Types of Email Marketing To Help Grow Your Business

Businesses can significantly increase conversion rates with an effective email marketing strategy and a well-executed campaign.

Most marketers and advertisers across the digital marketing industry consider email marketing a highly effective promotional technique. Nearly 28% of CMOs claim high utilization of an email marketing platform—more than any other marketing technology used today.^[1]

An effective email marketing strategy can increase your customer reach and brand awareness, providing a competitive edge in the market. Despite its increasing popularity, email marketing is a complex marketing channel with many moving components that can affect your business’s growth plan.

If you’re planning to start email marketing for your business or struggling to create an effective strategy, this guide will help you know the different types of email marketing campaigns and find the best campaign for your business’s needs.

Types of email marketing

Before diving into the types of email marketing campaigns, it is important to know the two types of email marketing—inbound and outbound.

   Inbound email marketing

Inbound email marketing focuses on the emails you send to your existing subscribers. These emails are curated by analyzing customer journey mapping, which involves understanding the buyers’ persona by assessing their movement through your sales funnel.

You can create inbound email marketing campaigns to achieve varying objectives, such as boosting engagement and improving retention rates. These campaigns can help you in audience segmentation to craft direct, personalized interactions with your customers.

Note: All inbound marketing emails are consent-based. The recipients have to agree to receive marketing material.

   Outbound email marketing

Outbound email marketing campaigns focus on a wider audience, including those not yet on your subscriber list. To benefit from this direct email marketing technique, you can cold email outreach messages to potential customers.

The primary objective is to increase brand awareness and attract potential customers unfamiliar with your products or services.

Note: Outbound marketing emails don’t require the receiver’s consent. They are based on your ideal customer research (ICF)—developed through quantitative and qualitative analyses, and may be guided by predictive analytics software.

Types of email marketing campaigns 

There are different types of email marketing campaigns, depending on the specific purpose they serve and the target audience. For example, you wouldn't send a welcome email to your loyal customers or an abandoned cart email to someone who's never been on your site.

Here are the different email marketing campaigns that can help you craft the right email marketing strategy for your business.

Welcome emails

A welcome email is your first opportunity to form a relationship with potential prospects. Creating an engaging welcome email that makes the reader feel appreciated can encourage future interactions and higher sales. Start by focusing on the knowledge, expertise, or value you can offer the recipient. Then, add a personal touch without pushing any sales talk.

Subscribers who read at least one welcome email will read 40% more content from the sender over the following 180 days.^[2] Hence, crafting a personalized and valuable welcome email can give you plenty of opportunities to strengthen your customer relationship.

Promotional emails

Promotional emails are one of the most commonly used email marketing campaigns. Hence, it is crucial to adopt a unique approach to stay ahead of competitors. Instead of creating dozens of one-off promotional emails, consider a progressive or more unified campaign. Creating an emotional storyline that leans on the power of humor will keep your readers engaged and encourage interactions. You can also use this type of email to promote new content and drive traffic to your site.

Re-engagement emails

If your metrics show some inactive subscribers, you can start a re-engagement campaign. These emails will help you remind individuals about your business—especially if they were interested earlier. Turning inactive subscribers into active customers can boost your business’s success rate. According to Harvard Business Review, acquiring a new customer is anywhere from five to 25 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.^[3]

Abandoned cart emails

Abandoned cart emails are trigger-based and often handled by marketing automation software. These emails are sent automatically when someone adds a product to their cart but doesn't buy it.

These campaigns often include an offer to attract prospective customers. For example, offering a 10% discount could tip the scales. Such incentives encourage the recipients to re-engage with your business’s online store—especially if they didn't check out the first time for any reason.

Newsletters

Newsletters aren't technically a campaign because you can continue them indefinitely. However, this email type gives an advantage of regular communication between you and your subscribers. Newsletters’ content should not be like sales pieces but keep your readers in the loop. Hence, newsletters can overlap with other types of emails, such as product recommendations, event invitations, or milestone emails.

These emails are about updating, educating, and entertaining your audience. You can use this technique to keep your subscribers interested in what you're doing with share-worthy content and boost engagement and brand loyalty.

Other common types of email marketing campaigns 

• Lead nurturing emails: These campaigns include a series of connected emails, which help businesses enhance brand recognition and build relationships. You can email prospects interested in a specific product or topic to ensure success. Follow up with valuable, targeted content that nurtures your relationship and the subsequent desired steps. 

• Dedicated emails: These emails have a dedicated purpose, which could be anything from an event invitation to sharing information about the latest white paper. These emails can act like landing pages, setting up a primary CTA. You want to drive results with these emails, so be sure to measure views and conversions.

• Transactional emails: These trigger-based emails go out after specific customer actions, such as signing up for a newsletter or webinar. An email will go to the customer, thanking them and offering a double opt-in or login information. Another example is when a customer buys something, and you follow up with details of their recent purchase.

How to choose the right email marketing campaign for your business

The best type of email marketing campaign will depend on your business’s goals, target audience, and overall growth strategy. As these are bound to change, every business should be willing to adapt new email marketing strategies. If you are not familiar with the changing market trends and customer preferences, you can hire an email marketing services provider or invest in marketing automation platforms to help you adopt the best approach.