The best email marketing templates for your business

There are 4 billion daily email users, so it should come as no surprise that email marketing is still such a powerful marketing tactic. Email correspondence is a daily mode of communication for businesses, from sales emails, welcome emails, promotional emails and more.

With so many emails going out, starting from scratch every time is such a waste. This is why email marketing templates can come in handy—they provide email marketers and sales teams with the perfect starting point for sending out compelling and visually appealing emails.

There are a number of different types of email marketing templates your team should keep on hand. Throughout this article, we’ll touch on why email marketing is so important for businesses, what should go out in your email newsletters and several email templates you should be using.

Table of Contents:

• Why use email marketing for your business
• What should be in an email marketing template
• Sample email marketing templates

Why use email marketing for your business

Simply put—because it works. Email marketing helps businesses with:

• Building brand awareness
• Nurturing leads to a sale
• Growing relationships with customers
• Increasing attendance rate for promoted events
• Improving user experiences using customer feedback from surveys
• Maximizing revenue with upselling, cross-selling and re-engagement

So the real question is, why not? With email marketing, you’re doing more than selling. You’re providing value to customers and prospects. These folks voluntarily signed up for your email list and want the insights, tips and deals you share.

But there’s still an issue—marketers need a more efficient way to manage their email blasts. Thankfully, this is possible using email templates and tools.

Email templates dictate the layout, design and quality of each email. This way, anyone on your team (or even a freelancer) can jump in and write emails to subscribers.

And since templates provide structure for email campaigns, it makes personalization seamless. It’s easier to target several audience lists with customized content to match the interests and needs of each group. Just plug in the information to make each email marketing campaign unique.

What should be in an email marketing template

Before you begin, let’s review the typical skeleton of an email template. In each one, you’ll need:

• Subject line
• Preview text
• Body copy
• Images (optional)
• Footer
• Logo (optional)
• Links (to blogs, product pages, etc.)
• Social media buttons
• Call to action

When designing any email marketing template, determine whether it’ll be text-only or if it’ll consist of a design template with brand colors, logo and formatting. Whatever you decide, be sure to add personalization and strong CTAs.

Then track the open and click-through rates to see which emails generate ROI. Experiment with different themes, CTA buttons and subject lines to see what performs best.

Sample email marketing templates

If you’re looking for a good starting point for your email marketing templates, check out these stellar brand examples and how you can repurpose them for your own needs.

1. Welcome

You should be sending out a welcome email anytime someone signs up for your subscription or service. These can even be valuable for first-time customers making a product purchase as well.

In a welcome email, you want to start off by thanking the new customer for signing up, making a purchase, joining, what have you. Then, you want to go on to provide them with helpful links for making the most out of their purchase or subscription.

We have a great example of this from Slack:

This template helps new users get started on the right foot, which can lead to prolonged customer loyalty and satisfaction. Sharing documentation upfront that can help users learn how to make the most of your product or service is key, and if you don’t have that documentation, creating it should be a priority.

2. Event

If you’re holding an event, virtual or in-person, sending an email newsletter out to your email list is a great way to get the word out and increase attendance. Promote the link to register or include ticket prices and discounts to appeal to potential attendees even more.

Here’s a great example of an email from Iterable promoting their upcoming Activate Summit:

In this email, Iterable includes a call-to-action for buying tickets as well as a time frame for getting a discount. Letting people know about limited time offers or putting urgency on a purchase is a great motivator, so be sure to include this in your own event emails.

Or, if you’re hosting a free virtual event, you can use lingo like, “Seats are filling up,” or “Get your ticket before registration closes” in order to entice people to attend.

3. Promotional

There are endless ways to create a promotional email—however, one of the most effective is one including a discount code. After all, who doesn’t love to save money?

Here’s a perfect example from The Pro’s Closet on how to templatize a promotional email:

What we love about this email is that it also includes links to several different product collections that the business sells, appealing to customers looking for anything from bikes to bike accessories.

And of course, including a promo code is always going to help your promotional emails be more effective. However, you can also choose to promote a single product or product line, share an upcoming collection launch or create an overall promotional email similar to how this example included several product options to shop from.

4. Seasonal

Seasonal emails also make a lot of sense for brands. They’re timely and they help promote certain products at a time when they’re most likely to be purchased. For example, a shaving/razor company would greatly benefit from seasonal Father’s Day email newsletters while a bath bomb company would focus on Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day.

Or, you can take a page out of Finn’s book and focus on fun little social media holidays that are relevant to your brand:

Love Your Pet Day fits perfectly with Finn’s marketing, helping them to promote their Pretty Pup Bundle and other relevant products. Pay attention to social media and hashtag holidays that you can promote in your email newsletters.

5. Transactional

Transactional emails could be anything from order confirmations to refund emails to shipping updates. With emails like this, it’s key to have templates that can be reused again and again.

Here’s a great example of an order confirmation email from Allbirds:

This template should be an automated email in your ecommerce business’s system. Create shipping confirmation templates, refund status templates and more.

6. Feedback

Gathering customer feedback is essential to making sure your business is providing the best products, services and customer experience possible. And one great way to incite action and gather said feedback is by sending an email newsletter. You should send these out between once a quarter and once a year, so having a template can be handy for making this process a breeze.

Here’s a great example of an email marketing template asking for customer feedback from Sight Glass:

This basic template is perfect for sending out a customer survey. Be empathetic by letting the customer know it’s about providing them with a better experience. Better yet, consider adding in some kind of incentive, like a discount code, gift card or entry into a giveaway for their participation.

7. Reengagement

Reengagement emails are meant to reach customers who haven’t shopped with you for a while, users who haven’t logged in recently or subscribers who haven’t opened or engaged with your email newsletters for an extended period of time. The goal is to get your business top-of-mind again so the customer makes a purchase, logs in or clicks on an email again.

Duolingo gives us an amazingly succinct version of a reengagement email marketing template below:

The sad owl illustration is especially poignant. Think of ways your company or its mascot can tug at heartstrings and get customers reengaged with your business.

Start using email marketing templates today

Email marketing templates help keep your email strategy cohesive and they save your team time. Don’t shy away from creating reusable templates that are both effective and visually appealing. If you’re looking for a social media management solution to complement your email marketing, take a free 30-day trial of Sprout Social today.

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