Jan 30 2020

Email List Segmentation Techniques to Learn More About Your Subscribers

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Building up your email list is a great start to any email marketing strategy, but the important work does not stop there. Email list segmentation is also a critical factor for your email marketing success.

Segmenting your list helps you to create the best email content for your subscribers, and has also been proven to work wonders on your open rates. However, getting the information you need can be challenging.

Here are some useful techniques you can implement in your next campaign to improve your email list segmentation and get better results.

5 Useful Techniques for Email List Segmentation

1. Optimize your opt in process

The moment a customer chooses to opt in to receiving your newsletter is an important one.

Seize the moment while they are consciously making the effort to engage with your business to find out more about the new subscriber.

Instead of simply asking for their email address, think of a few key details you would like to know to help segment your list.

This could be:

Name - For better personalisation
Age - To optimize your content for the target group
Interests (e.g. kids' fashion, rock music, political news, etc.) - To send relevant deals/content
Location - For language choice or relevant cultural events

Getting this information straight away will allow you to hit the ground running in terms of producing relevant content and will save you time in the future.

This opt in form by ASOS allows new customers to provide important information about themselves before signing up for their newsletter.

2. Get to know customers through your welcome email

First impressions are everything, and your welcome email is no exception.

Start as you mean to go on and make sure your welcome email presents customers with the opportunity to tell you more about themselves.

Including a link to a basic questionnaire, such as this example by Britannica, is a nice way to let the customer quickly outline their preferences.

Britannica sent out this great welcome mail for better email list segmentation

Questionnaires are a good technique for email list segmentation

A simple questionnaire helps the new subscriber to easily indicate their preferences.

The customer will also feel confident that they will only be receiving emails relevant to the interests they've outlined.

3. Refer to customer shopping habits

The way your customer shops also tells you a lot about them that can help you with your email list segmentation.

If customers are required to sign in before completing a purchase, you will have all of the purchase information associated with their account.

Recommendation emails

This information can help you to produce better newsletter content. For example, you will have an insight into which kinds of products your customer is interested in (e.g. gadgets, outdoor clothing, sports equipment, etc.) This will allow you to send them more relevant recommendations.

Tracking customer purchase information helps Amazon send more relevant product recommendation emails.

Service and subscription models

If you offer a subscription service, it is also useful to track customer activity to send them more effective emails.

This could range from onboarding emails, re-engagement campaigns, or sales-based up-sell emails. Knowing more about your customers helps you target them with a suitable call-to-action.

For example, sending an email with an upgrade call-to-action to a customer who hasn't used your service in some time is far less effective than targeting them with a re-engagement campaign.

NOW TV use email list segmentation to create reengagement campaigns for lapsed subscribers.

Knowing more about customer behaviour allows NOW TV to reengage lapsed subscribers with new offers.

Segmentation by abandonment rate

Behaviour tracking also helps you segment your list based on abandonment rate.

If a customer did not complete the checkout process, you can use this chance to send them an abandoned cart email. This is a great tool for reengagement and could be the key to you increasing sales which would have otherwise been lost.

This technique can also be applied for an abandoned onboarding process as a form of re-engagement.

Re-engament campaign by the Dollar Shave Club sent in response to abandoned onboarding process.

The Dollar Shave Club reacts to an abandoned onboarding process by sending out this smart re-engagement style email.

4. Run a birthday campaign

Everyone loves a birthday! A birthday email is a great opportunity to send customers a personalised offer.

To do this, you first need to find out when their birthday is. If you haven's found this out during the opt in process, putting together a quick email campaign helps fill in this missing information later on.

Once you have the customer's birthday on record, the world is your oyster. You can segment your list by birthday, birthday month, age, star sign, etc and create unique birthday related content to engage your subscribers.

Email campaign by Wallis to find out the customer's birthday and segment their list accordingly.

Wallis used this campaign to find out more about subscribers' birthdays and send them unique, personalised content later on.

5. Give subscribers an incentive to tell you more

Getting information from your subscribers to help with your email list segmentation can be tough. Providing an incentive is often a good way to boost engagement.

Offering a discount voucher in exchange for information is one potential way to gather more useful data to use for your email campaigns.

Alternatively, you could offer subscribers a useful guide or resource as a way to get them to tell you more about themselves.

In this example by Neil Patel, new users are encouraged to take a quiz to then receive relevant marketing advice. This is elaborate for a newsletter sign up process, but ultimately is a win-win situation. The user provides all the information to help categorise them correctly and is rewarded with a useful guide at the end.

Neil Patel's quiz is an innovative way to segment his email list based on key subscriber characteristics.

Neil Patel's quiz contains important questions which help him with list segmentation.

Neil can understand more about new subscribers after using his quiz to ask critical questions.

Try out these email list segmentation techniques

Many of the techniques listed above require a trigger-based transactional email.

Try out the tools and resource provided by Mail Designer 365 today to create a HTML email template to use with your campaign.

Use great email design to convince your subscribers to respond to your campaigns and gather more information to help you with your email list segmentation.

Start your free trial today to see what you can achieve.

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Start your free trial today to see what you can achieve.

Jan 28 2020

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Presidents' Day Email Campaign Inspiration

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Have you thought about your Presidents' Day email campaign? In the build up to Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day often goes forgotten, but there's no denying a major holiday weekend is always a great marketing opportunity.

Create an email campaign to celebrate Presidents' Day

In this guide, we'll take you through all the ins and outs of creating a Presidents' Day email campaign; including tips, examples and best practice for your emails...

What is Presidents' Day?

Presidents' Day is a patriotic holiday in the USA. It is celebrated every year on the third Monday in February.

Originally, the holiday was created to honor George Washington and Abraham Lincoln - two of the most influential presidents in US history. Today, it is simply seen by many as a day to celebrate all former US presidents.

Why should I send a Presidents' Day email campaign?

Like most holidays in the modern era, Presidents' Day creates a huge sales opportunity. A holiday weekend gives consumers an extra chance to shop and also increases their demand for goods and services.

Like many other cultures, Americans take a holiday weekend as the chance to travel somewhere new, meet up with family, or socialize with friends. All of these activities have great sales potential.

No matter what area of business you're in, Presidents' Day gives you the perfect reason to launch a promotion. Furthermore, given its close proximity to Valentine's Day, the holiday also lands in a peak sales period which your business could cash in on.

Presidents' Day email campaign examples

These Presidents' Day email campaign examples from big name brands tick all the right boxes and should help inspire you when coming up with your own campaign ideas.

Google

Presidents's email campaign by Google

In this campaign, Google opts for a series of time-limited promotions across popular products. The email design is super on brand but integrates the classic red, white and blue color scheme in the background for a patriotic feel.

Bed Bath & Beyond

Presidents' Day email campaign by Bed Bath & Beyond

The theme of this email design is made clear straight away. As well as the all important color scheme, Bed Bath & Beyond include traditional star graphics in the flag style design. The sale discount is also made to stand out in bright red.

JCPenney

Presidents' Day email by JCPenney

JCPenney have also got us seeing stars with this bold email campaign. There's certainly a lot going on with all the different discounts in the centre of the design; but the main message of the campaign is made clear thanks to the big bold typeface.

Michael Kors

Email campaign by Michael Kors for Presidents' Day

Michael Kors uses a stylish header design to make sure their promotion is the first thing the customer sets eyes on. This paired with a large product photo helps get them ready to shop.

ASOS

Presidents' Day email campaign by ASOS

While the overall design isn't based on patriotic imagery, ASOS have put a modern twist on the traditional holiday by including the eye-catching green banner at the top of the email. This way, customers won't forget there's a promotion on.

Dockers

Presidents' Day email design by Dockers

We love the way that Dockers has managed to combine humor and tradition in this unique Presidents' Day email campaign. Including an image of Lincoln wearing one of their products is a genius way to promote their business while staying on trend with the occasion.

The bright orange CTA (call to action) buttons are also super prominent in the design.

Article

Presidents' Day email campaign by Article This Presidents' Day email design by Article also shows you don't have to go wild with the stars and stripes to get involved in the action. Big, easy to read headlines paired with bold CTAs and a clear shopping layout make up the perfect recipe for any sale or promotion.

Tips for your Presidents' Day email campaign

Hopefully you've managed to take some creative inspiration from these examples. Before you get started on your campaign, here are a few quick hacks to help you ensure success.

Optimize your subject line: This is a peak sales period and inboxes will be overflowing with deals. Make sure yours stands out. This article has some great inspiration for you.
Check all your links and prices: This is more important than ever during a sale or promotion. Be sure to triple check every link and promo code to avoid disappointment on the customer's end (and embarrassment on yours!)
Timing is important: Don't wait until President's Day to launch your campaign. The main attraction of this holiday is that it lasts a whole weekend. Launching on the Friday gives customers the whole weekend to shop your deals.
Segment your list: President's Day is a big deal in the USA, but elsewhere not so much. Sending out a mass email shows a lack of consideration for the rest of your customer base. It's much more effective to target them later on with a more relevant campaign.

With those tips out of the way, it's now time for you to make some headway on your campaign.

Creating a Presidents’ Day Email Campaign in Mail Designer 365

If you're wondering where to begin, check out Mail Designer 365, where you'll find all the creative content and design tools you need to build an awesome Presidents' Day email campaign.

Here are some example email designs we built using the features in the app, plus tips on how to recreate these styles yourselves.

Search the Unsplash collection for your feature image:

Unsplash offers you amazing, high quality stock images to use license-free in your email designs. Use the search tool in Mail Designer 365 to instantly search the entire Unsplash library for your perfect feature image:

Example Presidents' Day email campaign built using Mail Designer 365

Use Unsplash integration in Mail Designer 365 to find high quality stock photos for your email designs.

Try out Blend Modes to produce unique effects

Blend Modes tool allows you to control how two images are layered together. This allowed us to create the super patriotic stars & stripes effect seen in this example and the Lincoln example above.

Simply place your chosen images on top of each other and use the hover preview to choose the blend effect you like most. In this example, we opted for the "screen" effect:

Use Blend Modes to recreate this stars & stripes effect in your design.

To find out more about how Blend Modes work in Mail Designer 365, check out this tutorial.

Experiment with bold web fonts for sale eye-catchers

A standout font is the key to a good sales eye-catcher. Choose from 700+ web fonts in Mail Designer 365 to draw your customers' attention to your Presidents' Day promotion. In these example eye-catchers, we've chose "Alfa Slab One" for its classic, bold effect:

Example Presidents' Day email campaign made in Mail Designer 365

A bold web font is the perfect finishing touch to your sales eye-catchers.

Start your free Mail Designer 365 trial today and see what you can achieve.

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Start your free trial today to see what you can achieve.

Jan 22 2020

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20+ of the Best Email Subject Lines

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

A great email subject can be the key to better open rates, but mastering the technique of subject line writing can be a challenge. On the hunt for inspiration, we decided to scour through our inboxes and dig out the very best email subject lines of 2019.

In this guide, you'll find 20+ inspiring examples of the best email subject lines from the biggest brands. We've got everything from funny, to creative, to sales based to help you with your next big campaign...

Intriguing email subject lines
Funny email subject lines
Personalised email subject lines
Sales email subject lines
Emoji email subject lines
FOMO email subject lines
Reengagement email subject lines

Best intriguing email subject lines

Email subjects which are able to evoke curiosity in the reader are always super effective.

Even if you're not too interested in the sender, if the subject line is interesting enough, it's likely that you're going to open the email to find out more.

"These are so ugly"

By: Etsy

Wait... what's ugly? If you're anything like us, this subject line would make you click right away.

In reality, Etsy were just advertising some classic, corny Christmas sweaters, but the use of a bold statement in this subject line certainly managed to raise eyebrows.

"Is the Ouija board dangerous?"

By: Quora Digest

Turning your subject line into a question is a great trick to get better open rates. If the question is interesting enough, the reader will open your email to find out the answer.

Once the recipient has opened your email, you can use creative email copy and great design convince them to click through to your store or website. Easy, right?

"DON'T SCROLL PAST | This ends midnight ?"

By: British Corner Shop

The all-caps strategy used in this subject line by British Corner Shop is definitely an attention grabber. In a crowded inbox, it only takes a second for an email to stand out and make the reader choose to click open.

The term "This ends midnight" is also intriguing, as they deliberately don't give everything away in the subject. This increases the likelihood that the reader will open the email for more details.

"Burning questions & stuff"

By: Really Good Emails

This subject line is smart by using everyday, informal language rather than the typical sales/marketing speak readers are used to seeing in their inbox.

This change in syntax is enough to make the recipient look twice and open the email to find out more.

"Did someone say payday? ?"

By: Boots

This witty subject line is super relatable and mirrors the thoughts of most of us when we get our pay-check. Incorporating the payday theme into your subject line is a smart way to tempt readers into treating themselves after a month of hard work.

Again, the use of a rhetorical question also makes a subject line like this is intriguing to readers. This paired with an irresistible offer or promotion will make your campaign a winner.

Best funny email subject lines

If it fits in with your brand, using humour is another great way to make your email subject stand out from the rest. Some of the best email subject lines we've come across have got a funny side to them...

"Gimme Gimme Gimme a ticket for Mamma Mia!"

By: LOVEtheatre

This subject line is without a doubt corny, but certainly helps put a smile on the reader's face (as well as getting the song stuck in their head!)

A clever email subject such as this one not only grabs the attention of the reader, but also gets them thinking all about the show the email is promoting before they've even chosen to open.

"Alexa: Read this email! ?"

By: Phrasee

We love how creative this example by Phrasee is. A funny, unique subject line automatically triggers the reader to want to open the email - even if they don't know what it's going to be about.

"? The hottest thing on your screen…? ?"

By: Domino's Pizza

This subject line may raise a few eyebrows, but that's exactly what makes it so effective. As well as creating that all important sense of intrigue which makes readers open the email, the tongue in cheek humour is also a great way to gain more attention.

"Still wanted: your opinion"

By: ATG Tickets

This is a great and funny twist on the classic feedback request email. The directness used here is exactly what will make the recipient look twice at an email they'd more than likely otherwise scroll past.

Best personalised email subject lines

What better way to get someone's attention than by using their name? Using personalisation in your email's subject is an easy way to make a regular subject line much more interesting to the reader.

"Grace, how about a hot drink on us?"

By: Subway

Here is another example of how using a question in your email subject helps draw the reader in. This together with the use of personalisation makes the recipient feel special and, in this case, makes the offer seem exclusively tailored to them.

"Grace, autumn flights under £29.99"

By: easyJet

The use of personalisation helps turn a standard sales subject line into something much more eye-catching. If easyJet had simply left their subject line as "Autumn flights under £29.99", it's likely their open rates would have been significantly lower.

Using the customer's first name makes them feel directly spoken to and makes the email appear much more relevant.

"Grace, people with ALS need you now!"

By: The ALS Association

Using personalisation in a charity email campaign is an effective way to encourage recipients to donate more.

Using their first name turns the email into a personalised plea rather than a mass campaign; which could help the reader feel more of a sense of responsibility to donate. P.S. Check out this post for more tips on building charity email campaigns.

Best sales-based email subject lines

If done correctly, a catchy text about your sale or promotion can also become one of the best email subject lines. Including tempting sale keywords and mentioning your impressive discounts are two ways to help your email stand out for the recipient.

"BIG NEWS Sale now up to 60% off"

By: Jack Wills

The use of all-caps and asterisks at the beginning of this subject line draws readers in right away. As well as this, mentioning the hefty 60% discount is also bound to turn heads and get customers clicking.

"Celebrating 30 years with 30% OFF for 24 hours only!"

By: Bunches

This promotion is fun and the repetition of 30 immediately makes the subject line more interesting; catching the attention of more recipients. Together with the added time pressure (24 hours only), we'd say Bunches are on to a winner here.

"? Everything is £3 or less? Hurry! ?"

By: 10 Store

There's a lot going on in this email subject line. Mentioning the super low prices in the subject (£3 or less?) is definitely a guaranteed way to draw more readers in. If that wasn't enough, the emojis also help brighten up the recipient's inbox...

Best emoji email subject lines

Everyone loves using an emoji now and again (read: ALL THE TIME ?) If used properly, they can also work wonders for your email subject lines by adding a splash of color to your customers' inboxes.

"? Items to make you smile!"

By: eBay

This subject line may seem simple, but the smiley emoji makes the email jump out at you. This fun emoji might have been all they needed to click on an email they would have otherwise ignored.

"? Open the door to your perfect holiday stay"

By: Booking.com

As shown in this example, emojis can also work well as an illustration for your subject line. A picture speaks a thousand words, so if you can find a suitable emoji to go alongside your email subject line, why not give it a go!?

The door emoji is rarely used and happens to fit super well with the theme of the email; enticing more readers to click.

"2-4-1 = Date Night ❤️"

By: Giraffe

This is a really unique subject line which combines multiple clever elements. For example, Giraffe are able to keep things fun and succinct and by using numbers instead of writing "two for one."

Overall, using the love heart emoji is an instant eye-catcher and fits well with the "date night theme."

"⏳ ENDS TONIGHT - 20% off 20 great brands ⏳"

By: Boots

The egg timer emoji is a classic way of ramping up the time pressure in your subject line. Although the subject would have been pretty effective on its own, the emojis help it go that extra mile to stand out.

Best FOMO email subject lines

Creating a sense of urgency to get your readers to open up your email is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Using this technique plays on people's FOMO (fear of missing out) and uses time pressure to persuade customers to perform a specific action.

"Hurry Grace! Save now with our 3 month membership!"

By: Places Leisure

As well as using personalisation, the use of the words "hurry" and "save now" imply that the deal is only running for a limited time. This makes the reader much more likely to click so that they don't miss out on a great offer.

"Don't forget to claim your FREE month of Sky Cinema"

By: Now TV

Capitalising the word "free" here is an instant eye-catcher, but the main point which draws readers in to this subject line is the use of the phrase "don't forget." This suggests the user only has a limited amount of time to claim the offer before - you guessed it - missing out.

"Have you got your tickets?!"

By: The National Wedding Show

Rhetorical questions can also be effective in creating a sense of urgency. The added exclamation mark at the end of the question makes it seem more urgent, and using the pronoun "you" helps to direct the question straight to the recipient.

"Your discount code expires TOMORROW!"

By: Opodo

This is a good example of how using all-caps can help emphasise time-sensitive language even more. The recipient is instantly drawn to the word "tomorrow" which makes them wonder what is happening the next day. This is the exact kind of intrigue required to get a customer to open your email.

Best reengagement email subject lines

If some of your subscribers may have lost their way, you can use a reengagement campaign to help get them back on track. In order to do so, your subject line has to do the job of convincing them to re-connect with your emails again.

"Aerosmith - still want those tickets?"

By: Ticketmaster

This subject line is a great accompaniment to an abandoned cart email. Sending out emails such as this is a great technique to give customers the chance to pick up their interrupted purchase from where they left off.

The customer, who had recently been looking at Aerosmith tickets, will be quickly drawn in by seeing the band's name in their inbox. This coincidence could be all the inspiration they need to open your email and check over the ticket prices again.

"Grace, don't forget your tickets to Luton Airport"

By: Trainline

This reengagement style subject line also uses personalisation for added effect. Using the customer's first name grabs their attention and ensures they won't miss the important reminder.

"We've missed you! 85% OFF your 1st item"

By: JustFab UK

In this example, the customer is tempted back by the promise of a huge 85% discount. The phrase "we've missed you" is direct and personal and implies the deal is exclusive to the customer, rather than a widespread promotion.

Key Takeaways

These were just a handful of examples of the best email subject lines. Hopefully you've found out a little bit more about the types of subject lines you should be using to improve your open rates.

The best advice we can give is to be creative and discover what works best for you and your business. Remember to also keep track of your open rates and analyse performance whenever you try out a new subject line technique.

Want to get the full effect of your subject line BEFORE you send out your email? Mail Designer 365's inbox optimization tool is a great way for you to experiment with different styles and lengths of email subject:

Mail Designer 365's inbox preview helps you write the best email subject lines

Use the inbox preview in Mail Designer 365 to test multiple subject line styles.

The live preview lets you view your potential subject line options in an inbox mockup. You can also view your subject at the top of your design to see how it fits in with your overall campaign.

Sign up free to Mail Designer 365 today to discover this and a range of other exciting tools for creating effective email campaigns.

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Sign up free today to see what you can achieve.

Jan 15 2020

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Your 2020 Marketing Calendar: Tips, Special Events and Free Calendar Resources

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

January is the optimal time to start planning your 2020 marketing calendar. When deciding on your campaign ideas for the year, it's useful to have a clear overview of all key events. This will help you keep track of which holidays are coming up, as well as everything you need to do to get your business prepared.

January is the perfect time to start planning all your campaign ideas for the coming year.

We've created some great resources which will certainly come in useful to you when putting together your marketing schedule for the year.

Get your hands on a 2020 email campaign planner (based on our team's own content marketing plan!), plus a 2020 marketing calendar jam-packed with the most important dates.

Get your FREE 2020 marketing calendar and campaign planner!

Get your free resources:
Download the calendar here and access the campaign planner here.

Enter your email for more great tips and resources for your 2020 email campaigns.

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Make the most of your free resources:

Once you have downloaded your free 2020 marketing calendar, you can skim through all the most important dates, holidays and sales periods coming up in 2020. Use these dates and any others you want to include to fill out your 2020 email campaign planner.

Throughout the year, you can note down todos, campaign ideas, important links, etc. and keep track of all your campaign planning in one useful document. We've already provided you with some useful links to help you get started.

Getting to work on your first campaign

Ready to get started on your first email campaign of 2020? Check out the Mail Designer 365 workflow! Build your campaign using the creative tools in Mail Designer 365. Then, upload your design drafts to Mail Designer 365 Approval to get feedback and ideas from your team members.

Once your team has approved your campaign, you can go ahead and export directly to use with your ESP.

Want more inspiration for 2020? Keep reading to discover more unique and exciting holidays your business can get involved in this year...

12 BONUS dates that you need in your 2020 marketing calendar

Stuck for fresh ideas or looking to build a marketing campaign different to everyone else's? To go alongside the must-have dates in your 2020 marketing calendar, here are some slightly more obscure or unheard-of dates to inspire you to create even more unique and interesting email content for your customers.

January 20th: Blue Monday

Officially named the most depressing day of the year, Blue Monday always falls on the third Monday in January. As marketers, you can be clever and do your best to take advantage of this otherwise miserable day and give your customers something to smile about.

Get your readers out of the Blue Monday slump with a fun campaign.

February 29th: Leap Year Day

2020 is another leap year; meaning February has an extra day this year. This is a great chance to get creative and think of a promotion to offer customers exclusively on February the 29th. Remember to try and create a sense of urgency here by reminding customers it's just for one day.

March 8th: International Women's Day

International Women's Day is a great opportunity for you to celebrate your female customers and colleagues. A marketing campaign giving back to women's charities or simply an email recognising the day would be highly effective way to show women your appreciation.

8th March 2020 is International Women's Day - a date for your 2020 marketing calendar

Celebrating International Women's Day is a great way to show your female customers your appreciation.

April 23rd: World Book Day

If you sell books or e-readers, World Book Day could be a great opportunity for you to launch a promotion. If not, consider holding a special reading event or share your team's favorite books with your customers to encourage them to read more.

May 4th: Star Wars Day

Calling all Star Wars fans: May the fourth be with you! Depending on which business you're in, this unofficial holiday might be a little bit out there. However, with a little creativity, some of you may be able to pull off a fun campaign to put a smile on your readers' faces.

June 20th: Summer Solstice

The longest day of the year is certainly a special day and, with it being right at the start of summer, it can be used as an excuse for a summer sale or promotion. Alternatively, you could consider holding a special event to celebrate with your customers. This could be great themed event for a bar or restaurant.

The summer solstice could be another event worthy of your marketing calendar this year...

Celebrate the longest day of summer with a solstice-themed event.

July 24th: Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

The Summer Olympics are considered by most as the world's biggest sporting event and an event which brings dozens of nations together. No matter your field of business, there's bound to be a way you can stay on topic and incorporate the olympic theme into your campaigns this summer.

August 8th: International Cat Day

Cats are an internet sensation and a funny cat meme or video can be the ideal addition to liven up an otherwise standard email campaign. Of course, if your business is related to cats in any way, or you are a cat charity, then this is a very important date for your diary.

Would you consider adding International Cat Day to your marketing calendar?

Cats make everything better. Celebrate International Cat Day with a fun, cat-themed campaign.

September 12th: International Programmers' Day

This is one for all the software and tech firms out there... Show appreciation for your fellow programmers by giving a nod to them in your email campaign! Try offering a discount on new software which developers may find useful, or provide programmers with early access to your beta releases. They'll definitely appreciate you going the extra mile for them.

October 1st: International Coffee Day

This is one for café, and restaurant owners, or any other vendors or retailers selling coffee. Make the most of this one-off celebration with a fun promotion or event.

Apart from celebrating the delicious drink, International Coffee Day also concentrates on promoting fair-trade and supporting the overseas industries behind the production of coffee. This is also a great thing to mention in your campaigns (learn more.)

Why not include a campaign about coffee in your 2020 marketing calendar?

Everyone loves a good cup of coffee! Why not launch a campaign around it this International Coffee Day?

November 11th: Singles' Day

Originating in China, Singles' Day is a day dedicated to celebrating single people and is now massively growing in popularity. Many businesses use this as an opportunity to offer discounts and great deals to their customers. In particular, this holiday is popular with younger people in China, the UK and the USA.

December 10th: World Human Rights Day

Why not use the last month of the year to draw attention to a good cause? Take a break from festive sales emails to promote values such as equal rights, peace and tolerance. Holding a special event, launching a product and donating the profits to human rights organisations, or simply raising awareness are all great ways to get involved.

Getting started

We hope we have given you some ideas and inspiration for your 2020 marketing calendar. Alongside the regular holidays and events in your planner, these events should give you some fresh and interesting new subject matter to create engaging emails with in 2020.

Don't forget to check out our free resources for your 2020 marketing calendar. The extensive email campaign planner and downloadable events calendar are both completely free and a great way for you to get your campaigns organised this year.

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Need help building awesome email templates to use with your campaigns? Check out Mail Designer 365. Sign up free today to discover all the Design Ideas, creative tools and resources you need to create amazing emails in 2020...

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

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Jan 10 2020

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Valentine's Day Email Campaign Ideas Your Customers Will Fall In Love With

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Creating a Valentine's Day email campaign gives your business a great chance to capitalise on one of the year's biggest retail holidays. Sales in the US alone reached $20.7 billion in 2019. This is a great opportunity for businesses looking to up their revenue after the inevitable dip in sales following the holiday rush.

Like any big holiday, the pressure is on to design the perfect campaign. When should you send? How many emails should you send? What kind of promotion should you offer? Don't sweat it! Below, we've analysed our favorite Valentine's Day email campaign examples from 2019 to help answer your questions.

Valentine's Day email campaign ideas from the key industries

Here are 10 examples of awesome email campaigns by industries typically involved in Valentine's Day...

1. Bunches

Industry: Flowers and Gifting
Number of emails sent: 5
First email sent: 31.01.19

What we love: The offer is made super prominent in the header of the email design. This paired with bright product photos and useful pricing information makes it really effective for shoppers looking for the best deal.

2. Daniel Wellington

Industry: Jewellery and Watches
Number of emails sent: 5
First email sent: 06.02.19

What we love: The deep red theme of this email design is perfect for the romantic occasion. The bold headline also takes centre stage and speaks directly to the reader.

3. Funky Pigeon

Industry: Flowers and Gifting
Number of emails sent: 11
First email sent: 23.01.19

What we love: Using a classic brush font in the header is a great way to illustrate the Valentine's theme. The use of bright pink eye-catchers to draw attention to special offers and promotions is also very effective.

4. Giraffe

Industry: Restaurants and Dining
Number of emails sent: 2
First email sent: 06.02.19

What we love: The giant headline does a great job of capturing the customer's attention. In addition, the red CTA (call-to-action) button contrasts well against the plain white background; making it super clickable.

5. Kate Spade

Industry: Clothing and Accessories
Number of emails sent: 1
First email sent: 14.02.19

What we love: Think pink! Even if you don't do much in the build up to the big day, a simple Valentine's Day themed sale can be all you need to celebrate with your customers. The huge love heart is a great eye-catcher and the contrasting CTA buttons work really well.

6. Michael Kors

Industry: Clothing and Accessories
Number of emails sent: 3
First email sent: 02.02.19

What we love: This Valentine's Day email campaign stands out thanks to the fun illustrations of hearts and stars. Red and pink accents throughout the design also play well to the Valentine's Day theme and perfectly advertise their seasonal collection.

7. Pandora

Industry: Jewellery and Watches
Number of emails sent: 7
First email sent: 24.01.19

What we love: The message may be simple, but the design is so sweet. Taking a time out from all the sales-emails sent around a big holiday is a great way to show customers your appreciation. The "Love" headline made up of their charms is also super creative.

8. Teleflora

Industry: Flowers and Gifting
Number of emails sent: 20
First email sent: 16.01.19

What we love: Red roses are a time old symbol of love and romance; making them the perfect feature image for this campaign. The use of red in the headline and call-to-actions also works great in the design.

9. Tiffany

Industry: Jewellery and Watches
Number of emails sent: 39 (wow.)
First email sent: 14.01.19

What we love: This Valentine's Day email campaign by one of the biggest names in the industry definitely turns heads thanks to its bright pink background and love heart design. Including a sense of urgency is also a great way to give those last minute shoppers the final push they need.

10. Victoria's Secret

Industry: Clothing and Accessories
Number of emails sent: 16
First email sent: 23.01.19

What we love: The black background in this design makes the red and pink accents even more prominent and helps turn up the heat. Again, the use of red roses is perfect for Valentine's Day and providing gift ideas is a great way to help shoppers who may be struggling to choose!

Valentine's Day email campaign ideas from other industries

So we've covered some of the biggest industries on the Valentine's Day market. Wondering what to do if you don't sell flowers or jewellery? You can still get involved!

Here are a 5 great, innovative Valentine's Day email campaign ideas from brands which might surprise you...

1. Charity : Water

This sentimental campaign by Charity : Water encourages giving back as a display of love.

2. Domino's Pizza

This is a clever take on date night by Domino's that lets everyone get involved with the occasion.

The fun GIF helps liven up the email and grabs attention with the bold color scheme.

3. Dr. Marten's

As shown by Dr. Martens, even if your product isn't typically associated with Valentine's Day, a splash of red and a few love hearts makes your design fit perfectly.

4. George Foreman

Be creative in thinking of ways your product or service can help make Valentine's Day extra special for your customers.

5. Mujjo

No matter how out of the box, there's bound to be someone out there who'd love to receive your product as a Valentine's Day gift.

Key findings

We've come to the end of our Valentine's Day email campaign examples. We hope you've managed to get inspired by these traditional (and in some cases not-so-traditional) email designs.

As our analysis shows, there is no "right way" to manage your Valentine's Day email campaign. Where some brands opted for the laidback approach last year; only sending out one email on the day, other brands were already getting started with their campaigns a month in advance.

Similarly, each brand also opted for a different style of campaign; ranging from gift guides to sales to promotional discounts, or just a simple greeting. You can make your campaign entirely your own. Just remember these must-have design features:

Pinks and reds in your color scheme
A central headline with a strong typeface
Eye-catching graphics and feature image linking to the occasion
A clear call to action button

Get started with your Valentine's Day email campaign

Creating your own email design to use with your email campaign this year is easy in Mail Designer 365. Sign up to Mail Designer 365 free today and discover a huge range of design tools, templates and resources to help you create a Valentine's Day email campaign your customers will fall in love with!

Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Dec 11 2019

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New Year Email Campaign Ideas to Help You Kickstart the Year

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Just like that, another 12 months have passed and it's time to start looking towards a new year. Working on a New Year email campaign gives you the perfect chance to refresh your marketing strategy ready for the coming months.

A new year gives you a blank canvas to start again after all that holiday hype. Take this opportunity to get inspired by these awesome New Year email campaign ideas which you could use for your business...

New Year greeting

If you're stumped on what to say, or just want to keep things simple this year, the humble New Year greeting is for you!

A simple and sweet "Happy New Year" message like this one from SumAll is a thoughtful way to wish your customers all the best for the coming year. The fireworks motif is also super fitting for the exciting occasion.

A simple New Year's greeting is always a safe bet for any business.

New Year promotion

Think your customers are bored of sales? Think again! Everyone loves a chance to save money - especially after the holiday season.

Launching a sale or promotion to start the New Year is a great way to get your customers shopping with you again. In the run up to the holidays, your customers were spending money on gifts for others, now they can start treating themselves!

This design by Giraffe is a nice way to advertise their exclusive New Year promotion with their customers and get them dining in their restaurant.

Launch a sale or promotion to celebrate the New Year with your customers.

New Year nostalgia: Year in review

Before we move forward to a new year, many of us like to look back. This is what makes the year in review concept great for your New Year email campaign.

Looking back on the previous year is a fun way to celebrate together with your customers. This could be significant events in your sector, important business achievements, or the customer's personal milestones.

This email is a nice take on the year in review concept. Boohoo invites customers to look back on some of their best styles by including images of influencers and celebrities wearing their clothes.

Celebrate the start of a new year by looking back on the previous one.

New Year's resolutions

Each year, many of us make New Year's resolutions to try and better ourselves. If your business can play on this, it would be a great theme for your New Year email campaign.

Popular resolutions include reading more, working out, learning a new skill, or finding a hobby. Try and find ways your business can capitalise on this and encourage your customers to get on board.

This inspiring example by Duolingo is perfect for anyone wishing to improve their skillset in the coming year. The simple layout and bold CTA (call-to-action) help customers get started right away.

Use your New Year email campaign to inspire your readers to make good on their New Year's resolution.

New Year travel inspiration

If your business operates in the travel and tourism sector, a New Year email campaign gives you the perfect opportunity to get your customers booking a trip.

The New Year means new adventures for many of us. Use striking feature images and bold, eye-catching headlines to really target readers experiencing wanderlust.

This email by tripadvisor certainly gets readers excited about the prospect of a holiday. The bold "Where will you travel in 2019" headline is also super direct and personal; getting straight to the point.

Tempt customers with an exciting trip to look forward to in the New Year.

New Year style tips

This New Year email campaign idea is particularly effective for the fashion and beauty industry. Encourage your customers to try something new this January and use your email to showcase the latest trends to them.

This email by New Look is all about the neon trend and encourages customers to add some color to their wardrobes for the coming year.

Encourage customers to get adventurous and try out some daring new styles in the New Year.

We hope we've managed to get you inspired in time for the New Year. You can try out all of these New Year email campaign ideas in Mail Designer 365.

Sign up for free today to test the app and discover all of the creative tools and design resources you need to build your New Year email templates.

Happy New Year!
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

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Oct 30 2019

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Boost Sales for Your Online Boutique With Email Marketing

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

There's no denying that the online fashion market is massively on the rise. In the last few years, dozens of fashion websites have appeared and their popularity has skyrocketed. What is it that makes them so successful and how can you mimic this success for your own online boutique?

One of the major keys to success for massive online fashion brands is a water-tight email marketing strategy. Email is proven to be an effective converter. In fact, a study by SaleCycle showed that 50% of respondents claimed to buy from marketing emails at least once a month. Nailing your email marketing strategy is the best way for you to guarantee more website traffic and, in turn, more sales.

However, as a smaller online boutique, it can be challenging to get up and running with an email marketing strategy. Creating an email campaign to rival the big guns is hard; especially when they're so experienced and have been in the game so long.

Creating an email marketing strategy to compete with the likes of huge online retailers such as Boohoo seems impossible.

To help you out, we've done some digging to try and find out more about the techniques used by some of the leading brands in the online fashion industry. Get inspired and adapt your email marketing strategy using example emails from online giants such as Boohoo, ASOS and Missguided.

Here's how you can learn from the best and use email marketing to boost sales for your online boutique...

Get to know your customers

In order to perfectly optimise your emails for your recipients, you first need to know who you are sending to. It's important not to think of your customers as one homogenous group. It's also important that you make email content specific and don't try to create generalised emails to suit multiple readers.

Find out more about your customers during the newsletter sign up process. Asking a few quick and straightforward questions is a useful way to get the information you need from customers to make your emails better for them.

On their website, Zalando asks customers opting in to receive the newsletter whether they are interested in men's or women's fashion. Knowing this information allows Zalando to send them the email content most relevant to their shopping preferences:

Find out more about your customers' interests and preferences during the sign up process.

You should also consider giving subscribers the chance to determine the email content they want to receive from the get go. This increases the likelihood that they will stay subscribed, as the content they're receiving is content they have actively shown an interest in.

During the sign up process, ASOS allows new customers to choose which types of email newsletter they want to receive. They also go the extra mile by including a brief explanation of each newsletter type. This kind of clarity is something readers will definitely appreciate.

Let customers determine the content they will be receiving to help prevent them from unsubscribing in future.

Send welcome offers to new customers

Getting your customer to sign up to your mailing list is just the first step. Entice them to make their first purchase on your online boutique by sending out a tempting welcome offer.

Whether it's a percentage discount, $x off, free shipping, or a special free gift, any kind of special offer will act as an incentive for new customers and encourage them to get shopping.

Moreover, a welcome offer is also a nice way to thank new customers for showing an interest in your site and will hopefully help keep shoppers interested and engaged with your business.

I Saw It First treat subscribers to an impressive 50% off in this great example of a welcome email. This huge discount is bound to get more customers browsing on their site to see what they can save money on:

Tempt new customers into making their first purchase with an exciting welcome offer.

Be active on social media

One common denominator between the most successful online fashion retailers is that they all have a strong presence on social media. Social media is a great platform for brands to interact in a fun way with customers while also gaining more exposure (e.g. through viral posts and ads.)

In particular, Instagram is a great platform for any online boutique, as it gives you the chance to share your best new styles with a huge audience. The Instagram shopping feature also lets your followers directly shop products you feature in your posts, which is a super modern and convenient shopping workflow. Don't forget to also use relevant hashtags for more visibility.

All the big online fashion brands also have a strong social media presence.

Combine your social media marketing with your email campaigns for maximum exposure. Include a link to your Instagram or Twitter page in your email to let your subscribers know of other ways to keep updated.

This welcome email by Nasty Gal has a whole section dedicated to their Instagram page. Here they showcase their latest Instagram posts and include a direct link to follow them. This is much more effective than a simple icon in the footer and really puts the emphasis on online engagement:

Use your emails to also draw attention to your social media pages.

Concentrate on bold visuals

As a fashion brand, optics are everything. This is why your newsletter designs need to be on point.

When it comes to creating email designs, don't be afraid to take a few risks and opt for bright colors and fun styles. All of the major online retailers are well known for their daring designs, as it's what gets them noticed by customers. Here are a few bold examples:

MissPap wow customers with this Halloween themed design.

Boohoo are taking customers back in time with this retro email design.

ASOS get daring with color in this bright design.

Color blocking works well in this email by Nasty Gal.

Hold regular sales & promotions

Unless your customers are actively looking for specific items of clothing, you will need to work hard to keep them coming back to your site regularly. One of the most effective ways of doing this is by holding sales and promotions.

We al love a good sale. The chance to save money and get great deals is often far too tempting. Moreover, many customers will inadvertently end up spending more money in the sale if your offers are too hard to resist. Not only will this increase your sales revenue, it also keeps traffic flowing back to your site and helps you stay relevant to your customers.

Boohoo shows that you can hold a sale for any given occasion. This payday sales concept is clever, as customers will be more willing to splash the cash on new clothes just after they've been paid:

Hold sales and promotions on a regular basis and keep traffic coming to your site.

Tempt customers with new drops and re-stocks

Another way to keep customers coming back to your online boutique is by keeping them informed of your newest items. Your subscribers opted in because they're interested in your brand and what you have to offer. Use your email newsletter to showcase your latest drops and get readers browsing your website for more.

Tempt customers to browse your site and discover more of your new additions.

Keeping customers informed whenever you have re-stocked a product or collection is also vital. After all, if a customer doesn't know the product they missed out on is back in stock, they're not likely to actively go looking for it.

Emails such as this one from Missguided are exactly the reason why many subscribers signed up to your list in the first place. Being the first to know about new products or re-stocks means that customers won't run the risk of missing out.

Keeping your customers informed about re-stocked products is a great way to keep them engaged with your site.

Generate a sense of urgency

Because of its convenient and accessible nature, many online retailers depend on spontaneous, impulse purchases to increase their sales. One guaranteed way of increasing the amount of impulse buys is by generating a sense of urgency in your email.

When customers are aware that your sale is only running for a limited time, they'll be more likely to go and check your site straight away to see what they can find. Play on your readers' fear of missing out and integrate time-sensitive slogans and eye-catchers into your design.

As shown in this email by ASOS, phrases such as "last chance" or "ending soon" are exactly the motivation customers need to check out your sale before the best deals are gone:

Generate a sense of urgency by including clear, time-sensitive messaging in your email campaign.

Send out abandoned cart emails

When shopping online, your customers can get distracted for a number of reasons. For example, a poor internet connection, low battery, or an incoming phone call could all interrupt the checkout process and cause customers to forget about their purchase.

Rather than losing out on potential sales, take this opportunity to be proactive and send out an abandoned cart email. This will act as a reminder to customers to pick off their purchase where they left off and stops you from missing out on important revenue.

In this example by Nasty Gal, the customer is tempted back to their shopping cart with a vibrant and colorful email design. Adding a sense of urgency and a bold CTA makes the email even better:

Send out abandoned cart emails to get your customers back on track with their purchase.

Time to give email marketing a go for your online boutique

Now you've seen how the top dogs do it, we hope you're feeling inspired to get started with building up your own email strategy for your online boutique. Looking for the perfect place to get started out with email design? Sign up free to Mail Designer 365 today and discover a huge range of easy to edit HTML templates and creative tools.

Until next time!
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Oct 22 2019

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21 Awesome "Black Friday" Email Campaign Examples

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

As one of the biggest dates on the email marketing calendar for many businesses, "Black Friday" is an event that raises the bar for you and your marketing strategy. Building an effective email campaign is a crucial part of your business's success.

Getting Started

As always, the key is to start planning early so you are feeling confident in your campaign when the big day comes around. This way, you avoid any last minute panic and have time to tackle any obstacles encountered along the way.

The pressure to create an email campaign that stands out against competitors and drives sales is something every business owner knows all too well. To make things a little easier, we're sharing some awesome examples of businesses who really got it right in previous years.

Keep reading to discover excellent email campaign examples, plus tips on how to steal these expert ideas for your own campaigns...

21 of the Very Best "Black Friday" Email Campaigns

1. Tradesy

What better way to to celebrate a sale than with balloons? This monochrome email design by Tradesy is a slick and sophisticated way to advertise an exciting "Black Friday" promotion.

2. Office

The yellow accents in this email by Office work great as eye-catchers. The 20% discount stands out and really manages to grab the reader's attention.

Recreate this effect in Mail Designer 365: Create glowing text effects with the shadow tool. Choose your colour, blur and offset angle to create eye-catching shadow effects.

Use the shadow tool to highlight important elements of your design with a vibrant, glowing effect.

3. Jack Spade

Cyber Monday is essentially the online equivalent to "Black Friday" and you should definitely factor it into your email campaign.

Jack Spade cleverly generates a sense of urgency by using a timer as their main graphic. We love how it's pixelated to stay in line with the "cyber" theme.

4. Boohoo

This fun design by Boohoo also adopts a clear cyber theme. The bright pink GIF is great at drawing attention the the message of the campaign and the design as a whole is certainly unique enough to win over customers.

5. Urban Outfitters

This monochrome design is basically all text but gets straight to the point. Urban Outfitters do a good job here of using contrasting fonts to give their simple design more character.

Recreate this in Mail Designer 365: Experiment with different web fonts to give your email campaign more of a unique edge. Remember to use text layout blocks to avoid any compatibility issues:

6. Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune gets super festive with this colorful email design. The fairy lights GIF is a good way to attract attention while also getting readers in the holiday shopping mood.

7. Jack Wills

This email by Jack Wills definitely gets us in the holiday mood. The festive feature image is really effective in recreating the ultimate Christmas morning feeling. The pink striped background also creates a gift wrap effect and fits perfectly with the theme of holiday gift shopping.

8. 10 Store

Here's a risk that paid off. Although perhaps a little adventurous for some, there's no denying that this loud, colorful email design by 10 Store grabs your attention straight away.

9. Bluefly

The gold, glittery vibe of this email campaign by Bluefly is super festive and exciting. The combination of black, gold and white works great for a big sales event and the text is big and bold enough to instantly make the message clear.

10. FatFace

This campaign by FatFace has a really nice sentiment and makes a change from standard sales emails. Giving back campaigns such as this one are very effective around the holidays. Customers are encouraged to shop in order to put their money towards worthwhile causes.

11. Mothercare

Mothercare show off their star offers in this stellar email design. The contrast between black and yellow tones make the CTAs (call-to-actions) and eye-catchers really pop in this email. The catalogue layout also makes accessing the deals much easier; which is great on this busy shopping occasion.

Recreate this in Mail Designer 365: Experiment with shapes to make CTAs and explore different layout options to recreate this catalogue style design.

Build a similar catalogue layout with bold CTAs and eye-catchers using shapes and layout blocks.

12. Odeon

As shown here by Odeon, a bold feature font is a nice way of grabbing your readers' attention. The countdown is also a great touch to get customers geared up for your special promotion.

13. NYX

NYX really promote their products with this inventive layout. Hot pink accents make the message hard to miss and the LED effect GIF is both cool and creative. The "today only" tag is also a clever way to generate a sense of urgency.

14. Aldo

Aldo keep things pretty simple in this design, but the festive red combined with the cool, textured black background creates a noticeable contrast. Again, they've gone for a mix of font styles to liven up the design even more.

15. Julep

In this campaign, Julep have gone for a slightly different approach. The "early access" sale gets customers shopping before the big day and alluding to surprises at the checkout will certainly boost those click-through rates. We also like the design's balance between images and text to keep things visually interesting yet still informative.

Recreate this in Mail Designer 365: Combi layout blocks are a great way to balance out text and images side by side. Write inspiring product descriptions or include a bullet list of key features:

Try out combi layout block styles to balance out images with interesting product descriptions.

16. Graze

Graze have taken us by storm with this lightning bolt design. This is a great way to stand out from competitors and the color combination also hits the spot.

17. Rent the Runway

As shown here by Rent the Runway, sometimes simple does the trick. The bold GIF clearly highlights their 40% off promotion whilst also bringing some fun to the design. The "better hurry" CTA button is also inventive and adds a sense of urgency to the campaign.

18. Dr. Martens

Dr. Martens demonstrate yet another drastic color scheme with this vibrant design. The countdown at the top again creates a sense of urgency and big, bold lettering communicates their offer well. It's also smart how they think ahead and include a product preview at the bottom of the email.

"Black Friday" email campaigns get some of the highest open rates, so you might as well use the chance to promote your business while you can!

19. Forever 21

Forever 21 sneak an element of mystery into this "Black Friday" themed design. The temptation to click and reveal their discount is too much for many customers to resist. The gold accents also add a festive tone to the design and get customers in the money-spending mood.

20. Wolf & Badger

In this email, Wolf & Badger proudly showcase their best products to celebrate with their customers. As well as the eye-catching feature graphic, the clear layout also makes the promotion more effective and the deals easier to shop. The Christmas Shop graphic in the bottom of the email also does a good job of getting readers ready for holiday shopping.

21. Flannels

This monochrome design by Flannels is super cool. Using only black products in the background of the email is a clever take on the "Black Friday" theme. The font choices are also bold and stylish, and the "Ends Midnight" tagline incorporates that all-important sense of urgency to the campaign.

Start building your email campaigns today

Whether you're planning a promotion for "Black Friday" or holding another large sales event, we hope these 21 awesome examples have come in useful, and that you will try out some of the techniques and ideas mentioned in this article when designing your own emails.

Get started with the Mail Designer 365 service today for free...

Mail Designer 365 helps you and your team create stylish, professional HTML emails.
Sign up free today to see what you can achieve.

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Oct 14 2019

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How to Build a Successful Charity Email Campaign

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Building a charity email campaign can be challenging. How do you keep your readers interested in your content? What should you include in your campaign? When should you send emails?

For charity organisations, the typical email marketing strategy differs from that of a business. With generic sales campaigns, it's widely accepted that you can fill your email with bold CTA buttons (call-to-action) and exciting text and graphics in order to win over your customers. However, for a charity, the approach needs to be different. Finding the balance between driving donations and sharing information is key.

Here are some useful tips you can apply to your charity email campaigns to increase your donations and raise awareness for your important cause.

Use personalisation

It doesn't matter if your email list has 100,000 subscribers, or just 10. When it comes to charity email campaigns, it's important to establish a direct connection between your organisation and your reader. If subscribers feel a personal connection with you and your cause, they are much more likely to respond to your appeals.

One great way of achieving this connection is through personalisation. Speak directly to customers and address them by name. Not only does this help grab their attention, it also gives them more of a sense of responsibility; leading to more engagement with your charity.

This powerful email from Cancer Research UK uses personalisation effectively. In addressing me by my name, the email makes me feel compelled to donate and help make a difference.

Use personalisation to make every recipient feel compelled to take action.

Use powerful images

It's often said that a picture speaks a thousand words. Using powerful, emotive images in your email campaign is a guaranteed way to pull on readers' heartstrings and get them on board with your important cause. Compared to a 100% text email, an email that includes a strong feature image will have a much greater effect on the recipient.

This email from charity: water is a prime example of how effective a strong image can be in your email design. The heartwarming father and son photo highlights the Father's Day theme and helps trigger an emotional response in the reader; encouraging them to donate to the cause.

Use powerful images to help get readers on board.

Provide regular updates

Although the main goal of a charity email campaign is to get as many donations as possible, you can't come across to desperate to your subscribers. Use email marketing as an opportunity to update your readers on your great work. Try sending out a regular email newsletter with the latest news and information about your cause. This will help readers better understand what your organisation is working towards and also encourage more donations.

Here are some examples of what you could include in your newsletter:

General facts and research about your cause
Interesting blog posts or news articles
Information about new appeals or fundraising events
Your organisation's goals for the coming month
How much money you raised last month

The ALS Association send out a monthly e-newsletter to keep their subscribers up to date. This is an effective strategy, as they regularly remind readers of their cause without being too pushy and putting them under pressure. As well as important news and updates, they're also sure to include the all-important donation link as a subtle reminder:

Sending a regular email newsletter is a great way to keep subscribers informed and up to date while subtly encouraging more donations.

Include real life stories

People often respond better to a cause when it is something they can relate to. By including real life stories in your email newsletters, you give the reader an idea of where their donation is going and help them relate better to your cause. Think about how testimonials and good reviews help a regular business. Sharing your charity's success stories will also help show your subscribers what their money can help achieve.

Don't forget, the majority of your subscribers signed up to your list because the cause is close to their heart. These heartwarming stories will help remind them of why they want to support your charity.

This email from Cancer Research UK shows how money donated goes towards life-changing research. This is the kind of success story which will help encourage subscribers to continue donating and carrying on the good work.

Sharing success stories is a great way to remind readers of the great work your charity is doing.

Amnesty International also used powerful success stories in this New Year themed email. This approach is particularly effective, as they also list examples of ongoing problems which need support from donations. This is a good balance between celebrating achievement whilst still recognising what still needs to be done.

Putting success stories alongside ongoing cases is a great way of showing readers how their money is still needed to carry on the good work.

Thank your subscribers

Thanking your subscribers for their support and donations is also an integral part of your charity email campaign. Even though we may not like to admit it, people like having their contributions recognised from time to time. Send out a thank you email as a way to show your subscribers how grateful you are.

A thank you email can be super effective for your charity, as it makes a nice change from asking for donations. Moreover, many readers will subconsciously feel the urge to keep on donating to your cause when they notice how much you appreciate it.

Try linking a thank you email together with a success story. This example by charity:water is super positive and a great way to show appreciation by rewarding donators with good news:

Thanking your subscribers for their donations helps encourage them to continue donating in the future, as they can see how much it is appreciated.

Send out seasonal greetings

The holidays are one of the most effective times to run a charity email campaign, as people are usually in the mood for giving (think Giving Tuesday.) Take a break from your regular campaigning efforts and focus on creating a seasonal email campaign. This is a fun way to get into the holiday spirit and also plays on readers' festive goodwill.

Typically, consumers are willing to spend a lot during the holidays. Make your seasonal email campaign home in on this trend and convince subscribers to spend money on your good cause.

This holiday-themed email by WE has a clear festive feel to it, while also sharing an important message to donate clean water.

Use the holiday season as an opportunity to encourage more subscribers to give back.

You can also use a seasonal email campaign as the chance to do something out of the box and just have fun. Cats Protection use this email to link to a fun animated video and celebrate the holidays together with their readers.

Use the holidays as a way to show your fun side and do something different. This will help keep readers interested in your email content.

Link to your social media pages

Email is a great way to update your subscribers about your charity work, but don't forget to make the most of other marketing channels. Include links to your social media pages and show subscribers even more ways they can follow your work. They've gone to the effort of signing up to your newsletter list, so your cause is obviously of interest to them. Utilise this opportunity to grow your social media following too.

JustGiving include prominent links to their social media sites in their email footer:

Integrate your social media pages into your email campaigns to help grow your online following.

We hope you will take these tips and ideas on board when creating email campaigns for your charity to truly make sure your good cause will benefit. Sending out regular emails is a great way to stay in touch with your audience and spread important information about your cause.

Struggling to find the right tool for your charity email campaign? Mail Designer 365 is a practical HTML email design service for Mac that allows you to easily create impressive email newsletters to spread your important message. Find out more here.

Until next time,

Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Sep 26 2019

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Design Effective Onboarding Campaigns to Increase Customer Engagement

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Whether you're an indie app developer, a giant software house, or somewhere in-between, convincing a customer to download your demo is the first big step towards you getting a new user on board with your product.

However, once you've got a potential new customer in your sights, what can you do to keep them engaged and convince them to stick around?

What is onboarding?

In terms of SaaS products, the onboarding process describes the time from when your customer firsts downloads your demo or creates an account, until them choosing a plan and becoming paid users. More generally, it is the period where your customers first start using your product.

The step between free and paid is generally a big one. As a business, it's your job to give potential customers the best possible experience during the trial period. Not only will this allow them to get used to you as a business, it also increases the likelihood that they will want to carry on using your great product.

Why design an onboarding campaign?

Customers lose interest quickly. Research has shown that the first 10 days after signup are critical in determining whether a customer will continue to use your product, or become disengaged (leading to customer churn.)

The most effective way to keep customers engaged is to develop an onboarding campaign to guide them through the early stages of using your product.

In this article, we've shared some of our best tips on how you can design an effective onboarding campaign for your business and help increase customer engagement.

Set up a sender name and image

Traditional sales reps play on a sense of familiarity when convincing customers face to face to purchase a product. This one-on-one contact is hard to reproduce via an automated onboarding email. Before getting started, there are a few tricks you can try to make yourself more recognisable in the customer's inbox.

Setting up a legitimate from-address takes away any anonymity for your customers and means they will know exactly who has sent them the email. This is much better than using a generic no-reply address, which can come across unfriendly or untrustworthy. It is also best practice to configure a sender name, such as your company name. This stands out more to customers and is generally more recognisable.

LinkedIn clearly use their company name when sending out email notifications to make it easy for the user to see where the messages are coming from.

In addition, uploading a sender image for your business via Gravatar is another good way of appearing more familiar to customers in their inbox. Many email services such as Gmail and Outlook will display your online avatar if you have one set up for your sender address.

This is great, as customers realise straight away that the email is from you and are more likely to open it. This blog post is a good guide on how to set up your sender image.

Spotify have configured both a prominent sender name and image to make themselves more recognisable to customers.

Nail the welcome email

Recent stats show that sending a welcome email can increase your email engagement by up to 33%. This is seriously impressive.

The welcome email is one of the most important emails you will send. It is your first chance to introduce your customer to your product or service and the official start of your onboarding campaign. This sets the tone for the rest of your emails; meaning it's critical that you get it right.

What to include?
Every business is different and no two welcome emails will be the same. However, there are a few key points to consider when designing your company's welcome message:

Use personalisation - This instantly connects the reader to your business.
Thank the customer for signing up to your service.
Briefly explain how to get started.
Include links to useful resources such as tutorials or FAQs
Add a call-to-action button so the customer knows what their next step is.

This welcome email by Voi is one great example of how to introduce new customers to your service. Not only is it friendly and informative, it also contains an infographic with all the most important information users need before they get started.

Voi are also super smart in introducing an incentivised referral scheme in the very first email:

This welcome email by Voi contains all the important information the customer needs before getting started, plus a cool referral scheme.

Send tutorial-style emails

The aim of your onboarding campaign is to get customers using your product. If they don't know how it works, or the setup process is too confusing, they will quickly become disengaged. Making your product enjoyable and easy to use is the most effective way to ensure customers will want to stay onboard.

Refer to your support channels, FAQs and your own experience to identify the most common problem areas. Target these in your email campaign to help users avoid running into these issues.

It's also a good idea to condense the information in your email as much as possible. Huge chunks of text will only confuse readers. Break up the key points into a simple, step-by-step list. You can always link out to blog posts, tutorials or videos on your website if they need more help.

Tinder help new users get their profile set up by providing some useful tips. Including CTAs after each step is also super effective.

Make every email actionable

Every email in the campaign needs to have a clear CTA (call-to-action). Think about the logical steps a user needs to take in order to become engaged and interested in your product and plan your emails accordingly.

Welcome new users onboard and encourage them to carry out specific actions. Actions can include downloading the app, creating a profile, etc. By doing all of these things, the new user slowly learns more about the product and becomes engaged.

Whatever the goal is, you must clear the path for your customers. Use email to point users in the right direction and get them using your service. This email from Webflow is a great example. The CTA "choose a template" is super clear and gets the user straight on the right path:

Make sure every email has a clear CTA to help get the user started with using your product.

Slack gets the ball rolling with this CTA encouraging users to invite their team.

Re-enforce the USPs of your product

While a new user is getting started with your product, you should remind them of its key benefits. Reiterate to the user what makes your product or service different from others. This will help convince them that they should stick around.

Many users sign up on a whim - especially if it's free. Using your onboarding campaign to re-enforce what makes your product special helps you to persuade the customer the product is worthwhile. With this mindset, they are more likely to complete the conversion from inactive trial user to active full user.

Use your emails to highlight key USPs, exciting features and any other aspects you think make your product better than the rest. Don't be afraid to experiment with GIFs, videos and bold images to make your email more visually exciting.

Spotify clearly re-enforces the benefits of a Premium plan here.

Asana lists integrations to convince new users of the benefits of using their service.

Be flexible with your trial period

Let's say you have a fixed trial period of 2 weeks. This is great and may be enough time for most customers to decide whether to purchase. However, for some customers it might not be long enough.

If you see a user has used up all of the time on their demo and not purchased a paid plan, consider offering them an extension. Even just one more week could be all they need to help them make up their mind.

In this example from NOW TV, the user is offered another free trial period. This is a smart strategy, as the customer has more time to explore the service and decide they do want to sign up.

NOW TV try hard to tempt back trial users with the offer of another 30 days free.

Consider a re-engagement email

A re-engagement campaign can also be part of your onboarding process if it means the customer re-connects with your product. By monitoring user activity within your app or online platform, you will see which users are starting to disengage. If you spot this early enough, you could prevent customer churn.

How to re-engage inactive users:
If you notice a customer has left the setup process incomplete, you can reach out to them and encourage them to finish what they started. Often, people get distracted or something else comes up. A helpful reminder is a good way to re-engage potential users and get them back on track.

This email by airbnb is productive because it strikes off the steps the user has already completed; leaving the rest of the list as todos. This is a subtle way of showing the user they are almost ready to go:

Airbnb give the user the final push they need to finish off their listing.

Alternatively, you could try a more indirect approach. A common reason for users becoming disengaged is them becoming stuck on a problem. If you notice an inactive user, try getting in touch and offering support. This strategy is used in the following example by Webflow:

Webflow extend a helping hand to try and offer support to new users who may be struggling.

Find out what went wrong and learn from it

No business has a 100% conversion rate and no matter how good your onboarding campaigns are, you should always expect some customer churn. In the case of customers who decide not to continue using your product, it is important you try to find out why.

Try and reach out to customers who decided not to purchase a plan in order to figure out what went wrong. You could send out a simple survey, or write a personalised message in the hope of getting a more direct response.

Your onboarding campaigns will always be evolving with your product. Keep analysing their performance (e.g. open rates, click-throughs) together with your conversion rates in order to keep emails optimised and as effective as possible.

We hope you have found these tips for creating onboarding emails useful and that they will help you increase your conversion rates. All our examples were either sourced from our own inbox, or from the awesome collection over at reallygoodemails.

P.S. Did you know Mail Designer 365 templates are compatible with dozens of leading marketing automation tools? Build up your Mail Designer 365 email design and export as HTML to use with ActiveCampaign, SendinBlue, Drip, ConstantContact, MailerLite, and many more... Find a list of compatible ESPs, along with step-by-step export guides on our Integrations page.

Until next time!
Your Mail Designer 365 Team

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Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

5 Useful Techniques for Email List Segmentation

1. Optimize your opt in process

2. Get to know customers through your welcome email

3. Refer to customer shopping habits

Recommendation emails

Service and subscription models

Segmentation by abandonment rate

4. Run a birthday campaign

5. Give subscribers an incentive to tell you more

Try out these email list segmentation techniques

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What is Presidents' Day?

Why should I send a Presidents' Day email campaign?

Presidents' Day email campaign examples

Google

Bed Bath & Beyond

JCPenney

Michael Kors

ASOS

Dockers

Article

Tips for your Presidents' Day email campaign

Creating a Presidents’ Day Email Campaign in Mail Designer 365

Search the Unsplash collection for your feature image:

Try out Blend Modes to produce unique effects

Experiment with bold web fonts for sale eye-catchers

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Best intriguing email subject lines

"These are so ugly"

"Is the Ouija board dangerous?"

"DON'T SCROLL PAST | This ends midnight ?"

"Burning questions & stuff"

"Did someone say payday? ?"

Best funny email subject lines

"Gimme Gimme Gimme a ticket for Mamma Mia!"

"Alexa: Read this email! ?"

"? The hottest thing on your screen…? ?"

"Still wanted: your opinion"

Best personalised email subject lines

"Grace, how about a hot drink on us?"

"Grace, autumn flights under £29.99"

"Grace, people with ALS need you now!"

Best sales-based email subject lines

"*BIG NEWS* Sale now up to 60% off"

"Celebrating 30 years with 30% OFF for 24 hours only!"

"? Everything is £3 or less? Hurry! ?"

Best emoji email subject lines

"? Items to make you smile!"

"? Open the door to your perfect holiday stay"

"2-4-1 = Date Night ❤️"

"⏳ ENDS TONIGHT - 20% off 20 great brands ⏳"

Best FOMO email subject lines

"Hurry Grace! Save now with our 3 month membership!"

"Don't forget to claim your FREE month of Sky Cinema"

"Have you got your tickets?!"

"Your discount code expires TOMORROW!"

Best reengagement email subject lines

"Aerosmith - still want those tickets?"

"Grace, don't forget your tickets to Luton Airport"

"We've missed you! 85% OFF your 1st item"

Key Takeaways

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Get your FREE 2020 marketing calendar and campaign planner!

Make the most of your free resources:

Getting to work on your first campaign

12 BONUS dates that you need in your 2020 marketing calendar

January 20th: Blue Monday

February 29th: Leap Year Day

March 8th: International Women's Day

April 23rd: World Book Day

May 4th: Star Wars Day

June 20th: Summer Solstice

July 24th: Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony

August 8th: International Cat Day

September 12th: International Programmers' Day

October 1st: International Coffee Day

November 11th: Singles' Day

December 10th: World Human Rights Day

Getting started

"BIG NEWS Sale now up to 60% off"