Email marketing can move mountains for your brand. Statistics tell us that for every $1 spent on email marketing, advertisers get $42 ROI. If that return doesn’t push you to start an email marketing campaign, we don’t know what will!
Indeed, email marketing is an effective online advertising strategy, provided that you get users to open your email. If you get past the first half of the challenge, you can move onto the next half–how to make them read until the end. Here are 10 creative email ideas you can use that’ll increase readership and conversions.
1. Event launch with a twist
Advertisers have various goals when sending out email newsletters. And one of those is to achieve a massive turnout for an upcoming event. If you have a product launch or a charity event that you want to promote, email invites are fast and cost-efficient.
Yeah, sure, every advertiser nowadays creates email invites for every event. Most of these invites are so dull that people click on “Delete” even before finishing the entire email. What you can do is to create email invites for your event–with a twist!
Make use of countdown timers. Timers symbolize a sense of urgency, which will make your customers act. For instance, you can send them an email of a countdown until the last day of ticket discounts. Here’s a Synapse email example:
This email example hits two birds with one stone. It promotes the event and the ticket sale.
Moreover, people always ask, “What’s in it for me” when attending events. Aside from showcasing celebrities and famous hosts, you may also break down the event’s entrance fee. This is another creative way to show your audience that the event is not a money-making scheme. And somehow, it’ll make people pay for the event entrance fee wholeheartedly.
2. How-to infographics
Cornerstone content is one that has gained the most leads, readers and conversions above all else. This is also called evergreen content. Pick the best content, such as a how-to blog post and promote it through email newsletters.
Of course, no one wants to read long emails. You’d be lucky if you can get people to click and open the email. But you’d have to be an expert email marketer if you can get them to read long and boring emails. So how can you give your how-to blog a creative twist? Turn it into an infographic!
The benefits of using infographics know no bounds. Here’s why:
- Quickly engages readers’ eyes
- Persuades readers to take action
- Lets readers skim through the entire content quickly
- Makes readers remember the information quickly
3. Compelling video content
Videos are an excellent way to present complex information quickly and enjoyably. Who doesn’t love to watch a fun and engaging video? And that’s how advertisers should do it. Create compelling video content and promote it through email.
Did you know that 92% of marketers admit that videos play a substantial part in their strategies? Yes, that’s how effective video marketing is. That’s if you create videos with the customers in mind. Here are a couple of ideas for creative and fun video content:
- Try to break down your long-form content into a video tutorial series
- Gather all your customer testimonials and put all clips into one fun video
- If you have unboxing videos from customers, leverage those and cut all the fun reactions and put them all in one video
- If you have a complicated product or service, videos are an excellent way to demonstrate how to use your product or service
- Personalize videos by segmenting email lists and showing videos with only the information they need to know
- Send a Thank-you video to all attendees in your last event
4. Behind-the-scene snippets
Storytelling is one primary factor in advertising. And telling your brand’s story can increase customer loyalty and affinity. If you’re a genuine company that cares about its employees and corporate social responsibilities, then tell your customers that.
Consumers consider a brand’s values and beliefs and prioritize those that are similar to theirs. This is one way to connect with your target audience. And what better way to show what your brand is truly made of than sending them behind-the-scene snippets.
Images of happy staff depict positivity. Include clips and videos of what goes behind the curtains in your company. Remember to include emotional marketing when creating your graphics or videos, as this will have a huge impact on consumers.
5. Tailor content to cart abandoners
Retargeting is also another online advertising strategy that can arguably increase your conversions. Retargeting pertains to promoting unfinished business to people who have shown interest in your offer. These can be people who have visited your site, engaged with your social media pages, or abandoned cart.
In retargeting, personalization is key to letting customers finish what they started. And targeting cart abandoners holds more promising results because these are customers who were already in the process of checking out.
There could be many factors that held them back and made them abandon their carts—high shipping fees, wrong orders, incomplete information, additional costs, to name a few. Sending retargeting emails to cart abandoners is a perfect way to re-connect with these customers.
Ensure that the email is personalized, just like this Moschino example. It has a captivating headline that says, “You left something behind.” Below are the items the customer tried to order. Finally, the call to action (CTA) is right after the items, urging the customer to complete their order.
6. Upselling graphics
If you’re marketing to current customers, upselling can be a great way to gain more sales. However, personalization is also another crucial element to make customers take action.
You can put other elements in your email, such as including social proof. Testimonials from other customers, reviews from influencers, and partnerships with different companies can persuade customers to buy more from your company.
You have to remember that these customers are already satisfied with your product or service. Now, all you have to do is entice them with better ones to make the upgrade. First, make sure to include quality images of the products or creative product demos. Include the new product or service’s features and benefits and point out why it’s a worthy upgrade.
7. Run an interactive poll or survey
One way to engage customers in your email is to run a fun poll or survey. However, don’t just run ANY poll or survey. Try to get in on recent events and center your email content around that.
For instance, you can take advantage of the March Madness campaign. March is the time when the NCAA college basketball tournament is held every year. Send email surveys and ask your basketball fanatic customers which team will win, like this Acme Pub email example.
8. Festive colors
Special events and holidays are perfect opportunities for advertisers. People would usually go on a spending spree during these times. And what better way to get a massive slice of the pie than to join the bandwagon.
Send special holiday offers via email. Get in on the festive celebrations by making your email pop with bright and fun colors. Visuals are an essential component of email marketing. You want to pique the reader’s interest from the heading down to the CTA.
Using particular colors invoke certain emotions that impact the buying process. That being said, it’s better to leave the graphic design task to experts like Penji.
9. Animated promotions
When thinking of the most creative email ideas, animation will surely give life to your email. Creating an interactive email design will make people read the content of your email.
You get spam and marketing emails every day and GIFs or animations are a perfect way to divert their attention from these dull emails. Using animations compared to using text only is a better way to capture their attention.
Integrate an element of fun in your animations. Play with colors and characters and include storytelling. The most important thing is that you get your message across before a reader sends your email to the Trash folder.
10. Straightforward free offers
In email marketing, simplicity is another element that keeps your content clean and easy to read. If you want to go the opposite route and keep it simple and straightforward, ensure you keep the text and visuals balanced.
Take a cue from Hootsuite. In this email example, the structure is clean, relying on different colors to separate various information. The heading is captivating and the subheading with the word “Free” is the real clincher.
Conclusion
Whatever creative email ideas you choose for your next campaign, always focus your strategy around the audience. Once you know what their pain points are, it will be easier to present your products or services’ features and benefits in the best light possible.
Tina Lombardo is an Outreach Specialist for Penji and loves a great book. Her primary focus is in the startup and technology space with an emphasis on entrepreneurship.
Email marketing stock photo by Foxy burrow/Shutterstock
