By Colleen McGee
An email marketing campaign is an organized series of emails with the goal to connect with consumers to promote a product or service. Companies use different strategies to promote their products, promotions, company image, community engagement or re-engagement. Although the rise of social media has taken over a lot of marketing strategies, email marketing can come across as more personalized and collaborative. It is very effective when reaching target audiences and can often make consumers feel as though they are part of a community. While creating an email campaign, it is important to take the first initial steps with consideration that a lot of the times people do not look very deeply into their emails and can often skip over items they are not interested in. With this, marketers need to create an eye catching, fast processing, and convenient Call-To-Action that will stand out in consumers email trail.
Types of Email Campaigns
Different kinds of email campaigns promote different kinds of consumer reactions. Newsletter email campaigns give consumers the opportunity to get informed about the latest news including updates, trends, images, articles and blogs. Promotional email marketing campaigns are designed to promote a product or service that will include information about a discount or sale of the product or service. Welcome and onboarding email campaigns are designed to introduce or re-introduce their product or service in hopes that it will attract a new number of customers and give a reminder of the benefits they offer. Abandonment of cart email campaigns remind consumers of a product they were thinking about buying or potentially forgot to buy. These kind of marketing emails can be very persuasive considering it is clear the customer has already considered purchasing. Re-engagement email campaigns encourage consumers to re-engage with the brand by including special offers. Companies will send these marketing emails to past subscribers who have cancelled a subscription or subscribers who have not interacted in a while.
Email Marketing Campaign Examples
A great example of a successful email marketing campaign is Netflix’s engagement campaign. They send out a curated show cover that consumers may be interested in based off their watch history and have 2 options including “Trailer” and “Remind me”. This persuades consumers to engage with the show in some way or reminds them about their subscription status with Netflix itself. This campaign has been successful in the way that it influences consumers to stop what they are doing to check out their personalized shows, which can lead to longer and more satisfied subscriptions.
Another great example of a successful email marketing campaign is Venmo’s re-engagement campaign. In these emails Venmo will introduce new and efficient features that might re-engage customers to use their payment app. These marketing emails are also successful since they are not shoving their product down consumer’s throats, but instead giving them information about how this tool could potentially convenience them throughout their everyday lives.
Postmates is another company that successfully email markets their product to make customers aware of a promotion. The eye-catching food GIFs they use at the top of their emails are easily consumed and registered by consumers. It immediately draws their attention to the different kinds of delicious foods they could easily have with the push of a button. With this, they have engaging and humorous questions below including “Q: What do you call a burrito delivered for $4.99? A: A dream come true!” Connecting with consumers in a relatable way makes the campaign more lighthearted and fun, increasing traction.
How To Create an Email Campaign
The first step to creating an email campaign is to find your target audience and build an email list. A consumer will not consider an email they do not feel connected to. This process will allow for more efficiency when it comes to sales. Some ways companies achieve this is by having customers give their email for a discount on current order, make their website visitors subscribe, or have customers put in their email for online orders.
The second step is to solidify the goals wanted to be achieved. Some goals might include increasing website traffic, gathering customer feedback, re-engaging inactive subscribers or reducing cart abandonment. All these goals require different marking strategies that would allow for a successful outcome.
The third step is to acknowledge if your campaign is promotional, relational, or transactional. If your campaign is promotional the email’s CTA could be a link or enticing product images that will lead a customer to make a purchase.
Concluding Thoughts
Email marketing campaigns can be a huge successor for companies when done correctly. As we see from successful corporations, it is very important to know your audience and brand your product or service in a way that appeals to them. Emails are often looked over but with the right tools and information it is possible to build a consistent consumer base.
Resources
AMA University of New Hampshire 
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