7 Types of Email That Generates Loyal Customers

Email has become an essential part of our daily lives. We use it to stay in touch with family and friends, handle work communications, and keep up with the latest news and trends.

But did you know that email can also be a powerful marketing tool?

When used correctly, email can help you build customer relationships and turn one-time buyers into lifelong fans.

Not sure where to start?

Today, we’re talking about the seven different types of emails you can send to generate loyalty among your customer base.

1. The “Welcome” Email

When new customers join your email list, warmly welcome them! Thank them for signing up and tell them what they can expect from your emails.

This is also a great opportunity to give new subscribers a special offer or discount code to thank them for signing up. Now, this offer must expire quickly – within a day or two – so they feel a sense of urgency to take advantage of it.

Welcome emails set the tone for future interactions, so making a good impression is important. Take this email from Lyft as an example:

It’s friendly, to the point, and makes it perfectly clear how you can get started with their service by clicking one button.

2. The “Product/Service Update” Email

Keep your customers in the loop with periodic updates about your product or service. These promotional emails let them know about new features or improvements you’ve made and give them a sneak peek of what’s to come.

Parcel’s product update email is a good example of how you should approach yours. It addresses a pain point its customers have, an image to help visualise the update, its benefits, and a call-to-action to get the product.

Structure these emails to contain only the most relevant information about the changes. If you feel like saying more, write an article announcement about it and link to it in your email.

Either way, make sure your customers know that you’re always working to improve their experience and offer insights and concrete evidence as to how these changes will improve their experience with your product or service.

If you’re nothing else, be specific!

3. The “Customer Success” Email

Nothing makes us feel better than hearing that we’ve helped our customers succeed. Send your customers an email letting them know how much you appreciate their business, and be sure to share any success stories or testimonials.

Slido has a pretty solid customer success email that informs users on how to use the platform for setting up events. Each pointer has brief description that links to more in-depth resources to help them even further.

This kind of email is beneficial because it not only makes your customers feel good but also helps to build trust and credibility. Plus, it can help instil feelings of being valued in your customers over the long term.

4. The “Re-Engagement” Email

It’s inevitable that some of your subscribers will become inactive over time. If someone hasn’t opened one of your emails in a while, reach out and try to re-engage them with a special offer or discount code.

This type of email is easy to spot in the wild, as it often begins with something like, “We noticed you haven’t been opening our emails lately…” or, “We miss you!” It often has a headline that’s super personally engaging and reads at first glance like a message from an old friend and almost always segues into an offer to reengage the prospect or former customer.

Take this example from Duolingo:

It’s immediately compelling and aims to remind customers to reengage with a service they previously loved.

5. The “Thank You” Email

Don’t forget to show your appreciation with a simple thank you email. Thank your customers for their business and let them know how much you value their loyalty. Structurally, a thank you email can be similar to a customer success email, but the focus should be on expressing gratitude.

Check out this example from Smartpress:

First, the email feels sincere and heartfelt. The gratitude comes across really well as it’s not particularly anything the customers did. Being a repeat customer is good enough for Smartpress to send this email to them.

Also, the second paragraph puts a personal touch on the email. It drives home the point that customers can reach out to the company with anything in their minds. Also, this approach gives Smartpress a distinct brand image of being friendly and approachable.

6. The “Milestone” Email

Milestone emails celebrate a customer’s special occasion, such as their birthday, anniversary, or any other important event.

Milestone emails show that your business cares about its customers and values their relationship. By sending personalised messages acknowledging and celebrating important occasions, you can establish an emotional connection with your customers and encourage them to remain loyal to your brand.

Here’s what Google Maps sends to users when their review reaches 1,000 views:

The email is a great way to inform users of the value they bring to the community. The fact that Google acknowledges it also encourages users to keep sharing their insights with others.

You can also use these emails to offer exclusive discounts, gifts, or other incentives that encourage customers to purchase or take other desired actions.

In fact, you can use anniversary emails to acknowledge the birthdays of users and present them with a discount code like what Busuu did:

7. The “Transactional” Email

Transactional emails can build customer loyalty by providing a seamless and personalised experience that meets the customer’s needs. By using transactional emails to deliver valuable information, such as order confirmations, shipping notifications, and other updates, you can establish trust and credibility with your customers, which can lead to repeat business and increased loyalty.

Now, if you think that these emails just show you information about the product you ordered, you’re wrong. This is where transaction emails get interesting. Check out the example below from Huckberry which shows you product suggestions relevant to the ones you purchased:

Even without product recommendations, transaction emails help make your brand look and feel professional. For example, updating customers with their orders from your store like Blue Apron did puts their minds at ease and tempers their expectations on when to receive their orders.

Email Marketing Best Practices

The email examples above share similarities with each other, which are things you must include in your email campaign moving forward. Below are the best practices that the above emails exhibited:

1. Get Permission Before Adding Someone to Your List

The first step to any successful email marketing campaign is to filter your targets to the best prospects and ensure you have their permission to contact them.

The best way to do this is to use an opt-in form on your website or blog. When someone enters their email address into your form, they give you explicit permission to send them marketing emails. This is called double opt-in, and it’s the industry standard for preventing spam.

Use different techniques to get visitors to sign up for your list. Aside from showing the form on your sidebar, you can also use exit intent to get more eyeballs on your forms.

2. Keep Your List Clean and Up-to-Date

It’s important to keep your email list clean and up-to-date. That means removing people who have unsubscribed from your list and regularly updating your contact information.

If you don’t, you risk being marked as a spammer, which can damage your reputation and business. Typically, if someone unsubscribes from your list, they’re no longer interested in what you have to say. So, there’s no need to keep them on your list.

3. Personalise Your Emails

Personalising your emails is one of the best ways to build relationships with your subscribers and improve customer experience. This means using their first name in your email’s subject line and body. You can accomplish this using merge tags, which are special codes that insert information from your contact list into your email.

Many popular email marketing software tools, like Mailchimp and Constant Contact, offer merge tags. So, be sure to take advantage of them.

4. Write Engaging Subject Lines

Your subject line is what recipients will see first when they get your email, so it’s important to make a good impression to maximise your open rates.

If they don’t open your email, all your effort goes down the drain. Worse, using banned words in your subject line could cause your emails to go straight to your recipient’s spam folder!

From the get-go, your email subject lines must be clear, concise, and compelling to get customers engaged. They should also be specific to the content of your email.

You can use a tool like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyser to assess the effectiveness of your subject lines. Though it’s intended for use on blog post titles, it can still give you great feedback on word choice, clarity, and other optimisation factors.

Omnisend offers an email subject line tester as well that you can run your potential subject lines through before adding them to your next newsletter or email blast.

5. Keep Your Emails Short and Sweet

People are busy and their attention spans are short, so it’s important to keep your emails brief.

Your email should have one primary focus and a clear call-to-action. If you try to cram too much into one email, you’ll only confuse your readers and lower your click-through rates.

Use These Types of Emails in Your Campaigns Now

Email marketing is a powerful tool for building relationships with your customers. And sending these five types of emails will help you build relationships with your customers and turn one-time buyers into lifelong fans.