Email marketing is one of the original digital marketing tactics. Yet as it ages, its effectiveness doesn’t wane. In fact, 60% of consumers still say email is how they prefer to be contacted by brands, and it continues to generate an incredible ROI.
Perhaps that’s why Statista projects email marketing will generate $12 billion in revenue worldwide in 2025.
To get in on that opportunity, you’ve got to send emails from your brand! And to maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing program, it helps to look at the tactics that are working for other businesses.
Here, we’ll investigate what goes into building a great program and share some of the best email marketing examples from other brands.
Contents
- What do the best email marketing examples have in common?
- What types of marketing emails should your business send?
- The 10 best email marketing examples
What do the best email marketing examples have in common?
Great email marketing programs all share a few characteristics.
Clean contact lists
They start with a clean contact list of opted-in people. A clean list—free of old addresses, incorrect data, and duplicate contacts—ensures you’re only emailing a legitimate, engaged audience. This helps keep your open rate high, bounce rate low, and reduces the risk someone will flag your messages as spam.
Segmentation
Once you’ve cleaned up your email list, your next step is segmentation. By grouping similar customers, you can send the most relevant messaging to each subset of your broader list. Sending targeted messages keeps you in the good graces of the 81% of customers who prefer a personalized experience when interacting with a brand.
Eye-catching subject lines
To ensure your messaging is getting seen by your audience, your emails need eye-catching subject lines. With the average person receiving 121 emails each day, an arresting subject line helps drive open rates.
A good email marketing example will have a strong and concise subject line to pack a punch in any inbox.
Then, your email’s content needs to follow through. Appealing creative and great writing keeps your audience engaged and ensures they read your entire message.
Tracked results
Finally, you’ll want to track results. Most email marketing platforms provide plenty of data on important performance metrics like open and click-through rates. Building a dashboard to watch month-over-month performance helps you identify trends and strengthen your overall approach.
📧 Find everything you need to create an email campaign that pops with our free small business email marketing toolkit complete with tips, templates, subject line ideas, and more!
What types of marketing emails should your business send?
Now that you know what makes for a strong email marketing program overall, you can consider which specific campaigns will drive results for your business.
Email marketing can support your efforts at any stage of the customer journey. Whether someone’s just discovered your brand or is a long-standing customer, email marketing is a great way to strengthen your connection and nurture your relationship.
Your brand might experiment with:
- Campaigns to promote specific events (a sale, product launch, new store opening, etc.)
- A regular newsletter
- Transactional emails, with information about recent purchases
- Onboarding emails for new customers
- Product updates for existing customers
- Emails to existing customers to solicit reviews or referrals (potentially as part of a broader referral program)
- Offers to reward customers for their loyalty (special discounts or early access to new offerings)
- Win-back campaigns for customers who have drifted away
For even more ideas, check out our list of other types of emails for small businesses to try.
The 10 best email marketing examples
Need some more inspiration to level-up your email marketing approach? These real-life examples show how to implement the tactics we explored above.
1. Building community through free events
While running can be a solitary activity, athletic apparel brand Fleet Feet works to build community among its email subscribers by inviting them to join weekly running clubs.
These events are free—you don’t need to be a Fleet Feet customer to attend. And while it costs the brand time and effort to host, it likely pays dividends for the business. If someone becomes part of a thriving running community that’s cultivated by Fleet Feet, they’re far more likely to turn to the business for shoes and gear.
2. A marketing email with fun and sassy copy
Remember how we talked about the importance of a scroll-stopping subject line? This email from Brooklyn-based shoe brand Greats delivers.
“Get ready for compliments” is a confident, funny, and effective subject line—who doesn’t want that?
Once the reader clicks through, the headline within the email is equally sassy and funny. All in all, it’s a snappy email that suits the hip retailer.
🚨 Want clever and creative email subject line ideas you can use all year long? Download our free guide to email subject lines for every month of the year.
3. A win-back campaign with a sweet offer
Customers may stop patronizing a business for a wide variety of reasons. It’s not always because they’ve had a bad experience. Sometimes their routine or budget changes, sometimes they move—it really could be anything.
When brands extend an offer to these lapsed customers, that’s called a win-back campaign (also known as a re-engagement campaign). This email marketing tactic targets customers who have gone quiet. And this example from Orangetheory Fitness shows how to do it right.
In the spirit of the Valentine’s Day season, Orangetheory invites the recipient and their Galentine to come in together for a free class. The brand even sweetens the deal by offering a $50 discount on the coming month’s membership if that friend joins the gym.
Most importantly, the email ends with a clear call to action (or CTA), with a button that reads “Come Back” and drives to a scheduling page to book a class.
4. A sincere ask for support
Different organizations each have their unique business goals. When you run a nonprofit, fundraising is a primary aim—you need money to continue your vital work.
This email, from dog rescue Muddy Paws, features a heartfelt letter from the founder with an invitation to donate in honor of the organization’s ninth anniversary.
The note also highlights the rescue’s incredible work—it saved 1,037 dogs in 2024 alone. Sharing stats that underscore your impact can inspire readers to support your efforts with a donation.
5. A daily newsletter for industry pros
A newsletter is a no-brainer for a digital publication (though it’s also a killer email marketing tactic for any brand). Marketing Brew, which is geared toward (you guessed it) marketing professionals, is constantly sharing news, trends, and stats on its site.
Checking Marketing Brew’s homepage might not be a part of readers’ daily routine. But when the email pops up in their inbox, it’s easy for them to read the day’s highlights and click through to the full story when they want to see more.
6. A timely reminder with a clear CTA
The most successful marketing efforts reach the right audience with the right message at the right time.
You can use email to send seasonal messaging to your audience that will catch them at a relevant time of year.
City MD sent this personalized reminder about scheduling a physical right around the start of the year. At that time, the conscientious are booking all their important appointments for the coming 12 months. Meanwhile, the less buttoned-up might be realizing, “Uh-oh, I don’t think I got my physical at all last year.”
Enter City MD with this timely message! And because it is an urgent-care clinic, readers know it will be easier to get in to see someone there, rather than waiting for an open slot with their primary care doctor.
The email closes with a simple CTA: “Book now.”
💡 Find the right CTA for any email occasion with our free guide to the best call-to-action phrases (and why they work).
7. A sale with an enticing twist
If you can create intrigue with your subject line, you’re almost certain to pique readers’ curiosity and drive higher open rates.
LOFT teases readers with the promise of a “mystery flash sale” in the subject line, and when readers click in, they find a button inviting them to reveal the deal.
Continuing the mystery within the email itself is almost certain to drive up the click-through rate, too. People who opened based on that subject line are going to want to see the mystery offer!
This killer combo of copy builds anticipation and locks readers in—two things you always want your marketing copy to do.
8. A gift with purchase offer
It’s a universal truth: People love free stuff. Offering a gift with purchase is an age-old marketing trick, but it works!
This example from Malin + Goetz entices readers with a free, limited-edition pink tote bag with the purchase of a large candle.
The copy emphasizes the tote bag won’t be around forever—only while quantities last—which helps create FOMO and encourages customers to make an immediate purchase.
9. A request for customer feedback
Soliciting customer feedback has always been vital. It allows you to catch issues and make things right with unhappy customers. And in the digital age, it’s also an opportunity for you to collect online reviews—which can generate new sales through positive word of mouth.
Frontgate timed its email to send a few weeks after the customer received their order. That’s important with review request emails. If you send them too quickly, your buyer might not have used your product yet!
10. Expert guidance with a light product plug
Your audience doesn’t want every message from you to be a sales pitch. Part of effective email marketing is sharing your expertise and building a relationship. When you only send emails directly asking people to buy, it can feel heavy-handed.
That’s why this email from zero-proof beverage retailer Boisson is so effective. Unsurprisingly, the brand does a lot of marketing during Dry January—a time when alcohol-free beverages are in high demand.
But this email doesn’t talk about specific products at all. Instead, it offers pro tips for navigating social situations when one isn’t drinking, which can be a real hurdle for the sober-curious!
By proving its expertise in the guide, the brand positions itself as a go-to source for information. When the reader is ready to make a purchase (either today or at some point in the future), they’re more likely to think fondly of Boisson and navigate to the site to buy.
Use these email marketing examples as inspiration for your campaigns
We’ve walked through the elements a great email marketing campaign needs and different messages to try for your business. Now it’s up to you: Where will you focus your email marketing efforts in the coming year?
Remember to align your email marketing tactics with your broader business goals. Then get into a rhythm and stay consistent! As you continue to send campaigns, watch your KPIs, test different approaches, and continue to optimize to build the best email marketing program possible.
Ready to put these email marketing examples into practice with your own campaigns? See how our solutions can help you bring your email marketing ideas to life!
