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Do you ever find yourself struggling to close a sale or hold on to a customer? If so, focusing more heavily on email follow-up campaigns might be just what your business needs. Follow-up campaigns go a step further to engage customers or leads, increasing the chance that those leads will convert. In today’s post, we’re walking through the basics you need to know before building an email follow-up campaign.

Follow-up campaigns go a step further to engage customers or leads, increasing the chance that those leads will convert.

What is an email follow-up campaign?

An email follow-up campaign is a series of emails that you send after someone opts in to your lead magnet or otherwise interacts with your business. These follow-up campaigns are a valuable opportunity to push customers closer to conversion. Multiple studies have shown that follow-up emails generally see a better response than the initial email — so when you send more than one email, you have a better chance of sparking action.We don’t recommend spamming your customer’s inbox. But we do recommend crafting a high-quality email follow-up campaign that strategically targets users who need that little push to convert. Follow-up campaigns aren’t difficult or expensive to create — especially when you use a follow-up email template — and they can do a lot for your business.

5 steps to build an email follow-up campaign

Here’s how to build the ideal email follow-up campaign, from start to finish.

#1. Consider your timing

Timing is everything when it comes to follow-up emails. Here’s what we recommend: Send your first follow-up message two days after the original email. From there, send the next email a couple of days later. Then begin spacing out the time between emails by a few additional days each time.Keep an eye on your analytics to see how this tactic goes. If it works for you and your customers, great! If not, do some testing to find out what does. This way, you aren’t deluging anyone’s inbox — but you are staying at the top of your customers’ minds.

#2. Plan your approach

You don’t want to send your customers the exact same follow-up email five times in a row. Instead, each email in your follow-up campaign should be carefully crafted with unique content. You could send one follow-up email that includes video content, another that showcases testimonials from previous happy customers, and a third that’s more overtly promotional with a strong CTA. Making sure every email is different is a good way to help get each one opened and read.

#3. Write strong follow-up email subject lines

When it comes to follow-up email subject lines, getting your point across clearly and quickly is key. Your customers’ inboxes are filled with hundreds of other emails. For yours to stand out, it needs to be simple, clear and eye-catching. How can you convey the main message of the email in as few words as possible? That’s your goal for follow-up email subject lines. Personalizing your subject lines like H&R Block did here can increase your open rate, too.Subject line: Need your refund now, Hailey?

#4. Don’t forget personalization

That brings us to our next point: Personalizing your follow-up emails is an essential step. Personalized emails get more engagement, and segmented email campaigns make up a big chunk of most marketers’ overall revenue. Include your customer’s first name in the subject line and in the body of the email. You can also personalize the message according to a customer’s geographic location, demographics and purchase or browsing history. Here, Equinox personalized its email with the customer’s first name in the subject line.Subject line: Kelly, membership has its perks 

#5. Optimize your CTA

When you’re designing your follow-up emails, start with your CTA. Figuring out your CTA first can help you build the rest of the email around that main ask. We also recommend making the CTA more visible through email design, whether those are subtle changes (such as strategically choosing a color) or more obvious elements (such as adding a few arrows pointing to the CTA button).This message from MealPal isn’t necessarily a follow-up email, but we love its CTA all the same. The bright orange sticks out at the top of the email where it can’t be missed. And if a reader scrolls through the entire message, they’ll see another CTA at the bottom, too.Subject line: Treat yo’self to lobster, salmon and burgers on MealPal

Wrap-up: Make your own email follow-up campaign

Ready to create your own email follow-up marketing campaign and win more conversions? Save time by using our free email templates. Our template catalog has hundreds of pre-made templates ready to be customized, or you can opt to create your own from scratch. And if you’d like to follow up with customers after a specific event, use our Follow-Up email template by designer Matteo Della Chiesa to connect with attendees. Follow-up campaigns are a must for every business — create yours today!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

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Last week, the COVID-19 virus was declared a pandemic and a national emergency in the U.S. This announcement has impacted individuals and companies alike in myriad ways. Many email marketers have had to do an abrupt about-face, unexpectedly switching from spring sale emails to email crisis communications. People are worried. They aren’t interested in lighthearted sales. And it’s important for brands to be cognizant of what’s going on in the world so you can address how your customers are feeling.Struggling to get started with email marketing in a crisis? The following tips will help you connect with your customers throughout the COVID-19 pandemic or during any future state of emergency. And here are 3 free templates for your own email crisis communication.

Express empathy

The most important thing to do is connect with your customers. Acknowledge that this is a stressful time, and we’re all scared. A little empathy can go a long way. In your email, aim to strike a tone of solidarity. Don’t be afraid to get personal and share your own story.That’s what the CEO of Kate Farms did. Kate Farms is a company that makes tube feeding formulas. Many of this brand’s customers are likely immunocompromised or at-risk. CEO Brett sent a personal note to simply let Kate Farms customers know that the company is there for them. Doing this is a great way to humanize your brand.Subject line: A message from Brett, our CEO

Be optimistic

It’s important to empathize with your customers’ fears — but don’t increase their panic. Email crisis communications should use a calm tone of voice and provide hope. One example we love is from Lunya. This brand acknowledged the pandemic but then moved on, explaining that it wants to use this time to truly connect with customers (that is, from a safe distance).Subject line: We’re in this together

Provide an update

Email crisis communication should provide your customers with useful information about what your company is doing. Business as usual? Different hours? Closing down temporarily? Offering a practical update will give your customers a sense of stability. Continue sending these emails throughout the crisis to keep your customers in the know regarding when you’ll be back open for good (and how they can access your product or service in the meantime). Petco shared this information through a video update from its CEO.Subject line: COVID-19, a video update from Petco CEO Ron Coughlin 

Share safety precautions

If your business will continue operating, share how you’re keeping your customers and employees safe. Steak ‘n Shake emailed its customers with a bulleted list of specific actions and health precautions the company is taking. A similar message can assure your customers that their safety is your top priority.Subject line: We’re committed to your safety.

Educate and inform

Take every opportunity to encourage responsible behavior. You may want to offer educational materials to help people learn more about what they should be doing to stay safe during this time. Direct people to reputable sources, like the World Health Organization (WHO), where they can learn more about the virus and the best precautions to take. Delta cited the CDC and WHO in a recent email to Delta flyers.Subject line: Our commitment remains: Your update from Ed Bastian

Don’t capitalize on tragedy

What you don’t say in your email crisis communications is just as important as what you do. This is not the time to focus on making a profit. Instead, look out for your customers — no strings attached. Nataly from Happier sent out a newsletter sharing a free webinar on a relevant topic, plus other free resources to boot.Subject line: A helpful resource during this tough time 

Use simple subject lines

When we scroll through our inbox, we’re seeing similar subject lines over and over: “A message from our CEO,” “an update for our customers about covid-19,” or a simple “we’re committed to your safety.” This is not the time to embellish your subject lines with cute emojis or funny puns. Your email crisis communication subject lines should be clear and simple. Make it very clear to your customers what’s inside the email and that you have their backs.

Take peoples’ minds off the stress

Finally, don’t be afraid to put out some lighthearted content such as a quiz, an ebook or a video. Many people feel stressed, worried and afraid right now. Those who are at home self-quarantining or social distancing might also be plain bored — and parents whose kids are out of school are probably in search of activities. Give people something they can use to help pass the time and take their mind off the scary things going on in the world. This colorful email from Tattly Temporary Tattoos shared a list of fun activities for subscribers to enjoy.Subject line: 14 FUN activities to keep yourself busy

Wrap-up: Email crisis communications

You may feel unprepared for email marketing in a crisis. We want to help you help your customers by spreading helpful information, so we have three crisis email templates designed by Andrea Dall’Ara. All three of these templates are completely free. You can customize the templates in our free email builder and download them as a zip file and use them anywhere, or save them to a free BEE Pro account to reuse them again later--no credit card needed. For more resources, you may also want to check out Email Monday's collection of articles on the topic.Use the Emergency Announcement email template to keep customers informed:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Give people a way to take action with this Support Fundraising email template, encouraging your customers to stay home and prevent COVID-19 spread.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Finally, our Stop the Spread email template is perfect for an educational email telling people how to stay safe.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use your time at home while social distancing or self-quarantining to send emails that connect with your subscribers and that make an impact. We hope you stay healthy and well during this stressful time!

There's a lot of misinformation and confusion when it comes to email marketing terms. Many are used in the wrong context and other terms are difficult to understand.This short glossary defines the most important email marketing terms, shares use cases and gives you concrete examples you can adapt to your own needs.

1. Transactional email 

Transactional emails (also known as triggered emails) are a type of automated message triggered by events (and in some cases preferences) performed by a recipient. This type of email is independent of a company’s email marketing campaigns (though some triggered emails such as abandoned cart messages, can perform marketing functions) and deliver necessary information such as a receipt.One of the hallmarks of a transactional email is the inherent personalization. It’s sent to a specific person and contains information that would only be important or useful to the recipient.

Use cases

There are many use cases for transactional emails such as:

• Receipts
• Subscription notifications
• Email address confirmation messages
• Event registration confirmations
• Support ticket confirmation notifications
• Password reset 
• Verification code in two-factor authentication 

Emails that qualify as transactional are varied. Keep in mind that they’re personalized to the recipient and are triggered in response to an action they’ve taken.

Transactional email example

The above email is triggered after someone makes a purchase through Doordash. It gives the recipient important information about their order. Though there are marketing elements like referring to a friend, that’s not the goal of the message. 

2. Email marketing automation 

Email marketing automation has become popular over the last few years but it’s an email marketing term often confused with other things. It's the process of sending timed or event-triggered emails to subscribers.The definition itself is broad and is open to interpretation. For example, a receipt sent to a new customer as well as a welcome sequence can both be considered email marketing automation.Generally, when you talk about email marketing automation, you’re sending messages that’ll move people further down your funnel, get them to specific landing pages, and encourage the sale.

Use cases 

Because the definition of email marketing automation is so broad, the use cases are also broad. Here are a few that’ll give you a better understanding of what email marketing automation is:

• Welcome sequence
• Cart abandonment nurturing sequence
• Course content delivery 
• Birthday emails
• Significant event emails (anniversary, Valentine’s day, etc.)
• Event promotion
• Webinar follow-up emails
• Product launch sequences

Email marketing automation example

The above example is taken from one of the automation we use in our business and is a bit complicated. There are many triggers that are dependent on whether someone has taken an action or not which segments them into different lists, tags, and email sequences.If you’re just starting out, a simple email campaign with a few steps may be more manageable. Work your way up to advanced automation over time.

3. SPAM

SPAM is often difficult to pin down. If you’re launching a new product line but one of your past customers isn’t interested, it can be considered SPAM (Note: you should be running regular re-engagement campaigns to prevent this). To another customer, it’s relevant and timely.In general, the CAN-SPAM Act and its counterparts in different countries define SPAM as unsolicited or unwanted commercial emails that have a primary purpose of advertising or promoting a commercial product or service.Emails classified as SPAM can have stiff penalties of over $40,000 for every email found to be in violation. The good news is that it’s not difficult to stay compliant. Build a permission-based email list and you clean it regularly to make sure you're compliant.

4. Email Open Rate

The email open rate is the percentage of the total recipients who opened the email sent out. The email open rate isn't tied to the total number of subscribers on your list. The open rate varies depending on your industry and the level of personalization you use when sending messages to subscribers.If you want to maximize your email open rates, focus on the subject line and relevance of the message. Try A/B test different subject lines so you can increase your open rate over time. Services like Moosend, ActiveCampaign, etc. make this relatively simple. Finally, it’s important to ensure your email delivery is high so you’re not getting lower open rates based on a technicality.

5. Email Click-Through Rate

The email click-through rate is the percentage of email recipients that clicked on a link in your email. This includes your main CTA as well as unsubscribe links and other secondary clickable elements.You calculate it by taking the total number of clicks and dividing it by the total number of emails sent in the campaign and expressing the final number as a percentage.Increase it by creating relevant messages and providing multiple opportunities for people to click on your links. That means you should place the same link in your email at strategic places to increase its visibility.

6. Drip Email Sequence

An email drip sequence, also known as an email drip campaign, is a predefined series of emails. They go out to a targeted group of email subscribers on a time schedule or after specific criteria have been fulfilled. The better the drip sequence the more likely they are to help you achieve your goal order to achieve a specific goal.The email marketing term describes emails that share educational content, marketing material, or even announcements in order to close a sale or achieve something important to you.For example, a website visitor signs up to get a PDF about taking care of orchids. The drip related drip sequence sends an email every two days and focuses on different aspects of orchid care. Towards the end of the drip sequence, the messages focus on selling a detailed course that covers all aspects of orchid care.

Use cases

Drip campaigns are used to promote almost anything which makes them quite versatile. The benefit is that you don’t go directly for the sale but instead focus on instilling buying beliefs and building a relationship. Use them to:

• Welcome subscribers
• Launch products
• Introduce concepts
• Teach complicated lessons or deliver a course
• Sell existing products

Example drip sequences

7. Double Opt-in 

A double opt-in is when someone signs up for an email list and they receive a transactional email asking them to confirm their willingness to join the list. If they don’t click the link then they won’t become part of the mailing list.Double opt-ins are used to ensure contacts didn’t sign up accidentally and to comply with regulations such as GDPR. At the same time, you protect yourself from spam signups and increase the quality of your mailing list.

8. Email Newsletter

An email newsletter, as the name implies, is an email sent out to inform your subscribers about news, updates, tips, promotions, etc. related to them or your company. Use email newsletters as one-off self-contained campaigns.Email newsletters are the most common type of email and tend to be sent regularly to subscribers. The frequency you choose should be something you’re able to deliver consistently so your subscribers remain engaged with your brand.Newsletters also vary widely when it comes to design. Some of them are plain text while others follow the latest graphic design trends to create unique experiences. What you choose depends largely on your niche.

9. Email Template

An email template is a predesigned or prewritten email (usually an HTML file) that can be tweaked and reused multiple items to quickly create high-quality email campaigns. One of the major benefits of an email template is saving time. It also creates a consistent style for your brand so when people see your messages in their inbox, they have brand recall.

Use cases

Use email templates wherever emails are used but consider creating different templates for different situations:

• Transactional emails 
• Confirmation emails 
• Newsletters
• Drip campaigns

Email template example

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Take a look at more of the BEE email templates you can use to send beautiful emails.

10. Email list hygiene 

Email list hygiene is the process of checking the status of contacts on your list and removing the ones who no longer open or otherwise interact with your messages. These emails may have gone “cold” for a number of reasons but if they remain on your list your open rates will reduce and email deliverability may be impacted.Clean your email list regularly by removing bounced emails or contacts who haven’t opened your emails in months. This ensures that only the people who want to receive your messages will get them.

11. Email bounce rate

Email bounce rate is the percentage of emails sent out that are returned by the mail sender as undeliverable. In essence, the email bounces back to you without getting to the intended recipient. There are two major types of email bounces:

• Hard Bounce. A hard bounce is an email that’s returned undelivered because it wasn’t accepted by the recipient’s mail server. In other words, the email address doesn’t exist, the domain doesn’t exist, or the server has completely blocked delivery.  
• Soft Bounce. The recipient’s mail server sends the email back after it has been accepted. Soft bounces usually show the email address is right but something is preventing your message from getting through. Common reasons include the server is down, the inbox is full, or the email you’re sending is too large. 

12. Email lead scoring 

Lead scoring is a powerful tool that can help you identify your most engaged subscribers and customers. It’s the process of assigning a numerical score to actions your subscribers take and using that to sort and rank them. When done correctly, a higher score translates to higher interest in your products and services and a greater likelihood to purchase when you send well-designed sales emails.Develop a clear understanding of what actions deserve to be scored before you implement this strategy. You should also consider how much weight (or how many points) each action should carry.Someone opening your email won't be weighted as much as someone clicking a link. A link click won’t carry as much weight as someone who replies to an email. After someone has a high enough score, you segment them and interact with them differently going forward.

13. Email list segmentation 

Email list segmentation is the process of splitting your subscribers into different groups based on criteria important to you. Use it to increase personalization and ROI from email campaigns. You may already do this if you maintain individual lists for people who signed up for different lead magnets on your website.That’s one of the most basic forms of email segmentation and you can go much further with behavioral segmentation. It takes into consideration the pages they’re visiting on your website, the types of emails they’re opening, and the links they’re clicking on.There are countless ways to segment subscribers but it’s important to only use the factors important to you. For example, if you’re selling computers, segmenting based on gender may be irrelevant. If you’re selling clothes or accessories, gender may be extremely important. When selling software, psychographic segmentation may be more important than demographic segmentation.Think about or find the different groups in your audience and which type of email list segmentation will have the most impact on your revenue.

14. Cart abandonment email sequence

An abandoned cart email is an automated email sent to a recipient after they’ve added items to their cart but didn’t complete the checkout process before leaving the website. They’re an essential aspect of an eCommerce business because the cart abandonment rate is a high as 70%.A simple 3-part cart abandonment email sequence can recover as much as 15% of the revenue that would have otherwise been lost. It’s important to start the process quickly so you engage with subscribers while the purchase they were considering is still top of mind.

Cart abandonment email example

15. Dynamic email content 

Dynamic email content is an email marketing term imagery or text that changes based on the characteristics of the recipient. These characteristics are anything that matters to you and helps you achieve your goal.For example, you can send the same email to two subscribers but one is a male and one is female. In the email sent to the female subscriber, the imagery and change to focus on high heel shoes. In the email sent to the male, the imagery and text focus on men’s brogues.Use it with templates or create it from scratch. The limitations of how you can set up dynamic content are set by your email marketing provider. Some of them are like ActiveCampaign, Constant Contact or their alternatives are extremely flexible while others don’t support it at all.

Conclusion

These email marketing terms are essential if you want to make the most of your beautiful templates and your campaigns.The list isn’t exhaustive but it’ll point you in the right direction so you can make the most of every email you send.

Do you send a welcome email series to new subscribers? If not, we’d encourage you to start. This type of email series is hugely beneficial and carries a high ROI. Before you click “send,” let’s take a look at the benefits of a welcome email series and cover a few key strategies for these emails in 2020.

Why Send a Welcome Email Series?

A well-done welcome email series can solidify your relationship with new and potential customers. Welcome emails produce 320% more revenue than other promotional emails, and they carry a high ROI. Plus, about 75% of your customers expect them, so they're a great way to nurture leads.So what exactly qualifies as a welcome email series? This kind of series typically contains three or so emails that introduce your brand through content, discount codes, and other information. For best results, send the emails in the series 1-2 days apart.Today, we’re going to discuss the best strategies for your welcome emails to earn a high open-rate and boost conversions.

Welcome Email Series Best Practices

These welcome email series examples should help you plan your ideal approach:

#1 – Add a Discount Coupon

SwimZip uses a summery design with fun fonts to present its brand. The company also offers new subscribers a 20%-off coupon, which is a great tactic to entice new readers to make a purchase.Subject line: Welcome aboard SwimZip newsletter.

#2 – Introduce Your Company

Groupon uses its welcome email to give a brief overview explaining what the company does. With the Groupon app, the message explains, you can shop products by category and save money on experiences in your area. This short email provides a lot of valuable information about how to reap the benefits this company provides. Offering a quick explanation for your new subscribers can help smooth out the process of getting them on board.Subject line: Welcome!

#3 – Preview What’s Coming

Your welcome email series is an ideal opportunity to let readers know what they can expect to see from you in the future. Here, the World Wildlife Fund kicked things off by promising conservation stories and ways to get involved. This nonprofit also asked new subscribers to take a welcome survey asking what kind of content they wanted to see in WWF emails, giving consumers a voice.Subject line: Welcome and congratulations, Bee

#4 – Keep It Simple

This American Apparel welcome email has just one simple, visually striking graphic that packs in all the necessary information in a small area: the discount code, product choices, and CTA buttons. Don’t overwhelm new subscribers with too much information too soon — instead, just share the must-know information and save other details for later.Subject line: Welcome to American Apparel

#5 – Create a Unified Series

Sending a true welcome email series is often more effective than sending a few disconnected initial emails; consider sending three emails over the course of a week. The first email can simply confirm the reader’s subscription. The second email could offer more information about your business, while the third might have a discount code or ask the reader to do something simple such as follow you on social media. If you have a free trial, you can send an email when the trial is over; that’s what this free trial expiration template, made by Andrea Dall’Ara, is meant for.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

#6 – Personalize Subject Lines

When it comes to welcome email subject lines, most companies keep things simple — “Welcome to Earth Day Network,” “Welcome to Sleepy Jones,” “Welcome to the Coconut Club.” Keep your subject line brief and run a few tests to find the best option. You can evoke emotion by adding another well-placed word, as Make-A-Wish does here with the term “community” or as Vita Coco does by adding the exclusive-sounding “club.” Personalizing your welcome email series subject lines will get results, too: Emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened.

Wrap-Up: Welcome Email Series

Now you know how to write a welcome email series — and it’s time to perfect yours. Use one of BEE’s easy, drag-and-drop email templates or our welcome email series templates to introduce yourself to new subscribers and start off the customer relationship on the right foot!

Email marketing is an essential part of your business, but it can quickly get expensive. How can you create an email marketing campaign that doesn’t break the bank? Answer: By looking for free tools that produce high-quality content.With BEE, you can create a full email campaign set — all the way to a built-in landing page with a form that collects user data. This type of email can give you a higher conversion rate, and although it might look complicated, it’s actually fairly simple to create. Here’s your guide to creating a free email marketing campaign in BEE — check out our video tutorial below, or keep reading for the text version.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXRq7mxylyU&t=15s

How to build a landing page that matches your email marketing

You can create an entire email campaign set using BEE’s email marketing software, including emails and landing pages alike. Here, we’re going to create an email marketing campaign with one email and one landing page to collect data using BEE, Google Forms, and MailChimp.In order to move your email from BEE to MailChimp’s free version, you’ll need a BEE Pro account. If you haven’t upgraded your account yet, you can start your free two-week trial (no credit card required). Here are three simple steps you can take to create your free email marketing campaign.

Step #1: Create the landing page

From within your BEE Pro account, create a new project and choose the Halloween Movie Premier template; fill it out with graphics, text, and images. In this example we’re promoting an event, so our email includes language that mentions the date, venue, and other need-to-know details. We’ve also added a call to action that asks people to RSVP by filling in a form — which we’ll create in the next step.

Step #2: Create a Google form

Save your BEE template and hop over to Google forms for the next step in the process. Open up a blank form and fill it out, leaving space for readers to give you any relevant information.

When you’re through creating the form, click the “Send” button in the upper right-hand corner and then click on the HTML symbol (this is the third option in the “Send via” row and looks like this: <>). Copy the HTML.

Step #3: Publish the landing page

Head back into the BEE editor and add an HTML content box to your email. Once you drag and drop the content box, you can copy and paste your HTML code from Google into the text box on the right sidebar, and your Google form will appear in the email. If the dimensions of the Google form are wonky, scroll horizontally through the code in the text box until you find the width and height; then type in 100% for the width and 670 for the height. By doing this, you ensure the form will be responsive on both desktop and mobile.

Save the message and you’re now ready to publish your landing page. You can leave your landing page on BEE and share it with the link you can find in the BEE details page (remember, though, that with this option your landing page will only be active as long as you have a BEE Pro account). Otherwise, you can export the landing page as HTML by downloading the HTML folder and use another method to publish it. These other methods will vary depending on what platform you use to host your site and how it’s set up, but you can either use your server or find a few common methods here or here.Copy your landing page URL so you’ll have it for the next step; if you don’t like the way the URL looks, you can shorten it using Bitly. You can find the link to your landing page on the “Message Details” screen after customizing a template — copy the link by clicking the tiny clipboard symbol on the top right-hand corner of the message image.

Step #4: Customize and send your email

Go into your BEE Pro project folder and copy the landing page; rename it and customize the new message as an email. (This is a helpful benefit that BEE Pro offers: You can copy, paste, and save your messages!) Open the email and delete the Google form. Since your landing page is published, you can now add the URL of the landing page as a CTA in the email by pasting the link you copied in the previous step.

Once you’ve added the landing page link as a CTA, push your message over to your email service provider of choice (BEE Pro offers multiple connectors) by clicking “Export message” and choosing “Export to another application.” Here, we pushed our email over to MailChimp and then sent the test email from there.

Now your landing page is published and connected with your email, and your email campaign is ready to be sent. When people receive your email, they’ll be able to click on the CTA to go to the landing page and complete the Google form.

Wrap-up: Free email marketing software

BEE’s free email marketing templates are the perfect way to create your next email campaign. By using BEE and other free tools such as Google Forms, you have an affordable method of making emails that will get conversions and help your business. Happy designing!

For us #emailgeeks, the Thanksgiving season is about a lot more than turkey and stuffing. Preparations for Black Friday go hand-in-hand with those forCyber Monday. In fact, we're big advocates for crafting a unified, on-brand holiday campaign that extends all the way from now until the end of the year! In case you're still brainstorming for your holiday email marketing campaigns, we've gathered some inspiring Cyber Monday email examples to spark your imagination!

Why Cyber Monday?

The term “Cyber Monday” came into play in 2005. The National Retail Federation had noticed an increase in online revenue on the Monday after Thanksgiving — most likely people doing Christmas shopping online at work where their kids couldn’t take a peek — and decided to coin the phrase and take advantage of the spike in sales.Now Cyber Monday is a well-established event that consumers make a point not to miss. Over 174 million Americans shop over the post-Thanksgiving weekend, spending an average of $335 each. And revenue on Cyber Monday is even bigger than Black Friday.Cyber Monday is a can’t-miss chance, and email is the perfect channel to reach shoppers. Here are six well-done Cyber Monday email examples that can help boost your sales.

#1. Make it exclusive

Consider opening the proverbial doors early by offering a Cyber Monday discount code on Sunday, portraying the early access as an exclusive perk. When you create a sense of exclusivity around a sale, it makes the demand go up and encourages consumers to make snap decisions to get a product before it’s gone. Gap did that here by sending an early Cyber Monday code (applicable online and in stores) on Sunday morning.Subject line: We’re giving you code CYBER early (hint: open quick!)

#2. Have a strong CTA

Your CTA is a big part of what hooks people into clicking “Buy,” so make it visible, unique, and as tempting as possible. Here, Sperry includes customized CTA buttons to help customers find exactly what they’re looking for. Something else this email does right: Under the CTA, there are several product spotlights, so you can see exactly what you’ll be offered before you visit the website.Subject line: Today Only ❗ Free $20 e-gift card, $30 off custom boots + up to 50% off 275+ styles.

#3. Create an inspiring design

The North Face created a visually striking Cyber Monday email that works for several reasons: It’s simple, with one primary image and basic black lettering. It’s strategic, with links to the men’s and women’s product pages right up top. And most of all, it’s inspiring — the stunning visual helps you imagine yourself climbing up that ice wall wearing North Face gear. Similarly, you can design your own Cyber Monday email with beautiful images that are hard to resist.Subject line: Cyber Monday sale starts NOW

#4. Play up the holiday angle

Many Cyber Monday shoppers aren’t shopping for themselves — they’re doing Christmas shopping. Minted is a good example of a brand that understands this and leans into the holiday angle. Their email is designed using Christmassy reds and golds, and it points out that by shopping on their website, you can find gifts for everyone on your list. Like Minted, play up the holiday angle to get more sales.Subject line: Everyone’s favorite Monday: Cyber Monday starts now!

#5. Offer free shipping

Many Cyber Monday emails advertise their free shipping first, announcing it at the top of the email before continuing on to explain the rest of the deal. Sometimes, free shipping is the equivalent of a 15% or 20% discount, so it can pay off big time for shoppers with a lot to buy — 84 percent of orders shipped for free last year. Consider taking the same approach as TJ Maxx and designing your Cyber Monday email so that your free shipping offer is highly visible.Subject line: Cyber Monday treat: FREE shipping!

#6. Craft good copy

Skillshare’s Cyber Monday email did a great job with its copy by skillfully addressing the reader’s pain points in just a few words, promising to make next year “your most productive and creative year yet.” Skillshare also has one of the best Cyber Monday subject lines, reminding customers that their deal is only available for so long.Subject line: 24 hours only: Get our best deal of the year

Wrap-up: Cyber Monday emails

The holidays are coming up fast, so start designing emails using our Cyber Monday email templates now. If you’re short on time, use BEE’s minimalistic Cyber Monday template (created by designer Jesus Albsuac):

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

You can also use the Cyber Monday promo template (created by designer Andrea Dall'Ara). These customizable, drag-and-drop email templates are great for a post-Thanksgiving product promotion and are easy to fill in with your own text, images, and graphics. Let BEE help your conversion rates rise this Cyber Monday!

Over time, your email list tends to fall away: Most email marketing databases degenerate by 22.5 percent each year. That’s a lot of valuable customers who are no longer reading your emails. Inactive subscribers can also mess with your data and give your company a spammy reputation. But there’s good news, too: Turning an inactive subscriber into a customer is five times cheaper than acquiring a brand new customer. All you need is a few well-written re-engagement emails. Let’s talk about the best ways to write emails that re-engage inactive customers.

#1. Who should you send re-engagement emails to?

Re-engagement emails are aimed at inactive subscribers, but what exactly qualifies as “inactive?”Well, the general consensus between email experts is that an inactive subscriber is anyone who has been unengaged for longer than 30-60 days. Identify any customers who fall into that sweet spot and you’re ready to go.

#2. Personalize the email

It should go without saying that emails should be personalized to help them stand out in a crowded inbox. The best re-engagement subject lines will include the subscriber’s first name, like this straightforward missive from the Smithsonian that proclaimed “Tony, we want you back.” You could also send a personalized re-engagement email that shows the customer’s past purchase history and makes some new product recommendations based on those previous purchases.Subject line: Tony, we want you back

#3. Make it easy to leave

If readers choose tounsubscribe, make it easy for that to happen: be transparent by offering an easily spottable unsubscribe link.Don't forget to always offer the option for them to change their email preferences before unsubscribing. This means the option toreceive different types of emails or emails at a lower frequency.This email from Leesa Sleep is a great example of this.The email invites readers to update their email preferences, rather than unsubscribing all together. The change in preference could be anything from changing email frequency (daily, weekly, monthly) to the types of emails (events, newsletters, etc.) they want to receive. It’s a good compromise: The company can keep sending emails, but at a frequency that fits the reader’s wishes.Subject line: We really miss you...

#4. Make an offer

A special discount or coupon code can be a good way to draw someone back in and help them begin engaging with your business again. That’s what softball company Rip-It did here, offering a 10%-off coupon with a time limit of 48 hours. Rip-It also used some space in the email to highlight new products. Instead of a coupon code, you could even offer a small free gift; this doesn’t have to be a physical product, but could be an ebook or PDF (similar to a lead magnet you might have used to initially grow your email list). Make sure to mention your offer in the subject line so the reader is more likely to click and open.Subject line: Come back, Hailey — we miss you

#5. Highlight your value proposition 

Carefully craft your email copy to remind customers what you bring to the table.Whether that’s more affordable products than your competitors, top-notch customer service, or in-store locations like the Clark’s Shoes example below.After all, the goal of a re-engagement email is to get people to re-engage, and a big way to do that is by presenting all of the great things you have to offer.Subject line: We don’t want to see you go

#6. Ask for feedback

Ask your subscribers for their feedback on what they’d like to see in your emails.Maybe they aren’t opening your emails because the content isn’t relevant, but you won't know unless you ask!In the example below, Blind Barber asks what they can do better and what their subscribers want to read. This data and answers can help you determine future email marketing strategy.Take things a step further by asking for feedback in the form of a poll or survey instead of simply using plain text. Interactive content gets more engagement than passive content, so presenting your request in a creative way instead of just saying “Reply and let us know” can help ensure you get some responses.Subject line: Time to say goodbye?

#7. Plan a re-engagement campaign

Instead of sending one re-engagement email, create a full re-engagement campaign to give customers the maximum number of opportunities to opt back in.Send inactive subscribers three to four emails, each one with a different angle. This can be a coupon code or asking for feedback, but in the end all with the same idea of "Come back!"If you still aren’t getting engagement after sending the final email in that campaign, remove those people from your list. This will help boost your overall engagement rate and reduce the likelihood that you'll become known as a spammy brand.

Wrap-up: Re-engage inactive customers

Ready to start sending re-engagement emails to clients? Save yourself some time and effort by using BEE’s ready-to-use templates, with their user-friendly drag-and-drop tools for customizing your logo, colors, fonts and other branding elements. With those tools in hand, it will be a breeze to craft an effective series of emails to re-engage inactive customers!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated on November 2022 to provide on going accuracy and comprehensiveness.

There’s no need to get fancy with your marketing efforts — simplicity is a good thing. Consumers actually willpay more for a simple brand experience, and if a brand has a clear proposal that saves the consumer time, 61% of consumers will recommend that brand.How does this apply to email marketing? Using simple email templates can help you be consistent in your design and see business benefits. Let’s take a look at some benefits that simple emails provide and discuss how you can create simple email campaigns that are visually consistent and effective in winning conversions.

#1. Simple emails get the point across

People are busy. People also get a lot of emails — the average office worker receives 121 emails each day, and with attention spans shortening, each email only receives a few seconds of scrutiny. You don’t have a lot of time or space to grab somebody’s attention, so the key is to get your point across as fast as possible, and that’s where a simple email template can help.You can explain the main proposition of an email quickly by having a descriptive subject line that clearly explains what’s in the email, by not including any extraneous details in the body copy, and by designing the email in a simple email template builder so that the most important information is easy to read. Case in point: HelloFresh recently sent this email that offered $80 off right up front before proceeding to the other, less essential parts of the message.Subject line: Fresh tips for fall (+ get $80 off)

#2. Simple emails create a connection

In many ways, email marketing is all about connection: creating a relationship between you and your subscribers. And by sending simple, stripped-down emails, you can bring that connection out like never before. Here, nonprofit Heifer International reached out to its subscribers and donors with a thank-you email. The design of the email focused on just one image, an infographic, with a sentence of copy at the beginning and end. The email wasn’t long or overstuffed; instead, it was just enough, effectively making donors feel valued and appreciated. (Nonprofits, check out these editable email templates made just for you.)Subject line: Cowculate your impact, Bee

#3. Simple emails make consistency easy

It’s essential that your branding stays consistent; after all, the whole point of a branding strategy is making sure your customers recognize you, and they won’t be able to do that if your branding keeps changing. But if you’re sending out multiple emails a week, it can be hard to nail the same brand voice and remember to use the same colors every time. By creating simple emails that don’t have a lot of elements, it’s easier to be consistent with your branding, equaling better brand awareness and customer retention.An html email template builder (like this one) can be a huge help as you create simple yet consistently beautiful emails. Building an email from scratch every time means you’re more likely to make mistakes and not be consistent, but an editable email template that allows you to fill in the elements you want, then save it for use in the future. A simple email template can help you be consistent and forge a stronger bond with your customers. With an editable template builder, you can start with a template like the one below, and swap out colors, logos, fonts and text as needed.Template: Welcome customer (e-commerce set)

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

#4. Simple emails load faster

Remember, people have short attention spans — in fact, the human attention span is the lowest it’s ever been. Fancy email templates are nice, but they often don’t load as quickly, so a simple email template that loads fast will mean readers are less likely to get impatient and click away.In addition to loading quickly, simple emails should be pleasant to read once they’ve been opened, with a newsletter width of around 600px and a responsive template that’s mobile-friendly. You can also use a tool such as Litmus to test your emails and see how they’ll look across different email providers.

#5. Simple emails win conversions

GIFs, quizzes, and confetti are fun, but do you really need them? No — at least, not in every email you send. By creating a simple email that’s easy to read and easy to follow, you’re making it easy for your readers to take action. Simple emails are very direct and that makes it easier to urge subscribers to click the CTA.Consider this email from Nike advertising an offer giving shoppers $30 off. The email didn’t include any irrelevant information or unnecessary details; instead, the company used just one graphic and then one paragraph of copy to concisely explain the deal and point toward the CTA. By creating emails that are similarly simple and stripped down, you can elicit a response from your readers and gain conversions!Subject line: Last call to save $30

Wrap up: Use a simple email template to do more

The bottom line is that simple emails can do complicated things — like improving your open rate and earning conversions from readers. Use BEE’s HTML email template builder to create emails that stand out in an inbox not because of their complexity, but because of their simplicity. BEE's simple email templates such as this store categories email template for e-commerce brands or this wireframe newsletter template can help you do more with less, and with BEE's drag-and-drop editing features they can be easily changed to fit your needs. The sooner you can get started making your emails simpler, the better.

Does your business have an email newsletter? If not, it’s something you should seriously consider — and even if you already send out a regular newsletter, you may want to rethink how you do things and analyze whether you’re making the most creative emails possible. Let’s break down why you need an email newsletter and go through some tips to help yours stand out from the crowd.

Why do I need an email newsletter?

Do you really need an email newsletter? The answer is yes — newsletters have huge potential. They provide value to your customers and offer a way to connect; newsletters also boost social media traffic and web traffic, and they can drive sales. Best of all, launching an email newsletter is fairly easy, with no big costs associated with getting off the ground.Your overall newsletter strategy should include clearly-defined goals of what, exactly, you want your newsletter to achieve. Define your audience, too, segmenting them into groups such as subscribers, leads, trial users, customers and past customers. Figure out your brand image and be prepared to do A/B testing as you consider what works best.If you already recognize that email is an important method of marketing your business, you probably make an effort to regularly send out email newsletters and email series to your subscribers. But does it ever feel as if you’re shouting into the void? People get hundreds of emails each day. To help make yours really pop, you need one thing: creativity. Let’s discuss how you can write a creative email that stands head and shoulders above the crowd.

#1. Find a creative topic

Build a strong foundation by making your newsletter topic itself be creative; that way, it will be easier for every other aspect of the newsletter to tie back into the creative theme. One example is Inside Wine, a newsletter that provides the most up-to-date news from the wine industry. Not only is this topic creative, but it’s also niched down, which equals more engagement. Not everybody wants to read about wine made from blueberries, but the people who do want to really do. Come up with a creative newsletter topic that people want to read about; from there, fanning that creative spark into a flame will be a breeze.Subject line: Blueberry wine / Post 2017 wine industry / Canned wine questioned / Follow Friday

#2. Craft a surprising subject line

Get creative with your subject lines by utilizing the element of surprise. What sort of subject line would your followers likely expect to get from you? Do the exact opposite. A recent email from The School Of Life turned heads with a perplexing subject line that read, “The hard work of being ‘lazy.’” The phrase certainly peaked our interest, and it does a great job of enticing readers to click. A big part of creativity is surprise — doing something fresh that people have never seen before. By writing email subject lines that surprise people, your creative email can get more opens.Subject line: The hard work of being ‘lazy’

#3. Include artwork

One creative design element you can include in your emails is artwork — not photographs, not graphic design images, but illustrations. Take a look at this email marketing example from Alice and Olivia, a company that includes a cute doodle of a woman’s face in their welcome email to new subscribers. The drawing has a messy bun, chic sunglasses, and red lips — very on-brand for this designer clothing company. Incorporating some art into your newsletter layout can help you make a more creative email by doing something fresh.Subject line: Welcome to Alice + Olivia

#4. Change the sender name

To get a better open rate, send your emails using a creative name instead of just your company name. If your business name is interesting and eye-catching on its own (for instance, King Arthur Flour), you might not need to switch things up. But otherwise, get creative and think about what you could use for a sender name. Whatever you do, change the sender name to something besides just an email address — an email address is impersonal and hard to recognize. Think about the difference between “Amazon’s Deals of the Day” (which also opens up more space in your subject line) and “noreply@amazon.com;” the former is more descriptive and personal, and also more likely to be opened.Subject line: Free shipping on Zojirushi Bread Machines

Wrap-up: Send more creative newsletters

Not sure where to begin? BEE’s stunning email templates can help kick-start your creativity and put you on the road to making a creative email that gets people to open and respond. The ready-made templates, each designed for a different type of email newsletter, can help you decide on the best newsletter layout and make the best HTML emails to be sent out to your customers.

First impressions mean everything — and with a first impression, you only get one chance! In the world of email marketing, email design is even more important than you might think: It’s one of the best ways to catch your readers' attention, enticing them to read to the end and follow your call to action (CTA). By focusing on email design best practices, you can create emails that are a pleasure to read, leading to a better email conversion rate. Here are some tips on using stunning email templates to create top-notch emails.

#1. Optimize the subject line

The subject line of your email is often the first thing people see, and it's essential to make it count. There are many different ways to write an eye-catching subject line that grabs your readers’ attention. Consider including a teaser about what’s in the rest of your email – but don’t give too much away! You want to suggest a question so compelling that your readers choose to click through to find the answer. (In the example below, CNET does this effectively with a counterintuitive subject line sure to raise eyebrows.)If you prefer a more straightforward approach, you can promise valuable information (like James Clear does below), or use a breaking news story from your industry to get attention (as Tech Crunch does here). And don't forget, you can further improve your email conversion rate by making sure to keep your subject line short (under 50 characters), because longer subject lines will get cut off on mobile devices.

#2. Fine-tune snippet text

Many email providers have a feature called snippet text on both desktop and mobile. Essentially, this gives a short preview (often 100 characters) of the copy that’s inside the email; in the image below, the snippet text is the sentence below the bolded sender name and subject line. Your snippet text is valuable — use that space wisely and don’t repeat what you said in the subject of the email. This snippet text can actually serve as a CTA in itself, prompting your reader to open the email.Below, Vox Sentences sent an email with snippet text promising news about a new budget deal. The sentence cut off just before giving more information, so readers are enticed into clicking to read more.

#3. Follow email design best practices

Once your reader opens the email, you want to keep them there — and one way to do that is by designing a good email with beautiful colors and images, creating a pleasurable reading experience. Choose a clear, on-brand color palette and include bright imagery. Here, Century21 accomplished this by creating a unique bright-red graphic with an original photo, plus a text overlay explaining the point of the email. By using stunning email templates to optimize design elements like imagery and color, you can retain more readers.Subject line: Don’t. Miss. Out.

#4. Make things easy

What do you want your email readers to do next? Whether it's to go premium, visit your website, or make a purchase, you have to make it as easy as possible for them to take that next step. Design your email layout so that readers' eyes will be immediately drawn to the most important element: the CTA.In this recent email from Trade Coffee, the company included a CTA right at the beginning of the email, in the middle of the screen. And as readers scrolled down, there were more CTAs (in this case, “subscribe” buttons) in every section, creating plenty of opportunities for a reader to easily opt-in.You can also utilize positioning to strategically place your CTA in the email. People generally read from the top left to right of an email and the scan down, so try putting your CTA near the bottom or the right. Linking images can also help improve email conversion rates. Overall, making sure your CTA is easily visible is one of the most essential email design best practices.Subject line: The secret’s out…

#5. Strategically place text

Aim to strike a good balance of text and images in the email layout to make your email easy and inviting to read. Many people simply scan through their emails, skimming the text instead of reading every word. By breaking your text up and making it easy to spot the highlights, readers will be more likely to retain key points. Try creating a small section of text to accompany each image you include; each section should have its own headline and make one central point.Your copy needs to be top-notch, too. Good copywriting can help email conversion rates skyrocket. Here, body brand Billie used fresh, simple language to promote its new summery product.Subject line: Our new color for summer!

#6. Create mobile-friendly emails

Worldwide, almost half of all Internet traffic is mobile. And here’s another memorable statistic: Emails that don’t display well on mobile will be deleted within three seconds in 70 percent of cases!You can improve your email conversion rate by making your emails mobile-friendly. Include text breaks and use a large font size; test your email layout to discover any potential problems.Make absolutely certain to use a responsive email template or other responsive design. The Groupon email shown here had two columns when viewed on desktop, but on mobile that changed to just one column that was easy to scroll through and read.Subject line: Kick off the end of the summer with 25% off

Wrap-up: Improve your email conversion rate

Ready to implement all these tips and start improving your email conversion rate? BEE's drag-and-drop email editor is full of stunning email templates you can use to create emails people will want to open. Check out these professionally-designed templates for your next set of marketing emails — they’re simple to tailor and can help your email conversion rate rise!

Originally published on July 15, 2019. Last updated September 24, 2021.Customers need more than a discount offer to inspire them to make an online purchase. Offering your customers information about your company through an email funnel not only increases brand awareness, but also helps to increase customer trust in your brand.Research reveals that investing in an email marketing sales funnel will ensure that you reel in customers. In fact, 59% of customers said that marketing emails influence their purchase decisions and over 50% buy from marketing emails at least once a month.This poses a great opportunity for businesses to take advantage of email marketing for long term success. So, how can you build out your sales funnel? The first step is understanding what a marketing funnel is.

What is a marketing funnel?

A marketing funnel is every step that transitions browsing visitors to buying customers. This system is set to attract visitors and convert them to your services.When buying an item online, there are specific steps customers take before deciding on a purchase:

• Search the product online
• Sift through links that have that product
• Find the product you want
• Add that product to your cart
• Finalize the order

Many times, customers take a few additional steps before finalizing their purchase, such as visiting the about page or reading reviews on the product, if available. But when it comes to your business’s marketing funnel, prioritize tracking the main steps of the customer journey to see what’s converting visitors into customers.

Stages of the marketing funnel

Marketing funnels have 5 main stages:

1. Awareness. If customers don’t know about you, they won’t be able to buy from you. This is where you capture your leads and begin a positive customer relationship.

Tip: Put yourself out there through blogs, search engines, social media channels or ads. Make your brand known to customers. Introduce yourself and tell customers more about your product or service through giveaways, webinars or informational emails.

2. Interest. This is where you delve into the “why” of your product or service. Why is what you have to offer important and worthwhile?

Tip: Capture leads and explain the “why” through informational landing pages that include targeted videos and detailed product descriptions that could relieve a customer’s hesitation. Then nurture those leads through your email campaigns.

3. Consideration. After interest is solidified, it’s time to learn more about your customers. Start building personalized content to better connect and reel in the customers. Personalized content is said to generate 58% of all revenue for businesses.

Tip: Nurture your leads to pinpoint exactly what your customers are looking for. Include touchpoints to better understand your customers needs and use CTAs after each touchpoint to solidify that what you provided is meeting that need.

4. Purchase. After nurturing your leads, customers near the bottom of the funnel where they are considered sales qualified. Meaning it’s time to push customers to invest in your product or service.

Tip: Ask your customer to purchase and encourage them with customer reviews and bold CTAs like, “Buy now” or “Register today.”

5. Retention. Ok, so the customer bought from you once...but what is keeping them loyal to your brand? Customers remain loyal if what you’re providing them with is consistently valuable.

Tip: Now that you converted a visitor into a customer, start planning how to keep them around. The more loyal the customer, the better ROI you are going to receive long term.

What is an email marketing sales funnel?

An email marketing sales funnel is a sequence of emails that work to move customers forward through the customer journey. Strong email marketing funnels have three key ingredients: offer something of value, prove authority and motivate customers with a call to action.Following this process will make selling easier because you are essentially prepping your customer. It encourages you to take time to build and nurture the relationship between you and your customer, while also attracting new customers by educating them further on your business’s value and expertise. This way you give customers a genuine nudge to make the purchase, which will be much more successful than something generic and sales-like.

Stages of the email marketing sales funnel

When done right, your email marketing sales funnel will strongly convert visitors into paying customers. Here are the three stages:

Stage 1: Add Value

In this first stage, introduce the unique value your brand offers. In this example from MarketingProfs the value is in a free, downloadable guide to lead generation. Depending on your brand, other types of value emails could include educational resources, gifts, ebooks or other trustworthy resources.The key here is not to do any selling. Instead, attract the customer to your brand without asking for anything in return. This is the stage to get clear on each step of your funnel and what your intentions are for each step so you ensure to bring a valuable experience to customers. For example, an email offering high-level content for free helps assure subscribers that they will benefit from the relationship with your brand. Notice the copy in this example doesn't push any selling.

Stage 2: Build Authority

Use your second email to convey authority, ideally by establishing your brand as a source of thought leadership. Make it known that your brand is a practical solution to the customer’s problem. At this point, you still haven’t convinced your customer to buy from you, so create targeted emails to impress them. Send emails that play on their interests or demographic. This way they will feel more connected to your brand and be more inclined to buy from you.In this example, MarketingProfs invites readers to join a digital marketing forum, which impresses customers through a targeted email. This shows that the brand understands their customers’ needs and so they confidently offer those customers their expertise that is relevant to those needs. There are many ways to nurture leads and make customers feel welcome while leaving room for a conversion later, but it’s always wise to show your audience that they are able to rely on your brand.

Stage 3: Pitch your Call to Action (CTA)

Now that you’ve established your brand as a valuable resource with impressive expertise, it’s time to go in for the sale. In the previous email, MarketingProfs mentioned their digital marketing forum without pushing the sale, but the copy and graphics in this email transform into a more sales-like tone. Here, MarketingProfs talk money directly with the customer and even offer a compelling discount. They aren’t too pushy with the sales and graphics, but they give the perfect nudge.

How to build an email sales funnel

Creating a strong email sales funnel includes finding the right strategy for your business. Email automation services will help make the entire process less complicated, but before automating comes a bit of a building.Strategically plan out and test multiple email design elements to see what your customer base responds best to. Here are the steps and design elements to build a successful email marketing sales funnel.

1. Observe customer behavior. How long are customers spending on particular parts of your email or website? What are they clicking on? Knowing this information gives you a customer persona to target.Tip: Focus on the way you design your CTAs (color, size, shape), how you incorporate visuals (GIFs, emojis, memes) and hyperlinks (color, typographical emphasis). What elements intrigue your customers and make them actually want to read and click through?
2. Draw customers in. Reel in customers with valuable, personalized content. Segmenting your emails is the best way to consistently grow your email list.Tip: Gear your subject line (tone, characters) towards your customers’ personalities. Include copy that sounds more human than salesy, do so by adding humor or witty sarcasm to the subject line. Showing off your personal style let’s customers know that you took time to craft a more personable email. This is a way to care about the customers’ journey, making them feel more connected to your brand.
3. Nurture with valuable content. Use landing pages or other valuable content to stand out as a leader amongst competitors. This is the best way to capture leads before going in for the sale.Tip: What type of content do your customers gravitate towards? Do they prefer more text-heavy emails to image-heavy? Do they respond best to a multi-column layout email or a single-column?
4. Develop an email drip campaign. Drip email funnels are a sequence of automated emails that are sent according to circumstance. Meaning they will be sent due to triggers or it will be a particularly scheduled campaign. So each action by the customer will trigger a specific email reaction by you. Begin building your email drip campaign by questioning what your customer pain points are, what they want to know about your business and how are you going to reel them in.
5. Retain your customers. Nurture your leads after customers purchase from you to build a trusting connection with them. Use social media, giveaways, exclusive offers and authentic thank you emails to develop that bond.

Email drip campaign example from ActiveCampaign

Each email of your campaign will take on different forms, be sure to test these strategies and design elements. When it comes to email design, no matter what, make sure to include bold CTAs, compelling copy, and relatable graphics. These elements are the glue to a solid campaign that will drive conversions.

Design with BEE Pro

Ready to give it a try? BEE Pro offers a collection of templates to help you easily create a sales funnel email sequence or even a welcome email funnel. Build your campaigns using endless customization options, add your brand colors, visuals, create eye-catching CTAs and make use of the extensive image library. So get designing to reel in those customers!

Email newsletters typically contain a lot of content—more than your average promotion email. That's because newsletters convey in-email information instead of only driving readers toward a call-to-action button. With all that content and all that scrolling, it's important to know how to make your newsletter engaging! Great design can help make your newsletter more navigable, more beautiful, and, yes, more effective. Check out these 5 tips for building a more engaging newsletter!

1. Improve navigation with an interactive table of contents

Newsletters that contain a ton of content can be made easier to navigate with a table of contents. A static table of contents can be useful to show readers what to expect, but what's even better is an interactive one where readers can click to skip ahead to a specific section. The way to design one is by using anchor links, likeSmashing Magazine does in its newsletter. Here's a recent example (Subject: Performance, Sketch and Animation Handbook):

You can't tell from this static image of the newsletter, but that table of contents sure is clickable. Tap any link in the list, and you'll jump down to the associated module. This technique is extra useful for long, long, long newsletters like this one, where a company is including plenty of in-email content (vs. enticing readers to click to learn more on a website). And what's great about interactive tables of contents is that they're pretty widely supported across email clients and they're easily implemented (no coding necessary!) Check out our tutorial, How to Add Anchor Links in Email, to learn how.

2. Grab attention with a full-bleed hero module

One look at this newsletter from Dense Discovery, and we're feeling brighter and cheerier already. The bold orange HTML background color used in the content row of the hero module instantly makes this email pop in our inbox (Subject: 40 / Calendar stencils and a browser history track):

A bold, beautiful intro is a must for grabbing readers' attention from the get-go. Using an HTML background color to create a full-width effect in the hero module is the perfect way to do it. You can see Dense Discovery uses HTML background colors in alternating modules throughout the newsletter to improve legibility and make the message more visually interesting, too.

3. Vary content width to keep it interesting

There's design efficiency gained in keeping each module in your newsletter consistent. However, asymmetrical designs and variable content modules can create a sense of delight, fun, and interest. Just like Dense Discovery uses bold HTML color to add width to its opening module, the It's Nice That newsletter also employs full-width modules throughout its newsletter (Subject: The Weekly Edit):

If you're looking for fun newsletter ideas, this example email is a great place to find inspiration! Varying the width of each module gives this newsletter a dynamic, playful appeal. Also, It's Nice That uses huge font sizes and HTML background colors to add visual interest to its content. And don't miss the animation in the header!

4. Animate your offerings with GIFs

Sometimes the best way to convey a product or offering is with a little animation. It's a particularly helpful strategy with apps or web tools where a static screenshot just doesn't do it justice. In this newsletter fromNoble Desktop, GIFs are used to animate photo editing and coding techniques, visually communicating to readers what they'll learn in class (Subject: New SQL Bootcamp Begins Next Week):

Here's the Lightroom animation:

And here's the coding GIF:

Neither GIF is particularly complex or has an extensive number of frames. Still, they give readers an idea of what to expect and level-up Noble Desktop's communication. Adding well-formatted GIFs to your newsletter is one way to delight readers and make your email more engaging.

5. Make a personal connection

With all of our inboxes inundated with emails, it helps to make a personal connection. Sometimes the best way to stand out is to keep it simple and get a little personal. Check out this plain text newsletter from Skillcrush, for example (Subject: Your coding rebellion):

It reads like a letter and includes a personal sign-off (xoxo, Adda). Good copy is a must in letter-style newsletters like this one. What also helps are plenty of line breaks and well-formatted text. Think: left-alignment, large enough font size, live text, high contrast.Are you ready to up your newsletter content strategy and design your own engaging email? The BEE editor has an extensive library of newsletter templates to give you a leg up. Choose from dozens of beautifully designed templates and customize in minutes with the drag-n-drop tool. Delete or add modules; replace images; format fonts—There's so much you can do! Happy designing!