If you're looking to harness the power of email marketing to increase sales and drive your business in 2024, learning from best practices can help.
We've collected five of our favorite email campaigns of 2020 from top brands like Starbucks and Airbnb to inspire your next digital marketing project.
Each of these campaigns offers specific lessons about email marketing strategy, including the power of design, the importance of tight copy, and the power of asking for customer feedback. With these creative ideas and proven tips for success, you're sure to reap the benefits of your next email marketing push.
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What you can learn from the best email campaigns
1. “Wool and Gang” attracts attention with intriguing headlines
Wool and the Gang, a crochet and knitting kit company, uses creative and intriguing headlines to encourage customers to open their emails. Is there one sample? A simple phrase: “Do you have any plans tonight?”
For a primarily millennial audience, the use of common text message phrases makes this email seem more like a note from a friend than a sales tactic. By using the same language (and asking questions) as the audience, Wool and the Gang makes it hard to resist the urge to look inside.
They use GIFs that play in their iMessage themes to back up their creative headlines with fun content. This email campaign proves that you don't need any fancy footwork to get your customers to open your promotional email, you just need to speak to them in their language.
2. Headspace keeps copy simple
You might expect a lengthy discussion of meditation from the mindfulness app Headspace, but the company's email marketing campaign is surprisingly concise. Headspace uses friendly graphics, a clean color palette, and to-the-point copy to drive users to the app, share promotions, and offer mindfulness tips.
Using simple copy is powerful because it doesn't overwhelm the reader. Instead, the brand comes across as helpful, positive, and valuing your time. The result was an email campaign that showed Headspace believes in the power of their product.
3. Starbucks uses design to inspire
Starbucks knows you're not opening your email to read about a Vanilla Caramel Latte, you just want to drink it. That's why the company takes an image-focused approach to its email campaigns.
Friendly fonts, a consistent and soothing color palette of our trademark evergreen, and high-quality images of our products are the focus of our promotional emails. We also know that customers are looking for an excuse to stop by and get a drink, so we display promotions (like a 50% off his coupon) in large letters to make them easier to spot.
Starbucks email marketing proves that you don't need many languages to create the best email campaign. Just remind your consumers how much they love your product.
4. Buzzfeed makes content customizable
To reach your audience, you need to make it easy for them to get what they want. This is Buzzfeed's innovative approach to email marketing.
As a news and entertainment site with a huge number of verticals, Buzzfeed understands that our readers may not want to see all of the content we have to offer. As a workaround, I created themed email marketing campaigns with sections like Politics, Books, Parents, etc., making it easy to subscribe to only the lists I was interested in.
Why is this important? This shows that Buzzfeed cares about customers actually reading the content, rather than just embedding the brand in their inboxes. Customers are also more likely to interact with your content if it is targeted to them.
5. Airbnb asks for customer feedback
One of the fundamentals of email marketing is knowing your audience. That's why Airbnb frequently asks customers to share their opinions through short surveys.
Rather than focusing on promotional email campaigns, Airbnb solicits feedback by asking customers about their booking experience, like in this email. A simple design and short copy respect your customers' time, making them more likely to click on your survey.
Do you like being asked for your opinion? It shows your customers that you care about what they think, and so do your customers. Airbnb takes a customer-centric approach to digital marketing by focusing on data collection. This is a valuable lesson for aspiring email marketers.
6. Tuft and Needle uses email to re-engage with prospects.
Abandoned shopping carts are a big problem for online retailers. Mattress company Tuft & Needle decided to solve that problem by ramping up its digital marketing.
When a user abandons their shopping cart on the Tuft & Needle site, they receive a series of short emails regarding the mattress purchasing process. Tuft and Needle starts by acknowledging how painful buying a mattress can be.
They are not afraid to be upfront with customers about their purchasing experience and try to address potential customer concerns by reminding them of warranties and return policies so that people can buy with confidence.
Tuft & Needle also takes time to educate customers on how it compares to other brands and the factors to consider when making a purchase. The content is informative and friendly (not salesy), and readers feel like they've received good advice.
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Learn how to provide content that enriches people's lives and creates positive experiences. Align their interests with your business values to ensure you create the best email campaigns that will last.
