5 Email newsletters every content marketer can learn from
This is a collection of 5 inbound email newsletters that are an absolute delight to read. All these emails came into my own inbox and impressed me with their thoughtfulness and marketing savvy. Determined to find out what makes them stand out so much from everything else in my inbox, I looked into their content and design in detail and decided to share my findings here. The emails I have listed here are an invaluable source of inspiration and insight for marketers who want to create emails that cut through the clutter and deliver great results.
1. Grammarly Insights
Do you know who is awesome at email marketing? Grammarly is awesome at email marketing. Apart from providing a great product that makes life easier for every content creator, writer, editor and generally anyone concerned with good use of the English language, Grammarly also has something to teach us about email marketing.
I absolutely love Grammarly’s Weekly Progress Report & Product Updates. And what is there not to love! Let’s have a better look at this absolute gem of an inbound email.
To begin with, Grammarly opens each one of their weekly Grammarly Insights email with an awesome literally quote, which will warm the heart of any of its bookworm users. For their mid-December update, they picked “Winter is coming” the Stark house motto from George R. R. Martin’s phenomenally popular novel and consequent TV sensation, Game of Thrones.
Grammarly then goes on to provide you with some stats and compares your use of the tool to what other users have done with it. This is where their email really steals the show. Who doesn’t like seeing that they have made fewer mistakes in their writing this week and that they have a larger vocabulary than 99% of Grammarly users? Who doesn’t like being told that they are an awesome writer?
The smart marketers at Grammarly then go on to tell you how much better your writing could be if you use the Premium version of the product. Those 320 additional advanced mistakes are the difference between creating content that is satisfactory and creating content that is flawless. The strategically positioned Call to Action that can take you to this perfection becomes very attractive. Grammarly is offering you the solution to the problem that stands between you becoming the outstanding writer you can be. This is how they sell without actually selling.
On top of all that awesomeness, this email boasts flawless design. It has beautiful design elements and a simple layout that is not cluttered and has just the right balance between images and text.
2. giffgaff Monthly Usage Statement
Giffgaff sends its customers useful monthly summaries of how they have used the service and gives recommendations on how to use it better to save more money. This email is a great example of a smart up-selling technique. If you know that your customers can get better value for their money if they spend a little bit more with you and you show them the data to support this, they have to be unreasonable to neglect your advise. I did switch to a £12 goodybag after receiving this email so I can say that this approach definitely worked with me (and I am a suspicious and skeptical marketer).
I also love the quirky design elements in this email. The subtle and unique design elements make an email from giffgaff instantly recognisable without cluttering what is important — the data. It is a wide email but giffgaff know to keep the important content within an optimal width to ensure good experience on all devices, email clients and web browsers.
The giffgaff monthly usage statement also gives you a list of top-called mates and the amount of time you spent talking to them which can give some food for thought especially if that list consists of one person whom you spent 200 minutes chatting to and that person is your mother…
3. Songkick Concert Alerts
Here is another thoughtful email that is bound to get clicked by me. Songkick is a brilliant website that helps you keep track of your favourite artists’ gigs. Based on the artists you follow and the events you are tracking, Songkick will alert you when a new gig is announced and let you know when tickets are available. This way you make sure you don’t miss out on the early bird deals.
The email design couldn’t be simpler which helps you focus on the real purpose of the email — getting your hands on those tickets!
4. Octopus Energy Newsletter
UK renewable energy provider Octopus Energy claim to be “a new breed of energy supplier”. The email below is definitely a new breed of marketing in the energy industry. What really impressed me about Octopus Energy’s campaign marking United Nations World Environment Day is that this is a company which is not afraid to take a stance. This is admirable bravery for the industry.
Octopus Energy are geeky about where their energy comes from and expect their customers to be just as educated and enthusiastic about this as well. By involving and educating their users about where their energy comes from, Octopus Energy is creating a deep connection with their brand. Thanks to Octopus Energy, you are a better, more responsible and thoughtful human being.
If you are a bit of a sucker for all things green and are interested to know what is happening in the renewable energy sector check out the Octopus Energy blog.
5. Gousto Weekly Newsletter
That is an email you will literally drool over. Pictures speak louder than words and Gousto knows that. Gousto is all about making yummy and healthy meals easy to prepare at home and so is their email newsletter. Their pick of winter recipes and delicious home made desserts got me through many chilly January evenings.
Gousto is an example of a company which knows how to flaunt their best resources. The email design is all about beautiful images of mouth-watering dishes. Gousto marketers have gone the extra mile to make sure the images they use are optimised for email. If you are sending out an image-heavy email, however, make sure that you keep all important information and links outside the images so that it is still usable by people who have blocked images in their email.
So, what can we marketers learn from those glorious emails?
Be thoughtful towards subscribers
What all those awesome emails have in common is a thoughtfulness towards their subscribers, a passion for collecting user data and giving something back to their customers. Instead of emailing their database about products and promotions, the marketers behind those emails really put their heads together to come up with ways to deliver additional value to their customers straight in their inbox. Those emails are a seamless continuation of the experience of the product or service and not just another promotional message in your subscribers’ inbox.
Passion for collecting user data
None of the emails above would have been the same without the valuable data the companies have gathered about their subscribers and customers. Collecting data, analysing it and turning it into usable insight that provides value to your customers is key to delivering more value and building strong relationships.
Simple and efficient design
The sooner marketers understand that a good email is all about great content and not about flashy design, the better. Another common feature of admirable inbound emails is simple, clean and unique design. Smart inbound marketers have tested methods for increasing the click-through rates of emails through different design layout techniques such as the inverted pyramid method (Songkick uses it brilliantly).
Whether you use email to educate prospects about products or services, to nurture leads or to provide value to existing clients, the key to successful email marketing these days is being a reliable inbox friend for your contacts and not another self-promoting impersonal company. Be helpful and thoughtful and they will love you for it!
