Top 8 Examples of Awesome Email Marketing

Jun 25, 2018

<a href="https://www.ewrdigital.com/author/matt" target="_self">Matt Bertram</a>

Matt Bertram

Matt Bertram is a award-winning marketing consultant and SEO Expert. He is the lead digital strategist at EWR Digital. Host of the Best SEO Podcast and Co-Host of the Oil and Gas sales and marketing podcast.
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Email marketing can be extremely powerful for your business. It’s fast and convenient, and best of all, it’s available to your customers pretty much wherever they are. The numbers don’t lie.

Check out these statistics:

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Top 8 Examples of Awesome Email Marketing

  • Email marketing is all about building and maintaining relationships
When doing email marketing, it is essential to understand what makes a good email. It’s also important to understand what makes a bad email and what makes one look spammy.

Tip: Your emails are for your customers, not for you! Craft them with that in mind.


Below, we detail our top 8 favorite examples of effective email marketing. Read on to learn just how impactful a great email can be!
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1) Charity: Water

Transactional emails are super important, but often forgotten. You know how Amazon sends you emails after you buy something, to update you on where your order is? That’s a transactional email. In basic terms, it’s an email you get after taking a specific action on a website, like completing a form or buying something. These are easy to automate! Charity:Water did something really cool with their transactional emails. They answered the question:

“Where does my money go when I donate to a charity?”

Most charities don’t tell you exactly where your money ends up, so Charity:Water decided to shake things up and help consumers better understand how their money was making a difference. Check out their “Project Timeline” in the email below. It shows the person who donated exactly how their money is being used, and where they’re currently at in the project. It gives the consumer exactly the information they’re looking for in an easy-to-read, visual-based manner.
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2) All About Planners

One of my favorite websites – since I’m a total planning and organization nerd – is All About Planners. This site is full of awesome printables, how-tos, planner reviews, and more. Since I’m a subscriber, I get access to their library of free printables (which you can only access with a subscriber password). First things first: enticing people to subscribe to your emails is as easy as offering them something of value, something they want. Here, it’s access to tons of free printable planner inserts. Heck yeah, I want those! And voila – it’s that easy. If you want to market to people via email, offer them something valuable to earn them as a subscriber. Below is a recent email from All About Planners. Note the first name, Rachael, used in the “FROM” section. This is a great way to keep your emails from ending up in spam.
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Furthermore, this email is great because it gets straight to the point. It’s exactly what consumers were expecting from the subject line, and it earns her website more traffic because it LINKS to her Round-Up Blog Post rather than just supplying the whole blog post in the email. Then, it adds a personal touch, which reaffirms this is more than an organization – it’s a real person behind the scenes, which people love to see. Finally, Rachael sums it up with a reminder of how your subscription is giving you value with the Free Printables Library.

3) Polyvore

While Polyvore is sadly no longer around, when it was, it was a bustling online metropolis of fashion and decor. The website offered the ability to create “sets” of clothing or home decor, like an art collage or a magazine spread. Below, you’ll see an excellent example of B2C email marketing specifically crafted for their millennial audience. By speaking in a way their audience could understand and relate to, Polyvore was able to easily draw in young people who had perhaps lost interest recently.
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4) Doordash

Email marketing is about so much more than sending ads and business updates. You have to engage with your subscribers! And Doordash is a great example of a company that does just that. A great way to keep your business top of mind is to email customers reminders, especially if you operate some sort of e-commerce site. Perhaps Amy was looking around and added a few items to her cart, only to get pulled away by work, or her phone ringing. Email marketing is how you bring her back to make a purchase. Don’t feel limited if you own a B2B company. You can use this style of email marketing for any business in almost any industry. For example, you can use this to signal someone’s free trial is ending or they left off at one step in the process.   Track your visitors’ behavior. If you see that they’re falling off somewhere in your sales cycle, use email marketing to get your business back in front of them and put them back on track.
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5) Uncommon Goods

Have you looked at your CTAs lately? Your Call-to-Action statements are very important and have the power to drive conversions. What does your CTA look like? Do customers respond well to it? If not, it’s time to revisit your CTAs. Shake things up. Unsure how to do that? Try using a sense of urgency, like Uncommon Goods does in this brilliant email.
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A good “sense of urgency” prompts customers to take immediate action in fear of losing an opportunity. It’s called “Loss Aversion,” which is basically the FOMO of the business world. Take a moment to compare these two CTAs:
“Don’t you think Mom would’ve liked a faster delivery?” and “Buy your Mom a present for mother’s’ Day!”
The first CTA is much better. It’s so effective because it’s simple, direct, and urgent. It prompts the consumer to take action NOW!

6) Bonobos

In the 24/7, 365, up-to-the-minute world we live in today, people want things fast and they want things easy. When crafting your emails, keep that in mind: the customer wants convenience. Even more importantly, people like being acknowledged as individuals. Segment your audience and allow your emails to have some sort of personalized aspect to draw customers in. Finally, a little bit of interaction is a great way to drive conversions.
If you want your target audience to be active, then you need to be interactive with your emails. Interaction leads to action. It gives your leads and customers a reason to stick to your brand. Similarly, fun and curiosity are customers’ pain points that you must satisfy if you want to make impact and get more people to open your emails.
Bonobos accomplishes those goals through this great email. The CTA is simple, easy to read, and offers the customer value, while the “Last Day” blurb inspires urgency. Then, all the consumer has to do is click on their size – easy peasy. A one-step process – this is how you make things convenient for your subscribers (and boost conversions).
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One more quick note: Bonobos also has some great unsubscribe emails. Give your customer more control over how you communicate with them. And make it EASY for them to unsubscribe. It may sound counter intuitive, but you need to be clear and up-front with how the customer can control your interactions.
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7) Groupon

As mentioned above, even your unsubscribe emails need to be carefully crafted. Why? Because every communication you have with your audience matters. Even when a customer unsubscribes, there are ways to draw them back in. Groupon did a great job of this with the email below. This email is awesome because it’s entertaining and funny – and humor can definitely have a positive impact on your audience.

It’s hard to break up with someone who makes you laugh.


Once a customer chooses to unsubscribe, they see the video below. In the video is Derrick – the supposed Groupon employee who writes the company’s emails – getting punished for his disappointing work. Then comes the CTA:
“That was pretty mean… I hope you’re happy. Want to make it up to Derrick? Resubscribe!” Come on, don’t you want to help out the guy who just had that happen because of you?
https://www.youtube.com/embed/to5znws7mvU

8) LearnVest

The financial planning and budget maven LearnVest knows that effective email marketing needs to guide the customer along the sales journey. The first thing subscribers see is a “Let’s Get Started” button at the top. Then they’re greeted with 2 more options – enough to feel customized and give them a feeling of control, but not too many to overwhelm them. In all, the email gives the customer 3 different ways to move forward, depending on what stage they’re at in the sales journey. It’s a brilliant way to target multiple types of users in 1 simple, effective email. Check out the email below:
Learnvest - EWR Digital

Get Started with Effective Email Marketing from EWR Digital!

Interested in email marketing for your business? Talk to the experts at EWR Digital to learn more and start boosting your business! It’s easy to get in touch with us – simply contact us online or call us at (713) 592-6724! We’re excited to help your business grow! Get Started! Top 8 Examples of Awesome Email Marketing | EWR Digital – Houston, TX