What Is Email Marketing Strategy

An email marketing strategy is a set of tactics and approaches used by businesses to engage with existing and new customers through email.

It involves crafting targeted, personalized, and relevant email messages to connect with a subscriber list, with the aim of achieving specific business objectives like boosting sales, enhancing customer engagement, or promoting brand awareness.

Why Do You Need an Email Marketing Strategy?

• Aligning with Business Goals: Ensuring your email marketing supports overall business objectives like increasing sales or enhancing brand awareness.
• Saving Time and Money: Directing resources efficiently towards email strategies that deliver the best return on investment.
• Targeting the Right Audience: Crafting messages that specifically appeal to different segments of your audience for better engagement.
• Maintaining Consistent Branding: Keeping a uniform brand voice across all your email communications to build trust and recognition.
• Making Informed Decisions: Using data and insights to continuously refine and improve your email campaigns.
• Gaining a Competitive Edge: Outperforming competitors with a more thoughtful and effective email strategy.
• Building Long-Term Customer Relationships: Focusing on nurturing ongoing relationships with customers, beyond immediate sales.
• Adapting to Changing Needs: Remaining flexible to adjust your strategies in response to customer feedback and evolving market conditions.

19 Email Marketing Strategy Examples Proven to Work

When exploring successful email marketing strategies, you can discover how different companies effectively engage their audiences through innovative email campaigns. This shows how email marketing plays a big role in building strong relationships with customers.

1. Personalization

Personalized emails cater specifically to the interests or behaviors of the recipient. Examples of email marketing personalization include:

• Recommending products or services related to the recipient’s past purchases or browsing history.
• Addressing the recipient by their first name in the email.
• Sending birthday or anniversary greetings with special offers.
• Providing personalized content based on the recipient’s interests or demographics.
• Sending location-specific offers or recommendations.
• Offering discounts based on the recipient’s previous engagement.
• Asking for feedback or reviews based on recent interactions.

These personalized approaches make emails more relevant and engaging for recipients, increasing the likelihood of conversions and customer satisfaction.

For instance, ASOS, a popular fashion retailer, excels in personalization with their birthday email campaign. They send customers a personalized birthday greeting, coupled with a custom discount offer. This not only celebrates the customer’s special day but also encourages them to make a purchase.

Example of a Personalized Email: Birthday Discount by ASOS

Learn more about personalization in marketing:

• Your Guide to eCommerce Personalization Software (+ Top 10 Personalization Tools)
• eCommerce Personalization Guide with Benefits, Examples, & Tips

2. Interactivity

The interactive email strategy involves creating emails that allow direct interaction within the email itself, enhancing engagement. Examples include the use of star ratings in email templates, where customers rate services directly in the email, as well as the integration of videos, surveys, or image carousels. These interactive elements enhance overall engagement by making the email experience more dynamic and engaging for the user.

Good American uses star ratings in email templates, where customers are asked to rate their recent purchases directly in the email. This approach simplifies the feedback process and increases response rates.

Example of an Interactive Email with Customer Feedback by Good American

3. Following Up

The following-up strategy involves sending additional emails to customers after they’ve shown interest or had an initial interaction with a company. Follow-up emails keep the conversation going with customers after an initial interaction. This helps in keeping the conversation alive and encourages potential customers to take the next step, ultimately leading to conversions.

In the example from Runkeeper, following up means sending an email to users who have downloaded the app and encouraging them to upgrade to a Runkeeper Goâ„¢ membership. It highlights the benefits of the membership and offers a discount to entice users to take the next step and upgrade. This follow-up email aims to keep users engaged and motivated in their running journey.

Follow Up Email Example by Runkeeper

4. Re-engaging Inactive Subscribers

Reaching out to subscribers who haven’t been active can breathe new life into your email list. These re-engagement campaigns can boost your overall engagement rates, leading to more opens and clicks. They also help improve your email deliverability, reducing the chances of your emails landing in spam folders. Plus, by re-engaging, you can gather valuable feedback to refine your marketing strategies and maintain a positive brand reputation.

This British Corner Shop’s email, for example, uses a simple, direct approach to remind customers of the benefits they enjoyed, making it easy for them to re-engage with the brand. In their email, they employ a straightforward approach by acknowledging the customer’s absence and extending a compelling offer of 20% off with no minimum spend. By using the coupon code, they make it easy for customers to return and rekindle their connection with the brand, effectively enticing inactive customers to come back and shop.

Re-engagement Email Example from the British Corner Shop

5. Educational Emails

This strategy involves providing valuable information or learning opportunities to subscribers. Companies use their newsletters to feature informational articles, guides, and classes, offering subscribers continuous learning opportunities and keeping them engaged with fresh content.

In their educational email campaign, the weight loss app Zero utilizes this strategy by offering subscribers insightful content on sustainable weight loss.

Educational Email Example from Zero App

6. Sharing User Reviews

This strategy focuses on incorporating customer feedback and experiences into newsletters. By featuring real user reviews, businesses can build trust and provide authentic insights to their subscribers. For example, TripAdvisor effectively uses this approach in its email campaigns by sharing user reviews and ratings of various travel destinations and accommodations.

Example of User Reviews in the Newsletter of TripAdvisor

7. Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are friendly reminders that brands send when shoppers leave items in their online carts. It’s a way of helping customers remember and complete their purchases. These emails may even include special offers or discounts to encourage customers to return and finalize their shopping.

It’s a win-win situation for both customers and companies, as it helps recover potentially lost sales and provides shoppers with a helpful nudge to complete their orders. In this example, Casper’s email with the catchy headline “COME BACK TO BED” immediately engages recipients by playfully urging them to revisit their abandoned cart.

Abandoned Cart Email Example, Source: Shopify.com

8. Loyalty Reward Programs

In email marketing, loyalty reward programs are like exclusive clubs we create to thank our loyal customers. Customers may need to sign up, but once they’re in, brands send them special emails with exclusive offers and rewards. It’s a way for companies to show appreciation and encourage them to keep shopping.

These programs are like giving customers bonus points for their loyalty, making them feel valued and excited to come back for more great deals.

Example of an Invitation to Join Wizz Discount Club

9. Compelling Welcome Emails

Welcome emails are the first messages a new subscriber receives, and they play a crucial role in setting the tone for future communication. These emails should create a strong first impression, build a connection with the audience, and reinforce brand identity of the sender.

It’s important for welcome emails to be original and stand out because they not only make subscribers feel welcomed but also capture their attention and leave a memorable mark, which is vital for a successful email marketing strategy. For instance, Vichy’s welcome email not only greets subscribers but also provides an enticing overview of the company, including a welcome discount and details about products and additional services like AI-based personalized skin consultations.

Compelling Welcome Email Example by Vichy.com

10. Engaging Subject Lines

35% of email recipients open emails based on the subject line alone, reports Compare Hare. Engaging subject lines can significantly boost your open rates. They should capture the essence of your email’s content and pique the recipient’s curiosity without being misleading.

Including elements like a sense of urgency, personalization (like the recipient’s name), or an intriguing question can make your subject lines more appealing. For example, Noom’s subject line like “Just in! Check out our new course packs” effectively creates excitement and a sense of urgency, and the use of an emoji adds a visual element that can draw even more attention.

11. Optimizing Your CTAs

Using a single, clear call-to-action in your emails simplifies the decision-making process for the recipient, making it more likely they’ll take the desired action. A clear and compelling CTA reduces confusion and focuses the reader’s attention, thereby enhancing engagement and potentially increasing conversion rates.

Lucidchart, a web-based diagramming application, provides an excellent example of a clear CTA tailored to their customers’ goals. Understanding that customers are more focused on achieving specific objectives, like planning and brainstorming, rather than just purchasing a product, Lucidchart crafted their CTA to emphasize these goals.

Example of an Optimized CTA in Lucidchart’s Email

12. Trigger-Based Campaigns

Trigger-based emails, which are sent in response to specific actions taken by users, are highly effective because they are timely and directly relevant to the user’s recent behavior or interest. This relevance significantly increases the likelihood of the email being opened and read, as it directly addresses the user’s current needs or interests, creating a more personalized and engaging email experience.

Trigger-based email campaigns can be initiated by actions like signing up, making a purchase, or browsing without buying. For example, if a user forgets their password, an automated email can be sent for password recovery, offering immediate assistance.

Example of a Trigger-based email from a gaming site

13. A/B Testing Content, Design, and Buttons

According to TrueList, successful A/B testing can result in a 50% increase in the average revenue per unique visitor for ecommerce sites. This showcases the significant impact that well-executed A/B testing can have on improving the effectiveness and profitability of email marketing campaigns, particularly in the ecommerce sector.

In the example below, MailerLite conducted an A/B test to see if placing images and GIFs at the start of an email would increase click rates. They compared a version with a GIF at the beginning against one without it and surprisingly found that the email without the GIF received much higher click rates.

Design A/B Test Case Study by MailerLite

14. Boosting Customer Engagement

This strategy focuses on creating emails that actively encourage participation from subscribers. Such emails can promote various engaging activities like competitions, online challenges, surveys, and quizzes.

For instance, the weight loss app Zero sends out emails inviting users to join in on a monthly challenge, encouraging them to participate and track their progress in the app, effectively boosting engagement and app usage.

Example of Boosting Customer Engagement with Email Campaigns (Zero)

15. Connecting with Social Media

Integrating social media can increase the reach of your emails. Including links to social platforms in your emails encourages followers to engage with you on multiple channels. Additionally, promoting email sign-ups on social media can help grow your subscriber list. This synergy between email and social media creates a more dynamic interaction with your audience, leveraging the strengths of both channels.

Social Media Links in the Newsletter of Zara

16. Seasonal Email Marketing Campaigns

Seasonality in email marketing involves tailoring email content to coincide with seasonal events, holidays, or specific times of the year. This strategy leverages the relevance of these periods to create more engaging and timely content. For instance, emails can be themed around major holidays like Christmas or Halloween, or even seasonal changes like summer promotions or winter sales.

Jazz Radio employs the seasonality strategy by theming their email “Swing into the Season: Jazz Jubilation Jamboree” around the holiday season, inviting subscribers to celebrate with a curated selection of holiday-themed jazz channels.

Example of Jazz Radio’s Seasonal Email Campaign

17. Avoiding Spam Filters

To ensure your emails reach the inbox, use recognizable sender information like a clear “From” name and email address (e.g., “John from Acme” or “support@acmecorp.com”). Avoid using spam-triggering phrases. Maintain a balanced mix of text and images in your emails, and always obtain permission from your recipients.

Select a reliable email service provider and monitor your email engagement metrics to identify and address any deliverability issues promptly. These practices are essential for effective email deliverability.

18. Finding the Right Time to Send Your Emails

Choosing the right time to send emails is a crucial part of your strategy, as it varies depending on your niche and how your customers interact with your brand.

Statistics show that Tuesday is often the best day to send emails, with 10-11 am on Tuesdays and Wednesdays being recommended times. Most emails (53%) are opened between 9 am and 5 pm, excluding lunch hours, and emails sent early in the morning (4:00-8:00 am) see a 33% transaction rate.

Using email automation tools can greatly assist in scheduling, tracking and optimizing the optimal times for sending your emails.

“Best time” Email Marketing Automation Feature by Brevo, helping to find an optimal time for sending emails.

19. Keeping Your Email List Clean

Regularly cleaning your list can improve your campaign’s deliverability and open rates. When combined with effective email segmentation, this approach ensures that your messages reach the right audience. This approach not only contributes to a cleaner email list but also enhances the relevance of your campaigns.

By sending targeted emails to segments of your audience who are most likely to engage, you’re effectively maintaining a high-quality, clean list, which is key to achieving higher open and click rates.

How to Craft a Strategy for Email Marketing: 12 Steps

To build a successful email marketing strategy, start by setting clear goals that match your business’s long-term aims. These goals need to be measurable with specific metrics. Follow this easy step-by-step guide to create a strategy that works for you.

1. Define Your Email Marketing Objectives

• Determine Long-term Goals: These can include generating leads, improving customer engagement, increasing sales, or boosting brand awareness. Each of these goals demands a different approach and set of tactics within your email strategy.
• Set Specific Email Metrics for Measurement:

• • Sign-Up Rate: This metric helps in assessing the effectiveness of your email list-building efforts. A higher sign-up rate indicates successful strategies in attracting new subscribers.
  • Email Open Rate: This measures how many people on an email list open the emails sent. Open rate is crucial for gauging the initial appeal of your email, including factors like the effectiveness of your subject lines.
  • Email Click-Through Rate (CTR): CTR tracks how many recipients are clicking on links within your emails. It’s a vital metric for understanding how engaging your email content is and how well it prompts action.
  • Email Conversion Rate: This is the percentage of email recipients who complete a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a webinar. It directly ties your email campaigns to your business goals and is key for measuring ROI.

• Divide your Strategy into Quarters for Tracking Progress: Dividing your email marketing strategy into quarters (every three months) is a strategic way to track progress and adjust tactics.

Setting target values for your email marketing metrics is not a one-size-fits-all process. It requires a balanced consideration of industry standards, historical data, audience behavior, content strategy, and continuous refinement through testing and adaptation.

2. Analyze Your Audience

• Conduct thorough market research to understand your target audience, including their preferences, behaviors, and needs.
• Create detailed buyer personas to guide your content and campaign strategies.
• Analyze your website traffic metrics, including bounce rate and exit rate. This data provides insights into how visitors interact with your site and where they might lose interest or encounter issues.

3. Come up with Email Collection Strategy

This step involves deciding how you’ll gather email addresses from potential subscribers. Effective strategies include:

• Pop-Ups: Use these on your website to capture attention and encourage email sign-ups. Pop-ups can appear when visitors first arrive or as they’re about to leave.
• Exclusive Offers: Offer special deals or content available only to those who subscribe to your emails. This incentive can significantly boost sign-up rates.
• Homepage Sign-Up Form: Place a prominent sign-up form on your homepage, making it easy for visitors to subscribe.
• Coupon Codes: Offer discount codes in exchange for email sign-ups. This method can be particularly effective for ecommerce sites.
• Sign-Up Forms on Key Pages: Include sign-up forms at the end of important pages on your website, such as blog posts, product pages, or service descriptions.

This strategy is crucial for building a list of engaged subscribers interested in your offerings.

4. Segment Your Email List

Segmentation in email marketing means dividing your email subscribers into smaller, more focused groups. This helps in sending them more relevant and personalized emails. Here’s how to come up with an email segmentation strategy:

• Understand Segmentation Basics: It involves grouping your email list based on certain criteria, like who they are (demographics), what they do (behavior), what they’ve bought (purchase history), or how they interact with your emails (engagement level).
• Use Sign-Up Information: When people sign up through forms on your website, collect information like their interests, location, or age. Use this data to create segments. For example, if someone signs up via a form on a page about gardening, you might add them to a ‘Gardening Interest’ segment.
• Analyze Behavior Through Pop-Ups and Surveys: Use pop-ups and surveys to ask for additional information or preferences. This can help in segmenting your audience based on their self-identified interests or needs.
• Track Where Users Signed Up: Note which page or form on your website a subscriber used to sign up. This can indicate their interests or what they’re looking for, helping you to tailor your email content accordingly.
• Implement Interest-Based Segmentation: Group subscribers by their stated interests. If you have different categories of products or content, segment your audience according to what each group is most likely to engage with.

5. Craft Your Email Content Strategy and Messaging

Decide what you’ll say in your emails and how you’ll say it to connect with your audience and represent your brand.

• Identify Key Messages: Think about the main points you want to communicate to your audience. This could be information about your products, industry news, or helpful tips. Using email templates can help streamline this process, with pre-defined templates allowing you to maintain a consistent look and feel.
• Decide on Tone and Style: Choose a tone and style that matches your brand personality and appeals to your audience. Are you formal and professional, or casual and friendly?
• Plan Relevant Content: Make sure the content in your emails is relevant to your audience. Use the insights from your audience segmentation to tailor your messages to different groups.
• Integrate with Content Marketing: If you have a blog or produce other types of content, include or reference this in your emails. It’s a great way to provide value and keep your audience engaged.
• Consistency is Key: Keep your messaging and tone consistent across all emails to build brand recognition and trust.
• Include Calls to Action: Always have a clear call to action (CTA) in your emails. What do you want the reader to do next? Whether it’s visiting a webpage, buying a product, or learning more about a service, make it clear and easy.

6. Decide on Campaign Types

Identify which types of email campaigns align with your objectives and audience segments.

• Understand the Email Marketing Funnel: The marketing funnel consists of several stages, each aligning with specific campaign types:

• • Awareness Stage: At this initial stage, your goal is to introduce your brand and build interest. Campaigns like welcome emails are perfect here. They greet new subscribers and start building a relationship by introducing your brand’s story, values, and what they can expect from your emails.
  • Consideration Stage: Here, potential customers are evaluating their options. Nurture emails play a key role in this stage. These can include educational content, product highlights, or how-tos that showcase your expertise and the value of your products or services.
  • Decision Stage: This is where leads make a purchasing decision. Sales or promotional emails are effective in this stage. They can include special offers, product discounts, or compelling reasons to choose your brand over others.

Sales Funnel Used for Email Marketing Strategy Planning

Source: MetricTheory.com

• Align Campaigns with Your Objectives and Segments:

• • Welcome Series: Use this to build a connection with new subscribers. Tailor the content to reflect what attracted them to your brand initially.

Welcome Email example by Steve Madden

• • Lead Nurturing Campaigns: These are designed to educate and engage your leads over time. Segment your list to send relevant information that moves them closer to a purchase decision.

Lead Nurturing Email Campaign example from Sprinly

• • Re-engagement Campaigns: Aimed at rekindling interest among subscribers who haven’t interacted with your emails in a while. Personalize these emails based on past interactions to make them more relevant.

Newsletter example from Sprinly: Not a Vegan? Not a Problem – the plant based brand in an attempt to re-engage inactive subscribers who are not vegan

• Combining Campaigns into Your Overall Strategy:

• • Integrated Approach: Each campaign type should seamlessly integrate into your overall strategy, guiding subscribers through the funnel stages.
  • Consistent Branding and Messaging: Ensure all types of emails reflect your brand’s voice and messaging for a cohesive experience.
  • Monitor and Adjust: Continuously analyze the performance of different campaign types. Ensure each campaign type effectively contributes to your overall objectives.

7. Set Up Email Automation

Using marketing automation in email marketing makes your work easier and more reliable, as it helps you send out emails automatically and consistently without having to do everything manually each time.

• Efficiency and Consistency: When you automate your emails, they automatically go to the right people at the right time. It helps your brand look more professional and dependable.
• Welcome Email Automation: Create a set of welcome emails that automatically send to new people who sign up.
• Automated Transactional Emails: Set up automatic emails for things like order confirmations, shipping updates, and receipts. These are the emails people expect to get when they buy something, and they help make your brand seem more trustworthy.
• Triggered Email Responses: Have emails that send automatically based on what customers do. For example, send an email to someone who puts something in their cart but doesn’t buy it, or a thank-you email after they make a purchase.
• Personalized and Segmentation: Use automation to personalize emails based on user data and segment behavior. Tailored messages resonate more with recipients, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
• Learn About Automation Tools: To find out which email marketing tool is best for automating your emails, look up our guide on marketing automation software. They’ll give you info on the best tools, and tips on how to use them well.

8. Plan Your Email Calendar

Develop a content calendar for your email campaigns, scheduling the frequency and timing of emails. Ensure your email schedule aligns with other marketing activities and significant dates relevant to your audience.

Email Marketing Calendar Template from Moosend

9. Design and A/B Test Your Emails

Making sure your emails look great and work well is key to engaging your audience and getting them to take action.

• Create Visually Appealing, Mobile-Friendly Emails: Your emails should be eye-catching and easy to read, especially on mobile devices. Most people check their emails on their phones, so it’s important to ensure your emails look good and are easy to navigate on smaller screens.
• Conduct A/B Testing: This is like running a mini-experiment to see what works best. You can test different subject lines, calls-to-action (CTAs), or email layouts. For example, send one version of an email with a certain subject line to some of your audience, and another version with a different subject line to another part of your audience. Then, see which one gets more opens or clicks. This helps you understand what leads to more people taking the action you want, like clicking a link or making a purchase. Remember to test only one element at a time.
• Optimize for Engagement and Conversions: Use the insights from your A/B tests to make your emails better. This means changing things based on what your audience likes and responds to, making it more likely they’ll engage with your emails and do what you’re asking them to do, like buying a product or signing up for an event.

10. Measure and Adjust

• Monitor Key Metrics: Keep a close eye on your strategy success metrics such as open rate, click-through rate (CTR), conversion rate, and sign-up rate. These indicators will show you how well your campaigns align with your initial objectives.
• Refine Based on Analytics: Utilize insights from your email campaign analytics to refine your approach. If certain metrics are not meeting your expectations, adjust elements like content, frequency, or targeting to better resonate with your audience.

11. Stay Informed and Adapt

• Stay Updated with Trends and Best Practices: The world of email marketing is always evolving. Keep yourself informed about the latest trends, technologies, and best practices in email marketing. This can involve subscribing to industry newsletters, attending webinars, or participating in relevant online forums.

12. Gather Feedback:

• Actively Seek Audience Input: Regularly seek feedback from your audience to understand their needs and perceptions of your emails. This can be done through surveys, feedback forms embedded in emails, or direct replies to your email campaigns.
• Use Feedback to Understand Needs: The feedback you receive is a valuable source of insight into your audience’s needs, preferences, and potential areas for improvement in your email strategy. Pay attention to what they like, what they don’t, and what suggestions they have for changes or new content.

Conclusion: Crafting Email Marketing Strategy is Essential

Whether you’re a startup aiming to establish a brand presence, a growing business seeking customer loyalty, or an established company looking to optimize outreach, understanding and implementing an effective email marketing strategy is vital. By personalizing your emails, delivering valuable content, and utilizing proven tactics like interactive emails, you can nurture stronger customer relationships and drive conversions. Email marketing strategy is the compass guiding businesses of all stages toward digital success.

Next Steps: What Now?

• Make sure your email marketing strategy is aligned with your overall Digital Marketing Strategy
• Understand the differences between a Marketing Strategy and a Marketing Plan
• Master Measuring Marketing Performance (Plus Key Marketing Metrics to Track)

Learn More About Email Marketing

• What Is Email Marketing, and How Does It Work? Key Insights
• AI in Email Marketing: How to Use AI Tools for Email Automation and More
• Average Email Marketing Open Rate: Industry Benchmarks & Tips to Boost Opens
• Opt-In Email Marketing Key Concepts, Best Practices & Examples
• eCommerce Email Marketing: Strategies and Tips for Success
• How to Create a Business Email: A Complete Guide
• What Is Marketing Automation: A Complete Guide with Tips, Tools, and More
• eCommerce Automation: How It Works (plus Tools and Benefits)
• Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Definition, Examples, and Key Components
• What Are Marketing Channels: Definition, Types, and Examples
• What Is a Marketing Funnel in Digital Marketing? Stages, Metrics, and Examples
• What Is Retail Marketing and Why Is It Important?
• Top 17 Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them