Industry insights

The National Retail Federation (NRF) predicts that about 57% of consumers plan to shop online this holiday season alone. This is a major increase from the mere 30% back in 2010.Preparing your e-commerce business for the online rush is a different playing field than in-store retail. E-commerce landing pages play a huge role in preparing for the influx of online visitors and purchasing customers during the busy season just as a storefront would for in-store retail.E-commerce landing pages provide a first impression to customers by showcasing what your business has to offer. This drives customer interest and leaves them with a decision of whether or not they want to purchase from your business.Making your first impression memorable comes down to the design for your landing page. Let’s run through benefits, strategy tips, and some examples of what the best e-commerce landing pages look like.

What is an e-commerce landing page?

An e-commerce landing page is an independent web page that visitors “land” on after clicking on a link from an ad, email, social media, or another marketing-related channel. E-commerce landing pages are designed to achieve one focused goal, and that goal is usually to initiate a purchase.Oftentimes, e-commerce landing pages are designed to intrigue customers and push them to purchase. To successfully do that, they should include a bold CTA, direct headlines, high-quality images, short copy and reviews or testimonials to exhibit social proof.

E-commerce landing pages vs product pages

Now that we understand what an e-commerce landing page is, it’s helpful to understand how these pages differ from a more detailed e-commerce page like the product page.Here’s a brief rundown of those differences:E-commerce Landing Pages

• One clear, main CTA
• Copy targets audience to achieve one goal
• No website navigation; only covers one specific topic
• Targeted product descriptions

Product Pages

• Multiple clear CTAs
• Initiates website navigation and access to additional content
• Created for multiple audiences that can navigate to different pages
• Optimized for SEO purposes

The main difference between these pages is that an e-commerce landing page elicits a direct action (which drives conversions) and the product page initiates more browsing.

Benefits of an e-commerce landing page

E-commerce landing pages are the link that guides customers from a social post or ad to making their purchase. While designing an e-commerce landing page might seem intimidating, the benefits of using them are well worth your time:

• Opportunity for A/B testing. Test different CTA colors, copy and other elements to see what best reaches your customers. A/B testing your landing pages is also a great chance to implement new ideas.
• Strengthening connections with your target audience. Find what elements appeal to your customers most. Do they prefer humorous copy? Colorful, big CTAs? Pinpoint what elements they’re enjoying and continue to create with those details in mind.
• Increasing ROIs for paid traffic. Visitors click on your social content or ads in hopes that you’ll answer a question they have or meet their needs somehow. E-commerce landing pages are the immediate answer to their questions and needs.

Strategy for your e-commerce landing pages

There are many types of e-commerce landing pages that you should design to promote to customers at different stages in their buyer’s journey. You should have landing pages that are personalized to reach:

• First-time visitors
• Visitors that have deeply explored your website 
• Customers who recently made a purchase and make their way back to your website

Here are some ideas for your e-commerce landing pages at every stage of the buyer’s journey:

• Awareness/Interest. Benefits of your product or service, reviews or testimonials to prove credibility, your brand story.
• Consideration. More in-depth info about products/services, exclusive offers or anything that creates more urgency.
• Purchase. Similar product/service suggestions (“Typically bought together”), promo code to finalize their purchase.
• Post-purchase/Re-purchase. Write a review and receive a freebie, sneak peeks, customer loyalty club deals. 

Being mindful of which stage you send specific e-commerce landing pages to your customers gives you a greater chance for conversions. Implement these types of landing pages into your next campaign.

5 examples of the best e-commerce landing pages 

Now that we’ve got an overview of e-commerce landing page benefits and strategy best practices, let’s get into some examples of e-commerce landing pages that we find intriguing and have pushed customers to move along in their buyer’s journey.

Bite

What works:

• Prioritized main CTA
• Images drive their mission and values as a brand
• Clear, concise copy (headline and benefits)

Try this e-commerce landing page template for a similar feel:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Pela Case

What works:

• Fun imagery to intrigue a specific audience
• Focused CTA
• Minimal copy

Try this e-commerce landing page template for a similar feel:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Slack

What works:

• Simple sign-up form
• Humorous imagery
• Concise headline that drives their mission

Try this e-commerce landing page template for a similar feel:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Larq

What works:

• Simplistic layout that matches the message
• Bold, crisp coloring
• Eye-catching visuals 

Try this e-commerce landing page template for a similar feel:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Golde

What works:

• Direct CTA telling visitors exactly what they’ll receive with sign-up
• Intriguing colors and imagery
• Simple sign-up form

Try this e-commerce landing page template for a similar feel:

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Design your e-commerce landing page with BEE Pro

Digging these examples? Use them as inspiration as you start designing your e-commerce landing page with BEE Pro. Implement some of the design features like a clear CTA, bold headline and concise copy so your e-commerce landing pages reel in the purchases.If you’re not feeling the do-it-yourself route, let us do the legwork for you and start designing from one of our professional page templates for e-commerce.Last note, for freelancers and small businesses, if you’re in need of a custom domain for your e-commerce landing page, try BEE’s custom domain feature. Customize your published e-commerce landing page domain (Agency + Enterprise plans) for a more on-brand experience.

Your human resources newsletters have a pretty big job to tackle. They're responsible for delivering up-to-date company news and industry insights, announcing new hires and keeping employees engaged. All while staying short, sweet and to-the-point. That’s a tall order.Luckily, there are some pretty incredible internal communications tools to help you out.In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about creating engaging human resource newsletters as well as the tools to help you do it. By the end, you’ll have a handful of new ideas and best practices to swear by.Let’s get to it.

What Is a Human Resources Newsletter?

Your human resources newsletter is a place to connect employees with the latest company news and internal updates. At the same time, it’s responsible for keeping employees connected and engaged. It should spotlight opportunities for staff to get involved within the company and build trust with colleagues—social committees, volunteer events, and everything in between.Your newsletter must also convey your company values and internal brand voice. This is done through your choice of words—conversational vs. formal—the images and graphics you use—memes vs. stock photos—as well as the information you include and exclude.

Human Resources Newsletters Best Practices

Internal newsletters from your HR team play a huge role in connecting employees across your company. They are even more prevalent now in our post-pandemic world.If your IT and Marketing teams have felt worlds apart beforehand, the pandemic introduced a whole new layer of physical distance. And it’s the job of your human resources newsletters to bridge this gap. To get your staff truly reading your newsletter, you’ll need to follow these best practices:

1. Ensure that your newsletter is easy to read

To get employees reading and connecting them to key company updates, you need to keep things clear and concise. Ditch the corporate jargon and keep sentences short—20 words or less is a good range.And don’t just make your newsletter a laundry list of new company protocols and policies. Add warmth and humor with personal anecdotes or jokes. All it takes is a quick google search of ‘funny’ or ‘heartwarming news stories of the day’ and you’ll have a selection of content to use as inspiration.

2. Use visuals

While it’s essential to get a lot of your information out in writing, some can be replaced with videos or even images. This includes how-to-guides, or announcements from your CEO. With a responsive HTML email template from BEE Pro, you can easily embed videos, GIFs and branded graphics into your human resources newsletters.If you’re a ContactMonkey customer, you can also leveragedesign service for Outlook. Their internal communications software enables businesses to create, send and track employee newsletters right from Outlook or Gmail. By streamlining employee communications, they empower internal communicators to continuously improve employee engagement.

3. Avoid information overload

You want to deliver the most up-to-date information to your employees without overwhelming them. The best way to find a balance between too many and too few emails is by checking your email analytics.See exactly when your employees are engaging with your HR newsletter the most and learn from the data.For example, if you send communications twice a week and employees mostly open them every Monday, it may be best to send your newsletter weekly. You’ll also learn the exact time when your employees are most likely to open your email and can schedule your send accordingly.

 4. Include interactive elements

Reading often becomes boring when it’s too passive. You can make your internal company newsletter more engaging by asking questions and gathering employee feedback.Embed employee pulse surveysright into your human resources newsletters. These quick, simple surveys centre around a single focused question, which employees can answer using emojis, thumbs up/down and even anonymous comments.

The Top 12 Human Resources Newsletter Ideas 

Even if you have years of experience in internal communications, it’s normal to feel like you’re fresh out of ideas sometimes.Below, we’ll break down 12 human resources newsletter ideas—the essentials and a few fun extras—as well as the tools to bring them to life.

1. Company updates and new products

This content should make up the core of your human resources newsletters. It could be a product launch, new influencer campaign or a bug fix on one of your customer interfaces. Big or small—it’s important that employees are fully in the loop so they can deliver the latest information to customers.Since this is the focus of your newsletter, you’ll want to keep this information at the top—so that it’s easily accessible for employees. But try to leave a surprise announcement, or exciting piece of news till the end of the newsletter so employees are incentivized to keep scrolling.Pro tip:List some of the update topics in your newsletter headline so employees interested in those insights are more likely to open.

2. Project updates from across your company

These are department-specific insights that will attract readers who are working on a project— such as a new marketing campaign or IT software—or whoever is directly impacted by it. This type of update also gives employees in other departments an in-depth look at what their colleagues are doing and prevents everyone working in silos.To roll out this update you’ll need to first send a request to different departments and have them email you any project updates and details. Remove any terminology that may not be accessible to others at your company and summarize the updates into key points.

3. New hire announcements

While it’s always been a challenge to be the new person in the office, the introduction of remote and hybrid work have made things even trickier. It’s challenging to build meaningful relationships without ever meeting your colleagues in person.New hire announcements play a huge role in connecting new employees with the rest of the team. In your new hire announcement, include the essentials like:

• Name 
• Job title
• Personal hobby
• Experience level

But also go beyond the basics and make the intro fun and conversational. With employee pulse surveys, your human resource professionals can embed the two truths and a lie in individual survey boxes and have readers respond with thumbs up for truth and thumbs down for lie.

4. Change management communications

When your company is going through change, it can be a time of uncertainty and confusion for employees. To keep your teams aligned and informed, your human resource newsletter is essential for sharing regular updates in the form of change management communications.It’s also important to ask for employee feedback during the change process and gauge concerns before they turn into full-blown problems. By embedding employee pulse surveys into your newsletter, you’ll be able to check in with your employees without overwhelming them with lengthy surveys during an already stressful time.

5. Revenue updates

Your revenue and its ups and downs, should be made transparent to employees. Although this update shouldn’t take up a huge chunk of your newsletter real estate, it does deserve some legroom.A good way to talk about revenue while avoiding information overload, is to leave it for your end-of-the-month human resources newsletter. Use short, simple bullets, to summarize how your company’s revenue is doing in comparison to the last quarter and add some infographics for detail.With a responsive internal newsletter template you can easily embed images, graphs and infographics to make your revenue update accessible for everyone—not just your finance department.

6. Company achievements

Don’t just let your newsletter become a space to break down the numbers and dish out targets. Celebrate your company achievements. Did your company surpass a quarterly sales target? Is a member of your team speaking at a major conference?It’s important to share your company accomplishments with your whole team. Learning about company successes helps build a sense of pride in the company. It also boosts employee morale and engagement by uniting employees in celebrating common goals.Your company achievement feature can include:

• Employee promotions: “Congrats to Anne for stepping into the role of Product Manager!”
• Associate of the month feature: “Check out our top performers for the month of August.”
• New product or feature announcements: “Have you taken advantage of the cool new features of our latest sales software?”

7. Policy changes

Are you implementing a new hybrid workplace? Is your company rolling out a new corporate social responsibility initiative? Inform your staff about company policy changes in your human resources newsletters.Make this information easily accessible and engaging—that means no copy-pasting lengthy policy documents from your legal department. Instead, summarize key points and provide a link to the full policy document or a video discussing it. Replace bulky attachments by embedding smart links right into your employee emails.

8. Event announcements

Sending out event invites and registrations separately from your human resource newsletter only risks that both get lost in your employees’ inbox. Instead, send everything together and drive a bigger audience for each.Have a designated feature called ‘events.’ In it, provide a bullet list of each event that’s coming up along with a registration button. With ContactMonkey’s event management feature, employees can register for events directly from your newsletter. That way, your HR team can easily keep track of registrations—straight from your analytics dashboard.

9. Industry news

Sharing industry news is a great way to give employees inspiration and creative ideas to use in their own work. Or, provide insights on what not to do.In your next human resources newsletters, include a feature called ‘In other news’ or ‘Around the world.’ Use it to spotlight success stories from other industry leaders, innovative ideas, or cautionary tales.

10. Your external blog posts

If your own employees aren’t reading and sharing your company content—why should your customers? Your blog content contains great material to include in your human resource newsletter and get employees reading and sharing.Remember: your employees are your brand ambassadors. Even if they’re already familiar with the content, they may have forgotten to share it on their social media or might be reminded of someone who’s interested in the topic covered. In sum, reposting your blogs to your employee newsletter is a must.

11. Info From Your Leadership Team

Your company leaders set the tone, style, and habits that shape your company culture. So it’s important that employees hear directly from your senior leadership team at least once a month.Your human resource newsletter is a great place for executives to pen a few words to the whole team. Create a feature in your company newsletter called “In their own words” and launch it at the end of each month. Ask your CEO to provide a monthly address on a topic of choice, or provide an overview of the month to come. This is a great way to get employees opening and reading to stay in touch with leadership updates.

12. Client Success Stories

How is your company helping its clients? What challenges are your customers still frequently facing? Not everyone in your company will have a chance to interact with customers on the daily. And yet, everyone’s work ultimately goes into improving the client experience.Use your newsletter to let everyone see where their efforts are going and hear from clients directly. Creating a ‘Client Testimonies’ or ‘Customer Success Stories’ feature is a simple way to boost team morale and show everyone how their work is making an impact.

Key Takeaways

Designing an engaging employee newsletter is no small feat. So trial and error should be expected. That being said, there are many ways to keep improving your newsletter and expanding your readership. The key is to gather continuous employee insights and learn from what worked and what didn’t. With a great email tool like BEE Pro and internal communications platform like ContactMonkey, you can make the job much easier.

Sending out weekly school newsletters sometimes feels like a meaningless task on your checklist. Are students reading these? Do parents even care to look at them?If you have these doubts, know that leveraging your school newsletter is an essential move that will make a great impact on your overall engagement with students and parents. Education-related emails currently have an average click through rate of 12%, which means students and parents are finding this form of communication useful.Create a digital school newsletter to stay accountable and keep in touch with students and parents. Start with a strategic approach. Brainstorm quality content like providing resources to assist students’ mental health, highlighting student achievements or including event information for your community to stay on top of all the important upcoming dates. Then, place your content into a template.Build stronger connections and establish clear communication with your community. Implement your strategy and use these school newsletter examples as inspiration.

How to optimize text-heavy school newsletters 

Evaluating your current school newsletter design is the first crucial step towards creating a more engaging one. Is your newsletter easy to skim? Are students and parents able to consistently locate the specific information they need each week?If you’re responding no to these questions, then you’re sending an email that’s jam-packed with great content, but formatted incorrectly. Although the text-heavy email is a great approach when it’s templated, loading an email with a block of plain text will surely lose your readers’ attention.For example, The Creek High School (TCHS) sent out a long-winded email with plain text. While the content and information Steve provides is valuable, parents and students will likely stop reading and even delete the email because they can’t locate what they need quickly.

    Text-heavy email example

Above all, students and parents want to hear from you and refer back to your newsletter for important information. But, if your school newsletter doesn’t have organized content blocks then it makes it a more time-consuming task for them.Transform your school newsletters with responsive email templates. In this example, BEE took the TCHS school newsletter and inputted that same content into a structured template.

View the full template transformation here. 

The content is organized in a careful manner. Students and parents will find their weekly agendas, links to event fliers and other important content with an easy skim.Therefore, putting your school newsletter content into templates and sticking to the same weekly send-off cadence is the best way to increase engagement with your community. After completing this step, consider these best practices as well to boost engagement even further:

• Craft intriguing subject lines (avoid spam trigger words)
• Don’t overload on CTAs
• Optimize for mobile
• Keep a clean email list
• Test content to accurately pinpoint your community’s needs

Craft the perfect school newsletter by implementing these best practices to increase open rates and overall engagement with your community. Now it’s your turn to take action.

7 school newsletter templates to use this season

School newsletters are a main source of essential information for students and parents. Their purpose is to foster connections between school and home. Creating an eye-catching newsletter that students and parents want to read doesn't have to be too complicated. Most importantly, settle on the content you need to provide your community with, and decide on how you want to showcase it. Forget about sending a hard copy newsletter and try one of these digital school newsletter templates for your weekly newsletter.

E-Learning Blog

Customize this e-learning blog template to serve as your weekly school newsletter. Provide students and parents with links to your educational blog that includes educational content or classroom updates. Then, personalize your headline with your school name and date, and include real in-class pictures for each blog post or content block. There is plenty of space to get creative and create a classic school newsletter with this template.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Book Lovers

Edit this book lovers template to fit your school newsletter’s agenda. Include pictures and quotes from students in the class to share progress updates with parents, showcase class readings and quotes from those books or simply run through a list of event descriptions to keep parents informed. In this school newsletter template, there is a simple grey background with non cluttered modules for an easy skimmable read.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Colorful Newsletter

Want to make sure parents and students are reading your newsletter? Use this colorful school newsletter template for your weekly recap. It’s a great design for K-5 classrooms, with areas to feature pictures of students in-action, share information about upcoming events and even provide a more detailed outlook of the week-to-week curriculum for parents to always stay in the know. Update the text and images to suit your classroom’s agenda.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

School Agenda

Run through your weekly school activities with this unique school newsletter template. Include your school logo, classroom or student images and clear descriptions of your content in the organized text-modules. Moreover, this template provides an organized play-by-play of weekly classroom activities to keep parents and students in the loop. There’s even space to personalize the greeting to the student or parent you are sending the newsletter to.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

School Activities

This simplified design makes going over your classroom agenda incredibly easy. School district newsletters should adopt this design as well because it provides a clear event schedule for the community to keep up to date every week. With a bright yellow CTA and carefully sectioned columns, there’s no way parents or students will possibly miss a beat. This colorful email is perfect with the top portion designed to look like notebook paper, and the rest of the email looks like a blackboard and includes places to put student photos.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Student Spotlight

Share information about your background as a teacher for parents and students to get to know you in this school newsletter template. Or initiate a student spotlight or student of the week idea into your newsletter. So, whatever content you want to include, make sure to personalize it for parents and students as they will get excited about reading your newsletter if it’s directed towards them. This multipurpose template includes a clear, easy to spot CTA and appropriate white space between content so as to not overwhelm your readers. As a result, the entire email gives off an organized, professional appearance.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Back to School

This versatile school newsletter template is great for grades K-5 with its fun colors and characters scattered throughout the email. To start, introduce parents to the back to school learning app that students will be using throughout the year or map out different events or activities students will do each week in each detailed module. The bright colors and easy to read copy simplifies the newsletter for parents to make sure they are truly reading them.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Design your school newsletter with BEE Pro

Don’t hesitate on getting creative with these templates, use them in whichever way fits your content best. These school newsletter templates are versatile: keep the colors, module placements and location of CTAs and simply input and organize your content any way you want.Designing with BEE Pro will simplify your school newsletter design process. Quickly edit and input new information and updates into your chosen template to save you time each week. Also, take advantage of some of BEE Pro’s incredible features like co-editing, branding kits and mobile design mode. This will give you the ultimate design freedom and flexibility to create the best school newsletters.

It’s no secret that alumni engagement is crucial to higher ed. Former students who feel connected with their alma mater attend more events, engage more with current students and donate more often. Alumni newsletters are a great way to add communication touch points throughout the year.With graduated students being scattered across demographics, email is one of the most effective ways to stay in touch with alum. Alumni newsletters open rates sit at about 25.8% compared to the 21.3% average across all industries. And with an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent, email remains one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies for higher education institutions.Newsletters also provide versatility, allowing you to raise awareness about your next fundraising initiative, tell success stories, and keep former students informed about alumni association events.Check out some newsletter strategies and content ideas for inspiration to advance alumni engagement at your university.

8 Best Practices for Crafting Alumni Newsletters

Developing a clear content strategy is key to keeping alumni engaged. There aren’t any one-size-fits-all approaches to designing high-converting alumni newsletters for your university. But, there are key best practices that will help. Create better alumni newsletters using these 8 tips.

Establish your workflow

The first step in any strong content workflow is user research. Take time to build a relationship with your alumni before creating an alumni newsletter. Reach out to alumni through LinkedIn, other social media platforms or by attending alumni events. Use these interactions to guide the content, style and cadence of your newsletter.The second step is to establish a purpose for your newsletter. Ask yourself these questions before sending your email:

• What is the purpose of the message you’re sending?
• Why is this message important for alumni to know?
• How are you going to measure the success of this message?

Your third step is to create a visually-engaging newsletter. Create an alumni newsletter from scratch or choose from this collection to help you get started.Finally, test your content and reach out to alumni for feedback. Review open rates, click-through rates and conversions from each message. This will shed light on what’s serving your community best. Repeat this four step process until you find what’s most engaging to your alum.

Pinpoint your KPIs

Set your KPIs by looking at the objective behind your alumni newsletter. Rather than trying to maximize all metrics, measure outcomes by associating a specific KPI with the unique objective of each email.For example, if you are looking to raise awareness through your newsletter, open rates would be a solid indicator of that success. Meanwhile, if you’re aiming to simply attract more alum to an event, click-through rates are a better measurement. Establishing a KPI before sending your email will give you clarity on which elements to optimize.

Find your cadence 

How many emails should you send to alumni each month? Reports indicate that the typical relationship-based organizations send an average of 16 emails per month. But when it comes to the higher education industry, universities are only sending about 7.4 emails each month.The problem is that creating extensive email marketing campaigns is expensive, time-consuming and demands the luxury of additional resources that many organizations don’t have.The number of emails sent each month depends on your budget and your team’s bandwidth. Using cost-effective tools like BEE Pro cuts down on the amount of time and effort it takes to craft an email.

Personalize your outreach

Segmenting your audience is the best way to personalize your alumni newsletter.Segment by breaking down your alumni group into various subsections to cater to each section’s specific needs. You can segment your email list based on geographic location, age, occupation, major and other fitting criteria to increase engagement.Useful data to gather includes:

• Where do your alumni live - what country, city and state?
• What year did they graduate? 
• Which sports do they keep up with? What was their major?

Alumni will read newsletters that touch on their interests. For example, creating a campaign for younger crowds should contain more social media related links or podcasts while older alumni prefer more short and feature stories. Personalization builds that connection through care, concern and understanding of their interests.

Refresh your email list

If you find that you haven't heard back from many alumni regarding your newsletter, it’s possible that they aren’t receiving your email. The contact info you received from alumni years ago is likely to have changed. If you initiate a re-engagement campaign and still don’t hear back from them, it’s best practice to delete alumni that did not respond.Keep in mind that if you continue to send your alumni newsletter to those that are uninterested, you run the risk of hitting their spam boxes. This goes for all alumni on your list. Cleaning your email list will help you reach your active members and avoid spam.Continuously look for opportunities to retrieve this updated contact info from alumni through outreach on social media, virtual alumni webinars and in-person events. For example, start an alumni happy-hour event once a month or a virtual comedy show fundraiser and collect updated emails.

Optimize email design 

Mobile optimization is a crucial part of your strategy to increase engagement with your alumni newsletter template. Alumni have different personal and professional lives which makes it difficult to determine the best way to reach everyone. Luckily, with tools like BEE Pro, you guarantee to reach them in the most optimized way on both desktop and mobile.

Display clear CTAs

Along with helpful links and resources, be sure to include one clear CTA. Reports show that emails with a single call-to-action increased clicks by 371%.When it comes to CTAs, these are best practices to increase click-through rates include:

• Use a CTA color that fits your brand while also allowing it to stand out amongst the rest of the newsletter content. 
• Avoid too many distractions and use imagery to guide alumni towards the CTA. Alumni will be drawn to different sections of the newsletter based on their preferences, so one clear CTA is best.

Your CTA will provide feedback on whether your content resonated with alumni by measuring click-through rates. Their click means they’re interested, so be sure to refresh your content if click-through rates are low.

Provide value

Test and evaluate your newsletter content to determine what’s intriguing to alumni. What content are they gravitating towards? Gather the feedback you receive and reframe areas of the newsletter that aren't receiving any engagement or providing value.Alumni-centric content brings value to your newsletter and will show that your intentions are genuine. You will know alumni are finding the content valuable not only by metrics, but also through their email replies.

Content Ideas for your Alumni Newsletter

Fresh content and a perfect strategy are the key to a successful alumni newsletter. Your end goal should be to make your alumni feel valued and appreciated. Highlight your school’s success through acknowledging and thanking alumni for their support. Engage with your alumni through some of these thoughtful content ideas:

Newsletter introduction 

The introduction of your alumni newsletter is the most important part of your newsletter. This is where you reel in your alumni with intriguing content. Some ideas for a great alumni newsletter intro include:

• School’s mission - Genuinely talk about your school’s ambitions, purpose and values. Discuss a vision that alumni will resonate with. For example,  if you are a welcoming, inclusive school, make sure that alumni feel that. 
• Stories alumni might find interesting - This should play off your mission statement. What were some values or purposes that you can draw a story out of? Are there exciting changes taking place at your school? Craft a story that emotionally engages alumni.
• Timely topic - Introduce alumni to relevant or useful information that encourages them to engage. This type of intro discusses any current exciting or moving stories.
• Message from administration - Alumni appreciate when higher ed officials take time to engage with them and their students. A personalized message providing insight, exciting news, or interesting facts would be a great start to your newsletter. 

Alumni stories

Showcase your alumnus’ successes. Your newsletter should feature alumni success stories to capture where alumni are now and what they’ve accomplished after attending your school. Not only are these alumni stories inspiring and exciting to read, they are also expressing your care for their professional and personal successes. Conduct interviews to provide in-depth personal stories and implement some of these ideas:

• Alumni of the month - Feature a couple alumni each month with exciting facts or stories about where they are now. Talk about how they are still engaging with your school to excite other alumni to do the same. 
• Awards - Share alumni wins. Capture pictures and express praise for alumni that have received accolades in their personal or professional lives. 
• In the news - Be on the lookout for alumni that are featured in the local or national news. Oftentimes alumni in the news may mention their alma mater, which is important to acknowledge and be grateful for. Alumni are always looking for networking opportunities or a chance to boast about their alma mater. 
• Networking - Sharing where alumni are now and what they have accomplished can help open doors for each other. Creating a connected community will encourage alumni to reach out to one another. 

Catch up with classmates

Although professional networking is important, many alum (especially young graduates) feel connected to their school on a personal level. Help them keep in touch with their classmates by including more personal stories in the alumni newsletter. Use some of these ideas in your newsletter:

• Feature story - Conduct an in-depth interview with alumni that are willing to share where they are now, both personally and professionally. Reading stories about someone’s journey to finding happiness and success post graduation are intriguing and inspiring. 
• Short stories - Similar to the feature stories, provide a shorter story covering a couple alumni that went down different paths. Choose a theme for these stories such as “travel stories” or “overcoming adversity”. Or even explore niche topics that your alumni community might care to learn and hear more about. 
• 10 questions - A short and sweet version of short stories. Interview alumni with a quick 10 questions. Pull information and ask questions that stray from the typical topics alumni get asked: How do you spend your weekends? What podcasts do you find inspiring? Do research beforehand to find topics that resonate with that alum personally. 

Alumni advice column

Current students and alumni love to take advantage of networking opportunities and chances to connect. But many alumni can’t make it to in-person events due to their busy schedules. This is where alumni advice in your newsletter comes in:

• Alumni advice column - Contact alumni to ask for a quote on certain topics that may be related to your school, their personal experiences, their professional experiences or niche fun facts that would be fun to include.
• Finding your path tips - Alumni, both young and old, travel on different paths. Some might make a career switch at an older age while others might make several switches throughout their career. This section is useful to interview and gain insight from alumni that have traveled down different roads. 
• Training Sessions - Offering virtual or in-person training sessions from one alumni professional to the next is a great way to gain insight on things many may not know and would care to learn more about. 

Faculty features

Express appreciation for those that work for your school. Alumni get excited to hear about the individuals that made their university experience so great. Many alumni pass through school without meeting many of these faculty members, so it’s great to share their impactful stories and how they contribute to your school’s mission. Implement these ideas into your newsletter:

• Inspiring faculty story - Interview faculty that have made a great impact on students. Many alumni will resonate and get excited about seeing these faculty members being recognized through a story.
• Recognition - Boast about your faculties wins in this section. What are they working on inside and outside of university that should be acknowledged? 
• 10 questions (faculty edition) - Find the faculty members that are remembered by alumni for their quirks, supportive nature and other inside information that would be interesting to hear about. There are so many faculty members that have distinct personalities that will be remembered by alumni forever. Do some research and digging to find these extraordinary members.  

Alumni engagement

Portraying that alumni are engaging with their school is a great way to reel more of them in. Create exciting events, offer fundraising opportunities and share the excitement through pictures. These ideas all lead to more personalized engagement, which is what is needed to provide true value through your alumni newsletter. Alumni want to see and feel like they are cared for post graduation, and these are great ways to express that. Try these alumni engagement ideas:

• Social snapshot - Include pictures of alumni on your social media platforms. This will encourage more alumni to get involved while also providing them with the opportunity to share pictures to reach and engage other alumni.
• Events - Share pictures from past alumni events to encourage alumni to get involved. Also take this space to talk about upcoming event info. Share quotes and fun excerpts from alumni that have attended and enjoyed specific events. 
• Giving - Recognize donors, promote fundraising events and express certain incentives or recognitions received by alumni for giving back to your school. 

Closing thoughts

Close out your newsletters on a personal note. Include a story, quote or thank you note from someone alumni are familiar with. Be sure to include these elements in your closer:

• Picture - Place a short bio picture of the individual signing the newsletter. This will put a face to the name and create more of a genuine connection with alumni.
• Name of sender - Include a real name in the send-off and not just a common one. “Alumni Association” is not as warm and personal as someone’s actual name. 
• Signature - Provide a written signature on every newsletter. This is a more thoughtful approach. It shows you care for alumni and that you put genuine effort into your newsletter. 
• Unsubscribe option - Ensure that subscribers can opt-out of your newsletter. Providing autonomy to your subscribers builds trust, stays in line with GDPR privacy terms and helps your newsletter avoid the spam filter. Respect their rights to security and provide them with the option to come or go as they please.

Now that you have an overview of newsletter best practices, it’s time to customize your approach. There are many opportunities to keep alumni engaged, find what works best for your community.

Design with BEE Pro

Create your engaging alumni newsletter in BEE Pro, the best, mobile-responsive drag and drop editor. We’re trusted and used by 15 of the top 50 universities from the US News & World Report, including Harvard, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Cornell and USC. With hundreds of templates to choose from including an education template collection and features like brand kits, even the smallest departments can design an email in minutes.

As summer winds down, prep time for the busy year ahead comes ever nearer. Before you know it, it’s time to start getting back into touch with teachers, parents, and students. Get a head start on the school season by developing an engaging school newsletter to connect with your community.Regular newsletters with high open rates indicate that your communications are being viewed. Newsletters also foster transparency and trust by ensuring that everyone receives the information they need. But with all of the competition for attention, your school newsletter runs the risk of being missed, or even worse, hitting the spam folder.Education-related emails sit at an average open rate of 34%. To meet or exceedthis benchmark, we recommend that you implement the following best practices, draw on inspiration from example templates and use these ideas to engage your community.

School newsletter best practices

Sending a school newsletter will benefit your community. You’re providing them with essential information, crucial updates, and exciting news to circle them into the conversations that are happening. How can you make sure that these important messages don’t get deleted? Start with best practices to captivate attention.

• Don’t overload with content. Less is more. Focus on the value of your content and narrow in on 2-3 main points to hit in each school newsletter. Overloading your emails with information is a sure way to end up in the archives. Many teachers, students, and parents appreciate a more concise email that brings value. Keep things simple and get straight to the point.

• Design for mobile. Optimizing your school newsletters for mobile is crucial since nearly 50% of email opens are coming from these devices. With parents, teachers, and students constantly on the move, desktop design has taken a backseat. Your community needs information fast and at your fingertips to stay up-to-date with  changes and events.

• Personalize. Apply personalization strategies to your emails to increase engagement and hear more feedback on your school newsletters. Take advantage of personalizing the subject line by using a first name or nickname that your subscriber goes by. Also, assure that the content you are sending is relevant to your desired subscribers. If they don’t feel connected with the content you are providing them with, rethink your purpose to reframe the desired plan and outcome.

• Find the best time to send. Consider optimal times to send an email before choosing when to send an email. Your day, time, and frequency needs to cater to your subscribers and their schedules. Students read their emails at different times than teachers and teachers may read at different times than parents. It’s all relative to their schedule and interest in what your school newsletter has to offer. A great way to ensure that your school newsletter is reaching your subscribers at the best time is to ask your subscriber list. The goal is to provide value, so quality over quantity is the goal. 

Ideas for teachers 

As a teacher, enhancing your students’ knowledge and creating the best learning experience is a top priority. But you have an array of other responsibilities as well, like keeping parents informed about what their kids are learning by showcasing some of their work.If you’re planning on staying up to date with informing both students and parents, then using teacher newsletter templates is the best way to quickly initiate that line of communication. These examples will help you get started with brainstorming what to include in your school newsletter.

Newsletters for students: 

• Field trip or class events: Share details on the upcoming events that your students will be able to look forward to.
• Get involved: List volunteer opportunities and other ways to get involved with the community.
• Important dates: Include a class schedule, syllabus or any crucial dates students need to remember and prepare for.
• Self-care: Share mental health-related info. 
• Book recs: Include a list of book recommendations/book of the month.
• Meet the student section: Create a meet-the-student section where you ask a student a couple of questions that the class may not know about them and then feature them in the school newsletter. 

Newsletters for parents: 

• Meet the teacher: Students are back to school and it’s made parents curious as to who’s going to teach their child all year. Send a brief description along with fun facts about you so they can warm up to you before the school year begins.
• Supply wish list: As a teacher, you aren’t provided with many supplies or money for supplies to have a fully functioning classroom environment that would create the best experience for students. Include a list on your school newsletter to encourage parents or community members to donate supplies.
• Contact info: Send your info and ask for theirs in return to initiate a line of communication. 
• Pictures: Parents love to see pictures of their kids, especially in school while they are away from them. Add pictures from school trips or in-class activities - they will love to see their kids in action
• Important dates: Keep parents informed of what their children are learning about and when. 

Ideas for college departments and career centers

There are endless opportunities when it comes to college newsletters due to the diversity of the student population. Advance your newsletter by sharing valuable info that can apply to different sectors of the student body. We’ve got you covered on ideas for your college newsletter.

• Freshmen: Give freshmen the inside scoop on all the exciting things taking place on-campus; include tips on how to study and even an advice section from upperclassmen.
• Writing Center: Throw in top writing tips or advice for students to read and apply in their next essay, this is useful for undergraduates and graduate students. Include the hours of the writing center and how students can make an appointment as well.
• On-campus events: Talk about upcoming concerts, free giveaways, educational forums, fundraisers and other exciting events going around on campus.
• Clubs: Share details about new clubs on campus and how students can join.
• Athletics: Share the athlete of the week, team events/game schedules, and helpful material on collegiate athlete health and wellness. Even include pump-up quotes and tail-gate details to get more students involved in supporting college athletics.
• Alumni: Stay connected with alumni through a creative newsletter that excites them. Invite them to school events and even include a spotlight feature to share their story and successes they've achieved post-college to inspire other students and to build a bridge of communication between undergraduates and alum professionals.
• Career center: Share interviewing tips, job/internship opportunities, job/internship fairs, and insight from professionals to help guide students towards their dream career.
• Department-specific: From psychology to chemical engineering, different academic departments will reach their students in different ways. Include department-related club info to encourage students to join or share a schedule for career planning lunch-in sessions with industry professionals.

Ideas for school districts

Districts have plenty to manage when it comes to keeping a constantly flowing stream of internal and external communications with teachers, students, and parents. Preparing school newsletters to reach each desired audience is overwhelming due to the abundance of content. Check out these ideas to better your school newsletter communications.

• Staff meetings: Schedules and recaps of what was said, or information on new curriculum implementations can be included here. 
• Tips: Provide insightful tips that teachers can use and take advantage of, for instance like organizational tips.
• Events: Organize and include info about school supply fundraisers or other initiatives to help equip teachers with the resources they need to be successful OR inform parents with details about the next back to school picnic or community events throughout the year. 
• Faculty honor roll: Spotlight teachers or staff that have achieved success inside or outside of the classroom to further their connections with one another.
• Updates: Include info about new changes or happenings with the curriculum or other details that may affect teachers or students.

Key Takeaways

School newsletters throw a line of communication to teachers, parents, and students to build more of a human-to-human connection amongst such a large body of people. Evaluate your content to provide more value. This will increase your subscribers and that connection you are working towards.Include some of these newsletter ideas in your next email, and remember to:

• Design for mobile
• Keep content to a minimum for each email
• Personalize the information
• Find your email cadence (time, date, frequency) 

Design with BEE Pro and apply some of these inspiring ideas to your next school newsletter to better support your community.

If you have a new product launching soon, it’s time to start designing your landing page now. A conversion-oriented landing page is key to helping your next product launch succeed — increasing lead generation and improving your brand visibility and trust. Today we’re breaking down what your product launch landing page should look like and dissecting some examples from real-life brands. Let’s get started:

What’s a product launch landing page?

What makes a new product launch landing page different from any other page on your website? A product launch landing page is specifically focused on a new product you’re introducing. This landing page is designed to get viewers excited about the launch by sharing information about your new product. Ideally, of course, the page will also entice them to make a purchase.Product launch landing pages should be designed with conversions in mind. Every element of the landing page needs to communicate the benefits of your product— and once you’ve sufficiently drummed up the excitement, you should lead visitors straight into making a purchase.

Product launch landing pages should be designed with conversions in mind. Communicate the benefits of your product and lead visitors straight into making a purchase.

Here are some real-life examples to help inspire you as you think about new product launch landing page design.

Madewell

Madewell promotes its new Summerweight Denim with a landing page composed of a helpful infographic where visitors can get to know the product. The page introduces the company’s new type of denim with a descriptive line of copy and an image. Next you see four compelling facts about the product, each one accompanied by a doodled icon to add a fun visual touch. Further down, you can shop all products made out of Madewell’s new type of denim.

This new product landing page offers both fun visuals and detailed information on what makes this product so useful. By explaining just how these jeans will solve a universal problem, while maintaining strong visual branding, Madewell sets its audience up to be ready to convert.

Dove x Target

Dove recently partnered with Target to share a brand new Dove Kids collection, and this landing page designed for the new collection does a great job. Page visitors are greeted with a lineup of the new products, including a fun illustrated background that’s perfect for kids:

When you scroll down, you’re able to choose from one of four CTA’s to shop the collection, or you can continue reading.

Near the bottom of the page, Dove shares more information about how the product is made, backing up its compelling visuals with clear facts and value messaging. The landing page also encourages parents to incorporate self-care activities into their kids’ daily routines.

This product launch landing page does a lot of things right. Dove uses casual, informative language to talk about the choices behind the new products. And the soft colors and fun doodles sprinkled throughout the page are perfect for an audience of parents and young kids.

The Lip Bar

When The Lip Bar introduced a new Caffeine Concealer, the company created a simple yet effective new product landing page. This landing page is broken down into three components. First up, the company introduces the new product that’s “for every shade of you:”

Second, you see a video demonstrating the concealer in action:

And third, The Lip Bar added a quick-hit section that presents the benefits of this product in a bulleted list:

This focus on visual proof of the product’s value is extremely effective for audience members who aren’t already familiar with a product. And in the case of a new product launch, that’s everyone! The text focusing on product benefits neatly backs up this visual messaging with the kind of meaningful detail that convinces consumers to click ‘buy now.’The page also provides further visual proof with a “Shadefinder” product where visitors can mouse over concealer options for several complexions and view each one on a model. There are also two YouTube videos at the bottom of the page that teach viewers how to apply concealer.Our only criticism of this effective landing page: We wish the images at the top were clickable so visitors didn’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom to shop.

Moda Operandi

Luxury fashion retailer Moda Operandi shared a good new product landing page to introduce its new spring collection. The landing page evokes a springtime feel, with pastel colors and delicate, on-brand fonts. Once you’ve taken in the header, you can scroll down to shop individual products.

This product launch landing page is simple, but includes all the information you need to know to get you excited to shop. The images that bookend the text are also a great addition to the page — visuals go a long way when introducing your new product or collection.

Sweaty Betty

Wondering what to consider when launching a new product? Take a look at this product launch landing page for Sweaty Betty’s new hiking collection that has it all. The copy at the top of the page includes a nod to the fact that more people than ever are getting outdoors for a walk. After a brief line of copy, you can jump straight into shopping the collection. Finally, a sidebar allows you to shop by product to easily categorize your results.

This approach is ideal for any brand that wants to get people shopping right away, especially if the product images can speak for themselves. While other, less-known brands may have something to prove first (as is the case above with The Lip Bar), Sweaty Betty’s designer is focusing less on overtly convincing viewers of the brand’s value. With the minimal font, many viewers won’t even read the text before scrolling directly through the product images and —the designer is hoping —clicking ‘add to cart.’

Wrap-up: New product landing page design

Product launches are stressful. Your landing page design shouldn’t add to the chaos. Use our premade product launch landing page templates to save yourself time and headaches. With these templates and BEE’s drag-and-drop interface, it’s easy and fast to design the new product landing page of your dreams.When you do that, consider taking some lessons from the landing pages featured here. First and foremost, consider your audience. Once you consider their needs and their relationship with and expectations of your brand, you’ll be in a position to shape visual and value messaging that will lead to conversions. Happy designing!

Job hunting isn’t for the faint of heart — especially in this day and time. No matter where you are in your career or how much experience you have, the process of networking, filling out countless job applications and painstakingly tweaking your LinkedIn profile is a draining one. Sending endless resume emails is just another to-do on the list.

When it comes to job applications, you’re probably used to writing a plain text email and including your resume as an attachment. Sending a designed email with your resume, however, can up your chances of getting the job. And if you use a resume email template, the design process is a lot easier than you might think.

Check out our video below for a step-by-step tutorial on how to write a resume and send it via email. Then keep reading to see resume email examples and learn how you can design an HTML resume email to land your dream job.

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Resume or CV?

There’s a difference between resumes and CVs. Knowing which one to use is essential. A resume is short and concise: It provides an overview of your relevant skills, education and work experience. A CV (curriculum vitae) is a more comprehensive document that lists all of your academic achievements and prior jobs. Typically, people in the U.S. only use CVs in academic settings, such as when applying for a research fellowship. In Europe and in Canada, people sometimes refer to resumes as CVs. A resume is appropriate for any type of job.

Your resume should include the following information:

• Contact information
• Education
• Work history/experience
• Special skills
• Bio or summary (optional)
• References (when required)

Our Light CV template created by designer Yuliana Pandelieva is a good example — it contains each of these six elements. You could also consider adding a bio or summary section. The email has plenty of space to include the information a potential employer needs to know. But it’s still simple, clean and uncluttered, with minimal design.

Knowing how to write a resume makes a big difference in the job search. Our resume templates take the guesswork out of this task by including the must-have information. All you have to do is customize the email for yourself.

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When to send a CV by email

Designing an HTML resume email might not be your first thought when you sit down to apply for jobs. But an HTML email could be beneficial in the job search. The recipient won’t need to download your resume as a document in order to view it. And if you’d like, you can post your resume on your website in this format, too.

A designed resume email might be especially appropriate in certain industries, such as marketing or design. Sending an HTML email can show that you have an eye for visuals and you recognize that appearances matter.

Ready to write a CV and send it via email? There are a few important principles to keep in mind. Here's what you need to know.

How to write a resume: examples

Organization

It’s your job to make sure your information is organized in a way that’s easy to read and comprehend. In our About Me template, designed by Yuliana Pandelieva, your name, title, contact info and a brief bio are all included in the header. The rest of the text is organized in two neat columns that are easy to skim.

Tone

Some jobs require a formal CV. But in other contexts, a more conversational resume might be best. For example, our Hello There CV template created by Jen Schmaltz takes a casual tone. This email might be a good fit for a freelancer who works in a creative industry, such as photography. It’s a fun way to show off your personality at the same time you prove your skills. And many times, that’s exactly the combination you need.

Branding

You might think of branding as something that’s only applicable to companies and large corporations. But individuals can have their own personal brands, too — and that’s something you definitely want to show off in a CV submission.

What colors do you use on your website or in your LinkedIn header? Do you have a logo with your name? What font is on your business cards? Incorporate all of these elements in your resume email. This will help your application — and you — be as memorable as possible. Our Blue CV template by Martin Nikolchev has a bold blue background with simple, no-frills fonts that are perfect for a computer or web designer.

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How to send a resume via email

Now that you know what to write when sending your resume via email, it’s time to start designing! Our resume email templates can simplify your job search and help you stand out in a crowd of applicants. With these ready-to-use HTML templates, it’s fast and easy to customize the graphics and typography to reflect your experience and your personal brand. Then export the finished email to your Gmail account as an HTML message.

You can access the templates with a free trial of BEE Pro. With a BEE Pro subscription, you’ll be able to:

• Access all of our resume and CV email templates (and every other email template in the catalog, too)
• Save your favorite resume for further editing
• Export the final product to Gmail

A BEE Pro account also gives you the ability to save your resume templates so you can re-use them again and again throughout your job search. Ideally, your resume will be tailored to the specific job you’re applying for — which can mean extra work for you as you edit your resume every time you send it somewhere new. That’s where a resume email template saves time in the job search process: It’s simple to pull up your pre-saved template and make a few quick changes with the BEE editor before sending your resume out again.

You can also save time by exporting your resume email straight to your Gmail drafts. From there, you can make any final tweaks to the message before adding a recipient and a subject line and sending it off.

Wrap-up: Sending your resume through email

Your resume or CV represents you, so it’s essential to design it well. Send a well-organized, visually attractive resume email to showcase what you bring to the table. Platforms such as Jooble, a website that shares hundreds of thousands of vacancies, can help you find the jobs you're interested in. Then all you have to do is send your resume email template with BEE and rinse and repeat until you land that dream job.

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Email marketers invest a significant amount of time and energy into promotional emails: Here's our newest product! Here's our biggest sale! Here's our upcoming event!But some of the most-read and most highly valued emails among readers are transactional, not promotional. Transactional emails have a higher open rate and click-through rate than marketing emails. And for your consumers, shipping confirmation emails are one of the most exciting transactional emails to receive.It’s always fun to get an email confirming that your order is on its way. The positive association means that shipping confirmation emails are very likely to be opened and read — which makes them a great opportunity for building brand loyalty.Follow these design tips to create a shipping confirmation email that communicates well, reflects your brand and looks fantastic.

Shipping confirmation emails are very likely to be opened and read — which makes them a great opportunity for building brand loyalty.

Tip #1: Make tracking easy

It's a shipping confirmation email, after all. Above all else, readers want to know where their order is and when they can expect it to arrive. Shipping confirmation emails are all about tracking the order, and this message from Enjoy Life Foods is a great example. It’s simple, focused and makes it easy for readers to track their package.Subject line: ?Get ready to #eatfreely! Order 152309 is on the way!

This effective, no-frills email accomplishes a lot in a few lines. A simple “Items in this shipment” list confirms what the order was. And the email is written in Enjoy Life’s light and fun brand voice, infusing a sense of joy into the message and joining readers in their enthusiasm. (We especially love the branded hashtag included in the subject line!)

Tip #2: Optimize for mobile with a single column design

It's tempting to showcase purchased products in a grid or use multiple columns or sidebars in a shipping confirmation email. But a single-column design is usually the most effective, especially for mobile. Take this shipping email sample from ExpressionMed:Subject line: Shipping update for order #70219

Here’s how it shows up in a mobile inbox:

The single column establishes a clear content hierarchy, so it's easy for the reader to follow. The first key takeaway? The order has shipped! You can click on a bulletproof button to view your order or scroll down to see an image of the items in the shipment. We also love how the ample white space between sections makes the email feel uncluttered and improves readability.

Tip #3: Prioritize transactional content over upsell content

According to the CAN-SPAM act, the content of transactional emails must be "primarily transactional." In other words, these emails need to focus on the main message (order shipment, in this case) and shouldn't be used for marketing additional goods or services. While shipping confirmation emails can be a tantalizing opportunity to appeal to customers who already know your brand, don’t overstuff your message with extraneous calls to action. When in doubt, keep it simple — like this example from Mercy House Global.Subject line: Your shipment from Mercy House Global is on its way 

As a general rule of thumb, allow shipping confirmation details to take up at least 75% of your email. Marketing material can be included if you’d like to add an upsell. But position it at the bottom of the message and make sure it’s relevant.

Tip #4: Add helpful visuals

You may think there's not much to visualize with graphic design in shipping confirmation emails. But you might be surprised at the opportunities. This message from Etsy includes a helpful visual at the top to help customers see that their package is almost there.Subject line: Your Etsy order shipped (receipt #1908008238)

You could also try adding other types of illustrations, such as a map showing where you’ll be shipping the order from. And remember how we talked about adding relevant product recommendations at the end of shipping confirmation emails? Etsy does that here with a “You might like these too” section of products.

Tip #5: Be upfront about potential delays

It’s always important to be honest with your customers, especially during periods where shipping delays might factor into delivery time — whether that’s because of the COVID-19 pandemic or simply because of a busy holiday season. TeePublic includes a disclaimer at the top of this email:Subject line: TeePublic shipping confirmation order #6738438

The section is easy to spot because it’s a different background color. And the text clearly explains what customers need to know: The postal service is experiencing delays, so if your order is late or you can’t view the tracking, don’t panic.

Wrap-up: Shipping confirmation email templates

Are your shipping confirmation emails living up to what you want to communicate about your brand? Try using our template to make customers happy and build loyalty! Created by designer Andrea Dall’Ara, this shipping confirmation email template is easy to customize using the BEE email editor. Use the template to give your shipping emails a boost!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

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As an e-commerce brand, transactional emails are one of the most effective weapons in your marketing arsenal. Transactional emails have higher open rates than marketing emails, plus a click-through rate that’s almost three times higher than non-transactional emails. That’s why these types of messages present a valuable opportunity for you to build relationships with your customers! Here’s how to create a transactional email that will give your conversion rate a boost both now and long-term.

As an e-commerce brand, transactional emails are one of the most effective weapons in your marketing arsenal. These emails have a click-through rate that’s almost 3X higher than non-transactional emails.

What is a transactional email?

Transactional emails are emails that are triggered by events — a user performs an action, and they receive a certain email in response. Examples of transactional emails include:

• Welcome emails
• User activation or trial expiration emails
• E-commerce emails (abandoned cart, receipts, confirmations)
• Request emails (password reset or verification code)
• Account-related alerts and security emails
• Re-engagement emails
• Support and feedback emails

Transactional emails are prompted by a specific customer action, and people expect to get these kinds of emails. If you request a password reset email, for example, you’re most likely going to be refreshing your inbox until you see the message come in. That’s why transactional emails have much higher open rates than marketing emails.Your transactional emails are more likely to be read, and that means they need to be top-notch. What’s more, this is a great place for you to subtly add some marketing and upsell your customer. Transactional emails are an easy place to sneak in a little marketing — it’s much easier to sell to people who already know about you than it is to seek out new customers.Wondering how to create a transactional email that will improve your conversion rate? Here are a few transactional email examples and tips.

Introduce yourself

Share more information about your company so your customers can get to know you. A welcome email is a great place to highlight your popular products and make it easy for readers to shop. Kassatex promotes its bestselling products with a separate CTA button for each one:Subject line: Welcome to Kassatex!

Backcountry also adopts this approach, sharing a gear guide in its welcome email. Adding product information to your transactional email design is a smart way to up your conversion rate.Subject line: Welcome to Backcountry 

Offer an extra incentive

Provide your customers with an incentive — something that will encourage them to make a purchase, such as a discount or a special coupon code. In this welcome email, Peet’s Coffee gives new customers a code to get $2 off their first purchase. We’d suggest including your offer in the email subject line to help boost that transactional email open rate even more.Subject line: We want to welcome you 

Upsell your customer

You can use your transactional email to upsell your customer — whether you ask them to simply add something to the order they've already made or bring up an entirely new proposition. An end-of-free-trial email is a good place to do this. You can also upsell your customer in an order confirmation email.

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

Create dynamic content

Abandoned cart emails are a hugely valuable type of transactional email. On average, these emails have a conversion rate that’s higher than 10%! Make your abandoned cart emails even better by drawing on the customer’s browsing history to add personalized product recommendations. For example, this message from Walmart presents the item left in the customer’s cart, but it also takes things a step further by providing some additional products to consider.Subject line: Check out before it sells out!

Broadcast your USP

What makes your company special? What perks or unique selling propositions do you offer that bring extra value to your customers? Highlight those selling points everywhere you can — including in your transactional emails. In this welcome email, Kate Farms (a company that makes feeding tube formula) mentions:

• Two-day free shipping
• A commitment to creating personal customer relationships
• A passion for progress
• The powerful ingredients used

When you consistently include this information, your customers receive the message without even realizing it. Over time, you’re helping them create a good impression of your brand.Subject line: Welcome to the Kate Farms family!

Make sure the emails are branded

Our biggest tip for transactional email design: Your emails need to be clearly branded. This won’t necessarily boost your conversions right away. But increasing brand awareness and cementing customer loyalty will only do good things for your conversion rate in the long run. For example, in this email from Stitch Fix, the branding is subtle but there. The header is the same header Stitch Fix always uses. The color of the CTA button matches the company’s brand colors. And the subject line and copy use the same tone of voice as the brand’s other emails. All of these are important transactional email design choices that can improve a company's brand awareness.Subject line: Need to reset your password? No problem!

Wrap-up: Transactional email templates

Now that you know how to create a transactional email, you can use the BEE email editor to design yours. Our transactional email templates make it easy to create mobile-responsive, HTML messages — no coding experience required. Let the BEE editor kickstart your transactional email design!

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Do you send Get to Know Your Customers Day emails? This fun "holiday" takes place on the third Thursday of every quarter — in January, April, July and October. It reminds brands to reach out to customers and work on developing those important relationships that will help your business grow. And if you design your emails the right way, this holiday can have major long-term benefits for your brand. Here’s what you need to know about Get to Know Your Customers Day, plus some email design ideas to try.

Get to Know Your Customers Day can have major long-term benefits for your brand.

Why send a Get to Know Your Customers Day email?

Get to Know Your Customers Day is a valuable opportunity for brands. Take advantage of this chance to follow up on the main holidays we’ve just passed and develop more of a bond with your customers. Forging stronger customer relationships should always be a priority. Companies that create an emotional connection with their customers outperform their competitors in sales growth by 85%!While marketing is essential too, don’t get so busy seeking out new customers that you forget to work on getting to know the ones you have. As your customer relationships are strengthened, not only will your customers be more inclined to buy from you — you’ll also understand how to better market to them.Check out these Get to Know Your Customers Day email ideas to engage your customers and increase their loyalty to your brand.

Get to Know Your Customers Day email design ideas

Send out a customer survey

Capitalize on Get to Know Your Customers Day by, well, getting to know your customers. This is a great chance to send out a customer survey and get some direct feedback on your brand. Email design best practices for survey invitation emails include providing an incentive, having an engaging subject line and being clear and direct about what you want your customers to do. Chobani displays every one of these best practices in the example below. It’s easy for the reader to take action!Subject line: Chance to win $200 gift card for taking our Chobani Rewards survey 

Start a loyalty program

Use your Get to Know Your Customers Day email to introduce your loyalty program. Loyalty programs have a lot of benefits for businesses: They can be used to attract new customers, re-engage current ones and increase your revenue overall. In this colorful and attractive email from Starbucks, the coffee company plugs its rewards program (dubbed Starland). The email makes it clear what readers will get out of joining the rewards program and includes a CTA for you to join now.Subject line: Deliciously different ?

Dynamic content

Use dynamic content, recommending products to your customers based on what they’ve purchased in the past, and strengthening your relationship with them by helping them feel seen and taken care of. With this approach, everyone gets a tailored-to-them email with products they’d be more likely to buy. Skillshare sent an email with personalized class picks for each subscriber.Subject line: Your personal class recommendations 

Make yourself available

Make yourself available to your customers. This is a simple concept, but all too often it’s something that companies don’t do. Being accessible to your customers is essential to improve customer service and strengthen customer relationships.You can do this by responding to emails, hosting an event (virtual or in-person) or inviting your readers to interact with you. Williams Sonoma even threw a specific customer appreciation event, providing a discount code to say thanks to its customers. The opportunities are endless. Just make sure you’re responsive and willing to talk.Subject line: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

Say thanks

The last of our Get to Know Your Customers Day Ideas is simple, but important: Say thank you. Expressing your genuine appreciation helps your customers feel valued. And when your customers feel valued, their loyalty to your brand will increase. Adding a special discount code like GAP did here only sweetens the deal.Subject line: Code GAPFALL is our way of saying thanks. 

Wrap-up: Get to Know Your Customers Day email design

The first Get to Know Your Customers Day of the year is coming up on Thursday, January 21st! Prepare your emails now using the BEE email editor — a simple, free solution for email design. With these Get to Know Your Customers Day ideas in hand, you’re well on your way to creating better relationships with your customers this year.

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Use this template in Beefree!

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Small businesses, are you ready to market yourself on Small Business Saturday? This is an important holiday for local businesses, so seize the opportunity to help yours stand out. Check out these Small Business Saturday email marketing ideas to help inspire your campaign.

Small Business Saturday is an important holiday for local businesses. Seize the opportunity to help yours stand out.

What is Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday takes place on the last Saturday in November. This annual holiday is a chance to shop small, helping small businesses get the recognition and revenue they deserve. (Curious whether your business counts as a small business? Check out this size standards tool created by the U.S. Small Business Administration.)Coming right on the heels of the feeding frenzy that is Black Friday, Small Business Saturday is a welcome change. This holiday was created by American Express to celebrate the small businesses in your local community. It’s been around for the past decade and counting and produces extra revenue from holiday shoppers: In 2019, Small Business Saturday generated $19.6 billion in reported spending. There's an incentive for consumers to participate: American Express offers them cash back on purchases made at small businesses on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.As a small business yourself, this is a day that you can’t overlook. This holiday is growing in visibility each year. And investing in some Small Business Saturday marketing is definitely in your best interests.Set yourself apart by creating a strong email campaign. Email marketing is a great choice for small businesses that want to make a big impact. Free marketing tools like the BEE email editor can help you design beautiful emails with no coding knowledge — helping your email ROI increase. Let’s take a look at a few Small Business Saturday email ideas.

Small Business Saturday email ideas

Don’t get lost in the shuffle between Black Friday and Cyber Monday — remind your customers that you have a lot of great deals and products heading their way!

Segment your audience

Segment your audience by geographic region to make sure people get the email that’s most relevant to them. If you’re a local business, this still applies: Segment people according to their specific zip code. This Tie Bar message uses clever copy to encourage readers to seek out their local Tie Bar store.Subject line: It’s Small Business Saturday! Grab your free socks. 

Offer a special discount

Small Business Saturday might be the perfect time to launch a new product, or create a special bundle of products that are on sale. That’s what Catbird did here, advertising a group of products that went on sale for Small Business Saturday. Think about which of your products you could bundle together to sell at a reduced cost. Then consider what would be the most effective way to advertise this promo in your Small Business Saturday email.Subject line: We made something small, shiny & new ?

Take advantage of neighborhood networking

Small Business Saturday is all about supporting the small businesses around you. So don’t be afraid to do just that! Try partnering with another local small business and creating a joint sale. A coffee shop and a bakery could team up, offering lattes and cupcakes at a reduced price for both. Larger brands can also get in on the fun. Brooklinen used its platform to encourage customers to #shopsmall.Subject line: Shop small with us

Give your customers context

While most people are probably familiar with the concept of Small Business Saturday, it never hurts to dive a little deeper. Use your Small Business Saturday email to further explain the idea behind this day. Otherwild describes just why Small Business Saturday is so important and how it helps community-focused small businesses keep their doors open.Subject line: Support small businesses 

Include catchy Small Business Saturday email subject lines

Judging from our inbox, most businesses marking the day mention Small Business Saturday in their subject lines. Others play off of the phrase “shop small.” We also recommend including your specific deal or promotion in the subject line; after all, that’s what people are looking for during the holidays. Their minds are still in discount mode the day after Black Friday. So adding numbers and percentages in the subject line could help increase your open rate.

Add a countdown timer to increase hype

Countdown timers have a lot of benefits. These dynamic, real-time elements are a great way to jazz up your email and create a sense of urgency. And adding a countdown timer to an email isn’t as difficult as you might think. While not a Small Business Saturday email specifically, this Lands’ End email has a great countdown timer that grabs your attention right off the bat.Subject line: Countdown’s on: 50% off 1 ends tonight

Wrap-up: Celebrate Small Business Saturday in style

Use the BEE email editor to bring your Small Business Saturday marketing ideas to life! BEE is a great tool for small local businesses. The editor is 100% free to use, with a template catalog full of 500+ professionally designed email templates available, including a set of Small Business Saturday email templates. Use BEE’s email editor to create your Small Business Saturday emails this year!

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Are you looking for ways to brand your business and connect with potential employees? Employer branding emails might be just what you need. These messages are a great way to reach out to applicants, helping to improve your talent pool and show your target employees exactly why your company is a great place to work. Let’s dig into how these messages can help your business and what you need to do to create them!

Are you looking for ways to brand your business and connect with potential employees? Employer branding emails might be just what you need.

Why build an employer brand?

The term “employer brand” describes a company’s reputation and the culture it provides for employees. Your employer brand should accurately represent your business and position your company as a great place to work.Think of employer branding as a way to market your company to would-be employees. There’s a lot of talent out there, and many qualified candidates have no problem finding a good job. So in order for your company to attract top-notch potential employees, it’s important to think about employer branding. This kind of marketing can also help you retain the employees you already have. And that’s why it’s so essential to keep up with this marketing strategy.Employer branding can take place on a lot of different channels. But email is by far one of the most important. As Storq points out in this employer branding email, your list of email subscribers is full of people who already know and (hopefully) love your brand. Who better to work for you than someone who’s part of your target audience? Your next employee might already be reading your emails. But they may not realize you’re looking for them until you send an employer branding email.Subject line: We’re hiring. Come work at Storq!

Here are a few tips to create an employer branding email that will connect with potential applicants.

Explain your EVP

First up on our list of employer branding email strategies: Explain the EVP, or employer value proposition, of your company. Your EVP points out what makes your brand different — and better than — your competitors. To define your EVP you can ask questions like:

• What’s unique about our company culture?
• What do we provide our employees that our competitors don’t?
• What’s our vision and mission?

Your employer value proposition is what’s going to convince potential employees to come on board with your brand. For example, in this hiring email, American Eagle Outfitters shares the benefits and perks it provides employees.Subject line: YOU’RE INVITED: AE & Aerie holiday hiring event!

Don’t overwhelm

While it’s important to share your EVP with readers, you don’t want to overdo it. Including too much information in one email can overwhelm people. So instead, narrow in on your primary selling point and push it hard. Century 21 keeps it simple in this uncluttered employer branding email. Its main message? The company is hiring. To learn anything beyond that, readers need to visit the landing page linked in the email.Subject line: WE’RE HIRING! Join Century 21 stores for the holidays

Share video content

An email that includes a video can increase your click-through rate by 300%! Try sharing video content in your employer branding emails to show what it’s like to work at your company. Let a current employee take your readers behind-the-scenes with a day-in-the-life video. This is a great way to help email subscribers picture themselves working there, too.

Communicate your company culture

The design choices you make in your employer branding emails should subtly communicate the culture of your company. This email from Chubbie’s says a lot about the brand. From the hilarious photos, the irreverent tone of the copy and the basic layout of the message, you can tell that Chubbie’s doesn’t take itself too seriously. This is a company that wants to have fun.Subject line: We’re hiring man models

Involve your employees

Encourage your employees to share their experience working for your company. In employer branding emails, this could take the form of testimonials sharing what current employees like about your company. Or take your cue from Pinch of Yum and introduce your email readers to their future coworkers — sharing photos, and brief explanations of each person’s job.Subject line: We’re hiring: Video specialist

Craft strong employer branding email subject lines

For your employer branding email subject lines, it’s helpful to include the word “hiring” if you’re looking for applicants. This will grab the reader’s attention and make it immediately clear what’s inside the message.

Share helpful content

Use your employer branding emails to share relevant content with your readers. In this message, Esthetig Web Design shared an article with tips for getting hired in UX design. Similarly, you might choose to share content based around job hunting in your industry, or across-the-board info on how job seekers should present themselves in an interview. Sharing this kind of helpful content communicates to would-be employees that you’re on their side. You want them to succeed!Subject line: Smart Ways to Monetize a Website, Ultimate Guide To Get Hired, 7 Steps to Create a UX Case Study, Revealing Footer Effect, CSS Mondrian, Whatruns, Sketch Dark Mode Plugin, Stanley Font

Add a CTA

If you’d like your readers to apply to work for you, link to a job application in your CTA. Or take a slightly different route by inviting people to learn more about your brand. Paper Source has a few different CTAs in this employer branding email. You’re given the option to:

• Search careers
• Find a store near you
• Learn more about Paper Source

Subject line: We’re hiring for the holidays 

This CTA structure is effective because it isn’t pushy. If someone isn’t ready to commit to the job search, no pressure! They can simply learn more about the company instead.

Remember your employer branding email signatures

Remember to include your contact information, including social media links, at the bottom of your message. Cook Smarts includes its mission in the employer branding email signature of this message, which is a great way for people to get to know the brand a little more.Subject line: We’re hiring!

Wrap-up: Employer branding email templates

Now that you know the best employer branding email strategies, it’s time to jump in and design your own emails. Use our HR email templates, like this Job Finder message created by Regina Tagirova, to design your employer branding emails!

Use this template in Beefree!

Use this template in Beefree!

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