How to Increase Your Open Rate in Email Marketing

Ten years, thousands of emails, countless "ooohs" and "ahhhs." Since their inception, our friends at Really Good Email have been curating the most mind-blowing emails to save you from “meh” campaigns. Meanwhile, we at Beefree have been busy helping you turn that inspiration into inbox gold.

Now, we’re taking it up a notch with awards for the best of the best with the first-ever 2024 Really Good Emails Awards. Think of it as email’s version of the Oscars—minus the long speeches.

These emails didn’t just meet expectations—they redefined them. Selected from thousands of entries in the RGE collection, the winners embody:

• Community favorites: Campaigns you searched for, saved, and clicked on the most.
• Innovation and trends: Designs that pushed boundaries and set new benchmarks.
• Strategic brilliance: Perfectly balancing email marketing fundamentals with bold creative risks.

Why these awards matter

Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways to engage audiences and drive results. The RGE Awards serve as a benchmark for what’s possible, setting new standards for creativity, strategy, and impact. By studying these campaigns, you can:

• Stay ahead of trends: Understand the latest innovations shaping the industry.
• Refine your strategy: Learn how to balance creativity with proven marketing principles.
• Elevate your designs: Incorporate bold, eye-catching elements into your emails.

Not another boring resource: Here's what's inside

The Awards PDF is the ultimate cheat sheet full of strategies, free templates, and inspiration for designing award-winning emails. From standout visuals to innovative CTAs, every element of these campaigns offers a lesson in excellence.

• Winner highlights (duh): Why they stole the show and actionable insights you can steal to create your own magic.
• Easy access to all winning emails and categories: All of the best of the best in one place.
• The ultimate cheat sheet: We're done the heavy lifting for you and linked templates in Beefree similar to the winning emails 👀
• Exclusive Beefree deal: Black Friday came a little late, but we delivered.
• and so much more! 

A closer look at the winning categories

We've rolled out the red carpet for the crème de la crème of email design and strategy, competing across 11 categories. Handpicked from 17,000+ emails in our vault, they’re here to spark some serious 2025 inspiration.

• Welcome emails
• Product launch
• Re-engagement emails
• Pet emails
• Outdoor/travel emails
• Drinks emails
• Subject line
• Best CTA
• Quiz
• Seasonal email
• Most creative email

The competition also highlighted runner-ups like Lifesum, Google, and Ollie, whose campaigns showcased exceptional creativity and innovation. While these didn’t take the top spots, they serve as shining examples of effective email marketing that connects and converts.

Download the full Awards resource to access all the winners, runner-ups, and actionable insights.

A sneak peak

From sleek designs to impactful messaging, each winner showcased the pinnacle of what’s possible in email marketing. Highlights include:

🥇Best welcome email: Miro‍

First impressions matter, and Miro’s welcome email excelled with its clear onboarding steps, bold visuals, and action-oriented CTAs. 

Runner-ups like Lifesum’s starter kit email also showcased how to combine simplicity with effectiveness, turning new users into engaged participants right from the start. Welcome emails are more than a handshake—they’re the start of a journey that can shape long-term customer relationships.

🥇Best product launch: Volkswagen‍

Volkswagen’s email captivated audiences with interactive features and vibrant visuals. Its playful yet professional tone made the T-Cross launch feel both aspirational and accessible. 

Other brands like Freaks of Nature and Google stood out with innovative product announcements that paired sleek designs with compelling messaging. Product launch emails have the power to turn curiosity into action, driving immediate engagement.

🥇Best re-engagement email: Sometimes Always’

Sometimes Always redefined personalization and urgency with a campaign that felt tailored and compelling. Their email leveraged customer data to create a sense of exclusivity and importance. 

Honorable mentions include Tillamook and Nonny, which excelled at rekindling audience interest with humor, warmth, and timely offers. Re-engagement campaigns remind customers why they loved your brand in the first place.

🥇Best seasonal email: Touchland

Seasonal emails are an opportunity to tap into the zeitgeist while staying true to your brand identity, and Touchland does just that. Their Prime Day email turned a traditional sale announcement into a celebration of their brand. By combining playful design with clear value propositions, they created an email that felt festive and functional. 

These campaigns demonstrate that success in email marketing often lies in the details—from the strategic placement of a button to the tone of the subject line. By focusing on these elements, brands can create emails that not only look great, but also drive meaningful results.

Download the deck for the rest of the winners

What next? Turn inspiration into action

The 2024 Really Good Emails Awards celebrate more than just great campaigns—they’re about inspiring your next big idea. With tools like Beefree, you can bring these award-winning elements to life. Here’s how:

• Leverage pre-built templates: Use designs inspired by the winning emails to jumpstart your projects.
• Streamline collaboration: Work seamlessly with your team to refine your campaigns.
• Export effortlessly: Take your designs from Beefree to platforms like HubSpot, Mailchimp, and beyond.

Join the celebration

The email marketing community thrives on sharing and collaboration. Join us in celebrating the creativity and innovation that make email marketing such a dynamic field. Share your favorite campaigns with Really Good Emails and be part of the conversation shaping the future of email design.

Here’s to a future filled with creativity, connection, and campaigns that inspire.

From time to time, our favorite brands send us a privacy policy change email. And let’s be honest, most of the time, we just skip them and pay them no attention. 

As an email marketer, though, you might be required to send these emails. Luckily, you only have to send privacy policy notices when you update your privacy policy—which is usually only once per year (the CCPA requires this, in fact). 

So how do we make these less than exciting, but important emails at least worth reading? Let’s get into it.

Can privacy policy emails hurt your email reputation?

While sending privacy policy emails provides users with transparency, they can hurt your email sender reputation. To many sending platforms, privacy policy emails and terms of service emails often look like spam (the irony). This is likely due to fact that these emails are usually all text and send to the masses. Luckily, there are ways to lower the risk of being exiled to the spam folder.

Best practices for sending privacy policy emails

1. Send in small batches

As tempting as it might be to just press “send” once and be done with it, we recommend sending these emails in batches for 1,000-5,000 recipients depending on your list size. Gmail and Outlook specifically look at large sends as spam-like behaviour, which may lead to higher bounce rates, blocks, or the likeliness of landing in the spam folder. Some ways to organize your batches include:

• Segmenting your audience by levels of engagement or user activity. For example, send first to folks who recently engaged with an email and less likely to mark you message as spam.
• Adjust timing based on optimal hours when subscribers are more likely to engage based on time zones.

As you send each batch, be sure to monitor the performance to address any issues before scaling up.

2. Set the right intentions

We know you want people to open your email and that not everyone will say, “Oh cool, a new privacy policy! I can’t wait to read,” but honesty is the best policy. Make your subject line transparent about what it contains but also note it’s an important email to open.

Don’t get too wordy, but you can get a little cheeky and fun with it if this suits your brand. For example: “Our Annual Privacy Policy Update (We Know You’ve Been Waiting for It).”

Or take note out of the Really Good Email playbook and poke fun at the not-so-fun email with something like "Our lawyers made us send this boring update."

3. Write like a human

Privacy policies, like any other legal documentation, are usually full of complex legalese that’s dull at best and confusing at worst. Nobody wants to wade through a sea of legal mumbo jumbo, and let’s be real—if it feels robotic, it’s getting ignored. A human, conversation approach makes potentially sticky updates easier to digest.

We saw this first-hand from our friends at Really Good Emails. They connected with readers by being relatable, making the new updates easy to grasp, and dare we say entertaining. The result? 50% more opens and 40% more positive replies.

4. Don't waste people's time‍

As much personality as we can infuse to these type of emails, it doesn't change the fact that they're kind of boring. Keep things short and concise. Reel them by sharing the why behind the changes --what's the benefit they will get from these changes? This could be anything from "to better serve you" to "staying up to date with new regulations."

Then, highlighting the key changes in bullet points or bolded text. Avoid using legal terms. Finally, offer the ability for folks to learn more somewhere else if they're into that kind of thing.

This example by Skillshare does a great job at being concise.

The email is clear and straightforward but the most effective thing they do is break out what the updates are, just as importantly, why they’ve made them. They also include several links to the privacy policy and terms of service so they’re easy to find, and they offer a way for recipients to contact them with any questions or concerns.

5. Consider a different sender IP address

Using a different sending IP address for legal and transactional emails can help protect your primary domain's sender reputation in the case that your privacy email batch does get red flagged. Even if you take all the precautions, privacy policy updates can elicit less engagement from recipients which can negatively impact future campaign performance-- for that reason alone, we recommend using a different IP address for varying types of communications.

6. Stay recognizable

A simple way to stay out of the spam folder is to not look like a spam email. Infusing your branding is a simple, yet effective way of assuring your audience you are a trusted source, not some random bot trying to steal their data.

Plus, it’s a subtle reminder that you care about keeping things polished and interesting, even when the topic is not. The email below from Assemble is a perfect example of how even a privacy policy email can be a tool to reinforce trust, strengthen customer connection, and establish brand recognition.

Privacy policy templates and examples you can steal

Now you're ready to start crafting your own privacy email. Here are some templates you can steal to kick things off.

#1: Comedic relief

If you want to show a sense of humor and relate to your customers, try this template:

Subject: Our Eagerly-Awaited Privacy Policy Update

"Some pieces of news you just can’t wait to find out: the conclusion to that mystery novel you’re reading, why your boss scheduled a last-minute meeting, who will win Too Hot To Handle, and the changes we made to our privacy policy:

Okay, we know you’re not exactly on the edge of your seat, but the lawyers say we have to send this every year so here you go. Here’s what’s new:

[summarize the changes]

Look at you, breezing right through that and being ready to take another year by storm! You can contact us with any questions at [email address], but otherwise, keep rocking and we’ll see you around."

Portland-based bank Simple uses a similar strategy in their privacy emails: 

This email is relatable and honest, not to mention funny and engaging. They relay the message in the way you’d probably relay it to a friend: they’re conversational, they’re human, and they’re understandable. They break down the update and translate it piece by piece for the reader to understand. According to a blog they posted about it, they had nearly 200 people reply with positive comments. 

#2: Short and sweet

Keep your time and your recipients’ time to a minimum with this concise yet clear privacy policy email template:

Subject: Important Updates to Our Privacy Policy

"In an effort to maintain transparency about your data and how we use it, we’ve updated our privacy policy, effective on [date]. Here’s what has changed:

[summarize updates]

Click the button below to read the full privacy policy. If you have any questions or concerns, reach out at [email address]. Thank you for being a valued member of the [brand] community."

Hims is a telehealth company specializing in medications for men, and they’ve mastered the art of keeping it short and sweet:

They’re as concise as can be—just a few paragraphs stating what they’re emailing about and informing customers of their implied consent, along with a link to see the full text. This lets the recipients immediately know what the email’s about and decide if they want to dig into the full policy text.

What’s also done well here, though, is the branding. As simple as this email is, it follows the brand’s aesthetic so it’s easy for customers to recognize and trust.

Start crafting privacy emails worth reading with Beefree

A well-crafted, branded privacy policy email does more than just inform—it builds trust and strengthens your relationship with your audience. Beefree can make it easier to nail your next privacy policy email.

With our intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can effortlessly design emails that incorporate your branding, ensuring that even legal updates stay aligned with your company’s tone and identity. The best part? It's free.

HubSpot is one of the world’s leading CRMs, seamlessly merging sales, marketing, and customer service into a single, powerful dashboard. With tools for email marketing, lead generation, and landing page creation, HubSpot enables you to connect with customers more effectively and drive meaningful results.

However, HubSpot’s design tools can sometimes feel restrictive for marketers looking to create distinctive branding or highly customized designs.

This is where Beefree comes in—the ideal solution for HubSpot users looking to flex their creative chops in designing emails and landing pages. With drag-and-drop editing, advanced customization options, and an extensive template library, Beefree makes it easy to capture your brand’s identity and stand out in today’s crowded market.

1. 1,700+ free customizable email and page templates

HubSpot’s templates work for simple designs, but users often describe them as “bland” or “limiting.” 

Beefree users are spoiled for choice with over 1,700 free customizable templates that go far beyond HubSpot’s basic designs. These templates serve as the perfect starting point for building impactful campaigns.

Beefree’s intuitive design tools let you tweak the template in real time, making it easy to produce professional-quality creations that perfectly reflect your brand’s identity—no design experience required. These pre-built layouts are major time-savers, too, with 82% of users reporting faster email creation using Beefree.

2. Advanced design elements for true creative freedom

Customization can be a challenge for many HubSpot users; for instance, some report that it’s “impossible” to create a table without coding the design yourself. Unfortunately, not every user has the technical skills—not to mention the time—to perfect their emails with HubSpot alone. 

Beefree elevates your designs with an extensive collection of creative elements, all easily customizable using its powerful editor.

Some of these elements, like rounded corners and unlimited columns, aren’t available in HubSpot. Others, like creating a table to present data in a clean and organized way, are far easier to build in Beefree.

These creative elements make it that much easier to showcase your brand identity, communicate your message effectively, and design beautiful, original campaigns. They help you move beyond cookie-cutter designs and deliver something truly unique.

Remember: Eye-catching emails grab your audience’s attention instantly, helping your message stand out in crowded inboxes while staying true to your brand.

‍

3. Reusable content blocks for always-on-brand campaigns

Beefree’s reusable content blocks make it simple to maintain consistency across all your campaigns.

Simply save your branded elements—headers, footers, logos, and CTA buttons—once, then re-use them in future designs with a single click of a button.

This convenient feature helps HubSpot users streamline their workflow by eliminating repetitive design tasks — potentially saving you hours per campaign. 

4. Mobile-responsive designs out the box

Beefree’s editor includes built-in mobile responsiveness, which means your emails and landing pages automatically adjust to any screen size with no extra effort. This ensures your campaigns look great on every device, from desktops to smartphones.

For even greater control, Beefree supports mobile design mode, enabling HubSpot users to fine-tune your designs for smaller screens. Simply select the device size you’re optimizing for and make adjustments using the intuitive visual editor.

This allows you to deliver a tailored, on-brand experience, no matter how your audience views your content.

‍

5. Easy integration

Whether you're crafting unique branded elements or designing dynamic content, Beefree gives you the tools to create campaigns that align perfectly with your brand vision. Best of all, integrating HubSpot with Beefree takes just seconds. 

Beefree and HubSpot: A match made in email heaven

Integrating Beefree with HubSpot offers a powerful solution for marketers looking to elevate their email campaigns. HubSpot provides the engine for powering your marketing, while Beefree boosts the creative aspect, letting you bring your brand vision to life with ease.

For example, one of Beefree’s customers, Folderly—an all-in-one email deliverability platform—experienced significant improvements by combining HubSpot and Beefree. 

By designing emails in Beefree and sending them using HubSpot, Folderly streamlined their workflow, reducing campaign creation time from days to hours. This efficiency freed the team to focus on other key tasks, while maintaining high-quality, on-brand designs.

This integration not only sped up their processes but also boosted open rates by 15%, demonstrating the effectiveness of combining Beefree's advanced design tools with HubSpot's marketing automation.

“With Beefree, we can create beautiful designs and quickly integrate them into our workflows. By connecting our HubSpot account to Beefree, we can easily transfer the email designs to HubSpot, making the entire process highly efficient and smooth.”
‍
- Kate Lavrenchuk, Marketing Lead at Folderly

Read more about Folderly’s success story with Beefree here.