Email Marketing Campaign: From Examples to Execution

There’s a reason why 90% of businesses are turning their heads toward email marketing. It has an average Return on investment (ROI) of 3600%. When done right? Over 7000%! While surprising, these numbers are also highly obtainable.

So, what do excellent email marketing campaign examples look like? How do you create your successful email campaigns? You’ll find answers to these questions and more here! Keep reading!

What is an Email Campaign?

Curious about email campaigns? Well, let’s demystify them! In its simplest form, email marketing means sending emails to your audience, both current and potential customers.

An email marketing campaign is a series of emails designed with a specific goal. These can be automated (known as autoresponder sequences) or sent as regular email newsletters.

What are the goals of email marketing campaigns? Education, entertainment, or a mix of both. When executed well, these campaigns help you build stronger relationships with subscribers, leading to a higher number of leads and conversions.

Why is Email Marketing Campaign Important?

Email marketing continues to play a pivotal role in the marketing mix in this digital age.

As the most profitable channel for a business, email marketing helps you connect and engage with potential customers. It allows you to build long-lasting relationships and drive sales. And that’s not all:

• Increase brand awareness. A successful email campaign can bring long-term benefits. If you share valuable email content, news, updates, and more with your subscribers, they might share a word about your brand and products with others. That is, increase awareness about your brand;
• Drive customer engagement with the brand. Emails are incredibly versatile, giving you the freedom to create almost anything you can imagine. Harness this power to pique your subscribers’ curiosity about your following offerings and foster deeper engagement with your brand;
• Boost website traffic. Share enticing snippets of your most popular content to encourage interested subscribers to dive into the full articles. Include a clear call-to-action (CTA) that directs your subscribers to dedicated landing and sales pages to learn more about and purchase your products or services;
• Generate more interested leads. Nothing is off the table when you want your recipients to visit and click through your website or landing pages with more information. Personalize your content, create compelling subject lines, and clear CTAs to make them come again and again;
• Nurture leads toward a sale. Your time and effort spent crafting the email sequences can pay back in dozens. Use them to educate, inform, and build trust with potential customers, addressing their pain points and showcasing your products as solutions;
• Sell more products and add more revenue to your business. When strategically crafted, thesecampaigns promote your products and create a sense of urgency and desire among your subscribers. Combine this with segmentation and targeted content to have much higher chances of conversions and better customer retention.

13 Email Marketing Campaign Examples

If you explore different email marketing campaign types, you’ll realize you must diversify your email marketing strategy and include unique and personalized emails. Here are some of the most successful campaign types people use for promoting their businesses: 

• Welcome Email
• Monthly Newsletter
• Promotional Email Campaign
• Seasonal Email Campaign
• Transactional Emails
• Educational Emails
• Thank You Emails
• Feedback and Survey Emails
• Re-engagement Triggered Email Series
• Nurturing Email Campaigns
• Abandoned Cart Series
• Birthday & Anniversary Emails

Let’s quickly look at examples of each one of these. 

Welcome Email

Welcome emails are one of the most important emails you will ever send. It sets the foundation for the future relationship with the subscriber. Here’s an example of a great welcome email by Last Crumb:

The welcome email is great at creating an instant connection. The personalized letter with an appealing header image makes the reader feel special. The talk about brand values in the welcome email is an excellent idea, as most consumers are attracted to brands with a strong ethos.  

Why it works? 

• Relatable and warm email copy; 
• Simple and minimalist design; 
• Reassurance and confidence towards brand values; 

Monthly Newsletter

Monthly newsletters are like personal letters that a brand sends to its subscriber list informing them about the latest happenings. Generally, newsletters have a common theme and reach out to users on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Here’s a great example of a monthly newsletter by Scott’s Cheap Flights: 

The company sends a monthly newsletter touching on a relevant topic and sharing its take on the issue. The newsletter email discusses the issue and shares relevant messages, articles, blogs, and more for the reader, just like a magazine. 

Why it works? 

• Reminds users about your brand or business; 
• Adds value to subscriber’s life consistently; 
• Shares things that they’d love to read on a regular basis. 

Promotional Email Campaign

Promotional email campaigns tell subscribers about your latest offers, sales, discounts, or deals on your product range. It’s a great way to remind them about you, generate interest, and increase sales by luring customers to buy. Here’s an example of promotional emails by Gold Belly: 

The refreshing email has a striking and eye-catchy design. Plus, the reference (and social credential) to Martha Stewart is an ice-breaker, making the subscriber consider buying from the brand. The promotional email has excellent offers, a subject line that stands out (Banana Pudding on Sale — Martha Steward APPROVED! ), and great CTAs to make an impact.

Why it works? 

• Attention-grabbing subject line; 
• Beautiful email design; 
• Social proof embedded within the email; 
• Great and contextual offers that tempt users to make a purchase. 

Seasonal Email Campaign

Seasonal email campaigns are great for engaging users during the holidays or summer, especially when you’ve relevant offers or products.

Seasonal email campaigns should be contextual and geared towards selling seasonally relevant products or services—for example, warm clothes during the holiday season. Look at the following example by Lululemon: 

The email is sent during the winter when everyone appreciates cozy joggers and winterwear. The timing of the email, the warm vibe, and the relatable email copy make it a tremendous seasonal email campaign. 

Why it works? 

• Relatable and witty copywriting; 
• Great and contextual offer, relevant to the reader; 
• Warm color tones and photography. 

Transactional Emails 

Transactional emails share important information regarding the account, orders, or any action taken on the website. They’re usually informational and share critical information like order confirmation, shipping confirmation, etc. But who says they should be plain and boring? Look at this order confirmation email by Ritual: 

The email is personalized with the name of the shopper. The subject line, ‘We’re getting your Ritual ready,’ invokes excitement. 

There’s an infographic in the email about the tentative delivery date that informs about what to expect next. Plus, the slight nudge below the product block is a smart way to increase the order value without being pushy. 

Why it works? 

• Personalized header with a positive tone in the email copy; 
• Visually appealing design with interactive blocks; 
• A solid nudge to existing customers to add more items. 

Educational Emails

Educational emails are sent to create awareness about a product, offer, use case, or application. They’re generally sent to subscribers who are likely to buy a product. Dollar Shave Club sends several educational emails about the benefits of its products. Here’s one: 

The email is an interesting take on educational emails, which often come with long walls of text. Instead, they’ve used a catchy infographic, followed by a short paragraph that explains why it’s a good idea to put on sunscreen. 

There’s a product and reviews placement right after educational section addressing apprehensions and enticing readers to move further towards checkout. 

Why it works? 

• Crisp and concise communication; 
• Eye-catching header infographic; 
• Relevant product and review blocks. 

Thank You Emails

Showing gratitude is a nice way to nurture a long-term relationship with your audience. So, you should plan thank you emails from time to time. It needn’t be long, but it should be sincere, just like this email by Wonder Valley: 

The email features a personal note from the founders, making it really human. The mention of a special playlist for celebrations is a nice add-on to show they’ve actually made an effort. It also comes at the perfect time, when everyone loves receiving a heartfelt gratitude. 

Why it works? 

• Personal tone with an unexpected gift – a curated playlist; 
• Holiday vibes in the header image; 
• Perfect timing, right before Thanksgiving. 

Feedback and Survey Emails

Listening to the voice of your customers is essential for any business. So, why not send periodic feedback email campaigns to your customers and subscribers? Specialty retailer J.Crew has an interesting strategy, where they follow up after a purchase with a minimal feedback email. Have a look: 

The email is minimalist and gives direct CTAs to users to share their opinion about their recent purchases. The writing is direct and impactful. There’s no extra element in the email, which reduces distraction and directs readers to the review page.

Why it works? 

• Minimalist design with zero distractions; 
• Contextual and relevant ask about past purchases; 
• Direct CTA buttons asking to share thoughts. 

Re-Engagement Email Series

Triggered email campaigns or sequences are sent based on user activity or action. For example, an order confirmation email after a user buys something from the website. Here’s a great example of a triggered email series by Freshly. 

The email is triggered based on the online behavior of the user and is sent to customers who’ve not ordered in a long time. The interesting and rewarding limited-time offer is a sure way to re-engage and win back lost customers. The subject line for this email — ‘Get $6.16 Dinners When You Come Back, Fam!’ is intriguing enough to make someone open the email. 

Why it works? 

• Contextual offer sent at the right time; 
• Engaging hook (subject line) topped with a valuable offer; 
• Simple yet powerful CTA button prompting the user to give the brand a second chance. 

Nurturing Email Campaigns

Nurturing emails are sent to nurture prospects, influence them to buy something, or even aim at inactive prospects or customers who have not engaged with your brand for some time now.

The key purpose is to move them further into the buyer’s journey and make them buy something from your store. Here’s an example from Wix:

Wix used the special sales offer as a reason to nurture inactive or trial users to convince them to upgrade to a paid plan. Nurturing emails is a great way to break the ice, address apprehensions, or entice them, as Wix did with their email campaign.

You can consider sending re-engagement emails as we miss you emails as a reactivation or nurturing attempt before segmenting a subscriber or trial user into your churn list. 

Why it works? 

• Great offer, addressing the price apprehension to upgrade; 
• Countdown timer, adding a sense of urgency to act; 

Also read: 15 Email Drip Campaign Examples to Drive Engagement

Abandoned Cart Emails

Cart abandonment is a big problem for the ecommerce industry. According to the most recent estimates, 57-84% of carts are abandoned across different industries. This translates to massive losses for eCommerce businesses. 

Automating a cart abandonment email can be profitable to win back your customers and increase your sales revenue. Here’s an interesting cart abandonment email template example by Luxy Hair:

This interesting email is an excellent attempt to return the shopper’s attention to the Luxy Hair store. The witty one-liners in the header with a bold CTA button to complete checkout is enough to convince them to give their pick a second thought. 

Why it works? 

• Witty copywriting in the header; 
• Clear reasons to rethink the purchase as a separate block; 
• Special ‘buy now pay later offer within the email. 

Birthday & Anniversary Emails

Who doesn’t like birthday or anniversary wishes? Well, your subscribers sure do. Running a birthday or anniversary email campaign is a great way to tell your subscribers you care. You can share special offers, gifts, or samples as birthday gifts. Here’s a great example by L ‘Occitane: 

The email warmly wishes the subscriber and offers a gift for every birthday purchase. The beautiful design and a valuable offer will show the recipient that the brand has really considered sending this wish. Plus, the contextual recommendations are a cherry on top. 

Why it works?

• Free gift and shipping offer on birthdays; 
• Contextual shopping recommendations based on buyer’s likes and dislikes; 
• Cheerful and celebratory email design. 

Creating a Successful Email Marketing Campaign

Are you inspired to create email marketing campaigns that your target audience loves but need help knowing where to begin? This quick guide is a good headstart:

Define Your Goals 

Your first step should always be to ask yourself a question: What do you want to achieve from your email campaign? 

Do you want to drive sales, increase website traffic, or perhaps improve customer retention? 

Based on your expectations, set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. This will help your email marketing plans and make it easy to measure success.

• Quantify your goals. Determine key performance indicators (KPIs) like open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and revenue generated; 
• Align with business objectives. Ensure your email campaign goals align with broader business goals, whether it’s brand awareness, lead generation, or customer engagement.

Know Your Audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for successful email campaigns. 

Gather data through primary market research, customer feedback, and marketing analytics to learn about their preferences, behaviors, and needs. You can look at Google Analytics, social media insights, and other mediums to understand their preferences and behaviors. 

The insights will help you tailor your content, making it more relevant and engaging to your audience. 

Here’s what you can do after you’ve got some data about your audience: 

• Create personas. Create buyer personas to better understand and address the specific needs and interests of different segments of your audience; 
• Segmentation. Divide your audience into segments based on demographics, purchase history, and engagement levels to personalize emails accordingly. 

Choose the Right Email Marketing Platform

Once you outline your goals and have a basic understanding of your audience, it’s time to pick an email marketing tool. 

Choose a solution that offers essential features like automation and drag-and-drop builder and has a generous free plan. Also, look for email marketing platforms with responsive customer support. 

If you want a no-fuss solution with all the premium features, human customer support, and amazing deliverability, try Sender. With a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers and an intuitive drag-and-drop builder, setting up your first email campaign is a breeze. 

Email Subject Line & Preheader

When you’re ready with your email marketing solution, it’s time to start creating a campaign. The first step is to create an engaging email subject line and a preheader text. 

Your subject line is the first thing a prospect will notice. Moreover, it’s the only thing that influences their decision to click (or ignore) your email. So, always pay extra attention to creating them. Your subject lines should: 

• Consist of action words or reasons to click; 
• Be personalized; 
• Invoke FOMO, urgency, or curiosity; 
• Not contain common spam words. 

Your email subject lines should be catchy and informative, while preheaders (the text next to it) should elaborate more on the topic. 

Design Email Campaign 

Once you’re done writing a compelling subject line, it’s time to design your email campaign. 

Your goal should be to design a compelling email campaign that attracts, engages, and compels subscribers to know more about your offer or product. A visually appealing design with a balance of text and graphics will give you the best results. 

• Use a responsive template that adapts to various devices; 
• Keep the layout simple and clean, with a clear call-to-action (CTA); 
• Create an engaging header with information that makes them read further; 
• Add interactive elements like countdown timers, reviews, or product blocks. 

Sender helps you create a beautiful email even if you’re not a designer. With an intuitive drag-and-drop builder and a library of readymade email templates, you can get started within minutes.

Pick one from the library of responsive email templates that fit your email marketing goals and brand identity. Then, use the visual design builder to customize its layout, content, and other design elements as per your requirements.

Craft Compelling Content

Your subject line will attract, your design will engage them, and what you write in your email will convince them to act. So, your content should be quite compelling and relevant for your audience. 

Start with a catchy introduction, explain the benefits of your offer, and end with a strong CTA. Break down your content into blocks using bullet points for clarity and easy scannability. 

Also, make sure to personalize your content based on what your audience needs. Remember, all your marketing emails should always include the following:

• Company’s name;
• Contact information;
• Unsubscribe link;
• Privacy policy link;
• Brand logo.

Once you’re done writing your content and are happy with the email design, send a test email and move on to the next step, i.e. choosing who to send the emails to. 

Select Recipients / Build Your Email List 

Select a list of recipients you want to reach with your email marketing campaign. This can include all subscribers or any specific group/segment based on your goals. 

If you’re new to email marketing and don’t have any subscribers yet, set up popups or sign-up forms on your high-traffic pages. 

You can use the signup forms template library within Sender to quickly set up a form and start building an email list. Alternatively, you can import your current subscribers.

Once you’ve gathered subscribers (or have an existing audience), you can send an email campaign instantly or schedule it for the future. 

Test and Optimize 

Before launching your campaign, test your campaign by using A/B or split testing. Pick two groups and send them different variations of the same campaign. You can play with subject lines, email content, and send times to determine what works best with your audience. 

Gather insights on what works best between two (or more variations) and then use them to optimize the campaign. You can also take this step after you’ve launched the campaign to optimize future campaigns. 

Launch the Campaign

Once you’re happy with the results, click to launch the campaign immediately or schedule it to go out later. 

After you launch your campaign, check your key engagement metrics to see if they’re what you’ve expected. If not, optimize your campaign accordingly and use the gathered insights for future campaigns.

Tips for Improving Email Marketing Campaign Overtime 

Designing successful email marketing campaigns can be fun but challenging, too. Here are some email marketing best practices to help you create and send effective email campaigns: 

• Understand your target audience well. List all of the problems your product or service solves, and then create your buyer persona by seeing what types of people have this problem;
• Create an accurate list of interested prospects. Ensure that your opt-in forms and popups are highly optimized for relevancy based on buyer persona to capture the most interested prospects and leads;
• Segment your list. Categorize your email list into categories based on the audience’s purchase history, common characteristics, or general parameters like demographic, geographical, and psychographic factors;
• Clearly understand the end goal. Answer yourself why you’re running email campaigns, what will be the result, and how it will impact your business’ revenue. Remember this goal throughout your email campaign;
• Chart the prospect’s buying journey. Identify touch points where they need education, information, and help to fit in relevant emails;
• Spend time on content and copywriting. Your content is the fuel that runs your marketing campaign. So, always use language and tone that aligns with your buyer personas;
• Add relevance with email personalization. Use your buyer personas to contextualize and personalize your emails. It will help you stay relevant and drive conversions;
• Follow a standard format and ensure compliance. It’s a good practice to have a standardized format in your email campaigns to stay memorable, maintain a recall, and stay compliant with anti-spam regulations such as GDPR; 
• Check your emails for responsiveness. Your campaign should look, feel, and appear the same across all mobile devices and platforms;
• Always measure email campaign success. To optimize your campaign strategy, always track the campaign metrics: open, clickthrough, bounce, conversion rates, and spam score.

Also read:

• 14+ Best Email Marketing Services & Software in 2024
• 11 Affordable Email Marketing Services (Top-Rated Software)
• What is Broadcast Email & How to Use It (Examples Included)

Author Bio

Anmol Ratan Sachdeva is a content marketer and small business consultant who has a strong grip on topics like marketing automation, research, email marketing, and content marketing. He loves to write about starting, improving, and growing a business.