8 Email Marketing Examples that Boost Leads and Sales in 2024

Businesses are in constant competition with one another to capture the attention of online shoppers, who have an endless stream of options—and a limited attention span.

Small businesses on a budget don’t have the content marketing resources to pull out all the stops like big-name brands do. One effective way to get more eyeballs on your online store—and boost leads and sales in the meantime—is by investing in email marketing.

Benefits of email marketing campaigns

Email marketing is one of the best digital marketing strategies your small business can invest in to promote your presence online. Not only does email marketing have a great ROI, it allows you to control the way your consumers perceive your brand. 

A strong email marketing strategy allows you to:

• Promote brand awareness

• Increase site traffic

• See fantastic ROI

• Personalize content

• Strengthen relationship with customers

• Gain valuable business data and feedback

• Drive leads and sales

• Boost other marketing channels

If you want to invest in email marketing but aren’t sure what kind of campaign to run, take a look at these eight email marketing campaign examples that are proven to drive leads and sales.

1. Welcome email 

In the marketing and sales world, first impressions matter. It’s easier to put a little effort toward making the first interaction with a customer positive than trying to reverse a bad first impression. If customers always have positive experiences with your business—including the first interaction—then it’s easier to retain customers. 

When users join your subscriber list, send them a welcome email. This email should include some sort of promotional offer as a thank you for joining your subscriber list.

A good welcome email campaign will have:

• A personalized thank you message for joining

• Some sort of promotional offer

• More information about your business

UNIQLO provides email subscribers with a coupon for their first order as a way to show its appreciation.

This type of offer encourages users to spend the minimum amount to successfully unlock the personalized deal. It also details what type of content to expect from future emails. 

2. Cart abandonment

You’re missing out on valuable sales if you don’t remind customers about the items they left in their cart. In 2022, the conversion rate for cart abandonment emails was 8.17%. 

The best part about this type of email campaign is that it’s automatically triggered when a customer adds something to their virtual cart but doesn’t finish checking out. These customers are also close to converting—as evidenced by them browsing your store and liking your products enough to save them for later.

Qualities of strong cart abandonment emails are:

• A small discount to encourage customers to resume shopping

• Personalized to the customer

• Only emphasizes one CTA

PacSun’s cart abandonment email offers customers free shipping (if they spend a certain amount) and includes a picture of the item that was forgotten. 

3. Post-purchase

Similar to a welcome email, a post-purchase email is a key spot to make a good impression. Order confirmation emails have a 65% open rate. Customers are eager to review their order, and this is your chance to cross-promote, say thank you, and craft a positive perception of your brand.

Post-purchase emails include order confirmations and shipping updates. Ensure that all emails that fit within this series express gratitude and include the necessary, helpful information.

In your post-purchase emails, be sure to include:

• Order number and images of items purchased

• Shipping information and tracking number

• A thank you and recommended items 

Dominos is a company with a unique post-purchase email. After customers order their pizza, they receive an email with a link to track their order. They can see when it’s being prepped, in the oven, and out for delivery. The more unique and personal you can make a post-purchase email, the happier consumers will be with you.

4. Seasonal

Whether it’s Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, or Christmas, seasonal email campaigns are a must for businesses looking to generate extra revenue. Holiday sales grow every year, with an estimated $942.6 billion in sales during 2022.

Your seasonal email campaign will have the best results if you:

• Address the sense of urgency around the holiday 

• Accompany that sentiment with a discount or promotional offer

• Design your email with corresponding colors 

Parties Made Personal sent out a seasonal email campaign during December with a special promotion on its DIY Christmas Party Kits. 

“We split our subscribers into groups based on their previous purchases and interactions, tailoring our messaging to their specific interests,” says Jaye Harrison, founder of Parties Made Personal. “The campaign was a hit, leading to a 45% increase in sales for our kits.” 

The company’s emails have an average open rate of 20% to 25%, but the seasonal email earned a 40% open rate—with the best CTR and sales it’s ever gotten from an email campaign.

5. Product announcement

All of the digital marketing tactics need to come out when you’re trying to spread awareness about your latest product. However you decide to promote your product, email marketing should definitely be on your product launch checklist.

Craft a successful product launch email by:

• Creating a targeted landing page for that product

• Keeping it to the point and including imagery

• Ensuring your CTA button is visible and attention-grabbing

Product launch emails come in different forms. If you’re launching a collection or updating the features of an existing product, your strategy is going to be different than those releasing limited edition products or advertising for pre-order.

Starbucks announced the launch of a colorful Frappuccino in the summer of 2019 with the email subject line “The Tie-Dye Frappuccino IS HERE????”

Since this is a limited edition product, the copy of the email stresses the sense of urgency. The text is to the point and the email design matches the frappuccino’s colors. 

6. Promotional offer

Promotional offers are a great excuse to email your subscribers. They can be sent at any time and aren’'t limited by user actions, holidays, etc. 

If your business has a promotion going on, create a special discount email marketing campaign. Be sure to include the coupon, discount, or offer in the subject line of your email—otherwise consumers may not realize what the email is about and ignore it. 

A promotional offer email marketing campaign needs to include:

• An attention-grabbing subject line

• Clear explanation of the offer

• Imagery and bold important text

This email from Sephora Insider is a perfect example of how to construct an email that includes a special offer.

The subject line makes it clear that you can receive a free item after a minimum spend. They include an image of the product and state that this is an online-only purchase. They use the rest of the email to advertise other products, banking on the fact that users are more likely to open emails that promise a free product in the subject line. 

7. Newsletter

Consistent emails in the form of newsletters allow you to stay in touch with your audience and remain at the forefront of their minds. The key to newsletters is ensuring they’re always sent on the same schedule—whether daily, weekly, or monthly. 

These types of campaigns allow you to get creative. Come up with a few sections you want to include in your newsletter and form a template that’s easy to fill in each time. 

Some popular newsletter sections are:

• Product updates

• Survey questions

• Trending blog posts

• User generated content

• Content from social media platforms 

InterNations sends out a monthly newsletter that includes helpful resources and community highlights. 

It has a few CTA buttons—one for each section—encouraging readers to either tag the brand on social media or follow the link to read more on its site. Make sure to include imagery to break up the sections. A wall of text will intimidate and scare off your audience.

8. Testimonial

Testimonials are a surefire way to increase trust and sales. Incorporate them into your email marketing strategy and use them to tell a store or showcase real reviews or results from your products/services.

A strong testimonial email campaign will have:

• An attention-grabbing subject line

• Real reviews from real customers

• A clear CTA at the end

“My weekly newsletter rates are between 48% and 75%, and the emails that are heavy in stories perform better,” says Dayana Aleksandrova, certified mindset and business coach. “You need to present testimonials and transformational case studies. This is how you get your prospects to believe that your services/products can help them.”

Aleksandrova ran an email campaign consisting of eight different emails that relied heavily on storytelling and testimonials. One testimonial email with the subject line “Her dad thought I was a scammer” converted all the recipients who clicked, helping to sell out her 1:1 coaching offer.

The email hooks the reader from the start with an introduction to a compelling story. Then, after the story unfolds, Aleksandrova includes results from customers she’s worked with in the past. (Any mention of “Dayana test” is replaced with the subscriber’s name.) 

Tips to optimize your email marketing strategy

Regardless of which email marketing strategy you decide on, the same optimization tips are applicable. Consumers’ inboxes are flooded, and if you want them to open your email over the hundreds of others, careful consideration needs to go into your strategy.

Here’s how to optimize your email campaigns:

• Craft compelling email copy and subject lines. Incorporate storytelling into your emails for optimal results. Include catchy subject lines that consumers are interested in reading more about. 

• Design visually appealing email templates. Templation is a must when you’re constantly sending emails. It saves you time and allows each email to have a neat, organized look. 

• Segment and manage email subscriber lists. Don’t send every subscriber the same email. Segment according to factors such as engagement levels, demographics, geographic location, preferences, and purchase history. 

• Monitor and analyze email campaign performance. Take a look at your open rates and click through rates to gauge campaign success. It’s also crucial to pay attention to the unsubscribe rate because if this number is high, you need to rethink your strategy.

• Test and optimize email campaigns for better results. Conduct A/B testing to see what your target audience responds best to. When you find something that works, stick to it, and continually refine the strategy.

• Stay updated with industry trends and best practices. What works now isn’t guaranteed to work tomorrow. Keep up-to-date with what’s going on in your industry. If you don’t have the resources to do so, bring on a freelancer to assist with email marketing research.

“We send tailored emails about complementary products to subscribers based on previous purchases,” says Evan Nelson, marketing manager at Nelson Cabinetry. “We recognize engagement levels and send different content to highly engaged subscribers compared to those less active. Demographics also tell us a lot. By using them we develop campaigns suited for different age groups and locations.”

Work with a freelancer to scale your email campaigns

Email marketing campaigns require a lot of work and research to properly segment and personalize. Small businesses don’t always have the bandwidth to juggle all these responsibilities, which is why partnering with an email marketing freelancer is a great way to scale your campaigns. 

And if your business has international customers, freelancers are extra helpful in better understanding different target audiences and how to best communicate with them.

“Businesses should search for candidates with cultural knowledge and language proficiency in their target markets,” says Thomas Newman, founder and CEO of VIVA Financial Tuition. “It’s like having a guide fluent in the local dialect while exploring a new city. You get to the heart of what truly engages the audience.”

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