15+ Types of Email Marketing That You Can Utilize

For any business, you must be well aware of essential types of email marketing before proceeding with the email marketing strategy. Marketers especially need to know what kind of email campaigns they can send to their audiences that will aid in ensuring strong audience engagement.

Though email marketing is an old marketing medium, there’s no doubt how effective email marketing platform still is. But only if you do it correctly! For that, one needs to know the basics of this amazing marketing platform. And the very basics start by getting enlightened with the knowledge of what types of marketing email campaigns you can utilize and send so that you can achieve your marketing goals.

In this blog, you’ll learn about different types of email marketing, along with necessary email campaign examples. Once you’re done learning them, you just have to choose the types you see fit to send to your preferred audiences.

Table of contents

• What is Email Marketing?
• Types of Email Marketing Methods
• Types of Email Marketing Campaigns
• Wrap Up

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is a digital marketing tactic that targets your audience with marketing communications via email. It is the use of emails to promote/advertise a company’s goods and services and also to inform the clients on your email list about new products, deals, offers, etc. And you do so by running various types of email marketing campaigns. Educating your audience about your brand’s worth or keeping them interested in between transactions can also be a gentler approach in email marketing. 

Types of Email Marketing Methods

There are two types of email campaign creation methods; manual and automated (automation). You have to send emails following one of these two methods; they are sent in either manual or automated mode.

Manual email

Emails you send out individually to your audience are manual email campaigns. In this method, emails are not in triggered mode. Instead, it is assigned to a list or segment and scheduled manually. Rather than being prompted by a subscriber’s interest or activity. For example, email newsletters, announcement emails, etc., types of email marketing fall into this manual emails category.

Automated email

Unlike the manual one, automated email is sent out just as it sounds “automatically.” These are triggered emails; triggered by the subscriber’s activity. For example, if anyone registers or signs up for your service, that action triggers the automation system. And as a result, that user will receive a welcome email. It’s mostly known as email automation. It’s a method of creating emails that reach the appropriate individuals with the right message at the right time. Without having to do the work each time. This automated method includes transactional email, drip email, etc. email marketing types.

Types of Email Marketing Campaigns

Marketing emails are mostly known as email campaigns. An email campaign is a series of marketing initiatives that contacts numerous recipients at once. And the recipients are mostly your customers, subscribers, and prospects. Simply put, in email marketing, the emails sent to the audiences are known as email campaigns. You email all your subscribers and potential customers at once. Such bulk email sending is often known as “email blast.” too. And each marketing effort you take this way is known as an email campaign. It’s designed to reach audiences at the best time and provide valuable content and relevant offers. And there are so many different types of marketing emails that you can send to your audiences. For the betterment of your business. And to build a strong audience engagement bond. 

So, let’s learn about the most common and essential types of email campaigns. The ones you need to know before going forward with your email marketing strategy.

Inbound email marketing

Inbound email marketing is the technique of delivering marketing emails only to the current subscribers. It requires consent and exclusively targets individuals who have agreed to receive email marketing communications. Such marketing initiatives are mainly based on customer’s behavioral targeting/buyer personas, which are utilized for audience segmentation.

Inbound email marketing can serve a variety of intents, mainly for;

• raising brand awareness
• enhancing audience engagement
• building customer loyalty

 In order to achieve these objectives, you’ll have to launch focused and measured email marketing campaigns.

Outbound email marketing

Outbound email marketing is actually the opposite of inbound email marketing. It reaches a larger audience, including people outside of your email list. Simply put, unlike inbound email marketing, here, you send marketing emails to those who aren’t on your email list. Outbound email marketing is usually based on ideal customer profile (ICP) research. Given its nature, this form of email marketing does not require consent.   

 The goal is to raise brand recognition among potential customers who haven’t yet interacted with your product/service.

Email newsletters

One of the most popular and well-known types of email marketing campaigns is email newsletters. Sending an email newsletter is one way to share resources and information with your readers. It conveys interesting materials, including thought leadership, tutorials, and information on brand-new services and products. It’s an inbound email marketing. You can organically grow your email list for free through newsletter sign up landing page and send newsletters to your newsletter subscribers.

The following picture is an email newsletter example from Nisolo. Through this email newsletter, Nisolo shares some behind-the-scenes about their products.

Moreover, there are various kinds of email newsletters in email marketing. So many of which you can send to your consumers as email campaigns. Let’s get introduced to a few types of email newsletters that will enhance your ideas more.

News update style

The news update style is one of the most popular email newsletter styles. And popular organizations often use this to deliver updates about the company, including the latest news and highlights. Also, this format usually includes standard text, branded images, and call to action (CTA).

Curated content style

Curated content style or curated email newsletter is mainly based on the specific contents of the industry/company. Its goal is to increase the upper-edge positioning of the brand. If your brand/business aims to provide audiences with fast value, sending curated email newsletters is inevitable.

Promotional emails

Promotional emails are great for boosting revenue, sign-ups, and new product offerings. It’s one of the essential email marketing types. This email campaign conveys information on cross-selling items to your members and introduces them to new services or goods. Also, promotional emails include deals that entice the recipients of your mailing list to buy a current item or service. And it’s mostly sent to regular customers and engaged subscribers.

The following picture is a promotional email example from Hulu. They’re promoting their new addition of service that their viewers can now watch HBO programs too.

Limited-time offers

Limited-time offers or flash sales attract consumers more as it creates an urgency among them to make a purchase. Especially, it pushes the prospects down the sales funnel quickly as they were already considering purchasing. Hence, it’s a very common and helpful promotional email.

The given promotional email example consists limited time offer too. HBO is urging people to sign up. And in exchange, the subscriber will get one month of free watch of that show with a limited-time offer.

Announcement emails

This type of email marketing aims, just as the name suggests, to simply “announce.” And it’s one of the common email campaign types. What will you do if you have anything important about your business that your audience needs to know? You’ll announce the matter to your leads by sending out an announcement email campaign. It’s a marketing message that the company sends out to its leads. Especially to devoted consumers. In order to, inform them about updates and changes or any kind of interesting news that your audiences should know.

The following picture is an announcement email example. Sigfus Designs sends this announcement email to announce their new style update.

Let’s know a little bit more about the announcement types of email marketing campaigns.

Product launch announcement

Product launch announcement email conveys updates regarding your product releases/launches. Like, when you have a new product launch or release, you announce it to your leads via email. Doing so shows that your company cares about audience engagement regarding product launches. The audiences prefer to get such an announcement, which makes them feel involved in your business too.

Price increase letter

A price increase letter announces your pricing update of a particular product or service. Your customers deserve to know if you increase any product’s price. It’s a very polite gesture to let them know about pricing changes. Therefore, send price increase letters and politely mention the reason behind such action. It will keep them from getting shocked and wondering about sudden price increases. Thus, they’ll feel less hesitant to make a purchase.

Invitation email

The purpose of an invitation email is to announce/inform and invite subscribers of an upcoming event. Events such as conferences, webinars, or any special program, etc., and persuade them to attend.

Lead nurturing emails

A lead nurturing email is one that marketers send to help users go through the lead funnel. It helps to move prospects from the consideration stage to the decision stage of sales funnel. In addition, these emails provide additional information about a good or service and highlight its best qualities. Welcome emails, promotional email campaigns, etc., email marketing types are part of this lead nurturing emails.

Transactional emails

Transactional email is a part of the automation process. And it’s a triggered email for one-to-one communication only. For example, when a user commits an online activity such as registering, ordering, or purchasing something. Then it triggers the automation system. And that user receives a transactional email as a response to that particular user’s action. Examples of transactional emails include welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, confirmation emails, invoices, etc.

Welcome email

Welcome email belongs to both the transactional and lead nurturing types of email marketing. When someone joins your email list or subscribes to your service, they receive a welcome email. It’s a triggered email and one of the most common email marketing types. The intention behind sending a welcome email is to express a warm-up introduction between the company and consumers/subscribers. And it also conveys general startup details that a new subscriber needs to know.

Here is a welcome email example from Airbnb. They are welcoming their new subscriber via email. Plus, they are providing guidelines too. Urging them to complete their profile, verify information, and explore.

Confirmation email

Confirmation email is a particular type of transactional email delivered to a customer once a specific online action gets triggered. Send this email to confirm when a customer places an order, or booking. Also, when they purchase from your online store, registers, signs up for a newsletter, etc

Retention email

Any email sent to a current customer intending to retain them as a loyal customer is known as a retention email. Retention emails seek customer feedback and advice through surveys or reviews, often rewarding recent purchasers. you can also provide offers so that they would re-connect with you. This is one of the highly efficient types of email campaigns for retaining your hard-won consumers. It’s a popular type of email marketing, and it can take many various forms. Let’s dive into this email marketing type!

Re-engagement emails

Re-engagement emails intend to reconnect with subscribers who may have discontinued engaging with your regular emails. This email marketing campaign is essential as it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. If you notice some of your subscribers aren’t responding to your emails or haven’t visited your website in a while, then you can use re-engagement emails to persuade them to do so. Re-engagement emails can take many shapes because they intend to remind clients of your business. You can distribute emails for feedback, promotions, newsletter material, and more.

Check out the following re-engagement emaill example;

Martha & Marley Spoon sent this re-engagement email to a customer who hasn’t engaged with them for a while. So, they sent this re-engagement email to retain that particular customer with this amazing email campaign. The email image, email message, and special offer with a catchy CTA (call-to-action) button all seem tempting enough to make the customer re-engage with your business.

Survey emails

With survey emails, you can gather essential data from your customers. You can send surveys/questionnaires via email, and the reader will respond. It allows you to collect feedback on what your subscribers prefer. You can also gently ask why they are not engaging with your emails and what kind of email content they would like to get. This way, you’ll get to know what you have to do to keep your existing customers loyal. You can also ask for ratings and reviews to improve your business.

Check out the given survey email example;

Airbnb sent this survey email to get feedback on customer’s experience so far.

Milestone emails

Milestone emails allows you to connect with your consumers by highlighting personal milestones or their relationship with your business. This can also be called dedicated emails.

The intent of milestone emails are to appreciate customer’s contribution towards your; 

• achievement
• success
• specific occasion

For example, send a milestone email to a customer who has been with your company for a year or two. Wish that customer or provide a discount via email.

For instance, the following picture is a milestone email email example. Check this out for more email campaign ideas. Here, Crisp is rewarding their customer with a 20% lifetime discount code.

Acquisition emails

The aim of an acquisition email is mostly conversion. This type of email assists your business in acquiring customers by sending them to subscribers. Specifically to those who have consented to receive your emails. However, have yet to convert them into customers. Moreover, acquisition emails convey appealing offers and informative content. And demonstrate the value of becoming an active customer to those on your email list. It’s a great way to move leads through the conversion funnel quickly.

For example, you can send acquisition emails to your potential clients providing an appealing offer. Like, offering them to go for premium service with a three-month free option. This offer will attract many new subscribers to purchase your service. Thus, the conversion will increase.

Holiday emails

Holiday email aims for celebrations. This one often goes by “seasonal emails” too. These emails are for a particular time of the year, providing wishes, discounts, prizes, competitions, holiday activities, and much more. For instance, religious festivals like Eid, Christmas, Puja. Also, national days along with special days like Mother’s day, Valentine’s day. And even Black Fridays, are just a few examples of holidays for which you can send this email campaign.

Check out the following picture, a holiday email example that ForChics sends. They are giving their customers a 10% discount on their product called ForBrow, an eyebrow-enhancing serum, on Christmas.

Affiliate Email Marketing

One of the contemporary variations of email marketing types is affiliate marketing. As an email affiliate, you include promotional links for other products via targeted and interesting emails. So that will enhance audience engagement rather than promoting your own products in your email marketing campaign. And in exchange, the email sender earns a commission on sales they refer to your business.

Here is an affiliate email marketing example. An affiliate marketing service promoted a marketing data platform called Ovinod through affiliate email marketing.

Apology email

Being human, mistakes can take place everywhere, and the email marketing platform isn’t any different either. Any errors can happen in your business and even while sending an email campaign. Therefore, this apology email type comes to the rescue. According to email marketing best practices, it’s wise to send an apology email mentioning the mistake/error that took place.

The following picture will give hints on how to write an apology email; check out the apology email example. Here, Eloquii apologizes to their customer for mistakenly sending a copy of their previous email.

Wrap Up

The email marketing platform is undoubtedly very effective; you must have all the basic knowledge of this marketing medium to nail it! And that should start with learning about different types of marketing emails. Therefore, in this blog, I’ve discussed the most common and essential types of email marketing, along with necessary email campaign examples. Hopefully, all these will help you utilize and develop ideas about sending different email campaigns in email marketing. So, choose our handy and price-friendly email marketing platform, MailBluster, and start your email marketing campaigns without any hassles!