In particular for fashion brands, having an effective email automation strategy in place plays an important role in determining the experience customers have with your online shop. Setting up automated emails for certain key "trigger" actions is a great way to keep website visitors engaged and personalise their journey with your business.
Although it's great to get creative with your automation strategy, having a solid foundation in place is the best way to ensure you have all bases covered.
In this post, we're sharing 5 essential automated emails every online fashion retailer needs to set up to help boost sales and drive customer engagement.
Why Should I Set Up Automated Emails for My Online Store?
Big name online fashion retailers such as ASOS, Boohoo, Zalando and Missguided have a lot in common, including an indestructible email marketing strategy.
As well as creating a more personalised experience for your customers, automated emails have a number of other advantages:
- Save time: Having an automated strategy in place saves you time in the long run and allows you to focus your efforts on larger campaigns
- Great ROI (return on investment): Building one set of templates won't cost much and will help you maximise sales
- Onboarding made easy: Welcome newcomers on board with a pre-made set of email templates
- Reduce support demand: Provide customers with useful billing and shipping information without them having to ask for it
- Reengage customers: Stop customers slipping through the net by chasing up lost sales and dormant subscribers
5 Automated Email Ideas for Online Fashion Retailers
Here are five useful ideas of automated emails to set up for your online clothing store.
1. Welcome Email
Sending a welcome email is a great way to introduce new customers to your brand. Typically, these emails will be sent following a customer's first purchase or when they first sign up to your email newsletter.
Remember to include a short thank you message to show your appreciation. In addition, a small welcome offer is often the perfect way to start off a new customer relationship on the right foot.
In these examples by Vivienne Westwood, new subscribers are sent two onboarding mails:
The first email is a standard welcome email with a direct pathway to their online store. However, in the second email, new customers instantly learn more about the iconic brand in a brief biography, helping them to quickly form a connection.
2. Abandoned Cart Email
Abandoned shopping carts is one of the biggest reasons for sales falling through. Oftentimes, this is caused by an interruption to the checkout process and not necessarily because the customer is no longer interested in your product.
Some common interruptions to the checkout process include:
- Loss of internet connection
- Entering an incorrect payment method
- Phone battery dying
- Receiving a phone call or message
To make sure you don't miss out on a sale for an avoidable reason, make sure to set up abandoned cart email reminders to draw those customers back in.
When creating these automated emails, remember to make the product placeholder nice and big so the customer instantly notices the product they originally wanted to purchase. Timing is also key, as sending the email too late could result in the customer losing interest.
In this abandoned cart email by Kate Spade, the product takes center stage and draws the reader in straight away. In linking to their new in items, Kate Spade also offer the reader an alternative enticement onto their website:
3. Shipping Information Email
Giving customers peace of mind after they place an order from your store is super important. As well as an order confirmation email - which is standard practice for any online business - providing detailed shipping information is also essential.
Knowing how long an order will take to arrive and being able to plan for the delivery both make things much easier for your customers. For this reason, it's a good idea to include a tracking link to your delivery service as well as an estimated delivery date.
As well as being a useful service for your customers, it will also help reduce the number of support enquires you receive about delivery times, freeing up your team's time for other tasks.
This tracking email by Timberland is a good example of best practice. In addition to including all the relevant information about the order, Timberland also include a prominent tracking link which the customer can use to follow the progress of their order.
4. Feedback Email
Receiving reviews for your store and products is valuable for every business owner. Feedback emails are really easy to integrate into an email automation strategy and can be set up to send after any purchase from your store.
Browse through our top tips for putting together excellent feedback emails
In this example, ASOS sent an interactive feedback email to make it easy for customers to rate items they have recently purchased. Not only does this help the brand learn more about what their customers like, it also helps other undecided shoppers to determine if the product is right for them.
5. Happy Birthday Email
Last but not least is the Happy Birthday Email. This is another really effective email to add to your automation strategy and only takes a moment to set up in your ESP.
Celebrating with your customers by giving them a discount or special offer for their birthday reminds strengthens the relationship and reminds them you appreciate them.
It's also really likely your shoppers will be in the mood to treat themselves to something special for their birthday - whether it's a new outfit for the big day or that one item they've had their eye on for a while - your birthday promotion could be the final push they need to make that final purchase.
In this fabulous birthday email promotion, New Look give their shoppers more than enough time to scout out their birthday treat and get 20% off! The bold countdown at the top of the design also adds a sense of time pressure, encouraging the customer to buy sooner rather than later:
Setting Up Automated Emails for Your Online Clothing Shop
We hope you've been inspired by these automated email ideas. Setting up email templates for your automation strategy is easy in Mail Designer 365:
- Open Mail Designer 365 or download for free on your Mac
- Create a new email design with the responsive, drag and drop editor or choose from one of our automated email templates
- Export your finished design directly to Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor or another email automation tool of your choice. Find a list of all compatible services on this page
Abandoned Cart automated email template - exclusively available in Mail Designer 365
Use Mail Designer 365 to create a stylish range of email templates to use together with your email automation platform.
Until next time!
Your Mail Designer 365 Team
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According to research from Shopify, almost 70% of us are guilty of adding items to an online shopping cart, and not carrying out the purchase (aka abandoning the cart!) This is bad for your business as it leads to a large amount of your potential revenue being lost.
It is important for you as email marketers to try and re-engage busy customers and encourage them to continue their purchase. Here are our top tips for creating the perfect abandoned cart email.
Abandoned Cart email template available in Mail Designer 365
Understanding why transactions fall through
Before we start talking about how to win back customers with an abandoned cart email, it's a good idea to think about the reasons why customers don't complete a transaction. After all, prevention is better than cure! Here are some common reasons why purchases aren't completed:
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- Your checkout process is too complicated. If your checkout process takes too long, your customers will quickly get bored and won't have the patience to finish purchasing their chosen products. One thing that could slow down or complicate the checkout process is signing up or creating an account. If this isn't necessary for the transaction, leave this step out of the process.
- Shipping costs are too high. A lot of the time, sites entice customers with really good deals on products, but then deter them with unexpectedly high shipping fees. Consider offering free domestic shipping, or offering free shipping as part of a threshold spend.
- Not enough payment options. Try to offer as many payment options as possible. Services like PayPal are a great option to have on offer, as this allows customers to quickly and easily complete a transaction without having to look for their card details.
- Other issues: There are of course many other obstacles which could occur that are out of your control. Your customer may be lacking in money at the time of the purchase, or they may be distracted by something which causes them to leave your site (e.g. a phone call or a crying baby.) They may even run out of battery on their laptop or mobile device.
Step One: Crafting a Super-enticing Subject Line
Without gaining the attention of your customers, your email will be overlooked in a busy inbox. Here are two quick tips on optimizing your subject lines for an abandoned cart email:
- Personalization
If you include the recipient's name in the subject line, they are far more likely to notice it and open your email. - Name the items
Make sure you name the items which your customer has left in their shopping cart. That way, it will be easier for them to remember the purchase, and they will also be more enticed to open your email when seeing the products they almost bought!
Here is an example of an enticing subject line using the Mail Designer 365 subject line optimization tool.
Step Two: Create a Sense of Urgency
Creating a sense of urgency is a very effective way to encourage your customers back to your store's checkout. Be sure to let them know of any offers which are about to expire, or products which are about to go out of stock.
If they think it's their last chance to get a good deal, FOMO (fear of missing out) will definitely kick in and they'll want to carry out their purchases as soon as they can. A lot of the time, customers are simply procrastinating and only need a gentle nudge from you to convince them to buy your product.
This example from Bloomingdale's is great, as it puts gentle pressure on the customer to order before their chosen items sell out "Hurry - they're going fast!"
Step Three: Show them what they're missing
As we mentioned before, it's a good idea to mention the items your customer has left behind, but it's an even better idea to show them.
Using images of the items your customer added to the checkout serves as an effective visual reminder; prompting the customer to think about why they added the product to their cart in the first place.
If you are a clothing or beauty store, try to include an image of a model wearing the product - the customer will then be able to envision it on themselves and be even more enthusiastic about purchasing. If you sell other goods such as tech items, tools, media etc, try mentioning the benefits and USP (unique selling point) of the items to win customers over.
This email example from Kate Spade does a great job of making the abandoned item the central point of the design, and also lets the model do all of the work in showing it off.
Step Four: Make it extra worth their while
Offering an incentive is a great way to encourage your customers to purchase from your online store. One really good idea is to take advantage of any offers or promotions you already have going on in your store.
It may be that your customer was a day early for your sale, or missed out on a threshold spend offer. Maybe they didn't notice that you offer free shipping. Rectify this by mentioning your existing offers in your email reminder.
This could be the final push your customer needs to encourage them to complete their purchase, and for you, it's another sale!
Guess do a great job of advertising their existing offers in this example. Alongside a great email design, they make sure to let customers know they offer free shipping after a threshold spend, and that they offer free returns. This is a great way to encourage customers to get back on your site.
Alternatively, you can also tempt customers with an entirely new offer to persuade them to finish their purchase. Try knocking a small percentage off the price to convince customers who are debating whether they can afford the item. You could also offer free standard delivery - something which is especially enticing around the holiday period.
Step Five: Showcase similar items
Maybe the product in question didn't quite have what it takes to win your customer over, but that doesn't automatically mean they won't purchase something else.
A good tactic to include in your abandoned cart email is subtly showcasing similar products to what the customer had added to their cart alongside the reminder. If the customer didn't notice these items before, it's a sure fire way to gain their attention all over again and get them back on the website.
Pro Flowers have nailed the abandoned cart email in this example. Not only have they recommended other similar items as a helpful alternative for their customer, they've also added 10% off as an extra incentive. Talk about going the extra mile!
Step Six: Find out what went wrong
It's unfortunate, but sometimes as hard as you might try, your customer will not revisit your site to complete their purchase. There could be a number of reasons for this. For example, they could have found what they were looking for elsewhere, or they may no longer be interested in the products they had found on your website.
Whatever it may be, finding out why the purchase was never completed will help you improve in the long run. Even if you don't manage to make the sale now, finding out things you need to improve on as a business/independent seller will help you to make more sales in the future!
We recommend you inserting a mailto link or a link to an online feedback form into your email to give customers the opportunity to have their say.
Harrods provide us with a great example of how to reach out to customers following an abandoned shopping cart. In this email, they give the customer a polite reminder that they did not complete their order, but also go a step further to provide the customer with any assistance they might need to finish the transaction.
Step Seven: Timing is everything
According to research carried out by SaleCycle, the longer you wait to send your abandoned cart emails, the less effective they will be. This makes sense, because if you remind the customer a long time after the event, the chances are, they've either completely forgotten, or have already made a replacement purchase.
However, it's also not a good idea to send your abandoned cart email too soon, as this could come across as annoying. Remember, your customer may intend to come back to their purchase shortly after closing the tab.
Key takeaways
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- Prevention is better than cure - make sure your online checkout process is perfectly optimized to keep as many customers as possible interested.
- Make your email subject line interesting and informative so your customers want to reengage with you. Also remember to send the reminder out asap before the opportunity has passed!
- Make the customer's abandoned products star of the show in your design to win your customers over again.
- Be prepared to address any problems or criticisms that your customers may have regarding your online store so you can better improve for the future.
Give our tips for the perfect abandoned cart email a go and see how much you will make up for lost revenue!
Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team
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The start of a new year offers you a clean slate and a chance to start looking at your email strategy. With email trends changing so quickly, the last year alone has presented tons of new ideas for emails which you can easily adopt into your own plan.
P.S. Have you got your hands on our 2021 Marketing Calendar and Email Campaign Planner yet? Get yours free here to ensure perfect email planning for 2021.
In this post, we're showcasing 5 must-have marketing emails for 2021, plus tips on how to recreate them for your own business.
5 Marketing Emails You Need to be Sending in 2021
Freshen up your email strategy right in time for the New Year! Here are 5 inspiring ideas for marketing emails you need to be sending in 2021. Discover examples ranging from automated mailings to standalone campaigns...
1. Abandoned Browse Emails
We all know of the abandoned cart email, but the abandoned browse email takes things one step further. With online shopping becoming a significant part of consumers' everyday lives, your automated sales workflow needs to be taken up a notch.
This abandoned browse email by Vivienne Westwood packs a punch and catches the reader's attention by reminding them about products they've recently viewed. Adding a "you may also like" section gives the customer even more relevant purchase options and can help tempt them back to your online store for another look:
Abandoned browse emails go the extra mile for boosting online sales.
What to consider:
- Timing: Don't wait too long to send these emails, as you risk the customer losing interest or finding an alternative elsewhere.
- Design: A bold CTA (call-to-action) leading to the product page plus eye-catching product images really are all you need.
- Subject line: Mention the product in the subject line or use an emoji to quickly pique interest.
You can easily adapt Mail Designer 365's "Abandoned Cart" email template for an abandoned browse message.
2. Milestone Emails
Whether it's an anniversary, a significant event, or you've reached a key goal - sending milestone emails is a great way to celebrate achievements and special occasions with your customers.
Your subscribers opted into your email list because they have a genuine interest in your business. Keeping your subscribers up to date on exciting business milestones gives them a look behind the scenes and makes your brand seem more relatable.
In this email by Casper, the brand celebrate their 2nd birthday milestone with subscribers. As well as a fun design, the email is also great as customers are offered an exclusive $22 discount in celebration of their business anniversary:
Casper use email to celebrate a key milestone by offering customers an exclusive discount.
Here are some more examples of milestones you could celebrate in 2021:
- Donation milestones - $X raised for your charity
- Product milestones - X years of your product
- Customer milestones - X customers served / signed up to your service
All of these milestones could be used as an exciting email promotion, or a simple thank you email to customers.
3. Feedback Emails
Obtaining true, honest customer feedback is majorly important for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Knowing what makes your customers tick, and understanding their habits and preferences allows you to optimise your strategy for them.
Putting together an email survey that readers will respond to is a fine art and takes a lot of trial and error. However, when the valuable feedback starts rolling in, the hard work will certainly pay off.
In this feedback email by Campaign Monitor, customers are given a massive incentive to take part, in the form of a $20 gift card. They are also super transparent in advising how long the survey will take, and make sure to thank their customers in advance:
This feedback email by Campaign Monitor is super inviting.
Other incentives for taking part could include:
- Holding a giveaway
- A discount code for their next purchase
- A free gift
This personalised template gets straight to the point and offers readers an incentive to take part in the survey - exclusively available in Mail Designer 365
4. Digest Emails
Content marketing is on the rise and more and more businesses are using email to showcase their latest content.
Whether it's a run down of your recent Instagram posts, a selection of relevant blogs, useful infographics or guides - sharing great content with your subscribers is an effective way to drive engagement and increase website traffic.
Wedding website service The Knot regularly share relevant blog content with their customers via email. The emails always come with an intriguing subject line and carefully curated content which is guaranteed to speak to the recipient and get them clicking through to their website:
Using email to share relevant blog posts with subscribers can help drive website traffic.
What to consider:
- Structure: Include a mix of images, article headlines and teaser text to make your posts more appealing - Mail Designer 365 has an array of practical layout options for this.
- Call to action: Entice subscribers to continue reading your post, watch your video, download your eBook, etc. with a bold CTA button.
5. Online Event Invitation Emails
2020 was undeniably the year that online events really took off; with businesses becoming more and more open to digital events, including webinars, online live classes, virtual conferences and trade fairs, and "Zoom parties".
If your business is looking to branch into the world of online events in 2021, you need to incorporate this into your marketing strategy. Sending online event invitation emails is a smart and efficient way to make subscribers aware of what you have coming up. It also provides them with a useful reference of all the key details.
In this email invitation by Litmus, recipients are shown the basics which will be covered in the webinar and the date and time it's scheduled to take place. A vibrant feature image showing the special guests is another way to quickly draw in potential participants:
Litmus tick all the right boxes with this informative and stylish webinar invitation email.
What to consider:
- Email copy: Keep this short and sweet. Discuss the main details of the event and what participants should expect.
- Call-to-action: Use a bold, central CTA button to give readers an easy way to sign up for your event.
- Branding: The event is all about you and your business. Include typical brand assets like your logo and signature typeface.
This email template offers a stylish layout to list the key details and selling points of your online event - exclusively available in Mail Designer 365
Give your email strategy an upgrade for 2021
We hope these emails have given you some inspiration for your 2021 planning. Don't forget to secure your free marketing calendar and campaign planner for 2021!
Mail Designer 365 has all the creative tools you need to build amazing HTML emails on your Mac. For a full overview of all ready-to-send HTML email templates, check out our online gallery!
Don't have a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Try it today for free!
Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team
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Litmus's Fall 2020 State of Email Report revealed that 30% of marketers consider the email approval process to be "too burdensome." If 2020 has taught us anything, it's the importance of clear communication, as well as a flexible team workflow.
2021 offers you a clean slate and a fresh new opportunity to optimize your team's email approval workflow. This post shares all you need to know about improving communication within your team and avoiding common approval workflow problems.
What types of problems can occur in the email approval workflow?
When it comes to email campaigns, the workflow can be challenging. Which campaign do you prioritise? Who is responsible for what? What is the latest draft? Are we ready to send?... Questions like these are common when working on campaigns and are the result of an inefficient approval workflow.
The following problems are also a result of a poor email approval workflow:
- It is unclear which team member is responsible for giving feedback or approving the finished campaign.
- The designer feels the email design is ready, but what's the best way to gather feedback from other colleagues?
- The team are circulating multiple versions of the design. Which version is the most recent?
- Colleagues are sending feedback from all different angles (via email, chat messenger, over the phone, face to face, etc …).
- The person responsible for carrying out feedback is feeling overwhelmed trying to remember everyone's comments.
- Tracking down colleagues to remind them to give feedback is tedious and time consuming.
How to develop a successful email approval workflow in 2021
Before you get to work on your next big email campaign, get your team together to discuss the following key points:
- Choose a team leader: Every team needs a leader with experience who is able to make the tough calls where the rest of the team are divided.
- Outline your objectives: For your email campaign this would be your CTA (call-to-action.)
- Allocate roles: Each team member needs to know exactly what is expected of them.
- Agree on a deadline: Deadlines help us prioritise and ensure we do not forget or neglect projects over time.
Before you get to work, outline roles and responsibilities with your team.
After everyone has been made aware of their responsibilities, you can start getting to work. In the next section, you'll find some key guidelines on how to work best as a team while putting together your email campaign.
Dos and Don'ts during the email approval process
Sticking to these basic guidelines during the campaign will help make your approval workflow easier and more productive:
Don't: Communicate via multiple channels and platforms
You should all agree on one central platform where you can communicate with each other about the email campaign. This minimises confusion and keeps all team members in the loop.
Do: Keep your whole team involved
No matter how big or small, any changes or decisions made regarding the campaign should be shared with everyone in the campaign team. This keeps everyone on the same page and prevents any miscommunication.
Don't: Discourage honest feedback
Always encourage team members to be open and provide clear and constructive feedback. Your team needs to feel confident enough to express their ideas in order to prevent Groupthink from taking over.
Do: Have regular meetings
This can be challenging depending on the size and nature of your business, but regular meetings (either traditional or via Skype etc.) help keep everyone up to date and allow people to ask questions if they need to.
During the campaign, good communication is one of the keys to success.
The best tool for an effective email approval workflow
Another interesting revelation in Litmus's State of Email report was that almost 70% of marketers reported replies to test emails were their main channel for gathering feedback on campaigns.
Scrolling through endless email threads is certainly not the most efficient way for you to process and apply your team's feedback to your email campaigns. In fact, there's a much easier way to get feedback:
Mail Designer 365 Approval
We have packed the Mail Designer 365 service full with amazing features to optimise your workflow. Get started in five simple steps...
- Sign up to Mail Designer 365 and choose a plan
- Invite team members via email and assign them roles
- Download the Mail Designer 365 app and start designing your first email template
- Upload your designs to Mail Designer 365 Approval - a web-based feedback platform for teams
- Send your campaign via your own email address or export to an email service provider
Get started with Mail Designer 365 today
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First published: March 2019
Last updated: December 2020
Over the last few years, we have taken a detailed and in depth look at the emails received by our team over the "Black Friday" weekend. Keeping with tradition, we've broken down all the key trends and stats from "Black Friday" 2020 to see exactly what went down...
In the run up to the holidays, it's easy for businesses to get carried away with sales campaigns and promotional emails. Creating a Giving Tuesday email campaign is one good way to give your subscribers a break from sales-heavy content, while also demonstrating your company's values.
This guide covers all you need to know about Giving Tuesday emails, including campaign ideas, best practice tips, and real examples from big name brands.
What is Giving Tuesday?
Giving Tuesday is a relatively new concept that was founded in 2012 and is described as a "global generosity movement." The day encourages participants - whether businesses or regular citizens - to give back and help others.
Although founded in the USA, Giving Tuesday is now celebrated in participating countries worldwide, including the UK, Germany, Brazil, India, Australia and Canada - making it a fantastic cause for your business to get involved with.
When is Giving Tuesday?
Giving Tuesday falls annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, which makes it a great event to add to your holiday marketing calendar to break up your sales campaigns.
Ideas for Giving Tuesday Email Campaigns
Depending on the size and nature of your business, there are plenty of campaign ideas you can try out for Giving Tuesday. Here are five great ideas for Giving Tuesday campaigns plus examples from big name brands.
1. Run a promotion
One of the simplest ways to get involved with Giving Tuesday is by running a promotion for a good cause. Instead of presenting this as a typical sales promotion, be sure to emphasise the fact that your proceeds will be going to charity or a similar good cause.
Strategy tip: Hold an exclusive extended Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale and pledge X% of your profits to a charity. You could also choose a particular product and pledge all profits to the cause.
Casper use a promotion on their mattresses to give back to a good cause.
J Crew also ran a similar promotion on coats to support those in need during the winter season.
2. Partner up with a charity
This concept may take more planning but can certainly be worthwhile. Partnering up with a charity to release a limited edition product or hold a special event (virtual or physical) is another great way your business can use your platform to give back.
Strategy tip: Inform customers about your new partnership by sending a dedicated email a few weeks before the actual launch. You can also prepare a PR and raise awareness on social media to reach even more people. By the time your event tickets or product go on sale, there will already be a buzz surrounding the launch.
Camera strap brand ONA partnered up with charity: water to create a limited edition product.
3. Donation matching
Donation matching is another great way to raise awareness of a key cause. Use your email newsletter to encourage customers to donate to a chosen cause by pledging to match their donations.
Strategy tip: Include a section in your newsletter explaining why you've chosen this particular cause. This will help inspire more readers to donate and give your campaign a more personal touch.
Patagonia encourage customers to support a good cause with this donation matching campaign.
4. Rounding up to the nearest $/£/€
This is also a good technique to motivate your customers to take action. Encourage customers to round their purchase up to the nearest $/£/€ so you can donate the extra "tip" to a charity of your choice.
Strategy tip: Make the CTA (call-to-action) on your website super appealing so that customers can't resist donating that little extra. You could also try building in a counter to show how much you've raised so far to inspire more people to get involved.
Lyft highlighted two good causes to support with their Round Up & Donate campaign.
5. Give back to your local community
Particularly for small businesses, an awareness campaign is also a great idea. Helping out the local community by promoting worthy causes and encouraging customers to donate or volunteer is also an effective way to show support.
Strategy tip: As well as mentioning them in your email newsletter, you can also use your social media platforms to point out key causes such as food banks, homeless shelters, and hospitals which may be in need this holiday season. Of course, if you are able to do so, you can also combine this with any of the above ideas for maximum impact.
What to Include in Your Giving Tuesday Emails
The #GivingTuesday tag and logo
Giving Tuesday is a global movement that is growing each year. If you are running your campaign as part of the movement, it's a good idea to stand in solidarity and show this in your emails. This instantly makes the appeal more familiar to recipients.
The GivingTuesday website has a selection of logos you can use if you're getting involved in the movement.
Powerful imagery
A picture speaks a thousand words. Whether it's a moving photo, or a touching illustration, including powerful imagery in your email design is a guaranteed way to convey your message clearly.
Incorporate a bold headline to create a strong feature graphic that really shows readers the meaning of your Giving Tuesday campaign.
PayPal use a simple yet strong header graphic to encourages donations in this campaign.
Personalisation
Using name placeholders in your subject line and email body is a great technique to make your appeal more personal and make the recipient feel directly addressed.
Not only does this help to capture the reader's attention faster, it's also an effective way to appeal to them on a one-to-one basis and encourage more support.
Real life stories
Another way to strengthen your appeal is by including real life stories from the group you are trying to help. Again, this helps you connect with the recipient on a more personal level and makes your campaign more relatable.
Incorporating stories from people in need, or success stories of people who've been helped by your chosen charity helps you convey the importance of your cause.
This email campaign by Charity: Water shares an encouraging success story with recipients.
A heartfelt call to action
Your call to action (CTA) is what signposts your recipients to your main campaign action. This could be a link to a donation page, your sale's landing page, or a blog post raising awareness.
Whatever your CTA is, make this clear in your email by using actionable, emotive text. If you are using a button, it's also good practice to choose a bold color that stands out well against the rest of your email design. Here are a few ideas:
- Give back today
- Support the movement
- Donate now
- Help the cause
We hope reading this post has inspired you to join in with Giving Tuesday this year. Creating a campaign for a good cause is your chance to give back to the community and show customers you care.
Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team
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No matter the size of your organization, your branding plays an important role in how your customers perceive you as a business. Along with your website, physical products, social media pages etc., your emails are another key aspect of your brand and need to be consistent.
If your email design strays too far from the design of your website or any other published material, your customer may not associate it with you, or may not be able to navigate it in the way they are used to. This article will take you through a few branding must-haves when it comes to email design.
Creating a set of brand guidelines
Having a good set of brand guidelines is vital for any successful business. In fact, almost all businesses will have a designated guide for brand standards, which provides strict instructions on how to produce any materials associated with the brand. Curious about your favorite companies? Here are some popular examples.
In your set of guidelines, it may help to create specific sections for different types of marketing media, e.g. your website, emails, social media posts, blog, etc. Each form of content you create has a different purpose which should ultimately be reflected in any styling or branding guidelines.
Once you have created your brand guidelines, be sure to share them with team members so everyone is on board. You could use a Google Doc, a slideshow, a PDF guide, or even an internal email for this.
Note: Review your guidelines regularly
Things can change quickly in the majority of industries and your brand guidelines need to be reactive to key trends and events. Having brand elements which are outdated reflects poorly on your business, which is why many major brands opt to refresh their logo every couple of years.
For example, this Digital Trends article shows how the Google logo has evolved over the years.
Branding must-haves for your email designs
Think about fonts
The font you use for your email newsletters should be the same, or as close as possible to, the font you use on your website. Mail Designer 365 gives you the opportunity to enable backup fonts and also choose from a list of "email safe" fonts if your usual font is not supported via email. The key here is to ensure the resemblance is as close as possible to your original font choice.
Make your logo a prominent design feature
We've already touched upon the importance of your logo in representing your brand. For this reason, it's best practice to have your logo prominently on display in your email design in order to promote your brand. Make sure that it is clear and easy to identify (ie. situated at the top of the email.)
Most brands are very particular when it comes to the dimensions of their logo. Logos which are too big come across as intimidating and obnoxious, but logos which are too small can be easily overlooked and often don't do your brand justice. Find the perfect fit for your email designs and then make a note of it in your brand guidelines so you always stay consistent.
This design from Caterpillar is a great example of how to incorporate your logo into your design. The eye-catching yellow background also works to accentuate the brand's signature logo even more, leaving customers with no doubts about who the email is from.
Including your logo in designs helps reinforce your branding power in your email newsletters.
Keep your design layout consistent
It is also a good idea to keep your layout consistent and easy for readers to navigate. With Mail Designer 365, you have the ability to quickly and easily save combinations of layout blocks which you can then use over and over to recreate a familiar design. We find this works particularly well for displaying products and offers.
To be even more consistent and on brand, try to recreate the pricing panels displayed on your website. When your customers click through, they will be instantly greeted by the same layout, which will make the purchase process even more straightforward:
Mail Designer 365 allows you to build and save trusted sales layouts to use over and over again.
Re-use design elements and call-to-actions
Call-to-action (CTA) buttons and other key design elements like font, social media icons, payment badges, and eye-catchers can also be re-used to give your recipients a sense of familiarity within your emails. For example, if you use a certain style of button on your website, you should also try integrating this (or a variant of it) into your email designs.
Selfridges do a great job of using key design elements such as their signature yellow buttons and stylish, sans serif headings for both their website and their email newsletters:
Selfridge's website
Email newsletter by Selfridge's
Create a master template for automated emails
Everyday transactional emails are just as important as your big sales campaigns when it comes to representing your brand. For this reason, you should make sure your automated emails are a uniform set that stick to your branding guidelines.
You can achieve this by creating a master template which you then duplicate whenever you need to set up a new automated email:
This set of transactional templates in Mail Designer 365 has a clean and uniform feel.
As well as saving individual layout blocks, Mail Designer 365 also allows you to set up practical document presets for design width and text styles in both mobile and desktop, which stay in place after duplicating.
Tip: If you update any elements in your brand guidelines, don't forget to go through your automated templates and change those too!
Key takeaways
In this article we've covered the most important aspects of branding and how to easily establish a set of brand guidelines to use in your email designs. Turn over a new leaf this year and get your designs noticed and appreciated by customers!
- Establishing brand guidelines is a hugely important part of email marketing. It's not enough to have a great looking design, your emails have to be on brand to be most effective.
- Consistency is key. Use fonts and layout styles which your customers are familiar with to get your emails noticed and acted upon.
- Color is an important visual tool. Use it to your advantage to get across your message effectively.
- Your business logo is the epitome of your brand and what customers look for to identify you. Make it clear and get the dimensions spot on and your designs will be a great representation of your business.
Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team
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First published: September 2018
Updated: November 2020
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As the unofficial start of the festive holiday season, Thanksgiving is undoubtably a key date for your email marketing calendar. However, thinking of interesting ideas for your Thanksgiving email campaigns can be a challenge. Especially as the holiday falls so close to "Black Friday", a Thanksgiving sale may not feel like your best option.
With a population of over 325 million celebrating the special day, it's definitely not a marketing opportunity to pass up! Here are 5 ideas you can try out for your Thanksgiving email campaigns without overshadowing your Black Friday promotions...
Thank your subscribers
What better time to say thanks to your subscribers than Thanksgiving? Thank you emails are always a pleasant surprise for your readers, but especially over Thanksgiving, they're a nice touch. Keep your Thanksgiving thank you message short and sweet so it gets straight to the point. Remember to include seasonal colors and festive imagery to make your design perfect for the holiday.
This email design by Anthropologie has a super sweet, personal touch thanks to the use of handwriting fonts. The minimal, wintery pine-cone design is also great at making the email holiday appropriate:
Keep your thank you messages short and sweet and concentrate on including seasonal design elements.
Another example of a thank you email which pulls out all the festive stops is this one by Stich Fix. Again, the message is short and to the point, but the colors and images used in the background are super traditional and help get readers in the holiday spirit:
Share handy Thanksgiving hacks
The run up to Thanksgiving is a very busy time for those celebrating. Organising food and drink, buying gifts and coordinating plans can be hard. Use your business's experience to help your subscribers out and share some useful tips with them.
Your customers are much more likely to appreciate and remember your Thanksgiving email campaigns if they contain useful information. This year, a great idea would be to think about ways your business can help subscribers find ways to still enjoy Thanksgiving safely.
Try sharing recipe tips, entertainment ideas, postage information, or even gift suggestions. Using your email campaign to present your business as the solution to their problem is a great way to strengthen your relationship with customers.
Uber does a great job of this in this Thanksgiving email. The "holiday how-tos" concept shows readers how the taxi service can help them over the holidays:
Think of practical ways your business can help customers with common holiday problems.
As shown here by Brooks Brothers, you can even include tips which aren't necessarily directly related to your business. Including a festive pumpkin pie recipe in their Thanksgiving email is a special way for the company to share useful advice with their customers before the big day:
Including tips that aren't directly related to your business is an extra special way to help out customers this Thanksgiving.
Start a giving back campaign
Show your business's compassionate side this Thanksgiving with a charitable campaign. No matter how big or small, giving something back is a great way to show your appreciation for everything your business has.
Whether you're donating some of your profits, supporting local organisations, or using your platform to raise awareness of a good cause, there's always a way you can give back. Not only will you be helping those less fortunate, you'll also be strengthening your public image and building on your CSR (corporate social responsibility.)
This Thanksgiving/Black Friday crossover campaign by Everlane is an especially powerful way to give back. Their generosity not only gains their brand more respect, it also encourages customers to spend more and increase the amount of profits that will be donated:
Generosity and giving back are what the holidays are all about.
Put together a yearly round up
What is your business thankful for? Your Thanksgiving email campaigns are also a great opportunity for you to reflect on the previous year and everything your business has accomplished. Use Thanksgiving as a chance to look back on everything your business has done and also to share exciting plans for the coming year with your subscribers.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can tie in your yearly round up with a thank you email. After all, where would you be without your customers?
This email by Sakara is a heartwarming example of how you can combine your round up email with a thank you message. In this example, they make sure to thank their suppliers, colleagues and their customers all at once!
Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to reflect on the last year and who has helped support your business.
Create fun Thanksgiving content
Last but not least, if all else fails, you can try your hand at creating fun, Thanksgiving-themed content to celebrate with your customers. This is your chance to get creative and share your Thanksgiving message in unique and inventive ways.
GIFs, videos, web fonts, big graphics and vibrant color schemes are all great ways to spice up your Thanksgiving email campaigns. Here are a couple of examples of bold and brilliant Thanksgiving emails which celebrate the big day in style:
Kate Spade go all out with big, bright lettering and a leafy, autumnal design.
Urban Outfitters get their message across loud and clear in this text-heavy design.
The colorful vibe in this email from Nordstrom is super eye-catching and the turkey GIF also fits in well with the occasion.
Loeffler Randall take on an abstract approach in this cool Thanksgiving greeting.
Hopefully you're feeling inspired after reading through these five ideas for unique Thanksgiving email campaigns. Give your readers a breather before the Black Friday sales emails start and try out one of these ideas instead.
Want to get start building your Thanksgiving email campaigns? Sign up to Mail Designer 365 free and discover a huge range of creative tools you can use to make your emails shine this Thanksgiving.
Until next time,
Your Mail Designer 365 Team
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Sign up free today to see what you can achieve.
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First published: November 2019
Updated: November 2020