Top Email Ideas To Amp Up Your Marketing In 2021

The world is getting smaller and companies are often getting deep into different marketing ideas to get noticed and stand out from the competition. While having a great online presence is a must these days- the humble and reliable email marketing still holds its own in the melee of noise.

While terms like welcome emails, newsletters, and offer emails are being thrown around like they are all the same, we beg to differ. We believe each one has a role to play in the narrative of your customer journey and each one builds on the other to create a cohesive, trust-building message where your brand’s unique essence can shine through.

Let us look at some of these email ideas and break down how you can amp up your marketing.

Welcome Emails

A well-documented fact is that welcome emails have the highest delivery, open, and click-through rates. This presents a great opportunity to get your message heard and create an affinity for your reader towards your brand. We like to think of it as the ability of your email to wow your customer. We list out a few great ideas below.

Keep it focused on the customer– While introducing yourself is great for a customer, we should keep it short. No one wants the whole story without creating curiosity first. So focus on your customer. That means providing them information that will help them. You can build easy-to-navigate icons for them to get started, share support details, next steps, and reward collection.

Set expectations– A great example of this is when a customer signs up for your newsletter. Create an expectation like highlighting when your next newsletter will arrive in their inbox. You can be playful and have a teaser or provide links to previous content to get them up to speed.

Incentives– You can shorten their sales funnel by providing signup incentives. Offering discounts or freebies can encourage your customer to engage with your brand quicker. This goes back to the previous point where the customer is fulfilled in the question – “What is in it for me?”

Stay Connected– Invite your customer to your social media pages, where they can engage with you or see upcoming promotional events. Think of it as being where the customer is and not necessarily waiting for them to come to you.

Promotional Emails

Welcome emails may enjoy the luxury of higher open rates but you can still develop the art for high-quality promotional emails in your marketing strategy.

Annotations– We are all familiar with the spam filter in our email but have you ever noticed new tabs on your Gmail called Promotions. While reducing clutter in your inbox, they also provide lesser-used features that as an email marketer, you should familiarize yourself with. These annotations allow you to highlight your promotional emails with company logos, company names, discount codes, and expiration dates, among other options. Feel free to use these features to drive your email higher up the page.

Subject Line– Catch your readers’ attention with short and relevant text. There is no one size fits all in this area so we encourage a lot of testing to understand how your customers see your promotional emails. Think of a drop in click-through rates as bad subject line content. Another tip is to ensure your subject line is in line with the promotional email content. Low relevance between the two will turn off your customer to future promotional emails.

Feature/Product Release Emails

Product and feature releases are great times to deepen your relations with your customers. They also help re-attract or re-engage lukewarm customers. Apart from the above-mentioned emails, there are also pre-order, future sales, and event invitations that you can include in this format. Below are a few great points to ensure greater engagement.

Timing is Everything– Plan a sequence of emails instead of one email on the launch date. This way you create anticipation but you also release details in bite-sized chunks instead. This helps your customer retain details better. Roll out your launch with content a few weeks before the actual launch.

Follow-up– Some of your customers will inevitably miss out on your launch. This is still a great opportunity to have an email sent to customers who have not engaged with your previous sets of emails regarding the event.

Thank You Emails

Thank you emails are great user-action-based emails that are triggered by specific actions by your customer. While good manners are showcased, they also offer a generous way to appreciate your customers’ time and effort. Great ideas to get the most out of your thank you emails is

Automate– As your business grows, automation will be the best way to keep your thank you emails timely and relevant. Plan your triggers well to get the most out of your automation tools. You can look at first purchases, where you have emails, which include helpful resources to ensure a smooth experience for your customers. Celebrate milestones with repeat customers.

Personalize– Using your customer’s name in the email allows for a human touch to your emails and encourages engagement

Up-sell & Cross-sell – A great way to encourage growth in your sales is to talk about related products or features that a customer can also buy based on their purchase.

Feedback– Do not ignore collecting feedback from your customers. Collecting feedback along with your thank you emails is a good way to have a 2-way conversation built with your customer.

Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned carts are a real opportunity as the customer has 1 foot in through the door. A successful email campaign would look less like spam for abandoned cart customers but instead guide them through with better communication. Schedule your abandoned cart email reminders carefully. Start with one within a few hours, a few days later, and eventually big guns like promotional offers. A few things you can keep in mind are

Catchy Subject Line – Include products from their cart, resume your order, or include stock selling out fast are compelling lines.

Offers or Discount – Limited offers with an expiry date or delivery options.

Clear Call to Action – A quick link from the email to the customer’s cart or payment options.

Reviews – Highlight great reviews on the product or service.

Newsletters

Newsletters open a large area of content that you can create to keep your subscribers engaged. Let us look at a few ideas that you can create content around.

Case Studies and Testimonials – Create a sense of inclusion from your customers by highlighting what they are a part of.

Blog Post Roundups – Drive traffic to your older content with roundups of popular or related blog posts.

Guides– Improve engagement with customers with guides or walkthroughs of your product/service.

Highlight User-Generated Content– Highlight how your other customers are using your product or service.

Start conversations – Drive a 2-way conversation with your users with Q&A sessions.

Invite guests– Having industry influencers, leaders and experts improve perception, and help you command a direction for your users.

Host a Poll – Improve your knowledge of users’ opinions with polls.

Share and celebrate milestones – Let users celebrate milestones with you. This cements your perception in their minds as well as becomes a great way to drive newer customers to you.

Conclusion

We shared a small portion of what you can do with Email Marketing for 2021. We believe you get the picture of how much more you can re-invent within this space. We encourage you to have a look at your customer’s journey by imagining yourself as the customer. We bet you will find new ideas that will drive your marketing strategy that is new and refreshing.

Author Bio

Rukham Khan is the Content Lead at MailMunch. He writes articles on email marketing and eCommerce to add value for small businesses. Outside of MailMunch, you can find him DJing and playing squash.