7 Examples of Impressive Email Marketing Campaigns

Email has always been an essential aspect of digital marketing. It helps you stay connected with your clients and create a brand presence in the minds of your existing customers and prospects. 

When every business fights to gain customers, the attention span of views is drastically reduced. Encouraging your visitors to act has become challenging; hence, your emails should be personalized and informative. 

Online marketing is difficult, but creating successful email campaigns is a different task altogether. But if we want them to be original, impressive, and attractive, we must make them micro-targeted, and problems are solved. 

However, you have to work hard on it to increase your customers' engagement with the brand.

Why?

Email marketing helps you create powerful brand value. Email marketing gives you the flexibility to launch highly personalized campaigns. And everyone's tastes and preferences are taken into account when receiving content. Why would your recipients open your emails if that isn't the case?

To get the best results, you need to be creative and send emails at the right time. Today, we will analyze seven examples of impressive email campaigns and the top features that make them stand out.

While designing your emails, you should keep all the best practices in mind. We will decode them while analyzing the campaigns from the top companies that have nailed the marketing juggernaut. 

You learn from your environment. It’s true! There is an old proverb: “You become what you seek.” So it is best to move forward, search and be curious. The more things you know, the more open your mind will be. Only then will you be able to deliver fantastic email campaigns that give you a good ROI.

I have sent enough email campaigns to know that creating successful email marketing campaigns can be a real headache. It isn't easy to find successful email campaigns, for example, references, etc., which is not the case in social media campaigns or landing page design. I talked to the experts in email funnel creation and the founder of a blog dedicated to email marketing to get an insight into what makes email marketing a tough nail to crack. 

“You need to analyze the emails sent by your competitors to see what is working; they have already been optimizing their campaigns; you start from there and build up,” Jordie van Rijn, Founder & chief at Email Vendor Selection.

“You need to remember that Emails are a part of personal communication between brands and their users. And unless one of them shares them, it is difficult to get hold of one; even if you get hold of an email, it is very unlikely to know if it was a successful one.” Aabhas Vijay, Founder at SMTPServers.

Nely Bonar, director - Of Email Expert, also agreed with the statements that it is indeed tough to find out what works and whatnot, “It depends on the kind of business you are in, each campaign is unique, and you should keep the behavioral interaction of your users in mind while creating your campaigns.” 

Don’t worry; in this article, I will provide you with some of the best email examples I have come across lately. I hope they will give you a little tweak to your imagination while designing your campaigns. So, let’s dive right in!

7 Examples of Email Marketing Campaigns

1.- Warby Parker

According to a study conducted by online marketing companies BuzzStream and Fractl, more than 50% of consumers consider a sense of humor an essential ingredient in email marketing. So, let’s begin our list with a fun example, shall we?

But you should keep in mind that using humor can be tricky. Not everyone has the same sense of humor or makes you laugh the same. Therefore, you have to work on it carefully.

One of the funniest email campaigns is the Warby Parker sunglasses. I love the humor they use in their campaigns. It's not selling you offers or showing you products, or asking you to fill out a form. It's just making you laugh.

The great advantage of this email campaign is that it reinforces subscribers' engagement towards the brand. Of course, as long as the humor is not abused and the messages begin to be heavy.

2.- Charity: Water

Generally, what comes to your mind when you talk about email marketing? Promotional emails or marketing emails, right? Exactly! Even most marketers tend to forget about an essential part of the email ecosystem - Transactional emails. In fact, they are the emails that should be used the most since 75% of users open and read them, something that does not happen with the rest of the messages.

Do you know what transactional emails are? They are user-generated emails sent out using autoresponders when users trigger them through their actions or behaviors on the website. For example, you automatically receive a purchase confirmation email when you buy something. And I have seen in my journey that many marketers tend to forget that transnational emails have one of the best open rates in the industry, so you need to make the best out of them. In this example, we will decide how to use your transactional emails to your advantage.

In this example, Charity: Water used its transactional emails to invoke a reaction and imbibe a sense of belongingness. The moment someone donates money to the charity: "Water," that amount begins a journey.

That's a perfect way for users to tell about their money's journey. Charity's "Water" project uses transactional emails to give valuable information to customers. 

They show the complete journey of your money, how it is being used and what impact it has over time.

It is a good idea to use a transactional email since many marketers do not even provide a format other than text.

3.- Airbnb

The best emails are not the ones that sell you the most products but make an impact and get your attention.

Airbnb has perfectly mastered the art of sending perfectly crafted emails. In the above example, Airbnb does not focus solely on the subscriber but also involves a group of friends. And what’s a better way to do so than with an offer?

Sharing your passions with your friends and loved ones is pure thought and targets your EQ; this type of email is not classified as purely "promotional." Although subtly, a doodle adds character to the email without using strong colors or large creatives. 

Another aspect emphasized is Sharing. Therefore, it is sought that the recipient and their friends both have a win-win situation if they share the email with their friends. 

4.- Zomato

Zomato's email is a clear example of an awesome email marketing campaign, as you can see in this email—which is a resume of a biryani. In the end, they closed the email with a “Hire Now” button instead of “Order food,” which is usually the norm around food-delivering start-ups. 

Zomato has one of the most fun and quirky email campaigns. Every email is different, bold, and filled with visuals. The recipients look forward to their emails. 

5.- Thrive Market

The health food store is branded with one of the most popular email marketing campaigns. They efficiently use urgency-based communication. Thrive Market highlights its "Limited Time Offer" and "Expires Tomorrow" on its call to action. Creating a feeling of urgency is one of the best tactics to get a hold of the client from the matter itself.

What if your product is something you've been looking for for a long time? Now that it is about to run out, you may be encouraged to buy it. This increases the chances of pursuing your prospects to take action multiple times. 

In addition, they have a video at the bottom as a hook. Considering the power of video in today’s communication, it's a safe bet.

The video helps in generating trust among your recipients. At the end of the email, they also have pointers highlighting the main features of their food items. This email is a complete package.

6.- Uber

Many companies use geolocation to segment emails in their email marketing campaigns. This is a clear example.

Uber is characterized by its originality in its email marketing campaigns, and in the above example, it has gone away and beyond. The mail was sent a few days before a beer festival called Harrisburg Beer Week started. It was targeted at residents and tourists visiting the Harrisburg area.

The weather during the days of the event was not favorable; Uber realized that, so those who attended the fair would need transport to get there.

Realizing the attendees' needs during that week, they decided to add a bonus in the same email. In this way, they invited customers to encourage their friends to use Uber since they would get a discount.

They considered the date of the event, the location, and the bad weather. Do you think they turned the disadvantage to their side?

7.- Bonobos

What happens if we combine creativity, humor and our product in a very subtle way? The Bonobos men's clothing store always knows how to make the most of it. Its business model is not a typical one. The store has a physical location where customers can only try on clothes but not buy them. Why? I think they realized how lazy men are when carrying bags!! It is as if we haven’t taken enough bags for our counterparts. 

Building on the insight that "men need a little help when shopping for clothes," the store launched a fun strategy. This email campaign works in two aspects. 

First, it helps the user choose what to wear depending on the occasion, so it adds value. Second, this little game encourages the user to play and interact, as you can see, adding a touch of humor.

The message is simple and fun. However, the most important thing is that it immediately appeals to Bonobo's target audience.

In short, the first thing you should do is always think about your target's needs and adapt to them. But do not use the easy way, i.e., straight-away promotional emails. Try to stand out with small tweaks, humor, or relevant user information through your newsletter.

As you have seen, the most successful and striking email marketing campaigns must not be complicated. You need to be original and be yourself to create a brand presence. Also, if you give your email marketing campaigns a little emotional touch, you will get more conversions.

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