5 Types of Email Marketing to Consider (with real-life examples)

What do you think of when you hear the term ’email marketing’? (Apart from ‘spam’!) One obvious answer is email newsletters, but there are many other ways to use email in your marketing. Here’s a look at 5 different types of email marketing – hoping it gives you some ideas to grow your marketing and your business!

1. Email Newsletters

I’m going to start with that obvious one – the email newsletter. By ‘newsletter’, I mean an email which you send regularly (daily, weekly, monthly, whatever) to a list of subscribers. That could be customers only, but it’s much more likely to be both customers and other contacts who might become customers at a later date.

Purpose

What are email newsletters for? In essence, they’re a way of staying in touch – the bare minimum networking of the email world.

Whatever your target market, many potential clients aren’t ready to buy at the time you first meet them. A good newsletter can remind them about your business, teach them more about your services and build trust.

Newsletters are less about the immediate sale and more about the relationship. Sure, you’re selling, but you’re not pushing. And you’re also adding value.

Content ideas

You may worry about what you would say in a regular newsletter. In truth, finding ideas is easier than finding time to write the content.

Advice and tips (set yourself up as an expert)
Client stories / testimonials (people love hearing about their ‘competition’)
Most liked social post this month (you already know people like this content, so use it again, and add a little something new)
Industry / company news (including events you’ve attended, charitable activities, new hires, new offices and so on)
Spotlight on a staff member
Spotlight on a specific service or product

Choosing the format for your email newsletter

I’ve talked before about HTML vs plain text emails. Both are perfectly valid options – but you may find one works better for you and your business. The frequency with which you send your newsletter is also a factor.

If you’re emailing daily, a simple plain text format will be easier to handle and also feel more natural. One topic per email is normally good for this frequency.
If you’re emailing every month or every fortnight, you probably have multiple articles or topics each time you send. A more complex visual format may help with that.
What about weekly emails? It really does depend on your business.Test both options, then decide.

Monthly HTML newsletter example

Here’s a monthly newsletter which we send. The screenshots show the opening and then the full newsletter.

You can see that there are lots of different articles in this email, each with its own heading, most with photos too. It’s a monthly news roundup rather than a hard sell, designed to keep relationships strong. (The company sells and supports expensive imaging equipment, which clients may not replace for years, so there’s a need to stay in touch longterm.)

However, in amongst stories from events, sponsorships and clients, there is one regular article featuring the ‘Product of the Month’. And that’s all it takes:

Daily plain text newsletter example

Here’s an entirely different email newsletter format format. It just looks like a standard email that you get in your inbox. It comes out daily.

Does this work? Or do people just get fed up and unsubscribe?

If you do it well – and John does – it works.

I’ve been receiving this email for over 12 months. Most days, I read it. I’ve handed over hard cash for the offers. I have no intention of unsubscribing. And in case you think I’m an outlier, here’s what John had to say about how the daily email performs for him overall:

12.7% of subscribers have bought something. He’s fully replaced his freelance copywriting income. He’s pretty happy.

You may have noticed that I said email newsletters were about the relationship, yet I’ve shown how both these examples generate sales. Does that sound contradictory? It isn’t, really. Remember, better relationships generate sales. It’s a long-term game.

But what if you want something to happen fast?

2. Email Campaigns

Campaigns, in my definition, are shorter term than newsletters and are focussed on a specific outcome. That could be

You’re launching a new product or service and want enquiries or sales for that offer specifically
You want people to attend an event you are running or participating in
You’d love to clear out excess stock
There’s some seasonal reason for people to buy from you (end of financial year, Christmas, Valentine’s Day…

Here’s an example email campaign:

Email campaign example showcasing types of email marketing

This is from the same client as the newsletter above, but this time it’s a hard sell with offers on specific items – demo equipment, or models which still work but have been superseded.

To differentiate from the general newsletter, the colours in the header have been switched round and there’s a different layout, which looks much more like a catalogue.

And what happened?

Tips for email campaigns

Your campaign is targeting a specific goal or response. Focus on that goal and nothing else. You don’t want people getting distracted by other ideas. (This works on the same principle as removing menus and links from a landing page – you’re trying to funnel people in one particular direction.
You don’t have to leave it at just one email. You can send multiple, or send reminder SMS as well. Or even call, but that requires more manpower, so may not be worth it.I think the most I’ve ever seen is 7 emails in 2 days. Warning – I wouldn’t suggest doing that unless you’re already sending daily emails. You have a ‘unspoken contract’ with your subscribers about how often they’ll hear from you – if you push that too far, you alienate them.
If your offer is only relevant to some of your audience, segment and send to those people only. So for example:
- If you’re hosting an event in Melbourne, only invite the contacts who are based in Melbourne / Victoria.
- But if you’re attending a national industry conference in Melbourne, others from interstate might be attending too. Invite everyone on your list to make an appointment while you’re both there, or to come to your after-hours party.

3. Email automations

Automations are emails which are sent automatically to one person at a time, when that person performs a specific action. For example:

a visitor downloads something from your website.
a restaurant knows when your birthday is, and the month before your birthday they send you a special offer (‘Have pre-dinner cocktails on us!‘)
‘abandoned cart’ emails – the ones you get when you add an item to an e-commerce cart, but never buy
your calendar software sends automated reminders before appointments so that people actually show up

Those are simple examples, where usually only one email is sent. But email automation is much more powerful than single emails. You can send a series of emails. You can also send different emails depending on how people interact with the email you send. Do they open it? Click on a specific link? Click on any link?

Your automation (or nurture sequence) treats people differently depending on their level of interest. This means interested prospects get plenty of encouragement, but others don’t get overwhelmed or annoyed.

Here’s an example:

Notice that this chart maps the flow only. The content of those emails is a separate question. This client actually had three different target markets. Each one received different content, but the flow (what happened next depending on their actions) was the same for all markets.

A great first place to try an automation sequence…

…is straight after someone downloads something from your website.

This person is interested in something. They just interacted with your for the first time. Make the most of it before you fade into the background again. Send something which is relevant to what they just showed interest in and build a bit more relationship. It’s more valuable to them than being added to your email newsletter straight away.

For example:

If someone downloads the Guide to Website Copywriting Mistakes, I’ll send them emails with links to other resources about web copy and websites in general, such as the website redesign tips.
But if they download the Content Promotion Checklist, it makes more sense to share information about using social media or email to get your message out.

4. Email outreach

We tend to think that the only people we can email are the ones already on our list. It’s a good starting point, but there are a couple of exceptions.

Here’s a quote from ACMA’s page on dealing with spam:

You may also be sent marketing messages relevant to your role or position if you make your email address or phone number public. If you don’t want to receive marketing messages, you should write that clearly where your email or number is published.

What this implies is that you (or someone working with you) can research publicly available email addresses and send email to them. Of course, that email still has to comply with the other requirements of the Spam Act – it must say who you are and it must have an unsubscribe option.

These email addresses are generally business emails, so this email outreach option is much more likely to work for you if you’re selling to businesses.

There are also some businesses which sell email lists. My recommendation is to be very careful with these, even if they say they have permission from everyone on the list. You as the sender are legally responsible for what you send, so check carefully. (In my experience, a business which rents email lists is far more likely to be compliant than one which only sells them – possibly because they need repeat business!)

Tips for successful email outreach

First and foremost, remember that you have no relationship or even connection with the person behind these email addresses. This is the exact reverse of the newsletter. Your goals with outreach email is to get a ‘bite’. That might be:

booking an appointment with you
calling you
completing a survey
requesting a resource, which (after a targeted automation sequence!) allows you to add them to your list.

Bearing that in mind:

Keep the emails short.
Keep the outreach sequence short. Generally, no more than 3 emails.
Fill the email with WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) so they have a reason to read and act.

An example email outreach campaign

Here are some snippets from a campaign I wrote the copy for, with notes. This was the first campaign the company ran which scored bookings from the emails alone, without followup sales calls. Proof that this can work, if done well.

What can you see in Email 1?

The subject line has emotional words – protect and confidential. It’s designed to give little away, but encourage people to click and read.
Hard-hitting facts and figures hammer home the size of the risk.
The italicised line focuses that risk on the recipient (health providers, who are targeted since they have sensitive information) to raise the stakes even more.

And the second email?

The ‘reminder’ subject line can make people wonder what they missed, so they click and open.
A quick opening line reminds the reader that businesses like theirs are face high risk.
The ‘cost’ of this offer is shown as low – just 10 minutes can make a difference. And there’s no money to pay at this stage either.

And the third one?

The subject line suggests urgency – last chance – and also spells out quite clearly that this is free.
Once again, the email content compares the high risk and the minimal commitment required to get information which can reduce that risk.

Third party email

Third party email is another type of email marketing which reaches people who are not on your list already. Essentially, you provide email copy to an organisation which then mails their own database with your information. You don’t get access to the database at any time – but you do get access to individuals who respond to your offer.

This marketing channel is generally used to acquire subscribers and grow your own list, but can also be used to book an appointment or get a sale immediately. What will work best depends on what you’re selling and how closely aligned your offer is with the list you are reaching out to.

I have a whole post dedicated to third party email, so I’m not going to go through all the details here. Instead, a couple of quick tips.

Give massive value. It’s probably the first time you make contact with these people. You want them to have a positive experience.

Talk to the list owner about what will work. They’ve seen lots of campaigns go out. They know their list. And they have a vested interest in making your campaign a success – if it works for you, you may come back for another go, and they’ll make more money.

If you can afford it, a solus edm is always better value than a newsletter inclusion, even though it’s more expensive. In the first screenshot below, you can see that the Mumbrella solus edm is three times more expensive than advertising in their e-newsletter for a week. In the second, you can see an analysis from some previous campaigns I ran (not with Mumbrella). The solus edm delivered ten times as many responses. Paying three times more and getting ten times the results is worth it in my book!

Newsletter inclusion va 'solus' EDM campaign results

Summing Up

As you can see, you can do much more with email than simply send out newsletters. So which types of email marketing are best for you?

The answer is different for every business. It depends on:

what you’re selling to your customers
the current state of your business and your business goals
your budget
the size and quality of your in-house database
your target market and what ways exist to reach them

At the very least, I hope this post has sparked some ideas. And if you’d like to talk through any of those, just reach out.

5 types of email marketing to consider in your business (with examples)