Industry insights

The world of higher education is fascinating, full of diverse and demanding audiences ranging from tech-savvy Gen Z students to accomplished faculty members and the ever-proud alums. However, the enrollment game is getting fierce, and recruiting teams are turning to marketers for advice on how to break through the noise. To engage with such a broad spectrum of audiences and improve outreach, institutions have turned to one powerful tool: email marketing. As you work to advance university initiatives, consider a new set of strategies to increase the volume and impact of your email marketing program. Let’s unravel some practical ways to implement best practices to make your higher education email marketing campaigns more effective.

Building an email list: Your first step to success

Where do you start when you think about email marketing for colleges?We recommend the first step be constructing your email list. That way, you know who you’re communicating to before you begin to develop the email. But putting together a list may not be as simple as it seems. After all, you’re building a community of future learners, that range in diversity from age, race, and interests, and you need to attract their attention strategically.

How to collect email addresses:

One way to collect essential email addresses for your list is to use a landing page. Landing pages can provide the prospect with valuable content, invite event registrations, or offer course materials—all in exchange for an email address.Your institution's website is also an excellent resource for gathering email addresses of potential subscribers. Use callouts on your website to highlight the benefits of joining your email list and make subscribing easy. Create pages with blog posts or course descriptions and insert a simple sign-up form—this can be an effective method of building a list. Similarly, you can leverage social media channels to encourage followers to sign up, offering exclusive content or deals that sweeten the pot.Read more: Create an effective email sign-up form: 6 expert design tips. 

The power of segmentation: Personalize and engage

Once you have a robust email list, it's time to divide and conquer—literally. Using segmentation in email marketing for educational institutions is a valuable practice. Segmenting your email list lets you target specific groups with relevant content, keeping engagement high and helping build stronger relationships.For instance, prospective students might enjoy emails about admission procedures, deadlines, and tips for a successful application. On the other hand, current students might prefer updates about campus events, academic deadlines, or new courses. Alums could be interested in news about reunion events, campus developments, or opportunities to contribute to their alma mater.You can slice and dice a list in many ways, so define segmentation criteria based on your communication goals. Splitting your list similarly for each message may not always be necessary.

It's personal: Customizing emails for higher engagement

Personalization is often times displayed by using the name of the recipient in the email. According to studies, email subject lines personalized with a name have as much as 50% higher open rates. But personalization is so much more than that—it's about understanding their needs, interests, and goals. From dynamic content that changes based on the recipient's profile to triggered emails sent based on specific actions, personalization can take various forms in higher-ed email marketing. Most forms of personalization have been shown to pay dividends for marketers by improving engagement, increasing ROI, and making conversion more likely.Read more: How to drive student engagement using personalization in email. 

Entertain the eyes: Using images and videos

Audiences enjoy visual elements in communications. Images and videos are found to drive up to 650% more engagement than a simple text-only message. Emails covered in chunky text can be tedious to read, but adding images or videos can help break up the text, making it more digestible. Plus, visuals will make your emails more entertaining and memorable.Images and videos are also a great way to offer glimpses into campus life, showcase success stories, and highlight campus events. They can also simplify complex information or concepts using infographics or icons. What do they say about the digital age? ... Content is king, but visuals rule.

Automation and AI: Taking efficiency to the next level

Technology advancements continue to improve the effectiveness of email marketing. With the integration of automation and artificial intelligence (AI), it’s now possible to send emails at more optimal times, analyze data for valuable insights, and personalize content with minimal effort.Automation helps you plan and schedule emails to send when they are most likely to be opened. At the same time, AI can analyze behavioral data to provide insights that inform your email marketing strategy better. AI can also help create personalized emails at scale, which would otherwise be a time-consuming task if completed manually.

Keep testing: The road to continuous improvement

The success of your university email marketing strategy relies on your willingness to monitor and test your email campaigns regularly. A/B testing helps to determine what works best for your audience. You could try different subject lines, calls to action, email layouts, or even sending times—the possibilities for testing are endless.Monitoring your campaign's performance through analytics is also essential, giving you insight into open, click-through, and conversion rates. These metrics will guide you in fine-tuning your campaigns for better results and understanding your emails' success.Read more: How to begin A/B testing email designs.

Mobile-friendly: A necessity, not an option

In today’s modern campus environment, mobile-friendliness isn't just nice to have—it's necessary. Nearly half of all emails are now opened on mobile devices, and this trend continues to grow. If your email doesn't display well on a mobile device, you risk a poor user experience, which can lead to lower engagement rates and landing in the digital trash can.So, ensure your emails are responsive to the screen size they are being viewed on and optimized for best viewing on mobile devices.Read more: Email design for mobile.

Email design: The secret to increasing engagement

Design plays a crucial role in how your emails are perceived. A well-designed email can capture the recipient's attention, keep them engaged, and guide them toward taking your desired action. Think carefully about how you use layout, typography, color, and visuals in your emails because it all matters for capturing attention and ensuring readability.Read more: 6 tips for designing a great college newsletter Consider using email templates designed specifically for Higher Education to make this task easier. Beefree offers various industry-specific templates that can help you seamlessly manage these essential design strategies.

The Beefree Advantage: An email builder for Higher Education email marketing

While email design tools are abundant, not all are cut out for the unique demands of higher education email marketing. That's where Beefree comes in.Minnesota State University, Mankato, is a comprehensive public institution with 14,500 students and 1,700 faculty and staff. While email marketing was an essential part of their communications - the challenge was finding a tool that allowed them to establish their consistent branding, save resources, and ensure their data privacy and security.Beefree's agnostic nature allows Minnesota State University to easily implement the tool into their every day and integrate it into their workflows. Our email builder allows them to effortlessly customize and create captivating email designs across their decentralized teams. To learn more about how the university uses Beefree, watch our latest webinar: Collaboration, decentralization, and data security: Why Beefree is the go-to solution for Minnesota State University.

To shed light on the evolving landscape of email marketing in higher education, we've gathered insights from 9 industry leaders, including CEOs, Founders, and VPs to provide. From the"Golden Goose Approach" of personalized emails to the immersive experience of virtual campus tours, here are the top trends these experts have noticed in the sector.

1. Personalized Emails Taking the “Golden Goose Approach”

" Nowadays, educational institutions are ditching the one-size-fits-all approach and crafting emails that make students feel like the campus's golden goose.By harnessing the power of data, universities are sending tailored emails based on students' interests and study programs. This nifty move not only boosts engagement but also helps students discover relevant courses, events, and extracurricular activities.Imagine a student named Sam, who shows an affinity for physics. Sam receives an email highlighting the latest breakthroughs in the field and upcoming physics workshops. Now that's email marketing done right!"Himanshu Sharma, CEO and Founder, Academy of Digital Marketing

2. Long-Term Engagement Shaping the Marketing Approach

"The higher education sector has always had the advantage of time. These institutions have years to nurture the student segments they intend to draw in and use this time well to build solid relationships with students.They provide tips on the right courses and programs to help students meet their educational goals. They share news of the happenings in their institutions to keep younger students interested in them. And when the time comes, they leverage the advantages of this relationship built over time to ensure that the students look nowhere else for their higher education needs.This continued engagement also helps them keep an eye on changing trends and generational demands, allowing them to adjust their marketing approach to suit changing sensibilities and ambitions."Ariav Cohen, VP of Marketing and Sales, Proprep

3. Multilingual Content Aiming for Diverse Audiences

"In my experience with the higher education sector, one email marketing trend I've observed is the increasing use of multilingual email content. As the student demographics are becoming more diverse, it's crucial to cater to a broader audience by communicating in their native languages. This approach not only enhances inclusivity but also increases engagement rates.For instance, our skills training business once collaborated with a university for a pan-European student enrollment drive. We implemented multi-lingual email campaigns targeting different countries. The open and conversion rates were significantly higher than our single-language campaigns, proving the effectiveness of this inclusive trend in email marketing."Derek Bruce, First Aid Training Director, Skills Training Group

4. Authentic Branding Through Personal Storytelling

"Authentic branding has become more prevalent in email marketing within the higher education sector. Universities and colleges recognize that their audiences, particularly prospective students and their families, are more discerning and seek authentic, genuine connections. They value honesty and transparency above overly polished or corporate messaging.For instance, I recently observed a university use personalized storytelling in their email campaigns, featuring real experiences of current students, alumni, and faculty. The emails were not just promotional but provided an authentic window into the university's culture and values."Ryan Steinolfson, Founder, Accelerate Marketing

Strategies Shifting from Updates to Storytelling

"In the evolving landscape of email marketing for higher education institutions, I foresee a strategic shift from disassociated updates towards an integrated, consistent storytelling mechanism. This prediction stems from my experience receiving communications from globally renowned institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, and Yale.While these institutions routinely send me information on MBA admission rounds, tips, and other updates, the emails rarely elucidate why I should consider an MBA, or what differentiates their programs.In an era where higher education faces disruption from burgeoning technologies and the changing business environment, such as the rising startup culture, they must reconfigure their communication strategies.The future of email marketing for higher education will hinge on providing captivating narratives that convincingly demonstrate the unique value and relevance of their programs amid the evolving educational landscape."Rafael Sarim Özdemir, Founder and CEO, Zendog Labs

5. Appealing to Gen Z with Trend-Conscious Emails

"Drawing from my years of experience in marketing, I foresee a significant shift in the future of email marketing for higher education institutions, especially toward becoming more trend-conscious to appeal to Generation Z.These digital natives are constantly connected and exposed to a myriad of evolving trends. For instance, sustainability has become a core value for Gen Z. Thus, incorporating green initiatives or highlighting the institution's commitment to sustainable practices in email campaigns could significantly increase engagement.Communicating in a language they understand and relate to, embedded with trends they care about, can create more resonant and effective email marketing campaigns. It's all about resonating with their values and the trends they follow."Rabea Elias, Business Head, Almowafir

6. Improving Email Deliverability

"Working toward email deliverability turned out to be one of the biggest trends of the past 12 months. Many higher education institutions realized that improving the health of their email can broaden their marketing funnel by 10-20% instantly. This means they have a shot at growing by the same percentage without diving into complex strategies or shelling out on expensive development.At Folderly, we've seen this trend play out with our own eyes. We have several clients from the higher education sector, and they are over the moon with the results. They’ve shared that their emails are reaching more inboxes than ever, which directly impacts their success.So, if you're in a higher education institution, I strongly recommend adding email deliverability software to your arsenal; it's a simple yet game-changing move for effectively reaching your audience and opening up new possibilities."Vladislav Podolyako, Founder and CEO, FolderlyFor a deeper look into Folderly's email marketing efforts, read "From Days to Hours: How Folderly Streamlined Email Campaign Production with Beefree and HubSpot."

7. AI Integration Becoming The Future of Email Marketing

At Beefree (but really all of the tech industry), AI has been a huge focus of 2023. We kicked off our first beta round of AI integration back in April allowing users to use an AI writing assistant to help create copy and beat writer's block.Since then we have been slowly making improvements and enhancements to transform the Beefree AI Assistant into a go-to solution for everyday email and page copy use.According to Khris Steven, Owner and Marketer of KhrisDigital "it is only a matter of time before higher education institutions fully embrace AI integration. With the rampant use of AI among students, universities and other learning institutions can only mitigate this by also using AI tools to detect such usage.Ariav Cohen, VP of Marketing and Sales at Proprep further supports this sentiment and shares, "the combination of AI tools, high-tech automation, the creation of dynamic content, and deep behavior analysis and adjustment to trends has already begun to transform the email marketing landscape.

Balancing Email Responses Between Speed and Quality

Francesca Fitzsimmons, Content Marketing Specialist, Keystone Education Group shares the importance of speed in email marketing. "Through our annual student surveys, we are seeing a growing need for universities to reply faster and faster. In our 2023 survey of 23,000 students, 62% of students said they expect universities to reply to them in 24 hours or less.How can universities maintain a high quality of email marketing, versus replying as quickly as possible? According to Francesca Fitzsimmons, "AI is one option, using AI to draft responses and create email templates. The other is ensuring the content of your response is good enough so that students won’t mind too much if it takes a bit longer to arrive in their inboxes.For high-quality responses, think ahead to what students will want to know. Whether it is student success stories or a link to a YouTube short showcasing your campus, pre-empt the questions that will come next."Read more: AI in Email Marketing: One Step Closer to Democratizing Content.

8. Interactive Features Boosting Engagement

"Interactive content, such as quizzes, surveys, and videos, is becoming more popular in email marketing and will continue to shape email marketing in the future. This type of content can help to engage recipients and increase click-through rates."Aquibur Rahman, CEO, Mailmodo

Virtual Campus Tours Providing an Immersive Experience

Matias Rodsevich, CEO, of PRLab shares that "adistinctive trend observed in the higher education sector's email marketing landscape is the emergence of virtual campus tours.Educational institutions are leveraging immersive technology and interactive multimedia to create virtual experiences that bring the campus to prospective students' fingertips. Students can explore campus facilities and attend virtual lectures. This provides a convenient and accessible way to showcase the campus and gets people excited."Joe Troyer, CEO and Growth Advisor, Digital Triggers shared that his very own university clients have incorporated the interactive virtual campus tour within their email campaign that Matias Rodsevich shared about above.The results?As stated by Joe Troyer "This inclusion saw an impressive improvement in click-through rates and significantly bolstered enrollment numbers. In my opinion, the trend of interactive elements will continue to revolutionize email marketing in higher education."

9. Emphasizing Career Outcomes in Emails

"As the owner of a marketing agency specializing in email marketing, I've noticed that emphasizing career outcomes has become a significant email marketing trend in the higher education sector. This is largely driven by the increasing need for a tangible return on investment in education.Prospective students and their families want assurance that the significant time, money, and effort spent on education will yield promising career prospects. A specific instance I've noted is universities highlighting alumni success stories in their email campaigns. These aren't just generic successes, but detailed narratives highlighting how the university's programs directly contributed to their alumni's career growth.This effective strategy offers concrete evidence of career outcomes, increasing the value proposition and making the university more appealing to potential students."Josh "Snow" Elizetxe, Founder, Customer Feedback

Start implementing these Trends with Beefree

Implementing new strategies and staying ahead of the trends doesn't have to be hard. Beefree offers users the latest features to ensure your higher education email campaigns are optimized for conversion, stay on brand, and never get boring. With access to 1,500+ customizable templates, AI integration, and a drag-and-drop editor that makes it easy to insert interactive elements, Beefree is the go-to email marketing tool for higher education. Don't take our word for it, watch our latest webinar with the Minnesota State University, Mankato on why Beefree has become their tool of choice.

In 2022, a record 50.5 million people quit their jobs seeking higher wages, greater workplace flexibility, and opportunities for advancement. This has led organizations to focus, now more than ever, on practices to retain employees.Employee turnover has been shown to impact workplace culture, oftentimes becoming contagious within the company. Employee turnover also hurts operational budgets and, according to SHRM, could cost as much as three to four times the position's annual salary to hire a replacement.Employers that are curious about what to do to keep employees from exiting should consider building an internal communications program for employees. This program could include things like employee engagement emails, internal newsletters, employee acknowledgments, etc.Continue reading to learn how to use email as an easy and cost-effective way to boost employee retention using techniques and components proven to make an impact.Read: Top 7 Student Retention Strategies for Email Marketing

Why are employee retention emails important?

Employee retention emails are vital to any organization's internal communication strategy. According to the Harvard Business Review, professionals tend to check their emails approximately 15 times a day, which makes emails a reliable channel for consistent and engaging communications between management and employees.Employee engagement emails may look different depending on the occasion or audience. Here are some examples:

• Celebrate individual or team accomplishments - recognize employee anniversaries, project completions, or goal achievements.
• Communicate organizational updates - provide updates on facilities, team reorganizations, new leaders, etc.
• Onboard new employees - use an onboarding campaign to welcome employees and introduce them to your company culture.
• Professional development opportunities - share resources for upcoming training and development classes.
• Request feedback - survey employees to keep a pulse on employee sentiment.

How to create effective employee retention emails

An effective employee retention email contains several elements outlined below. Continue reading to learn how to create impactful communications.

Segment Your Audience

Segmentation helps to create effective and relevant employee retention emails. By segmenting an email list based on criteria such as department, role, tenure, or demographics, you can personalize communications to make them more engaging.For instance, if you’re communicating to a global organization, segment the audience into regions to share about local events, or if sending out a survey to gather feedback from a recent training, segment the audience into those who attended and those who did not.

Personalize and Showcase Recognition

Personalization can be a powerful tool in email communications that makes your employees feel recognized and appreciated. Regular recognition emails celebrating milestones or achievements can foster a positive work culture and increase employee retention.If celebrating an employee’s milestone anniversary, recognize the event featuring their photo, name, and number of years at the organization, alongside a note from their manager. Or, if inviting staff to a Hispanic Heritage Month celebration, include colorful graphics and images representative of the culture and an outline of activities to spark interest in the event.

Create Relevant Email Categories

For recognition in the inbox, consider formatting emails according to their category, such as company news, cultural communications, professional development, and recognition. Employees may value specific categories above others, so providing a distinguishable look for each type of communication makes them more likely to pay attention to those they find more valuable.The design of your email can significantly impact the engagement it receives, so consider how to make your employee communications more user-friendly. Beefree's email templates offer a variety of visually appealing designs you can easily customize to suit your needs.

Select the Right Tone

Consistency in tone across emails helps establish a unified brand voice. Your tone should reflect your organization's culture and values, whether formal, informal, or somewhere in between. The style also includes how you use acronyms, slang, or jargon internally. We recommend using a personable tone to build stronger connections with employees.

Utilize Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into internal communications helps to build an emotional connection with your employees. You could share stories about an individual’s contribution to greater organizational success, personal employee achievements, or the connection between a company goal or value with something seen in the “real world.”

Incorporate Interactive Elements

Interactive elements like polls, surveys, or clickable infographics can make your internal emails more engaging and encourage participation and readership. These elements improve engagement and, in the case of a poll or survey, provide valuable insights into your employees' opinions and ideas. They also help the employee feel heard and that their opinions matter to leaders in the organization.Examples of interactive elements to use on your next internal email:

• Requesting survey feedback following a guest speaker event or training to understand if the employees found it valuable.
• Poll employees to determine how many are interested in volunteering to help plant trees at the community park; a poll is a non-threatening way to capture headcounts that can be followed up on later for more specific details.
• Use a clickable infographic as a way to complete security training on identifying a phishing email; employees will appreciate the quick refresher on best security practices.

Optimize for Mobile

According to the Litmus, 2021 Email Client Market Share, mobile clients account for 41.6% of email opens, showcasing the importance of mobile-optimized emails. By ensuring that emails are easily read on mobile devices, you can up the chances that employees will engage even when on the go.Read: 10 Responsive Email Design Tips

A/B Test and Monitor Results

Continuous improvement is a part of any successful email strategy. Follow along with the results of your emails and determine changes based on your findings. In time, you’ll improve the effectiveness and interaction with your emails, doing your part to improve employee retention.

Essential Components of Employee Retention Emails

After studying employee retention emails, we have short-listed the following essential components you should consider when constructing your next email.

Attention-Grabbing Subject Lines

The subject line of your email is the first thing employees see, so the subject line must grab their attention and encourage them to open the email. Here are some examples of attention-grabbing subject lines:

• Who’s the Employee of the Month?! 
• Reminder: Your Security Training is Due Today
• You’re Invited! Join us for a Cinco de Mayo Celebration on 5/5

Engaging Openings

The opening lines of an email set the tone for the rest of the communication’s content. Because of this, consider how you can use an engaging opening to draw attention to your employee and encourage them to read your emails.Example: "Hello , we have exciting news to share!"

CTA Buttons

Call-to-action (CTA) buttons direct employees toward taking a desired action and help improve overall email engagement. CTAs should be clear, compelling, and visually appealing. Consider using a bright color to call attention to them within the copy.Here are some examples of CTAs that can be used with an employee audience:

• Register for training now!
• RSVP for the company retreat
• We’d love to hear from you! 

Read: How to Design Bulletproof CTA Buttons in Email

Employee Retention Email Templates

Beefree offers a range of customizable email templates specifically designed to help improve employee retention. These templates incorporate the essential components of effective emails and simplify the design process.From organizational updates to onboarding emails, Beefree’s templates can be used to engage and delight employees and build a strong company culture. Access the full Human Resource template collection here!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

How Beefree Holds a 97% Employee Retention Rate

As previously mentioned, the rise of remote work and The Great Resignation of 2021 has impacted company culture and made employee retention significantly.Specifically in today's highly competitive tech industry, fostering employee retention has become increasingly crucial for organizations operating across diverse regions, cultures, and generations. This challenge is particularly multifaceted for SaaS companies.On September 6th, during the SaaStr Annual 2023 Beefree's CEO Massimo Arrigoni, and the People & Culture Director at Growens, Enrica Lipari will be sharing the 5 secrets to our 97% retention rate. If you already have your ticket, you can save your seat here!We hope to see you there!

There’s a lot of money to be made online on Black Friday - over $9 billion, in fact. Email marketing is one of the most lucrative ways to capture those sales. Are your emails good enough to rake in the conversions?If you’re not sure, we’re here to help. As your friendly email marketing experts, we’ve compiled some examples of the best strategies and approaches for Black Friday emails that your customers won’t be able to resist.Check out these examples and the key strategies they use to guide and inspire your Black Friday email marketing campaign.

How to Create a Successful Black Friday Email Campaign

There are many ways people shop on Black Friday. Some are impulse buyers - they just wake up on the day, scroll through their emails or newspaper inserts, and head toward whatever sales they find appealing. But then there are strategizers - those who, for days before the holiday, are compiling their lists of who to buy for this holiday season and gift ideas for each person, along with notes about which retailers have the best sales for those items. When Black Friday arrives, they already know where they’re shopping and what they’re buying, so they can snag all the good stuff before it’s out of stock.This is why Black Friday campaigns (rather than simply sending an email on the day of Black Friday to announce your sale) are so important. These campaigns actually help you with both types of shoppers. They make impulse buyers more aware of your sale so your brand is more likely to come to mind when they’re doing their shopping, and they give strategizers the information they need to plan to shop with you.Black Friday email campaigns can be broken into three categories:

• Pre-launch emails: to build hype and offer sneak peeks into your sale in advance
• Sale launch emails: to kick off the sale on the big day
• Post-launch emails: to keep up the momentum during the sale and continue encouraging more shoppers to join the fun

Each category in your Black Friday campaign serves a different purpose, and each has various techniques and types of emails you can use to make it effective. We’ll break down every category with top strategies you can use, and examples of each one implemented expertly.

Black Friday Pre-Launch Email Examples

The prelaunch before your Black Friday blowout sales should work to intrigue your customer base. You want to showcase products that will be on sale, while being transparent about the discount customers will receive on those products. Include these types of emails in your Black Friday pre-launch sequence:

• Teaser. Give customers a glimpse of the products you’re promoting for Black Friday.
• Early access. Let VIP customers in on the sales earlier than the rest. 
• Save the date. Include a countdown and an exact hour of when certain products will go on sale.

Here are some examples from brands that we love. Check them out to get inspiration for your Black Friday email marketing strategy.

The teaser: Sonos

Sonos gives subscribers a glimpse of what deals are coming. They ask subscribers to make a list and explore their gift guide. The bold CTA button takes readers to a gift guide landing page to check out items they can prepare to buy on Black Friday.Subject line: "Get ready for Black Friday."

Early access: Joe’s Jeans

It’s best to begin sending emails about Black Friday well in advance — as early as a week prior. Start your sale early to stand out, or simply use the time to increase awareness and anticipation. Joe’s Jeans sent this email on the Tuesday before Black Friday. Since subscriber inboxes will be flooded closer to the weekend, starting early is a good way to get out ahead of the flood.Subject line: "Black Friday Begins! Up to 30% off." 

Save the date: Frank & Oak 

Whether you’re starting your sale earlier or sticking to a more traditional timeline, give readers a heads-up about what’s coming. It’s a way to drum up excitement and maybe get a better turnout for your promotion. Frank and Oak gives readers the option to schedule their savings with calendar shortcuts. Include a countdown timer in your next email so your subscribers will save the date.Subject line: "Mark your calendar for Black Friday."

Black Friday Sale Launch Email Examples 

In your Black Friday emails that officially launch your sale, it’s crucial to display urgency and excitement. You want customers to pay attention to your Black Friday email above all other businesses, so what you have to offer must be enticing. Run through these types of emails for your Black Friday launch sequence:

• Announcement. The day is here! Give subscribers a rundown of what your biggest promotions are for Black Friday.
• Free gift. Offer a free gift when customers spend over a certain amount.

These brands approached their Black Friday sales with these strategies in mind. Try them out for your next campaign.

Announcement: Pact

Before you create your Black Friday sales emails, you need to decide two things: what you’re going to offer and the best method for announcing that method. The clothing company Pact mentioned several discounts in the subject line but focused on the best deal in the body of the email.Subject line: "Doorbusters: $25 hoodies. $5 socks. $15 leggings & more."

Free gift: MAC

Mac promotes more spending on Black Friday by offering a full-size gift to customers if they hit a certain amount of money spent. This is a great way to encourage customers to buy more than one product and greatly increase your sales. Make sure to craft a fun CTA in your brand voice and showcase the free gift offer in a clear way.Subject line: "Last Day to Choose Your COMPLIMENTARY Full-Size Gift."

Black Friday Post-Launch Email Examples

The post-launch phase of your Black Friday email marketing campaign is the last chance to catch your audience's attention and bring in more sales. Create a sense of urgency for the existing sale or provide additional money off of products or exclusive offers that customers won’t be able to pass up. For those that haven’t jumped on your Black Friday deals yet, try these emails to give them that extra push:

• Limited availability. Express that certain deals for specific products are only available for a limited time. 
• Last chance. Let subscribers know that time is running out and this is their only opportunity to snag those deals. 
• Extended sale. Surprise subscribers with a sale extension.

Limited availability: Function of Beauty

Inducing FOMO is a great way to get more subscribers to jump on your deals. Function of Beauty leveraged this strategy with creative CTA copy: NO MO’ FOMO. Their persuasive language explains that their deals are only available for a limited time and that other subscribers have already taken advantage of them. This encourages subscribers that haven’t purchased yet, to purchase.Subject line: "ONE MORE DAY! 25% off + the color everyone’s talk about."

Last chance: Boll & Branch

Boll & Branch shares with customers that it’s their last chance to get in on the Black Friday sales. They’ve designed their emails around their main selling point (in this case, a 25%-off discount). This is free from clutter and distraction while also pinpointing the urgency and deadline of the deal.Subject line: "Last chance for Black Friday savings!"

Extended Sale 

Is there anything worse than finding out about an amazing sale minutes after it ends? You can save your customers from that feeling and capture more sales by giving them a surprise sale extension. For example, perhaps your Black Friday sale was meant to end at 3 PM; when 3:00 hits, you send out an extended sale email announcing that you’re continuing your sale until 10 PM.

Leesa

Mattress company Leesa sent an email the day after Black Friday, letting customers know they had extended their deal — but that the offer was only available for so long, and their visible timer reinforced that message.Subject line: "Kelly, we’ve EXTENDED our Black Friday offer."

Black Friday Email Marketing Strategies and Examples

Now that you have a list of the types of Black Friday emails to include in your Black Friday campaign, how do you make those emails as effective as possible? After all, you have a lot of competition - according to Campaign Monitor, more emails are sent on Black Friday than on any other day of the year. Check out these strategies to catch your customers’ attention and boost your sales.

Starting planning early 

The sooner you start your email strategy game plan, the better. This will give you more time to get creative so your email campaign will stand out amongst the swarm. Depending on how extensive you want your campaign to be, starting your planning in July, August, and even September is a safe bet to be ready for the hype.

Craft a strong subject line

With emails flooding subscriber inboxes on Black Friday, it’s crucial to focus on standing out with attention-grabbing subject lines. A huge chunk of subscribers — about 47% — decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line alone. Follow these tips to create a subject line that will stand out:

• Include a deal or coupon, a deadline, or other features of the sale. 
• Keep it short - most mobile devices only display the first six or seven words of a subject line.
• Make sure to test beforehand to see what style of messaging initiates a response from subscribers. 
• Don’t forget the preheader text that immediately follows your subject line. Like the subject line, the preheader serves as a screening tool, so make it enticing.

Keep your message simple

Black Friday is a once-a-year event that’s synonymous with particularly steep discounts and deals. Subscribers want to know your best offers for the day. So don’t dilute your promotion by sending a cluttered email. Logitech uses an attractive design to get across one message: Click to shop Black Friday deals. It’s easy to scan and pleasing to the eye. Show subscribers content that’s specific, relevant, and easy to understand.Subject line: "⏰ Rise and shine – Black Friday exclusives are selling quickly."

Include product images in your design

When people are scrolling through their emails, you want something that stops their thumbs and makes them take notice, and usually, it’s visuals that will do this. Including images of some of the most exciting items in your Black Friday sale will snag readers’ attention and generate interest in the products, whether or not these are items that were originally on their shopping lists. Just make sure to include variety. If you only include images of one or two types of products, customers will think those are the only types of products you’ll have on sale.Take a look at this email from Overstock, for example:

The product images are bright, colorful, and attractive, so it’s easy for customers to see them and think, “Could my home look like that if I picked up the products in this sale?”

Incorporate GIFs

With all the competing emails in your customers’ inboxes, you need to get creative if you want to stand out and be memorable. GIFs can do exactly that. They have all the visual appeal of eye-catching pictures, but they’re more engaging. New York & Company has done this well with a GIF of one of its top Black Friday sale items:

The movement in the ad for puffer jackets is attention-grabbing and shows the product in motion in an attractive way.

Don’t forget about building brand trust 

Brand trust on Black Friday means your audience trusts you to deliver content that’s relevant and valuable. Offer a real deal — one that’s special and different from your other promotions throughout the year. Black Friday doesn’t necessarily need to be about offering 50% off your product. Stay true to your brand’s mission and values, and approach the holiday by thinking of what your audience would most appreciate seeing.For example, Toothbrush company Quip announced a “Brush black, give back” campaign for Black Friday, selling a special type of toothbrush and donating the proceeds to provide dental care for disadvantaged families.Subject line: "Introducing All-Black. Give back this Black Friday."

This example puts the brand’s modern and impactful mission at the forefront while also giving customers an opportunity to shop for the benefit of a good cause. It’s a refreshing break from the excessive commercialized email customers are seeing, and it improves the brand’s image.

Optimize for mobile

Plenty of online purchases will be made using mobile devices. Plan ahead with a mobile-first approach. Create concise content, clutter-free design (no complex headers and focused messages), tap-friendly navigation, and bulletproof buttons (with appropriate padding), and use images with great ALT text for a fully responsive experience.

Prepare your abandoned cart emails. 

While there’s a large amount of online shopping going down, it’s crucial to note that this will increase the number of abandoned shopping carts among shoppers. They will be comparing prices and bouncing from site to site, trying to find the best deals. Have your creative abandoned cart emails at the ready, and include an extra discount to push them to purchase.

Design your Black Friday emails with Beefree

An optimized Black Friday email sequence is a game-changer for your business. Focus on crafting a strategy first, then use Beefreeto implement the best practices that you’ve gone over in this blog. There’s no coding required here when customizing Black Friday emails to match your brand identity.If you’re simply running out of time to create a whole sequence, choose from our Black Friday email template collection to customize. There are plenty of colorful, animated, and optimized emails to pick from. Don’t miss out on the holiday shopping hype — solidify your Black Friday email marketing strategy right now.

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Editor’s Note: This post was updated on August 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness. 

The success of a Software as a Service (SaaS) company hinges significantly on the strength of its onboarding process. Research indicates that effective onboarding can lead to an 80% increase in customer retention. Emails play a pivotal role in this.Here we delve into the realm of SaaS onboarding emails, from understanding their importance to reviewing best practices and overcoming common challenges, all enriched with real-world examples.

What are SaaS Onboarding emails?

The SaaS onboarding process guides new users to understand and use a SaaS application effectively after signing up.SaaS onboarding emails are a series of emails sent to new users after they sign up for a software service. These emails are typically sent out in various phases, all aimed at helping the user get maximum value from the product as quickly as possible. These phases include, but are not limited to:

• Account setup
• Product tours
• Instructions for basic tasks
• Follow-up communication, including a survey

Why are SaaS Onboarding Emails So Important?

Effective onboarding emails are critical for SaaS businesses because they foster user engagement and improve overall user experience. They aim to guide users through the early stages of product use by helping them understand its core features, benefits, and value in return. This leads to better engagement and higher retention.SaaS onboarding emails solve the common challenges business face during the onboarding process, such as user drop-off and user confusion over product features.When users understand the product's value and how to use it effectively, they're more likely to become long-term, paying customers. They’re also more likely to have a positive perception of the service and brand, increasing the likelihood of them encouraging peers to use and purchase the service.

Effective SaaS Onboarding Email Best Practices

Following certain best practices can help optimize your onboarding emails, improving customer engagement and retention. Let's explore five of these key practices for the best SaaS onboarding emails:

Personalization

Personalizing onboarding emails can lead to a 26% increase in open rates. Tailoring onboarding communications to individual users based on their profile, behavior, and preferences ensures they receive relevant content, fostering a sense of connection and improving their product experience.

Timing and Automation Tools

Automating onboarding emails allows you to send timely, trigger-based messages, enhancing user engagement.Automation tools can simplify this process, ensuring consistent communication without additional manual effort.

A/B Testing and Experimentation

A/B testing enables you to continually improve your onboarding emails by testing different versions and analyzing which performs better.This ongoing experimentation allows you to refine your strategy based on user response, leading to increased engagement and a more streamlined marketing strategy that is cost-saving in the long term.

User Feedback and Survey Integration

Including user feedback and surveys in your onboarding emails can provide invaluable insights into user experiences, preferences, and challenges.They don’t have to be long (in fact, it’s advisable to keep them short and sharp so customers don’t lose interest), but asking key questions such as overall satisfaction with the sign-up process, what they intend to use the product for etc., can guide product improvements and enhance your onboarding strategy.

Continual Optimization

Onboarding emails should be regularly reviewed and optimized based on performance metrics, user feedback, and evolving business goals. You should set a cadence in which you will review and optimize your onboarding emails.This continuous improvement approach can ensure that your onboarding emails remain relevant over time and maintain their effectiveness for your target audience and business.

Overcoming Common Challenges in SaaS Onboarding Emails

While creating effective onboarding emails, SaaS companies often face several challenges.

Email Bounce and Unsubscribe Rates: 

High bounce and unsubscribe rates can limit the reach of your onboarding emails.To combat this, ensure that your emails offer value, are personalized, and respect the recipient's inbox by not over-communicating. Try and avoid emails that are heavy in content or have unoptimized images.

Onboarding Drop-offs: 

Users may abandon the onboarding process if they find it confusing or overwhelming. A sequence of well-crafted onboarding emails can guide users step-by-step through the process, reducing drop-offs. The simpler the emails, the better.PRO tip: Collaborate with someone outside of your team who doesn't know the process and ask them to give you feedback!

Complex Product Features in Onboarding Emails: 

Overly complex onboarding emails can confuse users.Ensure that your emails only focus on key product features, using clear, concise language and laymen’s terms (rather than highly technical language)Use supporting visuals to enhance understanding. And avoid the use of many clashing colors, multiple font types and sizes, and dead links.

Successful SaaS Onboarding Email Examples

Depending on where a user is on their onboarding journey, they require different types of emails to guide them.Understanding these main types of onboarding emails and their role in the user's journey can help you craft effective messages. Here are some different types of SaaS onboarding email examples:

Example 1: Welcome Email (from Trello)

The SaaS welcome email is the start of your relationship with the user, so it is absolutely critical to get it right.This welcome email from Trello is a prime example of engaging the user right from the start. The email is straightforward, sets a friendly tone, and utilizes a mascot for a more light-hearted energy.It also provides a link to a guide for the customer, making it easy for users to start using the service and thus increasing the likelihood of continued use.

Headspace Getting Started Email 

Once a user signs up, they need guidance on how to get started.Headspace’s Getting Started email serves this purpose very well. It breaks down the process of using their app into simple, digestible steps, making it easy for new users to understand how to use the app and what to expect without getting overwhelmed.It also splits the content into the basics and beyond the basics, so the customer can decide where they are in their journey with the product.

Dropbox Product Feature Email 

Dropbox's feature-focused onboarding email is a brilliant example of how to highlight the new and/or unique features of your product.The email focuses on the file-collaboration feature of Dropbox, explaining how it can benefit the user and demonstrating how to use it by encouraging the reader to ‘learn more’. This helps to educate the user about the product and its advantages whilst not overloading them with information in the body of the email.

Duolingo Engagement Email

Duolingo’s engagement email is designed to reignite user interest when it begins to fade.The email uses deliberately emotive language alongside a cute cartoon character to give users a sense of guilt for not practicing their language. They also offer a free 5-minute lesson, providing motivation to return to the app and continue their learning journey. It is impactful, to the point, and effective.

Airbnb Feedback Request Email 

Airbnb’s feedback request email is a great example of how to ask users for their thoughts on your product.The email is concise, polite, and makes it easy for the user to provide feedback. It emphasizes how quickly the survey will be completed and also lets users know that their opinions are valuable and will be used to improve the service, making them feel appreciated and more likely to respond.

Start Creating the Best SaaS Onboarding Emails

The value of onboarding emails in SaaS cannot be overstated. They're instrumental in engaging users, demonstrating product value, and, ultimately, retaining customers.By applying best practices and learning from real-world examples, you can craft effective onboarding emails that drive success for your SaaS business.Ready to kickstart your onboarding strategy? Try out this Beefree's SaaS Saas onboarding email templates!

With more than 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States, competition for donor attention can be fierce. As nonprofits often work with low resources and a limited budget, they have fewer opportunities to capture attention, making each interaction essential. 

In this blog, we’ll guide you through creating effective nonprofit emails, a foundational element of any nonprofit email marketing strategy.

Why is Nonprofit Email Marketing Important?

In today's digital era, email marketing for nonprofit organizations serves as an essential connection between an organization and its audience. As a cost-effective marketing tactic, it’s instantly accessible and customizable and delivers your message in a timely manner directly to supporters.

Whether you share inspiring stories, upcoming events, photos, or solicitation appeals, email marketing provides a platform to engage directly with your audience.

The ability to segment audiences also allows them to send personalized messages and further enhance the effectiveness of each communication.

Ultimately, the benefits of successful email marketing campaigns can be huge for a nonprofit, extending far beyond short-term financial gains to fulfill the key goal of building long-lasting relationships with supporters.

What is the ROI of Nonprofit Email Marketing?

The ROI of email marketing is undeniable for nonprofits.

Various research reports have shown that for every dollar spent on email marketing, organizations can expect an average return of $36.When considering email marketing for nonprofits, the returns can be even higher. According to HubSot, up to $40 for every $1 spent, as long as they have successfully fostered emotional connections within its donor base.

The ROI goes beyond money. A successful email campaign leads to greater audience engagement, stronger donor relationships, and enhanced brand reputation—all of which are key to a nonprofit's growth and sustainability in the long run. 

1. Build a Strong Email List

The first step toward effective nonprofit email marketing is to build a strong and clean list of email addresses. When it comes to email addresses, it's not just about quantity—the quality of your list is essential. For instance, a nonprofit would benefit more from having a list of 500 genuinely interested supporters rather than a list of 5,000 individuals who disregard messages. 

So, how can you build a high-quality list? With channels like your website and social media platforms, you can encourage individuals with genuine interest to voluntarily sign up. This way, you ensure your communications are directed toward people who really care about your cause and are likely to support it.

Read more: Creating an Effective Email Sign-up Form

2. Identify Audience Segments

One size does not fit all when it comes to email marketing. 

Your nonprofit’s supporters are diverse, each with unique motivations and preferences. Thus, the ability to segment your email list can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your communication. 

Consider factors such as donation history, interests, demographics, and geographical location when creating segments. An examples of this is dividing your list into past donors versus prospective donors or high-dollar donors versus low-dollar donors. 

With each segment in mind, tailor your messages to be sure you send relevant content to your supporters, increasing the likelihood of engagement and action.

3. Personalize Communications

Segmentation naturally leads to personalization, and in understanding your audience segments, you can tailor your communications to resonate with individual recipients. Personalized emails, which can include the recipient's name and content relevant to them, can greatly improve open rates and engagement.

In fact, personalization is the top tactic used by professional marketers to increase reader engagement. So, stop sending mass messages and opt for personalized, targeted communications instead.

4. Implement Deliverability Best Practices

What good is a well-crafted email if it doesn't reach the intended recipient's inbox (Ugh!)? At least a 95% email deliverability rate is a must-have if your email marketing strategy will see any success. To improve performance, follow these best practices:

• Maintain a healthy sending reputation. This is done by monitoring your open rates and ensuring they stay above 18%.  
• Use a reliable email service provider that consistently delivers a high percentage of emails.
• Craft spam-free content. This means ensuring your images are optimized for emails, including alt tags, and creating short and concise emails. 

Also, use a your organization email address that uses the same domain as your website instead of a generic email address such as @gmail or @yahoo so recipients will not think your email is spam.

An example of this is how Goodwill and Habitat for humanity use “@habitat.org” or @goodwill.org.

​​Read more: Improve Email Deliverability with 3 Design Tips

5. Develop a Consistent Sending Schedule

Consistency is key to maintaining a successful email program. It’s true that too many emails can annoy your supporters, while too few can cause them to forget about your organization.

So, as Goldilocks discovered, you need something that’s in the middle—just right. Most nonprofits send 2-4 emails per month; however, the ideal frequency for your organization can vary based on factors like your audience's preferences, the nature of your content, and key times in your fundraising calendar.

When’s the best time to send nonprofit emails? Late morning and early afternoon can be good times but try testing to find out when your audience responds the best.

6. Create an Eye-Catching Email Design

An attractive, professional design helps your email stand out and increases readability. If you’re not a professional email designer, no worries! Beefree has you covered with a variety of nonprofit email templates perfect for advancing the mission of your nonprofit.

Consider some of these best practices for your next nonprofit email design:

• Maintain a good amount of whitespace for easy readability.
• Use a layout that sections information.
• Insert colorful call-to-action buttons to initiate user action.
• Follow your brand standards for color and font selections.
• Use a mobile-friendly or responsive design template for pleasant reading no matter the device used.

7. Monitor Results and A/B Test

To improve the performance of your email marketing program over time, it’s best to use analytics and monitor open and click rates, then adjust your strategy based on those results. Did you know the best nonprofit emails get around 25% of recipients to open versus just 6% for other types of emails? If you’re not seeing these results yet, try A/B testing various email elements to optimize your campaign's performance over time. 

How to Write an Effective Nonprofit Marketing Email

What does it take to write the perfect fundraising communication? Here are some elements to consider.

Create an Attention-Grabbing Subject Line

Your subject line is like the envelope to your email—if it looks/sounds like spam, it may go directly into the trash without even being read.

Make your subject lines intriguing, relevant, and concise. A well-crafted subject line piques interest and creates curiosity, causing the recipient to want to learn more. For example, a subject line like "Jenny, would you like to plan 100 trees this month?" is personalized, invokes action, and shares the impact of a potential contribution.

Showcase Organization News

Keeping your supporters updated with the latest news, events, or impact stories helps create a transparent environment that fosters trust. This could include an upcoming fundraiser event, receiving a large donation, or sharing personal stories of how funds support your mission. Regular updates can make your audience feel part of your nonprofit's journey and inspire them to contribute further.

Express Gratitude

The importance of saying “thank you” in your emails cannot be overstated. A simple note of appreciation can make your supporters feel valued and recognized. After all, your supporters are part of your mission, and noting their contributions is a simple yet effective way to cultivate long-lasting relationships.

Include a CTA

Every email should have a purpose and a clear, compelling call to action (CTA) to guide your supporters toward that goal. Whether it's donating or signing up for an event, an effective CTA creates an easy way for your supporters to further engage with your organization.

Nonprofit Email Marketing Case Study: Unicef

Unicef's partnership with Beefree shows how email can be used for effective nonprofit marketing. With Beefree’s email editor and in following the best practices outlined above, Unicef achieved substantial engagement and fundraising success for their organization. Read the full case study here.

You can improve your nonprofit email marketing efforts in a variety of ways, many of which can be done for low or no cost and can have a large impact on growing the reach of your mission. Start creating professional, engaging emails for your nonprofit by trying Beefree’s email editor and nonprofit email templates today.

For most businesses, the ability to convert leads into customers can mean the difference between profitable operations and unsteady income that causes it to fail. That’s why lead generation and conversion remain a priority.While several tactics can help you achieve this, not all strategies will initiate interest from leads.So, how can you effectively engage leads and turn them into happy customers? That is where lead nurturing can help.Lead Nurturing is the process of building relationships with your prospects with the goal of earning their business when they're ready. Lead nurturing is the third stage of the lead management process. There are five stages or elements of lead management:

• Lead generation, 
• Lead qualification and segmentation
• Lead nurturing
• Lead scoring and lead routing, and 
• Measuring success

To help your unique leads solve their challenges or achieve their goals, it's critical to understand who your leads are and why they've shown interest in your company in the first place.This understanding will help you develop a lead nurturing strategy to engage with each individual personally, based on their needs and goals, rather than sending blast emails. That way, you’ll generate more qualified leads with less effort. In fact, companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.

How Does Lead Nurturing Work?

Let's view an example of lead nurturing from a HubSpot Solutions Partner, Campaign Creators.

They had a new initiative to target e-commerce businesses, so they created a new buyer persona, named E-Commerce Eric. They developed a new lead nurturing campaign based on this persona, called "E-Commerce Marketing Campaign."A lead would enroll into the E-Commerce Marketing Campaign workflow in HubSpot each time they downloaded the "E-Commerce Marketing: Intro to Lead Generation" guide.Over time, these leads would receive emails that offered a helpful and relevant resource called, "How to Create an E-Commerce Lead Nurturing Campaign." This resource serves the dual purpose of teaching learners how to nurture new leads while also nurturing them for Campaign Creators.Leads also received further nurturing emails to download other helpful offers, like "Your Guide to Filling a Digital Marketing Gap." This resource helped leads determine the right solution to overcome their digital marketing gap, and helped Campaign Creators identify leads that would benefit from their marketing services.After downloading this guide, leads would receive another set of nurturing emails promoting a free marketing consultation that would provide valuable and honest feedback on the best marketing solution for them. The value for Campaign Creators? To gain a better understanding of their leads' challenges and provide tailored experiences during the consultation.If a lead decided to schedule a consultation, the sales team would take over in the process. This marked the end of the lead nurturing campaign.

This multi-tiered lead nurturing campaign is a great example of how you can engage and nurture leads through their buyer’s journey.While some lead nurturing campaigns may differ, the most important aspect is to automate your entire process. This will provide your lead nurturing efforts with timely, efficient, and targeted communication.

Benefits of Lead Nurturing

Let’s explore the benefits described in the above example in more detail. Lead nurturing helps you:

Build a better customer relationship

Building any relationship takes time and effort, and that’s what lead nurturing allows you to do with prospective customers. Maintaining contact with your leads throughout their buyer’s journey and using personalized messaging can lead to increased trust and a sense of commitment from you to these potential customers.

Increase conversion rates

By providing relevant, personalized content with your lead nurturing campaigns, you ensure your audience remains engaged and more likely to click links to your website or online store for more information. This approach is in contrast to sending generalized content that is designed to reach as many people as possible but has no connection with specific audiences.

Identify customer interests or pain points

Lead nurturing is an excellent way to collect feedback that provides insights into your audience’s interests and pain points. This information can assist you in creating accurate buyer personas and products that will better meet your customers' needs.

Boost brand loyalty

The personalized engagement campaigns you use to build a relationship with your audience can also make them loyal to your brand once they take the step to become customers. In fact, 78% of consumers will likely be repeat customers of brands that personalize the shopping experience.

Get more referrals from satisfied customers

One of the objectives of lead nurturing is to ensure customers are satisfied at the end of their buyer’s journey. Happy customers are more likely to refer friends, family, and business associates to your business because of the trust and reputation you built with them.

How to Launch a Successful Lead Nurturing Campaign

There are five fundamental elements to launching a successful lead nurturing campaign:

1. Buyer Personas

A Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on real data and some educated speculation about demographics, behaviors, motivations, and goals.Creating buyer personas will help you understand your potential customers’ needs, behaviors, and concerns. Understanding these details will help you tailor your content and messaging in a way that resonates with each lead.In the previous example, the lead nurturing campaign targeted the persona, ECommerce Eric. Not only did understanding ECommerce Eric's needs and goals inspire the different content offers, it also helped drive the messaging in the emails. If you don't have buyer personas, you can get started with HubSpot's Make My Persona Tool​.

2. Content 

The content you create should be strategic. It should showcase your thought leadership in certain topics, educate your audience, address their concerns, and inspire them to take action. You do this by creating content for each stage of the buyer's journey.The Buyer's Journey is the active research process someone goes through leading up to a purchase.This process is broken down into three stages: awareness stage, consideration stage, and decision stage. Creating content for each stage allows you to educate and nurture leads closer to a purchase, no matter where they are in the buyer's journey.

Once you've developed your content, it's time to share it with your leads.

3. Emails 

Emails will serve as the main communication between you and your leads. They enable you to educate and nurture your leads by providing tailored messaging and content offers.HubSpot provides email marketing tools that make it easy to publish your nurturing emails. You can also incorporate personalization tokens to personalize each recipient's email copy and content.But, building effective emails is only part of the process. You have to send the right content to the right person and schedule when the emails should arrive at their destination.

4. Segmentation 

Lead nurturing is the happy union between content and context. Email is how you provide the content, while segmentation is how you provide context.Segmentation is the process of dividing your contacts into sub-groups (known as segments) based on some type of shared characteristics. It works together with your nurturing emails by providing tailored and relevant content for each individual.For example, you can segment your leads by their buyer personas. Your leads will often have different challenges or goals, affecting the personas you create for them. You can create different email campaigns with relevant and compelling content for each of these personas .Another strategy is to segment leads by where they are in their buyer's journey. Leads in different stages of the buyer's journey are seeking specific information.For instance, leads in the awareness stage may be interested in content about the different types of products that are available, while those in the consideration stage may be more concerned about the pros and cons of each product that they are interested in. You can help more of your leads find the right content by segmenting emails by their buyer's journey stage.Try segmenting leads based on their online activity. A great example of this is automatically sending a welcome email every time a visitor subscribes to your newsletter.Lead nurturing is the happy union between content and context. Email is how you provide the content, while segmentation is how you provide context.

5. Automation 

The final element of a successful lead nurturing campaign is automation. Automation makes it easy to send the right content, to the right person, at the right time. HubSpot offers a workflow tool that can help automate your entire lead nurturing process. This tool can help you:

• Set enrollment triggers that automatically enroll leads based on set criteria.
• Add relevant emails and content that will be sent to enrolled leads.
• Indicate when those emails will be sent to each lead.
• Remove leads once they've met the workflow goal.

Implementing automation into your lead nurturing will not only make the entire process feel seamless, but it will also help you scale your lead nurturing efforts in the future.Incorporating these five fundamental elements into your lead nurturing process will give you the foundation needed to implement campaigns that turn more of your leads into happy customers.

Nurture Your Leads to Create Happy Customers

It takes just a few steps to turn leads into happy, returning customers, and it all starts with thinking of them in the buyer’s journey.Ask yourself what their interests or issues are and what solutions your company has that impact their values, needs, and desires. Then, strategically create your content and send it to your leads in a sequence that moves them from awareness of their problem to the decision to buy your solution.Lead nurturing takes time. Segmenting leads based on their buyer persona and the stage they’re in of the buyer’s journey can help you nurture leads more effectively. Automation can help manage a lot of this process and sendails to the appropriate people at the appropriate time with the appropriate content to move them in the right direction.Are you ready to start nurturing your leads? Use HubSpot’s Marketing Hub to create and launch your campaign today, and turn those leads into customers.

A SaaS welcome email is like the opening act of a grand opera; it sets the tone, introduces the main characters, and creates an air of anticipation.In other words, it’s the very first point of interaction between your business and a new customer or prospect. Hence, its impact on customer engagement, retention rates, and the overall trajectory of the customer relationship can be significant.Research indicates that welcome emails generate 320% more revenue per email than other promotional emails. So, we're not merely discussing an introductory email here; we're exploring a crucial aspect of your customer engagement strategy.Simply put, welcome emails matter because they are an opportunity to make a strong first impression, onboard new users effectively, and start building long-term customer relationships.

The Essential Elements of Welcome Emails in SaaS

Creating a unique, engaging, and effective SaaS welcome email requires a careful blend of several key elements. Understanding these elements can empower businesses to formulate emails that resonate with their customers, therefore improving engagement and customer retention.Let’s review them.

Eye-catching subject line

The subject line is the precursor to the email body. It is the first aspect of the email that recipients see and plays a pivotal role in determining whether the email is opened—so an effective subject line needs to grab the recipient's attention immediately. A great subject line incorporates personalization or highlights an enticing offer to increase open rates.

Personalization and Tone

The tone of your welcome emails plays a significant role in determining how recipients perceive your brand.Personalized emails create a more intimate interaction, leading to increased customer engagement. This can range from simple techniques like using the recipient's name throughout the text or more advanced methods such as targeted content based on customer behavior.A friendly tone that aligns with the brand's image also makes emails more relatable and helps build trust, increasing the chances of long-term email engagement.

Relevant and Clear Call-To-Action (CTA)

The call-to-action (CTA) in your email is your guiding light for customer engagement; it directs your customers toward the desired outcome of the email.A relevant and clear CTA is one that aligns with both the content of the email and the overall objectives of your brand, with a direct, concise message that tells the recipient exactly what to do next.For instance, if the purpose of your email is to encourage a new user to begin using a feature of your SaaS product, your CTA could be "Start Using Now!" This CTA is relevant because it directly ties into the content of the email, and it's clear because it tells the user exactly what to do without overcomplicating anything.The CTA should be prominently placed within your email design, ensuring it catches the recipient's eye. A great way to do this is by using contrasting colors to make the CTA stand out. Above all, always ensure that your CTA text is compelling and clear.

Concise Messaging

The age-old adage, "less is more," indeed holds for email communication. The body of your welcome email should be concise, delivering only the most pertinent information to your reader.First, introduce your SaaS product and its primary value proposition to the user. Second, if there are important features that the user should know about to get started, highlight these briefly.Consider what your recipient needs to know to achieve the desired action and convey that information in as few words as possible. Does your user need to understand a specific feature of your software? Or perhaps they need to be reassured about your data security measures? For example, if your product is a project management tool, explain how it helps in task organization or team collaboration.Third, reassure your users about important aspects such as data security or customer support, if applicable.By condensing this information into crisp, clear sentences, you not only improve the readability of your email but also guide your recipients toward the desired action effectively. This approach ensures you deliver value while respecting your users' time.

Branding and Design

Consistent branding in your welcome email is essential for building brand recognition. Leveraging your brand elements, such as logos, colors, and fonts, can create a familiar and consistent experience for the customer.More importantly, a well-designed, aesthetically pleasing email reinforces your brand image, building customer credibility and trust.

Mobile Optimization

As more and more people adopt mobile devices, adapting your welcome emails for mobile platforms is a necessity. Ensuring that your email design is flexible, with accurate displays across a range of screen sizes, will make your communication accessible and user-friendly—regardless of the device being used.Read: Email Design for Mobile: Best Practices to Take Your Email Marketing Up A Level.

Successful Examples of SaaS Welcome Emails

Now that we've covered the importance and essential elements of SaaS welcome emails let's delve into real-world examples and templates provided by BeeFree. These examples demonstrate how top SaaS businesses utilize welcome emails effectively to drive customer engagement.

Asana Emphasizes Benefits

Asana’s welcome email is a testament to their understanding of users’ needs. The line, "What do you need to get done today?" instantaneously highlights the product’s value proposition.Within the email, they briefly outline the core features and advantages of using Asana, such as task management and project tracking, maintaining brevity while still demonstrating clearly their benefits.The prominent 'Add Your Task' CTA prompts users to take the next step and use the application. And the overall tone of the email feels friendly, helpful, and hopeful of their organizational day ahead with Asana.

Dropbox Displays the Power of Simplicity

Dropbox employs the power of simplicity to its advantage. Their welcome email stands out because of its minimalist design and straight-to-the-point content.The email immediately offers a 'Get Started' CTA button, directing users toward their first interaction with the product.Additionally, they provide a brief rundown on using Dropbox and provide the reader with clear next steps of what’s coming in the next few emails. The direct, uncomplicated approach reduces friction and eases the onboarding process for users.

Slack Leverages Personalization

Slack's welcome email use of simple yet effective email personalization. The email begins with a friendly greeting, addressing the workspace name created by the user. It then proceeds to provide a personalized URL for the user's workspace, which not only offers convenience to the user but also plants the seed of a unique, tailored experience—encouraging them to engage further with Slack.

Zoom's Guided Assistance

Zoom’s welcome email provides new users with a comprehensive starting guide. The email is thoughtfully structured, presenting users with various resources such as training webinars, video tutorials, demo invitations, and support links. This approach not only eases the onboarding process but also emphasizes Zoom's commitment to user success. By offering these resources right in the welcome email, Zoom ensures users can smoothly transition into using their platform.

MailChimp Builds Connection

MailChimp’s welcome email establishes a warm, friendly connection with users from the start. The email begins with a personalized greeting, followed by a brief introduction to their services. They discuss the ease of creating campaigns with MailChimp and guide users to create their first campaign through several CTAs. This approach is effective in making new users feel valued and excited about their journey with MailChimp.

HubSpot Offers Resources

HubSpot keeps content itself to a bare minimum but speaks loudly with the few lines it does include in its welcome email. Brief lines like “Close deals faster” and “250,000+ other sales teams skyrocketing revenue” summarize the product’s key points while still encouraging action. This approach conveys HubSpot's desire for users to succeed and get the most out of their services, which can increase user engagement and long-term retention.

Trello Embraces Visuals

Trello's welcome email stands out with its visually appealing layout and vibrant colors. It delivers a concise yet informative message, guiding users on how to get started with their first board and introducing key features. Through its visually engaging design, Trello effectively conveys its brand persona of simplicity and creativity, setting the stage for a positive user experience that encourages exploration and productivity.

Start Creating Your Eye-catching SaaS Welcome Email with a Template

Creating an effective welcome message from scratch can seem daunting. Thankfully, using a premade email template can help make the process smoother and quicker. Templates help with the heavy lifting of having to identify what to write and where. A great email template should be easy to edit. be engaging, and offer guidance on the content.

Beefree’s SaaS Welcome Email Template

BeeFree's own SaaS welcome email template serves as a prime example of an engaging and well-designed welcome email. It features a simple yet eye-catching visual design, a space to insert personalization, and a brief section to list off features—all elements a SaaS business needs to provide a seamless onboarding experience. The best part? All of Beefree's templates are mobile-optimized to save you time and effort.

Get the Most Out of Your SaaS Welcome Email

The welcome email plays a pivotal role in setting the tone for your customer relationship and should be treated as an opportunity to establish your brand’s voice and personality. As simple as it might seem, that means it’s one of the most important pieces of content you can produce for your SaaSSo, be sure to remember these key elements when writing a winning email: Make sure it is eye-catching, personalized, concise, and mobile-friendly. Use these tips, get inspired by the examples, and make the most out of your welcome emails to foster successful customer relationships.Ready to get started? Check out Beefree’s library of email templates for more inspiration or dive deeper into welcome email design examples.

If you’re operating a membership program, renewals are essential when it comes to growing and maintaining your revenue. Even if your service is great, most members will need some encouragement or at least a reminder to renew. A membership renewal letter or email is instrumental in getting renewals. Keep reading for the top best practices, examples, and more.

What Is a Membership Renewal Letter?

A membership renewal letter is a letter or email you send to your current subscribers when their subscription term is ending. The goal is to prompt customers to renew their memberships and tell them how to renew.

Importance of a Membership Renewal Letter

A membership renewal letter is vital for any business with a membership-based model that doesn’t use automatic renewals. It can serve several purposes depending on how a customer feels about your service:

• Reminding happy customers to renew their membership
• Providing clear instructions on how to renew paired with a clear CTA button. 
• Providing a reason to renew for customers who may be on the fence. For instance, a simple reminder of the benefits they receive works wonders. 

Customers are likely to forget to renew, so a renewal letter could be what prevents you from losing recurring business.

Membership Renewal Letter Formats

Membership renewal letters take one of two formats: a physical letter that is mailed or sent via email. A physical letter is more formal and may be harder to overlook than an email in a member’s crowded inbox. However, email has a powerful advantage. Email allows members to take immediate action by simply clicking on the CTA button. The easier you make a task, the more likely people are to complete it.The great part is that you can do both! First, send an email. Then send an email a couple of weeks after as a reminder.

8 Strategies to Write a Compelling Membership Renewal Letter

Some customers will already know whether they want to renew when your letter lands in their inbox, but others will need some convincing. Follow these tips to make your membership renewal letter more effective and increase your renewal revenue.

#1 Use a personalized greeting and opening

People pay more attention to emails and letters that appear more relevant to them, so personalize your renewal letter to make it stand out. Simply including the member’s name will help, and you can include other personalized notes in your opening too, such as, “We’ve loved having you as a member for these past three years” or “We hope you’ve enjoyed your first year of membership!”

#2 Highlight member benefits and value

Assume that every member reading your letter is trying to decide if they’ll continue their subscription. You need to tell them why to renew. Include a clear, exciting list of the benefits and value they get from their membership (don’t assume they know it all because they’re already a member).

#3 Create a sense of urgency

Your customers have a lot on their to-do lists, so if there’s no reason to renew their membership promptly, they may put it aside for later and forget about it entirely. Give them a reason to complete that quick task now, like a discounted renewal offer that expires on a certain date or a special perk they’ll get if they renew before a particular date.

#4 Address potential objections

Think about reasons your customers might not renew and offer solutions for those issues. For example: “Want to size down your bill? Check out our basic subscription option instead” or “We use top-of-the-line security and privacy practices so your data will always be safe with us.”

#5 Express gratitude

You appreciate your customers for their business, so let them know! Thank them for being members and let them know what you plan to do to show your appreciation for their continued membership, like an upcoming member appreciation event or a special sale for members only.

#6 Use storytelling and emotional appeal

Your customers are human beings, so connect with them on a person-to-person level to remind them of how much they love their membership. You could include some highlights from their membership so far, for example, like snapshots of some of the products they’ve bought. Or, you could paint a picture of their continued membership, like a vision of their future success because of your program.

#7 Showcase success stories and testimonials

There’s a concept in marketing called social proof, AKA peer pressure: when customers see that other people have enjoyed your products, they trust those people and are more likely to buy in too. Testimonials or stories of customers who have benefited from your program can go a long way in a membership renewal letter.

#8 Choose the right timing

We all respond to questions or choices differently based on our frame of mind when we see them. You can’t set your membership renewal emails to land when customers are in a good mood, but there are other timing tricks you can use. For example, send it within 24 hours of them making a purchase or otherwise taking advantage of their membership.

Key Elements of a Membership Renewal Email

What should you include in your membership renewal email? The structure doesn’t have to be overly complex, but there are ways to make each element more compelling.

Subject line

Did you know 47% of email recipients decide whether to open an email based only on the subject line? Make sure your renewal emails get noticed and opened by using an enticing and accurate subject line. Try these examples for instance:

• Your membership benefits are ending! Renew here to keep them.
• Time to renew! Save 20% just by renewing the subscription you already love.

Email layout

Once a customer opens your email, the body or layout of your membership renewal email will determine where their eyes fall on the page. Make your layout simple and easy to skim, guiding readers toward the purpose of the email: the renewal link.

CTA design

In a membership renewal email, the CTA (call to action) is a button or form to complete the membership renewal. Because this is the ultimate goal of the email, you want it to stand out. Surround it with enough white space for it to stand out rather than putting it too close to the text, make it a bold, eye-catching color, and make it clear what the button does. Our CTA design tips are all about pulling in their reader’s eyes and getting them to click.

Sample Membership Renewal Letters

Need a bit of inspiration to create your compelling, revenue-boosting membership renewal letter? We’ve got it! Check out these membership renewal letter samples to get your creativity flowing.

Nonprofit Membership Renewal Sample

FundraisingLetters.org is dedicated to helping nonprofit organizations grow their funding, and memberships are a core part of that mission. The organization crafted this outstanding template that is clear and shows you how to emphasize the benefits of membership:

Storytelling Sample Letter

Remember our tip about taking a storytelling approach to remind members of what they’ve received from their membership so far? This excellent sample renewal letter from MemberClicks shows you how to harness that technique:

Membership Renewal Email Examples

Now that you have an idea of how a membership renewal letter should look on paper let’s talk about membership renewal emails. Emails tend to have shorter formats because you’re more focused on taking advantage of the interactive format and prompting customers to click on the CTA. Check out how these email templates work.

Simple and To-the-Point Renewal Email

If you want a simple design for your membership renewal email, we’ve got you covered. This email template is as clear as it gets: it has very little email copy and is primarily dedicated to the renewal button:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Liking this straightforward email? You can use this membership renewal email template today!

Value-Focused Membership Renewal Email Example

A simple email like the example above is great as a first renewal notice you’re sending to a customer. When a customer doesn’t respond to an email like that, though, it could mean they need some convincing to renew their membership. That’s when it could be better to use a longer renewal email template like this one, which puts more emphasis on showing the value of a subscription:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

This template is one of Beefree’s membership renewal templates you can use and customize for your own program.

Get started with a membership renewal email template

Creating an effective membership renewal email doesn’t have to take days of labor. You can make your life easier (and take advantage of designs that have been created with best practices in mind) with Beefree’s expansive email template library and email editor. We aim to make it easier for you to enjoy the growth and opportunities that come from well-constructed email campaigns.

Editor’s Note: This post was updated on July 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.

You’ve scored a win by signing up a new customer or client - nice work! This isn’t the finish line, though, but only the beginning. Now is the time to start establishing a loyal relationship with that new client by guiding them through your onboarding process so they understand your product better and feel more like a part of your community. An onboarding email (or emails) is a low-maintenance but effective way to do this, and we have all the tips you need to make those onboarding emails worthwhile.

What Is an Onboarding Email?

An onboarding email campaign is a campaign that is sent to new users after the signup and is designed around initiating them into your community. Think of it as both a tutorial and a “getting to know you” process - it can guide new users through your product’s features and introduce them to your product more fully.

Why are Onboarding Emails Important?

Onboarding emails are a key part of building a relationship of trust, familiarity, and loyalty with your new customers. If your email is well-executed, it can make the difference between customers giving your product a cursory trial and moving on or investing their time and becoming loyal users for years to come.A strong onboarding email campaign can offer advantages like:

• Showing customers the features and uses of your product that they may not find on their own
• Improving customer satisfaction (and customer retention and referrals as a result) because customers learn how to best use your product
• Strengthening brand loyalty because the customer feels like you are guiding and welcoming them, not just accepting their money and setting them loose to figure out the product on their own
• Keeping your product in new customers’ minds so they use it more often

Here are some best practices to make sure you’re getting the most out of your onboarding emails.

When to Send An Onboarding Email

It goes without saying that onboarding emails should be sent after a new customer signs up for your product or service. There are several types of onboarding emails, though, that can be sent at different times in the onboarding process. These can include:

• Welcome email: A welcome email is sent automatically when the customer signs up. It confirms that their sign-up was a success and gives them anything they’ll need to get started, like a log-in button, customer code, or basic instructions for logging in.
• Instructional emails: To help your customers be as satisfied with your product as possible, you want to make sure they see all that your product can do. By sending instructional emails in the first days after a new customer signs up, you can highlight certain features, provide tutorial videos, or otherwise teach the customer about their new product. You could send one instructional email or a series of them.
• Onboarding survey emails: Survey emails during the onboarding process allow you to learn more about why a customer signed up, how they plan on using the product, how their experience with the product has been so far, and so on.
• Upsell emails: If your product or service has multiple options, like a basic subscription and a premium subscription, an upsell email could be an excellent addition to your onboarding campaign. After your customer has been using their basic subscription for some time, send them an email about what they’re missing out on and invite them to upgrade to the premium option.

Tips for Writing Effective Onboarding Emails for Customers

Like any customer emailing campaign, onboarding emails need to be well-executed for them to be effective. How can you master the art of powerful, profitable onboarding emails? Follow these tips.

TIP #1: Write compelling onboarding subject lines 

Your onboarding emails only work if customers open them, and that largely depends on your subject line. Craft a subject line that is compelling and interesting, giving customers a reason to open the email. Consider these examples:

• Let’s unbox your new subscription to !
• More 💥 for your 💸: Here’s how to use .
• Welcome to the  family! Let us show you around.

Different audiences respond better to different types of subject lines, so it can take time to discover what subject lines give you the best open rates. You can find out with A/B testing - use one subject line for a randomly chosen half of your new customers’ onboarding emails and a different subject line for the other half and see which one performs better.

Tip #2: Offer a clear how-to guide

Even if users have already signed up for your product or service, they may need additional information to start using it successfully. Sending a how-to guide early on in the onboarding process is a great way to help new subscribers get started. A how-to email also reminds users of your product or service’s features and benefits, encouraging them to fully utilize its potential. Here’s an example of an onboarding email from MailChimp, which includes a step-by-step guide. The email itself is kept clutter-free with a link to the guide and a clear call to action (CTA).

TIP #3: Don't overload users with too much information 

All your onboarding emails should be short and to the point. Your users are busy people, and if they open an email that has a wall of text, they’re likely to skip the whole thing. The less text you have, the more attention your call-to-action or other important elements will get because they aren’t being crowded by all that visual clutter. Twitter has done this excellently in this example:

Think of all the information Twitter could have sent. Maybe a list of suggested friends, a list of those potential friends’ tweets, a message about customizing your profile… you get the idea. Instead, the email focuses on a single action: find your friends. That makes the email easy to read and understand and, thus, easy to act upon.If your users seem to be inactive or don’t respond to your CTAs in your getting started emails, it’s likely that they’re overwhelmed or confused, so keep your emails simple and test your email design layout.

Tip #4: Send onboarding emails in a short sequence

As we’ve discussed, an email is most effective when it has a focused message paired with a single CTA. One strategy brands can use to avoid dumping too much information all at once is to create a series of onboarding tips. The getting started guide email from MailChimp we saw earlier, for example, was just one in a series called a drip campaign. This is how the email sequence looked in my inbox in the first week after I activated my account:

Similarly, the music app Spotify sends three key tips across three welcome emails:

Each email has the same structure: a GIF, brief text, and a CTA button. Brands like Mailchimp and Spotify deliver a sequence of tips to avoid overwhelming users to the point they take no action at all. As Customer.io points out, most activation funnels make customers confused because they aren’t very funnel-like at all. Here’s how they illustrate that confusion:

Illustration credit: Customer.io

Customer.io suggests treating the onboarding process like the tutorial mode in a video game. Walk customers through each step, one by one. The steps should follow the natural progression of how a user will engage with your product. Start with tips on building their profile, for example, and then move on to highlight specific features, gradually reaching more complex features. The goal is to guide your customers to fully understand and enjoy your product.

Tip #5: Provide a product visual

Instead of taking the “how-to” route for onboarding emails, Canva, the graphic design tool, uses two effective strategies in its onboarding email:

1. Encourages users to explore their product by showing visual examples of Canva templates.
2. Positions the product as a solution to a problem (problem: design takes time; solution: Canva has easy-to-use templates).

Here’s their onboarding email:

Canva’s email follows all the best practices (single CTA, focused message, solutions-oriented) while inspiring users to get started with a preview of its product.

Onboarding Made Easy: Effective Onboarding Email Templates You Can Use

The tips above can help you boost the impact of your onboarding email sequence, but how do you get started? Good news: there are many free templates available from BeeFree that are pre-designed with best practices in mind to help you nurture a longstanding relationship with your new customers. There are templates available for various industries and various points in your onboarding funnel - check out the options below, for example.

Onboarding Email Templates for HR 

If you’re in HR, your onboarding process is an essential part of ensuring a strong company culture. Not only is it a way to get important information to new employees but also a way to ensure employee engagement is high from the start. This Beefree onboarding email is the perfect start to your HR onboarding communications. However, this template can also be easily adapted to any other industry looking to make email creation a whole lot easier!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Higher Education Onboarding Email Template

For Higher Education institutions, a welcome message provides new students with valuable information that will help them navigate their new journey. The Beefree Higher Education template collection helps these institutions build email campaigns effortlessly, from recruitment to onboarding and beyond.

Making the most of your onboarding emails 

Each brand needs to carefully evaluate how to engage with its new users. Important factors in onboarding email campaigns include the number of emails, the timing of those messages, and the content. As you consider the best path for your users, keep today’s tips in mind:

1. Lead with a compelling subject line. Make your subject line eye-catching and punchy while also making it transparent about what the email holds.
2. Offer a guide. Whether it’s in the email or on a landing page, make sure users have the resources needed to get the most from your product or service.
3. Keep your message focused. Don’t overwhelm users by telling them everything about your brand all at once. Send concise, thoughtful messages to show how your product or service can help them.
4. Set up an onboarding sequence. You shouldn’t send all your onboarding tips in one email; keep information well-paced in a series of sends.
5. Use product visuals. Try to show your product or service with images and screenshots.

Get started and go pro!

Feeling inspired? Design get started designing your onboarding email sequence with our easy-to-use, drag-n-drop email editor. No HTML or design experience is required, plus your emails will be mobile responsive. Sign-up for a Beefree account today! The best part? It's free.

‍Editor’s Note: This post was updated on July 2023 to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.

A strong, on-brand, and engaging experience is everything in e-commerce. Digital communications become the central focus of your brand’s marketing efforts without a face-to-face opportunity to win online customers. That's where an order confirmation email comes in.E-commerce merchants report that as many as 80% of sales will likely come from only 20% of your customers because they return repeatedly.While a digital experience with your audience begins when they first land on your website, they become repeat customers based on the impactful experience you provide after purchase. A confirmation email, more than just a receipt, is your opportunity to engage the customer - let us show you how!

What is an Order Confirmation Email?

Now that we’ve hyped up confirmation emails, I guess it’s time to explain what an order confirmation email is.In short, it’s a transactional receipt sent to acknowledge an online purchase. An electronic confirmation of purchase is important if you’re the customer; it legitimizes the purchase and provides the next steps (and peace of mind).So, what do brands stand to gain from sending transactional emails? This type of communication is an opportunity to build excitement over the purchase—a way of building and nurturing your relationship with your customers.And, of course, a great way to earn valuable repeat business is by introducing additional products or services.Typically, an order confirmation will contain the following:

• Order confirmation number
• Description of what was purchased
• Cost and payment information
• Shipping and delivery details
• Links to your return policies
• Customer service contact information

Features of the Best Order Confirmation Emails

The best order confirmation emails will go beyond the basic nuts and bolts listed above. Here are some additional features of an excellent order confirmation email.

Mobile-Friendly Design

According to Shopify, shoppers will make nearly half of all e-commerce purchases using a mobile device by 2024. People are shopping on their phones, which means they’ll also be looking for that order confirmation email on their smartphones. Mobile-friendly design is a must-have for order confirmation emails if you’re serious about winning repeat business. Read the blog: Email Design for Mobile: Best Practices to Take Your Marketing Emails Up a Level

Brand Voice

It will take more than sending a receipt to excite a customer. Help them see who you are and the value you bring by spicing up your email content with a brand voice. For example, you can integrate voice into graphics or add some delightful intro copy to your email. While the goal is to keep this email reasonably short, it’s still important to create separation between your brand and others.

Call-to-Action

If your ultimate goal is to drive repeat business and engagement, we’d recommend including a call-to-action for the customer to take the next step with you. So what is the next step?

• Cross-sell: show them other products they may like to purchase
• Up-sell: show them how to make their purchase better
• Referral: ask them to share your brand with others for gifts.
• Subscribe: promote newsletter or email sign-ups
• Engage: promote downloading your mobile app
• Reward: provide a coupon for use on a future purchase
• Feedback: ask them to complete a survey or leave a review

Email Subject Line

According to HubSpot, order confirmation emails have the highest open rate at 65%. Of course, this should be expected as the customer wants to confirm and review their order to ensure they were charged appropriately and that the purchase will arrive on time. Because there is great value inside the order confirmation email, it’s essential that the subject line clearly describes what’s inside. Here are a few ways to go about this:

• Administrative: Order #83627193 is confirmed.
• Thank you:  Thank you for your purchase!
• Confirmation:  Review your purchase
• Engaging: We’ve got your order! 

Learning From an Order Confirmation Email Template

If you’re new to order confirmation emails or want to revamp your existing ones, consider using an order confirmation email template. Using a template can save you time when it comes to finding the right layout, sections to include, and overall design of the emails.BEE’s templates are designed with the customer in mind and follow email design best practices, including mobile-friendly layouts. Using our drag-and-drop interface, you can fully customize the email to match your branding and voice.

Examples of Order Confirmation Emails

Here are a few examples of order confirmation emails we love!

Amazon

If you’re one of the millions of Amazon customers, you’ve seen this before. Amazon keeps things short and sweet. You can easily see what was ordered, your total, and when it is expected to arrive. Some stand-out components are the large “view or manage order” button that allows customers to make changes with ease should something need to be edited. The “suggested products” section is also a great use of personalization and encourages repeat purchases.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/144607838013729735/

REI Co-op

REI’s order confirmation email is well-branded and easy to read. They’ve chosen to use the bottom of this order confirmation email to promote their membership and credit card programs. One stand-out component that encourages brand loyalty is the REI difference statement which promises a 100% satisfaction guarantee, offering peace of mind to customers with each purchase.

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/70437474160298/

Order Confirmation Email Best Practices to Consider

The next time you send an order confirmation email, remember that there is more to it than a simple Leverage the high email open rate with the opportunity to cross-sell or grow customer loyalty and drive return sales. Don’t forget to include some elements of your branding. A great place to start is with a well-designed email template, like those available from BEE.

Happy Pride Month! This month's blog spotlight our very own Content Specialist, Emily Santos. Before working with BEE, they operated their very own Brand Studio focusing on human-centered brand strategy and ensuring businesses were acting in alignment with their values. Emily brings this energy to the team by ensuring that our very own messaging, brand, and tone/voice is in alignment with who we are and our beliefs.Here is a little more on their story:

Can you walk us through your journey as a marketer and what led to you BEE? Including different areas of marketing you've worked in, different locations, etc.

My journey to where I am today began in a very unconventional way.It was 2020, and one day, I was a Restaurant Supervisor, and the next, I was an unemployed stay-at-home dog parent. Left with the uncertainty of the hospitality industry and my career, I turned to art as an outlet.A hobby that then turned into a side hustle, which then turned into a full-blown business - Santos & Co Studios. A business that started as me doing custom portraits until the BLM protests started and LGBTQIA+ rights began being threatened; then, I felt like there were more important things than spending my time drawing faces.

"Santos & Co Studios quickly became an outlet for me to speak loudly and boldly about the injustices happening, something that I never really thought I was capable of doing."

I like to think that having my own business provided a safe space for me to speak on these things. There was no one that I had to be worried about offending with my values, and if they were offended, then they were obviously not my audience.It was freeing. I took a step back to rethink the future of Santos & Co. It was important to be that regardless of what I did, I was serving activists and creating art.In an effort to put my Hospitality degree to good use, I looked back at my course material and realized that while building my own brand, I WAS putting my degree to use. Hospitality has a lot of overlapping elements with Branding and Marketing. I took the next two years to learn about Brand Strategy. Learning from industry experts like Melinda Livsey and Jalyn Gordon of The Afrocentric Communiversity. From there, I built my own brand strategy process that, I like to think, was a beautiful blend of activism, human-centered strategy, and values. Long story short, I loved what I did, but being a business owner is hard and unpredictable. On my search for some stability, I was looking for an organization to work for that shared similar values to mine. That spoke loud and proud about what’s important to them. BEE was just that.

As a marketer, what makes you unique within the space? How do you infuse your different identities into your work? 

I think a lot of marketers shy away from their identities, their beliefs, and their opinions. Marketing was never an industry I saw myself part of because of this. I don’t believe in sayings such as “politics have no place in business.” I believe if you have employees or even customers with different identities, your business automatically becomes political. It is so important to consider how the political, social, and economic climate affects the way you serve people, the way they feel taken care of, and the way they thrive. My identities as a non-binary, neurodivergent, Queer, Dominican person influence so much of who I am, what I do, how I speak, how I move through the world, and how I do my work, and I refuse to hide that. I love that BEE lets me express that.

As someone representative of many different cultures and identities, what are your best marketing tips for someone to keep in mind when creating a marketing campaign to ensure it is as inclusive as possible?

Your values should be an integral part of the way you make decisions in your business. It is not enough to plaster on your website “we love inclusivity” and not consider being inclusive when creating campaigns. Ask yourself:

•  “Is this representative of our values,”
•  “In what ways is this campaign representative the change we want to see?” 
• “ Does this campaign in alignment with our mission?” 

And open the conversation beyond your own team to make sure there are no biases. Most importantly, open the conversation to people who don’t share your same identities.

In what ways do you think the marketing space can better support and elevate diverse voices?

This can be as simple as bringing diverse voices onto your team. If everyone in your team shares similar identities to yours, ask yourself, “Why?” And it might not even be on purpose. It’s not malicious; it happens. There may perhaps be some unconscious biases to deconstruct that we’re unaware of. Regardless, the best way to START elevating and supporting diverse voices is to bring them on to your team.

What is the one thing companies can do right now in 2023 to be better allies?

Start internally.Does your company have policies and systems that allow LGTBQIA+ folx to feel safe and thrive? More specifically, how is your organization helping Trans folx feel safe, supported, and acknowledged? AND are LGBTQIA+ folx involved in the process of creating such policies and systems? If not, maybe it’s time to ask for their support in how you can better serve them.Externally, I recommend saving changing your logo to a rainbow and asking yourself what you’re doing to take a stand against Anti-LGBTQ bills and legislation. Are you aware of the laws currently being passed in your state? What are you doing to protect your LGBTQ community?If you’re wanting to be a better ally, my recommendation is not to act just yet. Before taking action, sit, reflect, assess, and educate yourself! Learn from diverse voices and hear what they have to say about being better allies. Most importantly, understand that perfect allyship does not exist. Acknowledging that you have biases that need to be deconstructed is the first step, and take small steps every day to work towards a better future for all.