3 Real-World Email Campaigns That Will Blow You Away

Every online marketer wants a little extra juice, right?

The big question is always what can you do to squeeze a few extra conversions out of your online marketing campaigns.

I know I spend a lot of my time pondering this, particularly when it comes to email marketing. What can I test template-wise? Which subject line works best, how will timing affect the outcome?

…but even before all that I spend time thinking what emails can I actually send?

Lots of customers ask me for examples campaigns they can set up so I want to get better at sharing ideas. Here are three campaigns that had an actual impact on me over the last couple of months.

These should give you some new ideas as you head into March!

Email 1. You’ve got a date!

Some friends of mine have just launched 7pmAnywhere, a new dating app. Chatting with them about ways they can grow led me to sign up for nearly every dating app possible: OkCupid, Zoosk, Blendr, Badoo, etc. and How About We. I’d never used any before and wanted to understand how dating apps usually work.

How About We is based in New York and are killing it, with over 1 million dates having been posted since it launched. What got me, however, was this killer engagement email.

I signed up at 8.48pm on 21 February and, 19 minutes later at 9.07pm I received this email:

I was super impressed by this email. Having signed up to How About We as a research project I actually found myself genuinely engaged. I really wanted to see what this date was all about.

I’m not exactly sure if this email was automated or if it was, in fact, initiated by the other user but, either way it’s a great example of a simple email that had an impact.

It was personal, it was timely and it worked: I logged back in!

If this isn’t automated How About We: automate it!

What YOU can do

New customers are the ‘hottest’ (see what I did there 😉 when they first interact with your company so setup an email 15-45 minutes after a customer signs up (and then abandons).

SaaS business? Email a quick note from one of the founders or a dedicated account representative who will always deal with that customer.

eCommerce store? Take action on the last thing each customer takes before bouncing. Use this. For example, send them an email with a photo of the exact product they added to their wishlist and let them know they can get 20% off right now.

Email 2. You HAVE to join THIS webinar

Emil, the founder of HelpJuice, is a switched on guy. HelpJuice have sent me a bunch of great lifecycle emails since signing up but this one takes the cake so far:

About one week into your HelpJuice free trial you’ll receive an email inviting you to the next available webinar where they’ll teach you how to automate your support.

This is quality content and Emil makes great use of email to drive sign ups, ensure they attend and, ultimately, ensure they become active users.

In last week’s blog post I talked about how sharing great content over time builds trust and how this trust results in paying customers: without a process to convert prospective buyers into actual buyers you simply aren’t maximizing your conversions!

What YOU can do

Repurpose some really useful content and share it with new users a week after they first interact with your business.

This could be a video, an ‘eBook’ (you better make it interesting though!), a slide deck, a webinar, a ‘magazine’ or something else. Teach them how to use your products and I guarantee you’ll make more sales.

Build trust!

Email 3. I think my site looks good too

UserVoice are all about great customer feedback. They help thousands of businesses to understand what their customers want and to make better product decisions.

I got this email from UserVoice in mid-January, 20 days after I’d signed up for their free trial:

This is an awesome retention and engagement email. Not only does it make the reader feel good (yay, you’re using UserVoice properly!) but it teaches you something new by linking back to their online reporting feature.

What I like about this campaign even more is that UserVoice don’t send this same summary email week-in, week-out. They only send it to new customers to help ensure they interact with the important features of UserVoice and achieve the ‘aha’ feeling that is so important when making a sale.

What YOU can do

Setup an email like this to target new customers or customers that have gone inactive. Here’s another example you can use for inspiration – a draft of an email I’m about to put live for Vero:

I’m only going to send this to customers that haven’t logged in for seven days (as active customers usually use Vero every 3-4 days) as opposed to making it weekly and I’m excited to see the results.

Send customers that haven’t interacted with your business in 10-14 days an email with some personal statistics or updates that will remind them why your business is important to them.

What emails have blown you away recently?

What do you think of these three campaigns? Do you agree that they’re all good examples of lifecycle email marketing?

What emails have you seen that really had an impact on YOU in the last few months? If you have some examples, or are particularly proud of one of your own emails, please share them in the comments!