When it comes to email marketing, a lot of business owners aren’t sure where to start. There are many different email strategies you can use to facilitate your different business goals. If you aren’t quite sure what to email your customers, use our 24 email marketing ideas below to help you.
General Email Ideas
You can use email to communicate a number of things to your customers. Regardless of your industry, you can use email to communicate company updates, news, and other valuable content.
Here are some general email marketing ideas to get you started:
1. Welcome Emails
There are several different types of emails you could send to someone when they first become a subscriber. The most important point is that you should send them some form of a welcome email. It’s up to you if the email includes a coupon, survey, or something else.
2. Relevant News
For a lot of businesses, it doesn’t make sense to send emails about events or sales because you don’t have them. Instead, you could use your email to build trust and credibility with your subscribers by sharing relevant industry news. For example, an accounting firm might share a news article about major tax law changes. Sharing relevant news helps position your business as an expert or trusted resource.
3. Valuable Content
Not all of your email subscribers will be ready to make a purchase with you at the same time. In fact, some people may receive emails for months before they buy something. Offering valuable content in the meantime keeps them engaged with your brand. Depending on your business, “valuable content” could be educational blog posts, white papers, how-to guides, or any other tips, tricks, and freebies.
4. Company Updates
In general, someone on your email list wants to be in the know about your company. That’s why they signed up in the first place. You can use email campaigns to keep subscribers updated about major news for your business. For example, send an email if you open another location or reach a major milestone. Some businesses communicate changes in leadership when they are actively hiring.
5. Invitations
Will your business be at a community event or a professional conference? Then you should let your subscribers know and invite them to seek you out. And of course, use your email list to promote your own special events. If you host a webinar or lecture, your email list should be one of the first places you announce it.
6. Newsletters
You may not offer sales or promotions every day. But, you need to keep your email list engaged over time. One way to do this is by providing some sort of regular email content such as newsletters. Newsletters look different for every type of business. For example, a restaurant might send an email every Monday with their weekly specials.
7. Request Reviews
If you want more online reviews, you need to ask for them. We recommend sending an email review request to your existing customers to generate more reviews.
Promotional Emails
If people agree to receive emails from you, they likely want to know more about your business. This doesn’t mean you should overwhelm them with your email marketing ideas. In promotional emails, be sure you are highlighting the benefits of your product or service instead of just talking about yourself.
Here are a few promotional email marketing ideas:
8. New Product Releases
You can use email to announce a new product or service. Instead of one email, you could send a sequence beginning with a teaser email, an announcement email, and a follow-up with a special offer.
9. Start or End of Season
If your business operates seasonally, email is a great way to remind your customers to take action. For example, a family farm may only open its pumpkin patch to visitors in the fall. Or, a Medicare advisor might need to enroll all his potential customers in a plan before a federal deadline.
10. Social Proof
Social proof is a great way for your business to highlight the value of your offering and drive sales. For example, you could share customer testimonials, success stories, and user-generated content. Be sure to include a call to action directed at customers facing the same problems.
11. Product Education
One email idea that you can use at any time is to educate your customers. Help them learn how to get the most out of your product or service. For example, you may share tutorials for using your software.
Special Offer Email Ideas
A very common use of email marketing is to communicate special offers to your customers. If you include an engaging subject line and a strong offer, you should see positive results from this type of marketing. Here are some special offer email marketing ideas:
12. Welcome Offer
If you offer an incentive to encourage email signups, it should be included in the first email you send. Depending on your business, you may offer different types of incentives. For example, a grocery store might offer a coupon for a free loaf of bread to anyone that signs up for emails. The coupon code would be sent in the first email.
13. Sales
If your business runs a sale, you should communicate the details to your email audience. You can send a sales announcement email. Or, you can send an email reminder with a countdown timer as the last call before the sale ends.
14. Limited Offers
A limited offer is a great way to reengage your audience because it gives them an incentive and a deadline to claim it. An example of this might be offering free shipping or waiving other fees. You could also choose to bundle some of your products or services for a limited time.
15. Free Gift or Free Trial
Similar to a limited offer, you can use a free gift or free trial to reengage your audience. A free trial could transform an email subscriber into a customer. A free gift could incentivize a new purchase from someone who bought from your business previously.
Emails for Customer Retention
Email marketing can help you build loyalty with existing customers and keep them engaged with your business. You may want to encourage your existing customers to make additional purchases. Or, you could turn your customers into brand advocates who bring you more business.
Here are some email marketing ideas focused on customer retention:
16. Loyalty Discounts
If your business benefits from customers who return again and again, you should consider some sort of loyalty program. Track interactions with individual customers and then reward them. This encourages them to do more business with you. You can use email to share your loyalty discounts with customers.
17. Surveys
Your existing customers are a great source of information for your business. You can use email surveys to learn more about your customer base and improve your marketing strategy. Additionally, surveys are a great way to request feedback about your business.
18. Recommendations
If you are trying to convince previous customers to purchase from your business again, you can recommend them additional products or services. You can base these recommendations on previous purchases they’ve made. For example, an insurance agent might use this email marketing idea to recommend a homeowners policy to a client who previously purchased an auto policy.
19. Reminders
If you offer subscriptions or appointments, you may want to email your customers with reminders. For example, a gym that offers annual subscriptions may need to send an email reminder to renew. A business such as a spa would send appointment reminders via email.
20. Incentivize Referrals
Your existing customers can be some of the best advocates for your business. You could send an email to your subscribers with a referral incentive like a gift card or special offer.
Personalized Email Ideas
Tags and segments allow you to send more specific emails to smaller groups of your entire audience. As you collect emails, you should make an effort to organize data about your contacts to make personalization easier. For example, a retail store might notate someone’s preferred shopping location.
If you want to improve your personalization, you can send a survey. Collecting more details about your subscribers gives you more options to personalize the content they receive. Here are some email marketing ideas with a personal touch:
21. Birthday
You can send a special offer to your customers on their birthday. For example, a restaurant might send a coupon for a free appetizer.
22. Geographical Segments
If your business has multiple locations, you may want to send emails specific to one location or region. For example, a bank may want to announce a new mortgage loan officer at a single branch.
23. Previous Behavior
You can use email to follow up with customers who behave a certain way. If your business includes an online store, you can send abandoned cart emails. Or if a customer made an appointment and then canceled, you can send a follow-up email to reschedule.
24. Email Preferences
People really only want to read the emails they care about. Not all of your subscribers care about the same thing. If you plan to send many types of emails, you should give your audience an opportunity to choose their preferences. For example, a customer may only want new product announcement emails.
Want More Ideas?
Our team can help you get the most out of your email marketing ideas. Chat with us about email ideas specific to your business.
