Types of Email Marketing: A Complete Guide

What do you think of when it comes to marketing? Email marketing? Maybe or maybe not. However, email marketing remains relevant, and there are various types of email marketing. Maybe it’s surprising if you are a new breed of marketers with little to no marketing experience. But email marketing is the thing and people use it. 

Email marketing is simple and easy. You can send direct emails to promote your business. Be it products or services. Think of it like sending invitations to your friends. You send out emails to existing customers. Maybe you are opening a new outlet, or launching a new service. 

Let’s understand the types of email marketing in detail now. 

What are the Different Types of Email Marketing?

Now, you know there are many types of email marketing. Let’s look at the 10 most popular types of email marketing.

1. Welcome Emails

So, what are welcome emails? You can guess it easily. It’s the very first email you send to welcome subscribers. You are essentially greeting your subscribers. Now, why are welcome emails significant? Well, welcome emails are just not for greeting. You can take this opportunity to introduce your business to the consumers. These emails also have a high open rate. That means that when a consumer receives a welcome email, most likely they will open and go through it. For example, when you sign up for Starbucks, you will get a welcome email showing the coffee options. 

2. Newsletters

Newsletters are recurring emails sent weekly or bi-weekly to generate interactions. How? You may ask. Well, let me explain. Imagine you are a manager of a book publishing website, where you receive new book updates regularly. Here, you can use newsletters to inform consumers. You can recommend books according to their preferences or just update them on the new releases. It’s easy and fantastic. Consumers love such updates. This way you can trigger interest, and generate consumer engagement. 

3. Promotional Emails

Now, promotional emails are quite popular. They are undoubtedly one of the most popular types of email marketing. You can use this type of email marketing to promote your business, product or services. You may have noticed a certain excitement when a consumer receives a promotional email. That’s exactly what these emails are designed for… generate excitement. Examples of promotional emails are coupon emails, launch alert emails, add-on services emails etc.

4. Re-engagement Emails

What do you understand by re-engagement? It’s another attempt to engage. You see there are many consumers who sign-up but never show up. You don’t see them visiting the website or app. So, what’s the solution for this? How do we get them back? Maybe send them emails acknowledging their presence. Emails like “We’ve been missing you!” This is what re-engagement emails are about. 

5. Survey Emails

You know every business needs feedback. If you are a business sensitive to consumer needs, feedback is important. It helps you to grow and sustain. However, how can you understand consumers? How can you get their feedback? Through survey emails. You can use surveys or feedback emails to get consumer experience feedback, suggestions and more. Just send them emails like, “We were delighted to have you. Do you have any suggestions about how we can improve?”

6. Dedicated Emails

Now, what do you understand by dedicated emails? Simple! These are emails specific to a topic or an event. Now, you may say these are similar to newsletters. Well, to an extent. However, dedicated emails are much more concise. These emails have one simple objective- one clear message. For example, an email telling about a “Flash Sale” with date and time. 

7. Reminder Emails

Reminder emails, as the name suggests, are emails to remind customers. Remind them what? Maybe they have left a certain item in their cart, maybe they have a payment pending, and maybe their liked item is restocked. Reminder emails are excellent to maximise sales. For example, a reminder email like, “Hello, you have left something in your cart! Please check now”. 

What are the 5 T’s of Email Marketing?

Now you know there are different types of email marketing to enhance your digital reach. However, you need to be more precise and decisive if you have to gain greater traction. You need to stand. If not, you may easily turn into just another spam email or notification. 

Let’s look at the 5 T’s of email marketing that may help you stand out and get noticed. 

i. Tease 

What’s the first thing you notice in an email? The subject line. Subject lines are what gets your attention, generates interest and makes you open the email. Consumers need to open the mail to know what’s inside. What good a beautifully crafted email is if the consumers aren’t going to open it at all? Such a shame! Therefore, if you want your email to be read, tease the consumers. Your subject line needs to trigger curiosity. 

ii. Target

The target audience is crucial in marketing. You need to know your target consumer base. That’s fundamental. Details such as target demographics, consumer segmentation and persona add an edge to your campaign. Then you can plan your cuts and design targeted marketing campaigns. If you don’t, your email campaign won’t have the desired impact. Knowing your target consumers helps you select relevant types of email marketing. In the end, it’s all about targeting the right consumers with the right content to motivate consumers.

iii. Teach

Whichever type of email marketing campaign you select, you need to get your content right. You need to have a well-researched and concise marketing email. Why so? Well, you know your consumers and their needs. You need to use this information to arm the email. Make the email more informative, provide relevant links, and let the user explore and engage. Your email should be a tool to teach consumers, right? 

iv. Test 

Now, you may ask what the testing is about. It’s not software or a project that should be tested out for bugs. Well, an email campaign is indeed a project. You need to make sure the subject line grabs attention and follows up on the subjective line with relevant email content. Your email needs to lead the consumers to the realm of information. Now, how to test?  Conduct email testing. Send the email to a select few to gain feedback. Observe the consumer traction. Measure the click-through rates etc. Digital marketing metrics can greatly help in testing an email campaign.   

v. Track 

Only through tracking, you would know about email marketing success. You know there are different types of email marketing strategies and you have selected one. Furthermore, you have developed an email campaign and tested it. Great! Till here everything is right. But, how’s it performing? Are you able to achieve the desired consumer traction? All this and more needs to be tracked. You can use key performance indicators (KPIs) and digital marketing metrics to track its performance. Tracking the email marketing performance will help you decide the following:

• Whether you need to continue with the email campaign as the results are as per expectation
• Whether to tweak the email campaign to achieve the desired outcome. 

So, you need to understand the 5 T’s of email marketing to make your email campaign effective and consumer-friendly. 

Email Marketing Stats 

Though new types of marketing like Guerrilla marketing, affiliate marketing, or lifecycle marketing have taken the center stage. But email is still one of the most relevant, with over 4 billion daily users. Being one of the oldest forms of digital marketing, people often think it is dead. However, it is projected to grow by a staggering 287% by 2032. Moreover, according to Mailchimp, a whopping 95% of marketers approve of email marketing and use it as a winning strategy. 

Bottom Line

Email marketing is still quite a relevant and potent digital marketing tool. You can select one form of the different types of email marketing available that suits your business. Pair with the right T’s to make the most of it. However, a lot more goes into developing and executing a successful email marketing campaign. But, you can start with the types of email marketing. What say!