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Have you ever thought to yourself, is email marketing really worth the hassle? We’ll tell you for free – trust us, it is! 

Email marketing is one of a business’s most valuable marketing tools and these email marketing stats will tell you why: 

  • Email marketing has an overall ROI of 4,200%
  • Automated emails can generate 320% more revenue over unautomated emails 
  • 60% of consumers report having made a purchase as a result of a promotional email

Email marketing can become less of a burdensome task and more of a thrilling motivating factor when you see how your carefully crafted email marketing campaigns drive real and steady results. 

With an estimated 4.73 billion email users in 2026, you don’t want to sleep on using email marketing to your advantage. In this blog, we will explore the best email marketing ideas for your business and all the tips and tricks you need to to successfully implement a range of different email marketing ideas. 

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Without further ado, continue reading or skip ahead to the 35 best email marketing ideas for your business: 

Related: The Top 50+ Online Business Tools Used by Entrepreneurs

What is email marketing? 

Email marketing is the use of email for promoting the products or services that your business offers. It’s one of the most valuable tools for gaining subscribers and incentivizing customer loyalty. 

If you implement email marketing into your business strategy, you will most likely be running an email marketing campaign, which is essentially a scheduled series of automated emails that are created to capture and hold onto customer leads. Email campaigns ensure you aren’t chaotically sending unstructured emails – which could result in customers hitting the unsubscribe button – making it an unpleasant experience for both you and your customers. 

Email campaigns are structured, well-planned out series of emails that each have a specific purpose and call-to-action (CTA) that motivates customers towards a desired business goal or outcome, such as signing up for a webinar or purchasing an online course. Ultimately the goal with an email marketing campaign is to increase sales and customer engagement. 

At the end of the day, your email marketing tactics should be providing enough value so that you can build trusting relationships with your subscribers, keeping them engaged by sharing personalized content that is relevant to them. 

Benefits of email marketing 

The use of emails in your marketing strategy is genius for this sole reason: it forces people to take some sort of action, or the email will sit in their inbox until it’s either read, deleted, or archived. 

This powerful channel is an extremely effective marketing tool for highlighting new products, discounts, or other services and changes within your business. It’s a direct communication line from your business to your customers. Email marketing is a vital part of any business’s marketing strategy as it’s how companies generate leads, drive traffic, promote brand awareness, increase sales, and establish lasting relationships with engaged customers. 

Another benefit with email marketing is that it allows your business to collect data about your subscribers so that you can adjust or modify your marketing strategy depending on what is and isn’t working well. 

To stay relevant, you’ll want your business to be in the back of your consumers’  minds at all times – even if potential customers aren’t ready to purchase your service or product at this exact moment. The surest way to be at the front of the line when customers are ready to purchase is for them to receive a ping! to let them know you’ve landed in their personal inbox. 

Even if you aren’t brewing with ready-to-use email marketing ideas, it’s never too late to join the bandwagon! In all seriousness, if email marketing isn’t already a part of your marketing strategy, it should be. This is the best way to increase engagement, boost conversion rates, and better customer retention.

Next we will share our top 35 email marketing ideas that will provide value to your subscribers and have them looking forward to opening an email sent by your business.

Related: What is a Good Landing Page Conversion Rate?

Top 35 email marketing ideas 

To take the pressure off your shoulders, we have crafted 35 of the best email marketing ideas that you can easily integrate into your business’s digital marketing strategy. 

Take what is relevant to your business, leave what doesn’t feel right, and save this page for the next time you need to spice up your email marketing strategy! 

We have broken down our top 35 email marketing ideas into these four key categories: 

Let’s dive in!

  1. Content ideas 

  1. Personalized welcome emails 

First impressions are everything, right? Every company should craft an engaging welcome email that is automatically sent to new subscribers to help familiarize them with your brand. Personalized welcome emails help establish a connection right from the get-go, which is step one of building customer loyalty. 

Successful welcome emails include the purpose of the email, outlining the type of content your subscribers can expect to see. These emails often include incentives such as first-time discounts to show your appreciation, reeling in and hooking subscribers. 

Check out a great example of a personalized welcome email from Food52, who incentives customers with $10 off their first order. 

  1. Newsletters 

Newsletters are regular weekly or monthly emails that remind your subscribers why they signed up to be a part of your email list. Essentially you’re popping into their inboxes to say hi, remember me? Your newsletter, however frequent, should always provide value to your subscribers. 

Newsletters keep your subscribers up-to-date on anything new or relevant that’s happening in your business. These can include important updates, refreshing your subscribers on your products or services, or simply providing valuable content to make their lives better. Remember, consistency is key with newsletters. 

Pro tip: To avoid spamming your subscribers inboxes – and having them click unsubscribe – be sure to time your newsletters so that they don’t clash with any other emails your subscribers may receive from you. 

  1. Product launch announcements

New product launches should have their own email marketing campaign to put your glorious new offering front and centre in the spotlight. This ensures that product launch announcements aren’t missed, driving more sales. You can announce product launches in the form of a drip marketing campaign to get your subscribers familiar with the release of your new product. 

To avoid overwhelming your subscribers, include a short description of your new product with a link in the email that takes subscribers to the full breakdown of the product on your website. Also, keep your product launch announcement clear and simple. Minimalist designs can go a long way in making your new product stand out. Remember, less is more! 

A great example of this is the company Havenly, where they simply used the tag-line “keep yours eyes open” with the eyes emoji as an email, hooking their audience with mystery regarding their new product. 

  1. Customer stories and testimonials

Customer stories and testimonials are a tried-and-true way of gaining the trust of your customers, so why not showcase them as a form of email marketing? 

Marketing emails that include social proof are extremely effective in demonstrating how your business has helped real-life customers. It’s a version of word-of-mouth that goes a long way.

To do this, be sure to ask for customer reviews (letting them know that you may use their testimony for promotional purposes) through short and concise online surveys. You can also incentivize customers with discounts if you are looking for longer reviews. 

Pro tip: Include multiple shorter reviews in an email or highlight one longer review as the star of an email to your subscribers. 

  1. Educational content and tips

Marketing emails need to provide some kind of value to subscribers… and what’s more valuable than educational content such as sharing how-to guides, tutorials, and industry tips? 

This is applicable information that is targeted directly at an audience who is seeking these answers. The goal with educational emails is to strictly provide useful content that is viewed as helpful to your subscribers – this builds customer loyalty. 

An example of this is an online course creator who shares tidbits of their expertise, gaining the trust of potential students and eventually sharing enough valuable information that they want to sign up for the creator’s course. 

Check out how Brandy Woods-Smith offered free content and created a multi-million dollar online course business. 

  1. Seasonal and holiday emails

The holidays are the time to give customers an extra little push to purchase your product or service. Plus, why not partake in holiday-themed campaigns and have fun with it? 

In fact, your subscribers will most likely be expecting some sort of holiday hello – and where gift-giving is a common practice, when you pop into their inboxes your subscribers may turn to your business for their holiday shopping. 

Seasonal and holiday emails can be extremely lucrative, with many businesses offering promotions in their marketing emails for an extra increase in sales. 

Pro tip: Keep in mind when certain seasons are relevant to your business. 

  1. Exclusive offers and promotions

One of the most effective email marketing ideas are sales and promotional emails. 

Providing exclusive offers to your subscribers encourages them to think and act fast on the opportunity that’s presented to them. These emails create a sense of urgency for customers, especially if you highlight a limited-time offer. Be sure to create a few emails to let your subscribers know before the sale starts, the day it’s happening, before the sale ends, and when there are only a few hours remaining. 

Pro-tip: Your subscribers may be getting a bunch of other promotional emails, so be sure to create an eye-catching campaign that stands out against other emails. We suggest playing around with a catchy and compelling email headline. 

  1. Birthday emails 

Everyone loves to feel special on their birthday! When people sign up for your email list you can choose to ask them for their demographics, including date of birth. This allows you to send a one-time email on your subscribers special day, maybe even with a special offer for it being their birthday. 

Sephora has one of the best birthday incentives for clients who subscribe to their email list and loyalty program. 

  1. Referral programs 

Referral programs are a powerful marketing tool that essentially gets your subscribers to do the heavy-lifting for you when it comes to attracting new leads. As we mentioned, word-of-mouth can do wonders in generating qualified leads and turning them into loyal customers. 

People are more likely to trust a brand when it’s been recommended to them. To start a referral email marketing campaign, present some kind of incentive to your existing subscribers that will benefit them enough to referral a friend or three. This boosts brand loyalty on all accounts! 

  1. Contests and giveaways 

Similar to promotional emails that contain coveted offers, contests and giveaways captivate customers by the magical what if I win something? that flashes across consumers minds when they see this type of email sitting in their inbox. This hope is enough to get people entering in your contest or giveaway!

Pro tip: Try partnering with other brands to do a group giveaway – this way you can reach untapped audiences who wouldn’t normally be exposed to your business offerings.

  1. Industry highlights and company updates 

Sharing industry highlights and company updates is similar to sending out routine newsletters, except these are less frequent, more one-off kinds of email marketing ideas.  

Showcasing this type of content can be exciting to share, especially if your business has come a long way. It can be inspiring for subscribers to see how much you’ve grown – especially if they have been with you from the beginning. 

Sharing industry highlights and company updates don’t need an automated, drip marketing campaign. You can simply craft a solo email that features a company goal, a new launch, product updates, or spotlighting the role of different team members. Also, thank your community for being a part of your journey to make them feel actively involved and appreciated. 

Protip: Include behind-the-scenes photos of projects or inspirational quotes to tug on the heart strings of your subscribers! 

  1. Upsell emails 

If you can, using upsell emails as a part of your marketing strategy has the potential to greatly increase your business’s revenue. Upsell emails simply encourage customers to upgrade the product or service they’ve purchased from you. 

For example, if you’re running an online course or selling software as a service SaaS, upsell emails allow customers to transition from a free plan to a paid plan with some sort of discount or incentive. A way to do this is allowing them to try a paid plan for free for a limited time, reaping all the benefits with no added cost. If they like the bonus features and think your product or service is worth the investment, you’ll find that people will naturally transition into paying customers. 

  1. Event emails 

Event emails are also one-off, informative emails that let subscribers know if an important event is taking place and the necessary details that follow. If your business has recurring events, make it so you can automate this kind of email and simply switch up the time and place. In this case, event emails serve as important reminders so that your customers don’t miss out on any event you have planned. 

Pro tip: While these types of emails are less frequent, you’ll still want to send a few follow-up emails, especially a last minute reminder, so that customers are well aware of the time and location for the event you have planned. 

  1. Back-in-stock emails  

Back-in-stock emails remind subscribers when you’re ready to accept new orders. For businesses that deal with physical products, back-in-stock emails create a sense of urgency and desirability regarding the return of highly sought-after products. You can even use this type of email format for service availability. 

You can give a special incentive to subscribers by ensuring that they will be the first to know when what they’re looking for is available through signing up for a segmented email list. 

Pro tip: Use words like “going quick” or “won’t last for long” to encourage customers to act quick. 

  1. Order confirmations 

Sending customers an order confirmation email is an essential email to send for any business selling goods and services, with a high click-to-open rate. 

While you don’t want to be overly pushy with your sales tactics in these types of emails, they can be a gateway to gaining another subscriber. You can add a small section under the order confirmation details that prompts customers to subscribe to future promotional and marketing emails.

Pro tip: Make sure the tone of this email is informative, professional, and friendly. 

  1. Comparison and top-seller emails 

In a world where people are always looking for the next best thing and for what’s trending, it can be worthwhile to highlight your best-selling products or services. For example, you could highlight your top-sellers based on each season or the time of year. 

To switch things up, try including a comparison of your products or services to show your subscribers a range of different options. The best part is, you can get as creative as you want with this type of email marketing strategy. 

  1. Design and format ideas 

  1. Interactive emails

Interactive emails actively engage your subscribers with your content to make their experience with your business a memorable one. Interactive email content increases the rate of click-to-open as they usually contain a variety of compelling elements such as image carousels, polls and quizzes, surveys, and offer reveals. 

For example, an image carousel contains different elements that subscribers can navigate with a simple click, without existing from the email. Creating polls is another fun, interactive way that collects real-time interest indicators. As subscribers open and click through the email, the votes update and reveal live results.

Pro tip: Adding hover effects to an email element, such as a link or image, makes the email more engaging and indicates clickability. 

  1. Video content

Incorporating videos into your email strategy  is another interactive marketing tactic that will make your subscribers more engaged and curious about your content. Videos are a critical marketing tool that can provide immense value to your subscribers and improve your click-to-open rates. They are an efficient way to cram a lot of information in a short space, as you don’t want your emails to be too long or wordy. 

Some examples of video content include: 

  • Tutorials or learning experiences 
  • Product or service demos
  • Brand awareness 
  • Featured case studies or testimonials

If you want to share video content with your subscribers, choose wisely! Make sure that your video is exciting and relevant, and not too long so there are no streaming issues. Spotify is a great example of effective video use in email marketing. 

Pro tip: To use videos in your email campaigns, either embed the video into your email, host it on a landing page (to direct viewers to your website), or upload it to a digital platform that subscribers are redirected to such as YouTube.  

  1. Minimalist designs

One of the most popular and effective email formats are minimalist designs. A clean, straightforward email layout allows subscribers to clearly see the intent of the email without getting lost in unnecessary information. 

With cluttered inboxes and shorter attention spans, it is important to share only the essential information that gets the point across with subscribers. Simple designs are easy for viewers to understand and less work for you, which is a bonus! 

For example, Nike uses simplicity in their email marketing by only putting the most essential text and images near the top of the email. 

  1. GIFs and animations

Depending on your brand, a minimalist vibe may not be right for your target audience. If you can make your email marketing campaign lively and fun, then why not use GIFs and animations to captivate your subscribers? 

Adding dynamic elements is an eye-catching tactic that engages your customers in a light-hearted manner, while still conveying the purpose of your email. This is a great way to show off your brand’s personality while drawing attention to the main contents of your message. 

Animated GIFs are supported almost everywhere, and you can add an animated GIF to your email through the same process you’d use to embed any other image file into your email. 

Lyft uses animation in their email strategy by showcasing a moving electric scooter, complimenting their message they want to get across. 

  1. Questionnaires 

Sometimes you may need to send email questionnaires to subscribers to help gauge what they want to see more of from your business. It is also a great way to actively involve customers in your business and make them feel heard. 

Email questionnaires are a reliable tool for marketing purposes, as you can gather valuable customer insights. You can use them to understand your target audience better, personalize your offerings, and become more relevant in the eyes of your customers. 

Pro tip: Keep your questionnaires short n’ sweet – you don’t want to overwhelm your subscribers with a lengthy task. As well, because questionnaires are optional, people are more likely to engage with shorter messages. 

  1. Personalized designs 

Email personalization is a wildly effective strategy that fosters connection and brand loyalty. Personalized email designs allow you to connect one-on-one with each person that reaches out, adding to the customer experience.  

It’s more than possible to create unique emails for every subscriber and to show them what appeals to their personal interests, however, this may take some time. You’ll need to collect some data on each customer, while still making sure that your email sign-up form is quick and easy to fill out.

Pro tip: Try using questionnaires to collect information when people subscribe to your email list such as, location, email frequency preferences, and specific demographics (age, company position, goals, and personality type). 

  1. Responsive design

A responsive design ensures that the emails you send look good and are compatible with any device such as computers, laptops, tablets, mobile devices, and even smart watches. The last thing you want is for your subscribers to get frustrated from your company’s emails not downloading or converting properly. 

These designs are all about providing content that is customized for your user’s chosen device. With a responsive design, you can send email templates which change depending on what screen size they are viewed. These emails will always adapt regardless of the device it’s viewed on.

Responsive email designs use CSS media queries to produce different copies that depend on the size of your user’s screen. Media queries will automatically adjust the email copy’s layout, text size, and content to the user’s device screen. This can require more effort in the beginning, but a good template will last for a long time.

  1. Engagement and interaction ideas

  1. Email drip campaigns

Email drip marketing means sending automated email sequences to a target audience as part of a marketing campaign over a period of time. This engagement strategy allows you to sit back and relax while your audience receives a series of pre-scheduled emails relevant to your business goals. 

For example, if you’re pre-selling an online course, drip emails could share discount codes to encourage subscribers to pre-order your course. Check out this blog for a comprehensive overview on how to create successful email drip marketing campaigns.

Pro tip: You can further customize the sequence of your drip emails based on your subscribers’ actions. 

  1. Reward program campaigns 

Reward program email campaigns are one of the best ways to boost engagement and brand loyalty. The goal of any reward program is to have members that are actively interacting with your program by earning and redeeming points.

You can leverage this marketing technique in many different ways, such as through sign-up emails, points redemption emails, and bonus points campaign events. Remember to design well-branded emails that offer value with a clear CTA. 

An example of a great rewards program is Rose & Rex, a childrens’ toy company that offers VIP members a $25 gift card and early access to holiday shopping guides.

Pro tip: Be sure to emphasize exclusivity by enticing customers to be part of your community through highly sought-after rewards. 

  1. User-generated content

User-generated content (UGC) offers brands a way to promote their products while building relationships with customers. Essentially, you are encouraging subscribers to contribute content to your business marketing for some incentive. This tactic has proven to boost the performance of email marketing campaigns as it displays brand authenticity and loyalty. 

UGC is used by marketers to increase brand awareness, boost engagement, and also serve as social proof. It is impactful as it communicates a sense of trust and community with your subscribers. For example, you could email subscribers regarding your brand hosting a contest and ask customers to share images of themselves using their product for a special discount. 

Pro tip: Visual content like photos and videos are the most common type of UGC, and they’re an engaging way to show how real people are using your products. 

  1. Lead nurturing campaigns 

A lead nurturing email campaign is messages that are sent to subscribers as they move along your sales funnel, encouraging them to convert into paying customers. This type of marketing strategy is meant to engage, entice, and encourage your lead to continue interacting with your business.

A lead nurturing email sequence is a series of emails that is automatically triggered when the lead takes a certain action. These sequences keep the lead engaged until they are ready to go forward with a purchase.

Lead nurturing emails allow you to build a relationship with your leads, which radically increases the chances of them making a purchase. Essentially, you are slowly warming them up until they feel ready to click that purchase button. 

Check out this guide on the top 13 best lead generation platforms, tools, and software to get you started. 

Pro tip: Ensure lead nurturing emails progress naturally and aren’t too long. 

  1. Surveys and feedback requests

Surveys and feedback requests are great ways to check in with your subscribers and show them that you value their opinion. It’s also a means of determining the different avenues of growth for your business, as customers can provide anonymous feedback that gives your business insights into the needs of your customers. 

Once you obtain feedback, you can develop campaigns tailored to them, allowing you to boost engagement and build more effective audience segments. This can also help you improve your products and services.

Pro tip: Encourage subscribers to provide their opinions by offering discounts and promotions. 

  1. Re-engagement campaigns

Re-engagement emails allow you to re-establish your connection with subscribers who haven’t interacted with your brand for some time. This marketing strategy is valuable as it jogs customers’ memories of your brand, and gets them thinking about you again. 

Common types of re-engagement emails include “we miss you” emails, recommendation refreshes, or discount offers as an incentive to engage with your business again. 

Pro tip: Keep re-engagement emails lighthearted and friendly. 

  1. Webinar series 

Email marketing is one of the most effective channels to source webinar registrations and then convert subscribers into actual attendees. If you are hosting a webinar, your email list is the best place to advertise your expertise and inform your audience of the details. 

Webinar series emails include a stand of emails that let subscribers know about the upcoming event, providing regular reminders to increase the chance of registration and attendance.

Check out this blog on 10 techniques to increase and sustain webinar engagement for your business. 

Pro tip: Send automated thank you emails to those who register for your webinar, along with attendance reminders closer to the actual date of the webinar. 

  1. Advanced tactics

  1. A/B testing

To ensure the success of your email marketing efforts, you’ll want to run A/B testing. This is the process of sending one variation of your email campaign to a subset of your subscribers and a different variation to another subset of subscribers, with the goal of deciphering which variation of the campaign produces the best results.

Essentially, when you craft an email you are writing two different email subject lines to test what language is more effective in getting your audience to open your emails. Moving forward, you can use the winning variation to capture more leads. 

Tools such as Campaign Monitor make this process easy to implement and analyze, as this can be a complex task for beginners.  

  1. Behavioural targeting

Behavioural targeting is the process of sending emails based on subscriber actions. Automated, targeted emails are sent to your subscribers depending on their previous interactions with your business across multiple channels, such as your website and social media platforms. 

This is a valuable tool for ensuring a user-focused approach to sending an email. It’s the actions of your audience that decide which emails they receive – it’s not a decision made by a marketer.

To implement this, you will need to track how customers interact with your brand online, gathering this data to help streamline email actions that users may take. This marketing strategy allows for a highly personal customer experience. 

Tools such as Mailchimp can help you get started on your behavioural marketing strategy. 

  1. Abandoned cart emails 

Abandoned cart emails are sent to subscribers when they leave their carts before making a purchase. This is a great hint-hint, nudge-nudge reminder to potential customers of what they may have forgotten or haven’t decided on yet. 

These types of emails can be automated so when your subscriber leaves their cart before clicking confirm order, you can easily point them in the direction of your sales page. This email could very well give people the extra push they need to complete a purchase. 

Pro tip: Include images of the products or services customers have left in their cart as an extra reminder of what they’re missing out on. 

  1. Integration with other marketing channels

Integration with other marketing channels means that your business is creating an omnichannel marketing strategy that coordinates email campaigns with your business’s social media platforms, websites, and other channels.

The benefits of a multi-channel approach include offering customers a seamless user experience that integrates the content you provide in an easily accessible manner which is consistent across all channels, platforms, and devices. This strategy nurtures leads and promotes engagement, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.  

To integrate your email strategy with other marketing channels, start with developing unified messaging, cohesive visuals, and consistent communication. 

  1. Segmented email lists 

Similar to behavioural targeting, segmented email lists divide and separate email subscribers into groups based on different criteria. However, the purpose of segmented email lists is not to analyze data, but to email subscribers based on their personal preferences. 

Segmentation of email campaigns can increase revenue by up to a whopping 760%, which is why it’s a tactic you don’t want to sleep on. 

This marketing strategy is different from personalization as it’s more focused on grouping similar audience members together to send them a better-targeted email campaign. Email subscribers can end up in multiple segments, depending on factors like age, location, and behaviour.

To implement this into your email strategy, start collecting data and setting up workflows. Ask your audience their preferences, and then group people based on their responses. CRM software can integrate with your website to collect data from your customers, allowing you to get started crafting a few different segments. Tools like Mailchimp can also help simplify this process for you. 

Related: How to Create a Sales Funnel to Sell Online Courses (Sales Funnel Template)

Conclusion 

There you have it – our list of the 35 best email marketing ideas that are proven to yield results in customer engagement and brand loyalty. 

Email marketing is one of the most direct channels of communication that your business has with your customers. After all, you are appearing front and centre in your subscribers’ inboxes!

This is a valuable form of marketing for your business, so we suggest experimenting with different email marketing ideas to find which works best for your business. 

Want to try out email automation on Thinkific? Get more info here!