Those are a few possible purposes of your email marketing campaigns. And there are are many ways for your emails to accomplish that.
You can build relationships. You can share testimonials. You can explain innovative uses for your products.
And you can take inspiration from these five examples to develop a totally new, creative invitation that your readers won’t be able to resist.
Who doesn’t love to give their opinion? Sherwin Williams takes forward-to-a-friend to a whole new level by encouraging subscribers to share their color suggestions.
Not only do these dabbling designers end up on SW’s site, but a printable coupon and “find your store” link encourages the advisees to shop as well.
Two for the price of one, and all within the boundaries of permission marketing!
Anthropologie‘s emails consistently answer that age-old dilemma, “But what will I wear!?” As if the clothes aren’t enough to get subscribers to click though, they’ll occasionally use the half now, half later technique.
Here, they promise four outfit ideas and only deliver two – readers have to click through to “see them all”.
Harry & David‘s Tasting Party is compelling in so many ways:
- who can resist free snacks?
- the date and time is set, so there’s no putting it off until later (there’s even a way to set a calendar reminder!)
- they’re giving samples of something small, at low cost to the store
- people who take samples may feel obligated to buy something, especially with that B2G1 offer!
Dunkin’ Donuts is ready to reward their fans, but first, they want a little proof of their allegiance.
The item is low-cost and something most people use anyway, so a small reward should be enough of a nudge. And since photo-texting is usually reserved for friends and family, participants have just welcomed Dunkin’s to their inner circles.
As effective as this method is, it’s also easy to pull off. Just select a low-cost, high-interest item to feature. Then prepare to pay up! Choose a prize you can email (coupon, anyone?)
How do women decide to buy an outfit?
By trying it on, of course! So fashion retailer French Connection designed a virtual dressing room with an avatar to model outfits for shoppers.
Then they sent an email announcing its opening. With the new clothes it featured and its playful feel, who could resist?
Is your creative spark fired up yet?
It’s true – some of these ideas require extensive resources to pull off. But most of them can be tweaked to work at any level. Even something as simple as a straightforward request can be effective.
So – which ones can you use for your own campaign?
And do you have your own brilliant invitations that you send out? If you do, we want to hear about them!