consistency in meditation for newbies increasing the usage of their apps as well.
BoxyCharm
What To Learn: Keep your Subscribers Engaged To The End Of Email Using Visual Cues
What really makes people click on the email and open it is clearly the attention-grabbing subject line.
But what makes them read the emails all the way to the end?
That’s the challenge for most email marketing campaigns because even if a compelling subject line pulls people into the email, they are very quick and instinctive to not read or just go back.
They are receiving dozens of emails just like yours on a daily basis, maybe more than that.
Chances are, the emails you spent writing for hours might go simply unnoticed in their busy inboxes, even with a great subject line.
This becomes especially true for those emails that are long and contain a long line of products and offerings.
Most of them aren’t interesting for them, spammy or too sale-sy, they develop instincts to close the email right away without reading.
But there is something Boxycharm comes with that makes their email to be read till the end.
Image Source: Sleeknote
First, they infuse scarcity in their eye-catching subject line developing a sense of urgency and missing out.
Then, they send a long email aesthetically designed with limited copy encouraging a sequence.
What makes it even more interesting is that they use an animated arrow to direct the reader’s attention plenty of times through the email.
Along with the animated arrows throughout the email, they use another strategy to keep readers moving towards the end of the email.
Naturally, people like to get surprises, and free things, so they promise readers that they get a surprise towards the bottom of the email.
And when the reader scrolls down on the promise, Boxycharm does deliver to their word offering :
Image Source: Sleeknote
Again the freebie they offer here is limited on the time making the prospective buyers act on their impulse to make the purchase.
So if you sum up, you will see first they attract the subscribers by highlighting the scarcity in their subject line.
Then, they lure you into going through the whole email promising a surprise or an offer to the bottom.
They keep listing the best offers on their best value products and how they can help you.
Finally, at the bottom, they deliver on their promise, giving you a surprise whether it is a free gift, a free subscription to their paid plan for a few months, etc.
They utilize their design and visual cues to direct your attention toward the bottom of the email like above they used animated arrows.
Also, they keep teasing the surprise you will be getting if you scroll down more promising you something valuable.
Brooklinen
What To Learn: Make your sales memorable
It is established that your potential customer is getting tons and tons of emails on a daily basis bombarded to their inbox.
With their inboxes full of promotional emails, how can you sell with your email?
It becomes primarily about getting their attraction and feeding on their curiosity as that’s what humans are driven by.
Image Source: sleeknote
So you will use a curiosity-triggering subject line to hook the audience and compel them to think about what possibly will be in this email.
Then, as soon as they open the email, utilize more curiosity and surprise in the email, just like Brooklinen does with their email, as follows.
Image Source: Sleeknote
They use GIFs to further develop curiosity towards their offer and hook them for even their next email.
You see using them the copy like “Something big is coming” where GIF animation unwraps evoking curiosity.
And they are doing it by teasing their upcoming huge sale, again they are not giving away everything, but rather hooking them further to check their emails for the “exciting news”.
They give you the option to “Set Reminders on Google Calendar” and “iCal/Outlook” as well.
When potential customers click on it, the mystery sale event will be added as a reminder to their calendar.
Chubbies
What To Learn: Creating a mystery around your offers and teasing your Black Friday campaign.
Chubbies, a clothing line does some really great with their Black Friday marketing campaign, and that’s even before it begins.
Their promotional emails discussing Black Friday are great examples of successful promotional emails
They are quite known for their humorous tone, exceptional email marketing campaigns, and having fun with their campaign.
Here’s what they write in their subject lines for their promotional emails sent a week before Black Friday :
Image Source: Sleeknote
With the gibberish subject line and the username of the email, you can figure out the joke!
That’s something that quickly grabs the attention of the subscriber even when they are getting bombarded with promotional emails that week.
Their body of the email is even more fun where they promote their upcoming Black Friday offers, like this :
Image Source: Sleeknote
But again, adding a twist there tweaks the interest of the people. They don’t just announce their upcoming offers.
They clearly are not telling you what you can expect to get from them on Black Friday. All just to build up the anticipation and hype. Only They add this :
Image Source: Sleeknote
Using the blur images of the products that will go to their product line, soon on sale, they create a mystery around them, teasing the possibilities.
Rather on top of it, they lead their subscribers by promoting their branded holiday following the Black Friday, named Thighber Monday.
They do set up expectations of subscribers on what Thighber Monday will offer and how much it will be valuable to them.
Then, as CTA, they invite the subscribers to sign up for their special list where they will be sending the targeted deals for higher conversion.
And since this email was pretty much capable of exciting the subscribers, both about Black Friday and Thighber Monday, they definitely signed up.
BuzzFeed
What To Learn: Be Unique, Creative & Cool. Don’t be afraid to experiment and have an all-different approach altogether.
Buzzfeed clearly demonstrates the quirky, funny, humorous, engaging, and smart way of sending emails.
Their branding is truly reflected in their email where even there, they remain entertaining and engaging.
Buzzfeed email marketing begs the question to the marketers “ What if you make your emails fun and entertaining to read for the subscribers ?”
Their B2C confirmation email for their newsletter campaign “ This Week in Cats” is really interesting and inspiring to learn from.
Here’s what they send to confirm their “This Week in Cats” subscription where they are using a double opt-in form.
Image Source: Moosend
The goal of this email is to verify the new subscribers’ email addresses.
First of all, Buzzfeed, unlike other companies, is for verification emails as they want to keep their list fresh, clean, and engaging.
Their confirmation email becomes a great example of
Rifle Paper Co.
What To Learn: Following up the sale campaigns
It is obvious that not all subscribers are ready to make a purchase from you.
Sometimes, they are not ready when they are offered, sometimes they need more convincing, sometimes more time, and even more incentive.
So, in order to persuade them further, you definitely need to continue the conversation in the same order.
That means you need to send more follow-up emails to make your deal more convincing and persuasive.
But it is true that one of the great challenges for marketers is to run a follow-up campaign without being pushy and nosy.
So, there has to be a strategy and specific copy and design alteration, just like Rifle Paper Co. did.
Here’s what they bring to the table, starting from their subject line :
Image Source: Sleeknote
Now, in this subject line, the brand is informing its subscribers that they have added new products to their sales.
So as a follow-up email, you are not seeing the usual “Hurry Up!” or “ last chance..” kind of words there.
Then, if you go to the body, here’s what it’s like :
Image Source: Sleeknote
Rifle Paper Co, smartly comes up with valid excuses to make this follow-up email to the subscriber.
They find a way to say “ Hurry up” without actually saying it.
During the busy holiday seasons, sending subscribers multiple follow-up emails saying the same thing as “Hurry up” or “Sale ending in.. “, is definitely noisy.
Rather they use this strategy very strategically, in the remainder of their email, they recommend the product categories to browse.
Rifle Paper Co. understands how potential customers won’t be able to entertain any follow-up emails stating the same thing over and over again.
So, they went for a subtle approach, more strategic with valid reasons to send them emails, achieving even better results.
Tuft & Needle
For an e-commerce marketer or store, one of their primary goals is to reduce cart abandonment.
Then, they use different strategies to compensate for cart abandonment such as through email marketing, timely pop-ups, etc.
Within the email marketing campaign, targeting cart abandonment potential customers is highly profitable and potentially higher convertible.
But it is still hard to convince the users to get on with the purchase they left without being too salesy and pushy about it.
Well, that’s what to learn from Tuft & Needle, and how they deal with abandoned cart email.
So they do this through their three-part email flow where the first email they receive is with this subject line :
Image Source: Sleeknote
This does sound quite enticing and worthy of the click. Clearly, it attracts attention and frankly, it doesn’t even sound like a promotional email until one opens it.
Here’s what they see inside, the body of the email :
Image Source: Sleeknote
So, this is the first part of the email flow for cart abandonment. Here, the brand tries to connect with the user on their pain points.
They join their conversation in their prospective customers’ heads acknowledging their issues regarding how mattress shopping really sucks.
Interestingly, when it comes from a mattress brand, it does infuse curiosity, mystery, and some level of accountability through honesty.
Now, when the brand positions itself as a sympathetic partner of the prospective customer, they dig deep by asking questions like
- “How do you make the right choice?”
The very next they start building on the question, creating social proof as they compare you to their other million customers.
They simply add a text in bold with a hyperlink saying “ Don’t buy a mattress without reading this first”
It naturally attracts potential customers to click on it when they reach the landing page, as follows:
On this page, the brand is raising every possible top-of-mind question that a potential customer might have regarding the product.
After helping clarify the doubts, developing familiarity with the product, and some level of trust, they use customer reviews and testimonials to complement their point.
Now after a few days, they send the second part of their email flow with the subject line as follows:
Again, this is completely different from an abandoned cart email subject line but still turns out to be one.
Image Source: Sleeknote
In this email, Tuft & Needle highlights how consumers are brainwashed to believe that high price means high quality and vice versa.
They talk about fair pricing, transparency, and reliability, further helping their case subtly develop trust in minds of their abandoned cart potential buyers.
Again, they highlight the text that reads “ We made this page to prove we have nothing to hide” with a hyperlink to click on it.
Naturally, people are attracted to click and visit the landing page where the company compares itself to its competitors in the most transparent way possible.
When it comes to the final part of this email flow, here is the subject line they receive in the email :
When the statement is agreeing so rightfully with the potential buyers, as if they are on their side, it becomes natural to click on the email.
Image Source: Sleeknote
So, through this body of the email, they make their final attempt to convince the abandoned cart users to continue the purchase.
In this email, they focus on their satisfaction guarantee. Here they are addressing the people who are still on the fence.
So, they are reassuring them that they have nothing to lose if they buy the mattress as it is extremely easy to return if it doesn’t match their expectation.
They certainly have a brilliant three-part email flow to slowly win over the abandoned carts.
Beardbrand
One of the primary objectives of marketers is to grow their email lists, and they use their valuable time and resources to do that.
However, still they have dormant subscribers in the list with little or no engagement making the list inefficient for the business.
All their efforts get diluted when it comes to conversion through email due to less or no active subscribers.
This problem is faced by every marketer or business out there but Beardbrand came up with a creative way to re-engage the inactive subscribers.
When the users do not open their websites for long or do not engage with them, they tend to send the emails with such subject line :
The subject line is enough to pique the interest of their subscribers to open the email to find this :
Image Source: Sleeknote
Coming from the founder of a beard products brand, the fact that human hair grows about 0.5 inches a month truly hooked the readers.
So, they didn’t say that subscribers haven’t visited their website for three months but cleverly mentions it by saying “Your beard grew 1.5 inches since you last visited our website”
They highlighted the subscriber’s browsing behavior without guilt-tripping them to increase the chances of purchase.
Further, they recommend their best products in the same email as recommendations.
The idea is to trigger subscribers’ fear of missing out (FOMO) with a Call-to-action button that says “Check out what I’ve missed”.
Glossier
What To Learn: Make sure you appreciate your subscribers
When as a marketer or business, you are giving so much attention to the inactive subscribers, your active subscribers need the same, if not more.
You are spending ample amounts of time, money, and energy on the inactive subscribers to enable them for more engagement.
The active subscribers, since already doing that, are certainly due to your appreciation and more incentives.
Appreciating your active subscribers with the right messaging and gifts, you can convert them into lifelong customers or brand evangelists.
And you don’t have to necessarily hand out free products and discount coupons to appreciate your subscribers or to make them happy.
Glossier is a great example take where the brand takes care of their subscribers as they send an email with such subject line :
When the subscribers are getting tons and tons of promotional emails from e-commerce companies regarding purchases and offers, this subject line truly stands out.
Then, the body of the email has the content that further takes subscribers by surprise :
Image Source: Sleeknote
The brand doesn’t have any products to offer or make any announcements and even no CTA in the email.
The only purpose here is to compliment the subscribers for the good they are doing by opening their emails and visiting their websites.
But then, here is the catch to this email, and quite clever actually! Every element on this email including the image, buttons, and icons are linked to their product pages.
So if the subscriber clicks anywhere in the email, they will be landed on the website featuring company products.
This is indeed a smart way Glossier uses to subtly bring subscribers to their product pages. Meanwhile, they also create a positive brand image for their subscribers and also appreciate them.
Function Of Beauty
What To Learn: Stand Out Through Your Design & Concept
The function of Beauty is the brand that took a new route regarding the emails it sent to its subscribers.
They send emails that demonstrate their subscribers or customers talking to their hair. Sounds weird, isn’t it?
But it is really interesting. Let’s see how they pull it off.
First, the very subject line in the email that the company sends out is something that is compelling enough to click on it.
Then, their promotional email doesn’t disappoint at all, if anything it surprises the readers as it is entirely different from what they get habitual receive from others.
Here’s what it looks like :
Image Source: Sleeknote
So, naturally, it tends to stand out in their inbox and pull their attention right in, enough to make them read as ‘what this could be about? ‘.
All the businesses want is that kind of attention from their subscriber because getting emails opened and then actually read is the challenge.
If you look at the email, it’s not just the design and unique selection of colors that make the email stand out, but also its concept and copy.
It looks like an apology letter that their prospective customer might write to their hair. The idea of this is to address the pain point of the customer which they dramatically resonate with.
The whole conceptual design and layout of the email are cleverly designed with minimal yet highly effective copy.
Surprisingly, it relays the message profoundly without directly saying it.
All in all, it is promoting the Functions of Beauty products to be the best hair care products out there that even your hair wants.
Image Source: Sleeknote
Then, also see the headline that says “Meet Custom Hair Mask which it further demonstrates your needs and wants in regards to what they are offering.
Below that, they added a Call-to-action (CTA) button that reads “Order Now” which sends you to a hair survey or quiz. You can create your custom hair mask.
Uber
What To Learn: Simplicity and straightforwardness of the email, getting to the point in your emails. Less is more.
Uber runs their email marketing campaign to the point and with utter simplicity and minimalism.
Whether it is their copy or design, you see them doing minimal yet very impactful and tasteful.
Image Source: Chamaileon
It doesn’t compromise their branding and identity. They do have a very specific way to address their subscribers, their promotions, announcements, etc.
Their newsletters usually compile one on-point header giving away the highlight of the information with the following text in brief.
Then there is a very clear CTA to instruct subscribers as to what they exactly need to do after reading this email.
With so many promotional emails coming the way, subscribers don’t have much time to read through long emails.
Uber makes it simple and easy to get done with their emails being so brief and to the point.
The design Uber uses is also minimalistic giving the right and relevant imagery as context to the information or promotion.
Wool and the Gang
What To Learn From: Communicate in the Language of your Buyer
You need to speak the language of your buyers. Not literally! The language here means the way, the context in which your buyers can connect with you.
People are attracted to other people who are similar to them. The more you know about someone, the more inclined you will be to their requests.
The same goes for branding and marketing as well.
You need to evoke a sense of liking in your prospective buyers regarding your brand by addressing them with some sense of familiarity and relatability.
One of the best examples of this is the brand Wool of the Gang where they are initiating this in the very subject lines.
Image Source: Sleeknote
Their subject line sounds like you’ve got a message from your best friend. And surprisingly, when you click on it, it even looks quite like it.
Image Source: Sleeknote
They have smartly used the GIF to recreate what looks like a friendly conversation between two pals.
Not to mention, how impossible it is to not pay attention to the email as its design and subtle content drew people right in.
It reminds you that if you are interested in Knitting, you will have the joy of missing out on being at home and spending a good time with your hobbies.
Here the brand is using the language that is a conversation, trendy, and something that people usually talk in.
As for the branding, it associates the company with how casual and cool the company is, giving a positive impression of its brand.
Image Source: Sleeknote
Just after that, they add a how-to video regarding how to double the crochet to lead from the recreated conversation above.
Once they create hype for their brand and make an impression, they don’t shy away from putting the recommendation for their products :
Image Source: Sleeknote
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“Business, marketing, and Branding – these three words describe me the best. I am the founder of Burban Branding and Media, and a self-taught marketer with 10 years of experience. My passion lies in helping startups enhance their business through marketing, Branding, leadership, and finance. I am on a mission to assist businesses in achieving their goals.”