In this guide, we’ll take a close look at 10 incredible sales emails from companies selling both products and services in a variety of industries. I’ll share my thoughts on why each email is effective, if there’s anything the email could have done better, and what lessons you can take for use in your own sales emails. I’ll also briefly discuss some best practices for sales emails.

Let’s dive into it!

10 Sales promotion email examples

1. Evernote

What makes it great

This email from Evernote is great for a few reasons:

• High-quality visuals. The graphic at the top presents the offer in a bright, visually appealing manner, using contrasting colors for the text so that it’s easy to read. The smaller images throughout the text are also high-quality, simple images that emphasize the point each section is trying to make.
• Excellent organization. The text is broken down into a list, with each point consisting of a bold headline and a regular-text sentence expanding on the headline. This makes it easy for subscribers to scan the text and grab the information they need.
• Brevity. This email tells subscribers everything they need to know about Evernote Premium and the sale in just a few sentences. This is important when you consider that the average person receives 121 emails per day.
• Multiple calls to action (CTAs). There’s a CTA at the beginning of the email and another at the end of the email. This gives subscribers who are eager for the sale the opportunity to grab their discount without reading the full email while also making sure that subscribers who read the full email don’t need to scroll back up to take action.

All in all, this sales email presents the offer in a clear, visually appealing way while also making it easy for subscribers to take action.

What you can learn from it

The big lesson to take from this email is that your sales email doesn’t need to be complicated to be attention-grabbing. In fact, in today’s busy world, the simplest approach is often the best one.

2. MacPaw

What makes it great

This email from MacPaw is another great example of how much you can accomplish in a short email. All you really need is a headline, a sentence or two to explain your product and the discount you’re offering, and a call to action.

Moreover, this email offers immense visual appeal. The color scheme is vibrant and eye-catching, while also using contrast to make sure that all of the text is easy to read. The illustration of a jumping cat evokes a mood of action and also reinforces the MacPaw brand, while the gift boxes reinforce the message of “gift this to your friends” in the text.

What you can learn from it

This email is a great example of how you can use illustrations to create powerful visual experiences in your emails even if you run a service-based business and/or your work is difficult to turn into high-quality photos.

3. Quickbooks

What makes it great

This email from Quickbooks is a great example of how to make a longer email effective. Each paragraph is contained in its own box, with its own headline and accompanying image. This makes it easy for users to follow what’s happening and focus on the sections with the information they’re most interested in.

Every section also has its own CTA, and these change as the email continues, with each new call to action using stronger words than the last: find out more, learn more, buy now. This increases the level of urgency as the email goes on, encouraging the user to take direct action.

What you can learn from it

Long emails aren’t always a bad thing, but if you’re going to write a long email, you need to make sure it’s organized in a way that makes it easy for people to scan. This means dividing it into clear sections with visual cues like headlines, boxes, illustrations, or photos. You also want to make sure there’s a call to action in every section.

4. Collin Street Bakery

What makes it great

There are a few great things about this flash sale promotion from Collin Street Bakery:

• Bold colors. The bright colors used in this email make it feel almost like it’s popping out of the screen at you, drawing in your attention. These colors are used in the banner to draw you into the email itself, then again for the CTAs and other key pieces of information to make sure you see the most important parts of the email.
• A focus on urgency. This email uses a few different phrases to convey urgency: limited time, flash sale, 48 hours, now $5 off, hurry and order. Some of these phrases are also bolded and written out in capital letters to attract more attention.
• Multiple calls to action. You’ve probably noticed that I mention this in almost every description. That’s because it’s important! If your subscriber has to scroll down at any point, they should still be able to see a CTA when they do.

All in all, this is a simple yet powerful sales promotion email.

What you can learn from it

There are a lot of lessons you can take from this email. For me, the most important lesson is to carefully consider the colors you’ll use and where you’ll use them. Bright colors like the ones in this email attract the eye and make images feel like they’re popping right out of the screen. You can also use one of those same colors instead of the regular bolded black to make important parts of the text more eye-catching.

5. Headspace

What makes it great

The main thing that makes this email from Headspace great is the GIF of a person holding a cone filled with melting ice cream. The animated image is bright, colorful, and has just enough motion to draw the eye without it becoming too distracting. The image of someone watching their ice cream melt too fast conveys a sense of summer and a sense of urgency: this season, and sale, are melting away like the ice cream. And there’s a CTA built right into the GIF.

Another great thing about this email is the copy. In the GIF, you learn what the sale is and when it runs out. If you scroll down, you’ll see this information repeated alongside a quick explanation of how Headspace can help you. While this second section isn’t strictly necessary, it does a good job of reinforcing why you should buy Headspace in the first place.

What you can learn from it

Dynamic elements like GIFs can make your emails more interesting, holding your subscribers’ attention for longer so that you can make your pitch. If you want to try this out, check out our guide to best practices for using GIFs in email.

6. Homage

What makes it great

This email from Homage is a great example of how to promote a multi-product sale, whether you’re discounting a specific type of item or everything in your store. There are high-quality photos of each item, all paired with a title of the item and a call to action. The viewer knows right away what’s on sale and what they need to do.

Another thing I like about this email is how the color scheme of the email complements the color scheme of the products. The main elements of the email are black and red, colors which also feature prominently in the items for sale. This makes the email feel more cohesive.

What you can learn from it

The main lesson to take from this email is that if you’re going to promote multiple products in one email, each product needs to have its own CTA. You should also keep individual product descriptions and images small to make sure the email is a reasonable length.

7. Vinyl Me, Please

What makes it great

There are a few things that stand out about this email from Vinyl Me, Please:

• Excellent photography. The photo chosen for this email displays the products in a unique way and evokes a sense of community, tying it into the holiday it’s connected to.
• A unique way of connecting to the holidays. This email takes a different approach from most marketing campaigns sent around this time of year, tying the sale into the concept of giving thanks and Thanksgiving itself rather than the consumerist frenzy of Black Friday.
• Thematic colors. The warm colors of the background and the text reinforce the holiday theme of the email.

All in all, this is a simple, effective email that runs counter to a lot of the flashier marketing campaigns seen throughout the holiday season.

What you can learn from it

The big lesson from this email is that if you’re going to run sales during the holiday season, you need to find a way to differentiate yourself from the million other sales happening at that time of year. And sometimes the best way to do that isn’t to make your email flashier, but to make it simpler.

8. Casper

What makes it great

The main thing I like about this email from Casper is the way it ties Casper’s products into the time of year without relying on big holidays that are frequently used for marketing. The emphasis on Daylight Savings Time and how it affects your sleep makes the email feel timely and serves as an excellent reminder of why having a good mattress is important.

Another thing I like about this email is the photography. The image is prominent enough to draw the eye, the bed looks extremely comfortable, and the model appears to be sleeping peacefully. If you’ve ever struggled with sleep, you’ll find yourself drawn in by the image, maybe even thinking that a Casper mattress might give you that same kind of sleep.

What you can learn from it

The big takeaway here is that when it comes to seasonal sales, you don’t always have to tie your promotions to a popular holiday. You can highlight a different seasonal event or a smaller holiday, like running a sale on World Book Day if you publish books.

9. Yellowbird

What makes it great

There are a couple of different things I like about this email from Yellowbird:

• Simple yet evocative imagery. The only image above the fold is the banner at the top, which uses a silhouette to make it feel like the email’s background is fire. This establishes a connection between the email and the idea of heat, or in this case, spice.
• Copy with character. The text of this email doesn’t simply tell you “our salsas are on sale”. It creates an image using words and phrases like “landed” and “a new flame to town”. This use of language gives the email, and the brand as a whole, a sense of fun and excitement. The CTA, “Get your dip on”, reinforces this sense.

All in all, this email is a great example of what you can accomplish when you commit to a specific brand voice.

What you can learn from it

The big lesson to take from this email is that your email campaigns can become even more powerful if you take some time to think about the character of your brand, then use language to build that character around your brand. You can create images, use descriptions that relate to a specific theme like fire or heat, and make your copy fun.

10. Moo

What makes it great

The main thing I like about this email from Moosend is that it uses a countdown to create a heightened sense of urgency. Three days might be a lot of time for some things, but the small number makes Moo’s subscribers feel like they need to act now or risk missing out. And the company isn’t using a countdown timer, which is important because countdown timers don’t work on the most recent iOS.

Another great thing about this email is how quickly it gives you all of the information you need. You learn how long the sale is, what’s on sale, and how big the discount is in two sentences. This allows subscribers to view the email and make a decision in a matter of seconds.

What you can learn from it

This email is a great example of what you can do with a simple countdown campaign. Moo doesn’t need to create a new email for every day; all they need to do is create the template, vary the text a little bit from day to day, and schedule the varied emails over the course of three (or more) days. You can learn more about this type of email marketing in our guide to countdown campaigns.

Best practices for sales promotion emails

Working on a sales promotion email of your own? Here’s a quick list of best practices to follow:

• Only use high-quality images. If you can’t get high-quality photos, pay for illustrations or create your own graphics using a tool like Canva. Remember, an image can be as simple as the discount you’re offering written in a fancy font.
• Don’t complicate the layout. In most cases, a one-column layout is best since it reduces distractions and keeps things easy to read on a mobile screen.
• Emphasize a sense of urgency. Encourage your audience to act right away by emphasizing when your offer ends and using words like “hurry” and “now”.
• Make sure your subscribers can always see a call to action. A CTA should be highly visible on every screen, including above the fold (before users scroll down).
• If multiple products are on sale, use multiple CTAs. Specifically, make sure there’s a link to each product you’re advertising.
• Organize your campaign so it’s easy to read. Use visual cues like boxes and headlines to separate different items or topics. You can also use bullet points to create white space and make text easier to read.
• Put extra care into your holiday sales. The steady stream of marketing emails people get throughout most of the year becomes a flood in November and December, with dozens of daily promotions for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, and Boxing Day. If you’re running a sale at this time of year, you need to put in extra work to make it different from what people are already getting. But that doesn’t mean you need to send an elaborate email. In fact, you might stand out more if you take the simple approach.
• Consider the brand experience. You want to use colors, images, and words that fit with subscribers’ existing understanding of your brand. These subtle cues reinforce subscribers’ ideas about, and relationship with, your brand.

If you’re gearing up to run an ecommerce sale, you might also want to look at our guide to WooCommerce emails.

Final advice on promoting your sales with email

These sales promotion email examples work for a variety of reasons, but they all have one thing in common: the people who created them were strategic about every word, image, and color. If you put the same time and care into every campaign, you can make email your most powerful tool for marketing sales.

In this article, I’ll help you figure it all out by exploring what each type of email does and when to use them, plus some of our favorite examples of these email types in action.

Newsletters

In MailPoet, “Newsletters” are one-time emails that aren’t triggered by a specific event or action. Or, more simply, they’re just regular emails. You can use this function to create a traditional newsletter, but there are many other uses for it as well.

When to use newsletters

When you want to announce an upcoming event

Do you have a sale happening in the near future? Some sort of community event? A newsletter is the perfect way to announce it to your subscribers.

When you’re looking to hire someone

Expanding your team? Want to find someone already in your community for the job? Sending the job ad out in a newsletter is a great way to get the right eyes on it. 

If your WordPress posts are sporadic

If you don’t hold to a consistent schedule, you might not be able to guarantee new content on a specific date, making it difficult to guarantee that there will be new content when a scheduled latest post notification email goes out. 

If you want to offer custom content for subscribers

One of the most effective ways to get more subscribers is to offer them content they can’t get anywhere else, such as additional insight into the process you use to create blog posts. This content can’t be added to the latest post notification emails, so you’ll want to send it in newsletters.

If you want to create a personalized marketing campaign

Welcome emails and latest post notification emails are highly automated, making it hard to do more than basic personalization. If you want to create a truly personalized email campaign, a newsletter is the way to go (or you can check out our WooCommerce emails).

If you want to schedule an email for a specific date

If you want an email to go out on a specific date, like the day before Black Friday, a newsletter is the way to go. 

For most other email campaigns

Newsletters are incredibly versatile and can be used for any purpose you can imagine. If you can’t think of a good reason to use a different type of email, you probably want to use the newsletter function.

How to set up a newsletter email in MailPoet

To create a newsletter in MailPoet, go to the “MailPoet > Emails” in your WordPress dashboard and click the “New Email” button near the top of the screen, then select “Newsletter” from the options provided.

This will direct you to the template library. Note that there are templates specifically for newsletters, including a variety of simple templates that can be used as a starting point if you want to create something fully customized.

Selecting a template takes you to the MailPoet email editor. This is where you can customize the design and content of your email. 

Finally, you’ll be taken to the email overview page. This is where you can choose the list you’re going to email, finalize the subject line and preview text, and schedule the email. When you’re happy with the details, press “Send”, and your newsletter is done!

Welcome emails

Welcome emails are emails that are sent out after someone subscribes to your list. In MailPoet, these emails can be sent immediately upon signup or scheduled to go out a certain number of hours, days, or even weeks later. 

MailPoet also lets you send welcome emails to people when they become WordPress users on your site.

When to use welcome emails

When you need to send your signup bonus

If you’ve created an opt-in bonus, you’ll want to make sure they get it right away. You can do this with a welcome email set to go out immediately after someone subscribes to your list. 

You can also use the welcome email function of MailPoet to send out reminders about your opt-in bonus. This can be particularly effective if the bonus you offer is only available for a limited time, like a one-week discount coupon.

When you want to create a welcome series

A welcome series is a great way to strengthen your brand’s relationship with new subscribers. You can use these emails to share your company’s story, profiles of your creative team, information about how your different products and services work, or any other information you want subscribers to know early on. 

If you’re sending an email course

You can also use the “Welcome email” function of MailPoet to send an email course, like the 4-part MailPoet course on email marketing. This is a great way to share your expertise, show people how to use your products, and provide value to your subscribers so they stay on your list. Check out our guide to creating an email course in MailPoet!

If you want to release content on a specific timeline

If you have a piece of long-form content, like an in-depth article series or a book with several chapters, you can use welcome emails to share this content with new subscribers on a pre-set timeline. For example, you might choose to send one chapter of your book every seven days, giving your audience plenty of time to read and absorb the information you’ve sent them.

How to send a welcome email

To send a welcome email, open MailPoet to the “Emails” area, click the “New Email” below the screen title, and choose “Welcome email” from the options provided. This will open a page where you can select who will receive the email and when they’ll get it. You can choose for users to receive the email either immediately after subscribing or a set number of hours, days, or even weeks later.

Click “Next” to open the template library, where you can find several templates created specifically for welcome emails.

Selecting a template opens the MailPoet email editor, where you can edit your welcome email the same way any other email is edited. If you’re not sure what to include, check out our guide to WordPress welcome emails.

When you’re finished, you’ll be taken to the “Activate” page. This is where you can review key information like your subject line, the list that will receive this email, and how soon after signup the email will be sent.

Latest post notifications

Latest post notifications are recurring, automated emails that tell your followers about your most recent content. This is typically used for blog posts, but in MailPoet you can also set these emails up to share your latest pages, products, or media.

When to use latest post notifications

If you want to automate more of your email marketing

Latest post notifications are automated, meaning that you set them up once and they get sent out repeatedly until you cancel them. This can save you a lot of time in the long run.

If you want to create an end-of-week or end-of-month wrap up

If you post a lot of content, it can be difficult for your audience to keep up with. An end-of-week or end-of-month wrap up lets people see content they might have missed otherwise. You can also create separate lists for these wrap ups, giving people the option to choose how often they’ll hear from you.

How to create a latest post notifications email

To create one of these emails, go to the “Emails” area of MailPoet and click “New Email”, then choose “Latest post notification” from the options provided. This will open a page where you can select the schedule your latest post notification email will run on.

There are four scheduling choices for latest post notifications in MailPoet:

• Immediately. This option will notify subscribers every time a post is published. This is a great option for bloggers who post less than once a week or who post on a sporadic basis.
• Once a day at a specific time. This is broken up into hourly intervals. For example, you might set your post notifications to go out at 8AM every morning.
• Once a week. If you choose this option, you’ll also be able to select a weekday and a specific hour of the day for your email to go out. For example, you might choose to send your notifications at 8AM every Monday morning.
• Monthly on the… This option lets you select a specific date for your newsletter to go out each month. For example, you might choose to have these emails go out on the first day of every month.
• Monthly every… This option lets you send emails on a specific weekday each month. For example, you might send latest post notifications on the last Friday of every month.

Once you’ve selected a schedule, you’ll be able to go to the MailPoet template library, where you’ll find several templates for latest post notifications.

Choosing a template will take you to the editor, where you can alter the design and content of your email. If you’ve chosen a Post Notifications template, you’ll note that it’s automatically displaying your three most recent posts. This lets you see the email exactly as it will appear to readers, although the list of posts will obviously change each time the email is sent ou.

If you’ve chosen a different template, you’ll need to use the “Automatic Latest Content” module. You can find this in the sidebar on the right side of the editor.

You can use this module to add your latest posts to any email. You can also use this block to display recent pages, products, or media. 

Clicking on the block opens customization settings in the sidebar editor. Here you’ll be able to specify how many pieces of content the block will show, what type of content it will use, and any categories or tags the block should specifically pull content from.

Note that in a “Latest Post Notifications” email, the automatic latest content widget will only display content not previously sent in other notifications. This means that if you send a monthly notification with a block set to display three posts but you’ve only published one post in the past month, it will only display the one post published since the last notification went out.

When you’re satisfied with the appearance of your post notifications, you can head to the activation area, triple-check that all of the information is correct, and schedule your latest post notifications!

Final advice on newsletters, welcome emails, and latest post notifications

The three main types of email in MailPoet all have their unique parameters and purpose:

• A newsletter is a one-time email that can be scheduled for a specific date and time. You can use this email type for sending event announcements, job postings, and any other one-time email you might need to send.
• A welcome email is an email sent out a specific number of hours, days, or weeks after someone subscribes to your list.
• A latest post notification is an email round-up of your most recent content. These emails can be sent immediately after content is published or on a daily, weekly, or monthly schedule.

You can use these three email types for the vast majority of your email marketing campaigns. 

If you sell products using WooCommerce, you may also want to check out our guide to WooCommerce emails.

To accomplish this, I’ll explore:

• What a countdown campaign is + when to use one
• Examples of high-quality countdown emails
• How to structure your countdown email campaign
• The thing about countdown timers

When you’re finished reading, you’ll have everything you need except an occasion to count down to!

What is a countdown email campaign?

A countdown email campaign is a series of three or more emails counting down to a specific event. Each email builds on the last one, increasing the sense of urgency and sometimes also offering additional incentives to win over people who are debating a purchase. 

There are several occasions when you might use a countdown campaign:

• In the lead-up to a product release
• When a limited-time offer is about to run out
• When you’re selling tickets for an event happening on a specific date
• In the lead up to a holiday sale
• If you’re counting down the days until the end of a sale
• If you’re only accepting people into a specific program or course until a certain date
• When a product/service is going to stop being produced or sold after a specific date
• When a product/service is going to increase in price after a specific date

And these are just the opportunities I’ve thought of; countdown email campaigns can be used to promote anything happening on, before, or after a specific date.

Countdown email examples

1. Casper

This countdown email from Casper is great for a couple of reasons:

• The email is visual. The most important information, the amount that users can save, is in big, bold letters, and the call to action is placed in a large button. Subscribers can see all of the information they need, including how to take action, in a glance.
• The email is short. Subscribers don’t need to scroll or read large blocks of text to reach the call to action.
• The call to action is specific. The button asking you to “Shop the Mattresses” tells you exactly what Casper wants you to do.

The language and branding also reflect the company’s personality, ensuring that subscribers have a consistent experience when they engage with Casper marketing campaigns.

2. Distributed

This email works for similar reasons to the Restream email: the content is highly visual, the text is short, and the call to action is highly specific.

However, the full email is more like a landing page. There are multiple sections, each with its own information and call to action.

This approach works because there’s a lot to say about a conference like the Distributed 2021 event. You can highlight different panels, different guests, and other aspects of the event experience. A similar approach could also be used to highlight different uses for a specific product or multiple benefits provided by a specific service. I do recommend that you use this approach sparingly though; the average person receives over 125 emails per day, so they don’t want to spend a lot of time on any individual message.

3. Clearout

This Clearout countdown email is another email that uses striking visuals to direct users towards the spaces where they can take action. The coupon codes in particular are large and use contrasting colors to make them, and the information about each coupon, highly visible.

The size of the coupon codes does mean that the first buy button appears below the fold (after a user scrolls down), but in this case, the quality of the discounts is enough to convince people to scroll down.

How to create a countdown email campaign

1. Establish your goal

You probably already have a goal for your countdown campaign: to sell a specific product or service, make a specific number of sales in a store-wide clearance event, or get people to sign up for an event. For true success, however, you’ll want to get specific about the number of sales you want. This will help you create focused content and make it easier to measure the results when a campaign is finished.

Generally, I recommend setting the goal for a countdown campaign as a percentage. This means that your goal doesn’t become too small if you receive an influx of subscribers or become unachievable if you lose a bunch.

What is a reasonable goal?

According to Barilliance, the average conversion rate for email marketing campaigns was 15.22% in 2021. However, that doesn’t mean every business should aim for a 15% conversion rate. There are a few factors that can impact the conversion rate of a specific campaign:

• List hygiene. If you haven’t cleaned your list in a while, inactive and junk email addresses can reduce your engagement and conversion rates. You might also be wasting money by paying to keep contacts you don’t need, so if you haven’t cleaned your list in over 12 months, take a look at MailPoet’s list of compatible list cleaning tools.
• The value of your offer. People are more likely to take action when there’s a clear benefit, and a more significant benefit will win over more people. This means that you can expect a higher conversion rate on a 15% off sale than on a 10% sale. And increased value doesn’t always mean an increased discount, either. A new product sold at full price can net more sales than an old product offered at a steep discount.
• The cost of taking action. If you’re not a luxury brand that caters exclusively to the wealthy, cost will probably be a factor for your subscribers. And cost isn’t always money, either. If you’re selling tickets to a week-long event, people might not buy in because they’re not available for that long or during that particular week. In other words, people are less likely to take action if they need to commit significant resources to something.
• The quality of the campaign. If your campaign is difficult to read, doesn’t look good on mobile devices, or doesn’t present your offer in a clear and compelling way, people are more likely to delete your email without taking action.

If you’ve run similar sales before, you can also use your email analytics to get an idea of how well they perform with your unique audience.

2. Plan the structure of your countdown email campaign

Next, you’ll want to outline the overall structure of your campaign. This will help you know what to write in each email and ensure that your emails don’t become too repetitive.

Most countdown email campaigns should include at least three emails:

The “countdown begins” email

Your first email should announce what you’re counting down to and explain the basics: how long the countdown will be, why subscribers should take action, what action you want them to take, and how they can take that action. And you want to explain it all as quickly as possible, like this email from Everlane, which features a short introduction and one-sentence descriptions of the products available.

Pro tip: If you’re counting down to a product release or a sale, consider giving subscribers a secret link so they can take advantage of your offer before anyone else. This is a great way to reward subscribers for their devotion to your brand.

The “countdown is on” email

This email, or series of emails, goes out during the countdown itself. You can use this email as an opportunity to share more information about your offer, such as new images of your products in action.

If you do a multi-day countdown, you can send one of these emails every day, varying the emails by focusing on different aspects of the products/services on sale. For example, if you’re selling a six-week course, you might use each email to provide an overview of a specific lesson.

Running a multi-day countdown also means you can also use a different sales tactic in each email. For example, you might send one email that focuses on the discount itself, another that shows your products or services in use, and a third that shares reviews or testimonials.

The “last call” email

This email tells subscribers that they’re running out of time to take advantage of your offer, using words like “last call” and “final hours” to create an increased sense of urgency. If you’re running a multi-day sale, you might send this email on the morning of the last day; if you’re running a single-day sale, this email might go out in the final 4-5 hours.

3. Create your emails

With your plan in place, you’re ready to start creating the emails for your countdown campaign!

There are several guidelines you can follow to create effective countdown emails:

• Only use high-quality photos and illustrations.
• Use a single column layout to avoid visual clutter.
• Make sure your call to action is large and placed in a spot where subscribers will see it quickly.
• Use visual cues like arrows and people looking in a specific direction to direct subscribers’ attention to your call to action.
• Establish the details of your offer in the smallest possible number of words. People are more likely to read to the end if they can tell it will only take a minute.
• Use phrases like “buy now” and “don’t miss out” to increase the sense of urgency.
• Proofread everything, especially graphics! There’s nothing more embarrassing than misspelling a word in the banner at the top of your email.

You may also want to consider creating multiple personalized campaigns with segmentation. This is particularly useful if you sell a broad range of items since you can create targeted emails for people who have purchased similar items in the past.

4. Skip the countdown timer

A countdown timer is an animation displaying the amount of time until your offer runs out. These timers count down in real time so that subscribers will see the seconds ticking by as they read your offer. This adds a visual layer of urgency, as well as showing subscribers exactly how much time is left in your sale/event.

In the past, countdown timers were one of the most powerful tools email marketers had for time-sensitive promotions. Unfortunately, the Apple iOS 15 update means that countdown timers no longer work in emails sent to Apple devices. Considering that 34.2% of all emails being opened in Apple Mail, this means that countdown timers won’t work for a significant portion of your audience. And there’s nothing like a broken email to convince people to unsubscribe from your list.

So, to make sure your campaign works for everyone, skip the animated countdown.

5. Create a series of countdown images

Instead of an animated timer, you can create a series of countdown images to emphasize the urgency of your promotion. You won’t be able to tell users exactly how many minutes they have left to take action when they’re viewing the email, but you can share how many days there are between when you sent the email and when the promotion ends.

The easiest way to do this is to create a single image template, then save different versions of that image with different numbers. The image doesn’t have to be complicated, either. Something as simple as a black box with “2 days” written inside in white text can attract viewers’ attention and convey a sense of urgency.

Your other option is to create a wholly new image for each day of the countdown. This is a great choice if you’re promoting a sale on multiple products, since you can use an image of a different product in each countdown email.

Final thoughts on how to create a countdown email campaign

A countdown email campaign is one of the most powerful ways to create a sense of urgency and encourage sales within a specific time period.

To make the most of your countdown campaigns, remember four rules:

• Get specific about your goal. Make sure that your goal is ambitious but achievable by basing it on your stats from previous sales campaigns.
• Plan the structure of your email campaign. Make sure you have a “Countdown begins”, “Countdown is on”, and “Last call” email scheduled. Depending on the length of your campaign, you might want to create multiple “Countdown is on” emails, each focused on a different aspect of the sale/event you’re counting down to.
• Create your emails with care. Use only the highest quality images, write concise copy that emphasizes the value you’re offering your subscribers, and proofread everything, including graphics.
• Use a countdown timer. A countdown timer is a visual aid that increases the sense of urgency created by the campaign itself. There are many tools that let you create these timers for free.

So what are you waiting for? Start planning your first countdown email campaign today!

• The three things a newsletter landing page must do to be successful
• How to build a newsletter landing page, from planning to publication

When you’re finished reading, you’ll have all of the tools you need to start building a landing page for your newsletter.

Three keys to a successful newsletter landing page

A good newsletter landing page does three things:

1. Limit distractions

Your landing page should make it easy to subscribe to your newsletter and more difficult to do anything else. To accomplish this, many landing pages either minimize the site’s navigation menu or do away with it altogether, like the IT Showcase landing page shown below.

2. Explain your offer

A newsletter landing page should tell visitors what to expect when they sign up for your newsletter. This can be done through a combination of clear, direct copywriting and images of your newsletter or opt-in bonus.

3. Encourage action

Your newsletter landing page should make your signup form and/or subscribe button highly visible. The form itself should also be easy to use, with a minimal amount of required information. Visitors are more likely to take action when the steps to do so are readily apparent.

How to make a newsletter landing page with WordPress

Planning your newsletter landing page

To create an effective newsletter landing page, you’ll first need to get clear on what that landing page is supposed to do.

1. Get specific about your goals

The goal of a newsletter landing page is obviously to gain subscribers. If you want to be able to measure and improve upon your success, however, you’ll need to get more specific with that goal.

There are three types of goals you’ll need to set for your newsletter landing page:

• Visitor number. This is the number of visitors you hope to bring to your landing page.
• Subscription rate. This is the percentage of visitors you hope to turn into subscribers.
• Number of subscribers. This is the exact number of subscribers who sign up using the form on your landing page. For example, if you’re creating a limited-time landing page for a specific campaign, you might aim for 300 subscribers to sign up during the campaign.

The main thing to remember when setting these goals is that your goal number of subscribers should be relative to the number of people expected to see the page. For example, if you only expect 1,000 people to view your newsletter landing page in a given month, aiming for 800 subscribers per month sets you up to fail. In this case, a better number to aim for is 100 subscribers per month. At 10% of the visitor rate, this is still an ambitious goal, but it is possible for many brands.

2. Get clear about what you’re offering

The next thing you need to establish is what value you’ll be providing to subscribers who sign up through this landing page. There are a couple of things to consider here:

• Your regular newsletter content. What types of emails can people expect to receive from you? Sneak peeks at future products? Educational content? Opportunities to influence your future products or services?
• Your opt-in bonus. Is there a special gift users get when they sign up? If so, how does this gift benefit your visitors?

Knowing this up front will help you with the next two steps.

Creating your copy

The next step in how to create a newsletter landing page with WordPress is to write the text, or copy, for it.

3. Use copywriting techniques to create your landing page text

Copywriting is a type of writing that convinces users to take a specific action, typically a signup or a sale. There are several copywriting techniques you can use to create effective text for your landing page:

• Address visitors directly. Use the word “you” to directly engage with visitors. This also helps you create a conversational tone in your text.
• Emphasize the benefits people get for signing up. Will they get access to exclusive discounts? Educational or inspirational content? Opportunities to influence your brand? Tell them about it!
• Use urgent language. Words like “hurry” and “now”, as well as phrases like “don’t miss out”, encourage your visitors to take action right away.
• Don’t be afraid to break a few grammar rules. You’re creating a conversation between your brand and your visitors, not an academic paper. Your writing should reflect that, even if it means breaking a few rules.
• Create a highly specific call to action. Use a call to action that tells your visitors exactly what you want them to do, like “Sign up now”.

Most of all, don’t just use the first text that comes to mind. Play around with the wording of your original text, write a few alternate options, ask for input from your team if you have one. More often than not, you’ll find something better along the way.

4. Write a short, self-contained message to go “above the fold”

Make sure your first pitch, including the call to action, is short enough that you can display it in large text and still have it completely visible to users when the page loads. This encourages users to make quick decisions and reduces clutter on the screen.

In fact, many landing pages only include one or two sentences of text in the first area, like the landing page for i done this:

5. Consider writing a longer pitch to go “below the fold”

One common landing page strategy for winning over hesitant visitors is to use each successive screen to expand on what you’re offering visitors. The first area of the page contains a 2-3 sentence pitch and a call to action, followed by an area with 2-3 paragraphs explaining different aspects of your offer. Product/service landing pages often also have areas explaining different aspects of how their product works, but a newsletter can usually be fully explained in two panels.

Designing your page

Now that you’ve created your landing page copy, it’s time to learn how to create a newsletter landing page with WordPress.

6. Choose your color scheme

In most cases, a landing page should use your existing brand colors. However, you still need to figure out where these colors will be used. What color will be used in your header? What color do you want your landing page copy to be? What color can you use to make your call to action stand out from other content on the page?

You also want to remember that black and white can be used to great effect. Consider, for example, this landing page for Aesop Wines:

This page uses black and white to create contrast, with only a splash of color. You can go the other way, though, using colorful illustrations and only using black and white for your call to action.

7. Design your signup form

The final thing you’ll want to do before you start building your landing page is to create a unique signup form for it. This will make it easier to track how many people are actually signing up for your landing page. It’s also an opportunity to create something that really fits with your landing page.

As a MailPoet user, you can do this by going to MailPoet – Forms – Add New. This takes you to the signup form template library. There are templates available for every type of signup form. You can also choose to start with a blank form. Either way, since you’re working on a newsletter landing page, you’ll want to choose an embedded form that can be placed front and center on your page.

Next, you’ll be sent to the MailPoet form editor. This is where you can edit several aspects of your form:

• What list this form is for. You will need to specify this even if you only have one list.
• Where subscribers are sent. You can choose to either give new subscribers a simple thank-you message or to send them to a custom thank-you page.
• Background image. You can add a custom background image to your form.
• Background color. You can choose any color you want for the background of your form, including several color gradiant options.
• Font and message colors. You can also choose colors for the font, success message, and error messages.
• Required information. You can add information fields for first and last names. To find these blocks, press the blue “+” in the top left corner of the screen, then scroll down the block menu to the “Fields” area. You’ll note that MailPoet also lets you create custom information fields.
• Additional content. The MailPoet form editor lets you add most existing WordPress blocks to your signup form. This means you can add a header, regular text, or images to make your form more appealing.

When you’re happy with your form, click ‘Save’. The form will now be accessible through the MailPoet Subscription Form block in the WordPress block editor.

8. Choose a sidebar layout

It’s time to start making your page! Before adding any content, however, you’ll want to scroll to the bottom of the sidebar and choose a sidebar layout. Specifically, you’ll want to choose a layout with no sidebar in order to minimize distractions.

9. Optional: hide the menu and title

If you really want to minimize distractions, you can also hide the navigation menu. This will require minimal use of code, but the process is pretty simple:

• Open the page you want to work on in the WordPress editor.
• Grab the page ID from the address bar; this appears as “post=number”.
• In your CSS editor or the Simple Custom CSS plugin, enter the page ID and the CSS attribute, then use the code display:none. When you’re done, it should look something like this:

.page-id-101 nav#no-header-top-menu { display: none; }

Hiding the title is a similar process. Grab your page id and combine it with the following code:

.page-id-101 .entry-title {
display: none;
}

10. Add your content

With the basics of your page set up, the next step in how to create a newsletter landing page with WordPress is to add your text and any associated images. You can do this the same way you would add content to any other WordPress page: click on the page in the spot where you want to add a block, press the blue “+” button, and choose a block from the menu that appears.

As you add your content, keep some best practices in mind:

• Your signup form should be displayed above the fold
• Each screen of your landing page should include a unique call to action
• Use directional cues, like arrows or photos with people looking in a specific direction, to guide people’s eyes to your signup form and/or other calls to action
• Use contrasting colors to make your call to action highly visible
• Make sure all of your images are optimized to ensure fast loading speed
• Limit the amount of images and information on any given screen, giving users time and space to digest all of the information available
• Consider adding a slide-in form that appears when people scroll down the page

Most of all, take the time to design something you’re proud of. Your newsletter landing page will often be the first part of your site seen by new visitors. Make it something they’ll remember.

11. Optional: do A/B testing on your newsletter landing page

If you want to take your landing page to the next level, consider A/B testing. This type of testing involves running two or more slight variations of a landing page at the same time to determine which option receives the highest conversion rate. There are several A/B testing plugins you can use to run these tests directly on your WordPress site.

Final advice

Feeling intimidated by all of this advice on how to create a newsletter landing page with WordPress? Here are a few simple steps you can take to get started:

• Determine the goal of your landing page
• List every benefit subscribers get from your newsletter, including any opt-in bonuses
• Draft a one-paragraph pitch for your newsletter

And remember to save this article so you can come back to it when you’re ready for the next steps!

A landing page is a web page where all of the content is created with the goal of getting visitors to take a specific action, such as making a specific purchase. In the case of newsletter landing pages, also sometimes referred to as squeeze pages, the goal is to get visitors to sign up for your email newsletter. 

Landing pages take longer to create than your average signup form, but they’re worth the time: they offer a signup rate of 23%. This is significantly more than the next highest signup rate of 10% for “Wheel of Fortune” forms.

Your landing page doesn’t have to be complicated either. A single screen with a high-quality image, some text describing your newsletter, and a signup form is all you really need, as demonstrated by the Dreamforce 2019 landing page:

You can create landing pages in the regular WordPress editor or by using a specialized landing page tool.

Best practices for newsletter landing pages

1. Get specific about your goals

The first thing you’ll need to do is establish goals that can actually be measured for your newsletter landing page. These should include a) how many visitors you want the landing page to get each day and b) what percentage of those visitors you want to turn into subscribers. For example, you might set a goal of 500 views/day with a 20% subscription rate. 

So, how do you choose your goal numbers?

First, let’s talk about your visitor goal. This is the harder number to determine, because there are numerous factors that impact it. For example, if you’re turning your home page into a landing page you may expect it to receive a lot of views, since anyone looking up your site will be directed to it. On the other hand, if your site usually has low traffic levels, your homepage might get fewer visitors than a landing page tied to a major marketing campaign.

This means that you need to consider how many visitors your site usually gets, the success of previous marketing campaigns, and how you plan to market this landing page. You can then create a goal that is challenging yet possible to attain for a business with your current audience/traffic levels and resources. Personally, I like to create a number I think is reasonable, then bump it up 20% to give myself a challenge.

Next, let’s talk about your goal subscription rate. The temptation here is to base your goal on the average rate for your industry, but it’s important to remember that many landing pages don’t even follow basic rules of modern web design; as many as half of existing landing pages aren’t even optimized for mobile, and the average landing page conversion rate across industries is still 9.7%. Since you’ll be working with responsive design tools like the WordPress editor and/or specialty landing page builders, you can assume your subscriber rate will be significantly higher; a subscriber rate of 20% or even 30% might be a reasonable goal, especially if you have a high-quality signup bonus.

2. Write persuasive copy

The text of your landing page needs to make a compelling argument to win over visitors who might not be sure about your newsletter. 

You can use several strategies to achieve this with your copy:

• Focus on the benefits your newsletter provides. People know that their email address is valuable to you. What you need to do is establish that your newsletter is also valuable to them. For example, you might focus on the opportunity to access subscriber-only discounts. 
• Establish your expertise. Show people that you can be trusted by sharing the story of how you started your business, your professional credentials, or the number of years you’ve been in business. Case studies that show how you’ve helped people or businesses in the past can also act as proof of expertise and social proof (we’ll talk more about social proof later).
• Get specific with your calls to action. Your calls to action should use specific language like “Sign up” or “Join the club”. You may also want to create and include a branded name for your subscribers, like KJ Harrowick has done for her fan club, Hàlön Crew:

• Use simple language. It’s important to remember that the average person in the US reads at an eighth grade level. This means that most of the time, simpler language is better. After all, if a person is confused about what you’re offering, they’re probably not going to sign up. However, you also need to remember your audience. If they’re used to more advanced language from your brand or brands like yours, you’ll want to stick with that language.
• Keep your paragraphs short. Short paragraphs are easier to read on the screen and allow for more white space. 

You should also run your copy through at least one round of edits, looking for ways to tighten the text and also eliminating any spelling or grammar errors.

3. Make your calls to action highly visible

There are two aspects to this. First, your newsletter landing page should have a call to action (CTA) above the fold (content visible before you scroll down) and another one on every screen. This allows your visitor to stop reading and take action at any point as they scroll through your page.

Second, the visual design of your page should make the call to action highly visible. The easiest ways to do this are by putting your CTA in a button and using contrasting colors. For example, if the background of your page is white, you might add a black CTA button with white text. 

You can take this a step further by using directional elements to guide the viewer’s gaze to the call to action. For example, you might have a photograph of a person whose face is pointed toward your signup form. 

4. Display social proof

Social proof is anything that shows that your business has helped people in the past. This can be as simple as a headline on your site declaring that you’ve had 2,000 satisfied customers or as complex as a video testimonial from a past client. You might even want to use both of these strategies, placing a short line about the number of people you’ve helped above the fold and a series of reviews below it.

There are a couple of strategies you can use to maximize the effect of your social proof:

• Use excerpts instead of full reviews. Pull the most complimentary or informative quotes from a review and leave the rest.
• Get permission to use photos. Photos establish that your testimonials were created by real people. 

If you don’t currently have any reviews or testimonials, check out our guide on how to ask for feedback via email.

5. Use large, high quality images

The visual aspects of your landing page are just as important as the text. This makes it important to use only your highest quality photos and illustrations. You also want to make sure that these images appear in a large enough format for the details to be clear.

However, you don’t want the actual file size of your images to be large, as this can slow down your landing page. To remedy this, run any images you’re planning to use through a free file compressor like TinyPNG.

6. Add a video

If you’ve spent any time at all in the digital marketing world, you’ve probably heard that video is the next big thing. And it’s true for landing pages too: embedded video content can increase conversions by as much as 86%. 

The type of video you publish on your newsletter landing page will vary based on what you’re offering. Here are a few examples:

• If you have an opt-in bonus, you can create a video explaining how users can benefit from it. 
• If your newsletter offers weekly business tips, you can create a video of yourself reading tips from past newsletters.
• If your newsletter features updates on your creative work, you can create a video sharing how you got into this type of creative work in the first place.

And of course, you can also add video testimonials related to your opt-in bonus or newsletter.

7. Eliminate distractions

Everything on your newsletter landing page should be focused on getting people to subscribe. In many cases, companies don’t even put navigation menus on landing pages. Others move the navigation bar to the bottom of the page so that people only find it if they’re actively looking for it.

The main exception to this is if you’re using your homepage as a newsletter landing page. Since your homepage is the main hub of your site, you want to leave navigation intact for visitors trying to find specific information.

8. Use the testing tools available to you

If you’re using one of the landing page tools I mentioned earlier, make sure you take advantage of the testing tools you have access to. These tools let you test content before you send out a major marketing campaign, allowing you to refine your landing page before publishing it.

If you’ve never run these kinds of tests before, check out the VWO guide to A/B testing. 

9. Check your analytics regularly

The best landing pages are the ones that are refined over time, with changes made based on real data. This means making a regular appointment with yourself to go through your analytics, watching for trends. 

Here are some things to look at:

• How many people visit your landing page per day/week/month. This can tell you if your marketing campaigns are actually driving traffic to your landing page. If your visitor numbers are low, you’ll need to reevaluate your overall newsletter marketing strategy.
• Where visitors come from. This tells you what your most effective marketing channels are most effective, what platforms you can improve your marketing on, and what platforms are performing so poorly that you may want to stop using them altogether.
• How much time people spend on your page. If people are only spending a few seconds on your landing page, it might indicate that you’re failing to meet user expectations or that something on the page is broken.
• Subscriber rate. If you’re using a landing page builder like Unbounce, you’ll be able to toggle conversion rate tracking for this. Otherwise, you’ll need to rely on the analytics for the signup forms used and/or linked to on your newsletter landing page.
• What CTA drives the most conversions. You can figure this out either by looking at the most-clicked links on a given page or by tracking the stats of specific signup forms. In most cases, this will be the first one because it’s the most visible. If a different call to action gets more attention, it may mean that your original CTA isn’t compelling enough. 

As for how often you should look at these statistics, it depends on your goals. If the landing page is part of a short-term marketing campaign, you might want to look at your analytics weekly or even daily, giving yourself the ability to pivot quickly if your campaign is tanking. 

On the other hand, if you’re turning your homepage into a landing page, you might only want to check your analytics once a month or even once every three months. Really, the key is to check often enough that you can address the cause of any sudden dips in traffic before you start losing money.

10. Make multiple landing pages

I’m always talking about the importance of personalization in email marketing, and it can be used here too. Specifically, you can create different landing pages for people who are introduced to your content in different ways. For example, you might have personalized newsletter landing pages for the following groups:

• People who come to your landing page from social media
• Users who reach your landing page by searching for specific keywords
• People who clicked on specific advertising campaigns
• Users referred to your landing page by a member of your audience

You don’t need to reinvent your landing page completely for each group either. Instead, you can create a duplicate of your initial landing page, then change a few words or images to better suit the audience this page is for. For example, if you’re personalizing the landing page for someone who looked up a specific keyword, you might make sure that keyword appears more often than it does on the regular page.

Newsletter landing page examples

Publisher Weekly

The Publisher Weekly landing page is simple, without any imagery, animations, or other complex elements. Instead, it uses a couple of lines of text to explain what visitors get when they subscribe to the newsletter.

If that isn’t quite enough of you, Publisher Weekly offers two forms of social proof: the logos of professional organizations that rely on this newsletter and a line about joining their 2,000+ subscribers. This establishes that Publisher Weekly is a reputable source.

Overthink

There are a few reasons to love this newsletter landing page:

• Simple, clean design with minimal distractions
• Copy that spells out exactly what subscribers can expect
• Highly specific call to action
• An image of what the newsletter will look like when people open it on their phones, complete with a headline and article you might find in the newsletter

All in all, it’s one of the best newsletter landing pages I’ve seen, and it proves that you don’t need to put in a lot of work to create an effective landing page.

Close

This newsletter landing page centers an opt-in bonus instead of the newsletter itself. The cover image is eye catching and the hand shapes direct the action to the page’s headline. The text goes on to explain exactly what subscribers will get, reinforcing this idea with the “Download Now” CTA. Personally, I might have added a line about what subscribers can expect from the newsletter in the long run, but this page is already quite effective.

Newsletter landing page tools

There are several specialized tools for creating effective newsletter landing pages. These often use a block system similar to the WordPress block editor, but offer additional tools like A/B testing and conversion tracking.

Here’s a quick run-down of three of the most popular newsletter landing page tools:

1. WP ProfitBuilder

Standout features

• Over 100 landing page templates designed for specific purposes like lead generation and sales
• Drag and drop builder
• Fast loading pages
• A/B testing
• Funnel builder and analytics
• Conversion tracking

Overview

WP ProfitBuilder is a WordPress plugin with a flexible page builder, a growing library of page templates optimized for lead generation, and A/B testing capabilities.

As a WordPress plugin, WP ProfitBuilder is also directly compatible with MailPoet signup forms. This allows you to skip the use of third-party tools like OptInMonster.

Cost

You can buy a license for WP ProfitBuilder for a one time payment of $47 (usually $197). If you have multiple sites, you can buy a $67 (usually $297) license that works on up to 10 sites or a $67.67 (usually $497) license for 50 sites.

2. Instapage

Standout features

• Unlimited landing pages
• Unlimited conversions
• Template library with over 500 layouts
• Unique conversion tracking system
• Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
• InstaBlocks 
• A/B testing
• Multivariate testing
• Real-time visual collaboration
• Option to work with Instapage experts to optimize your landing page
• Advanced analytics
• AdMap for connecting individual landing pages to specific ads

These features are included with the Building plan. Check out the pricing page for more details.

Overview

Instapage is an advanced landing page builder that uses InstaBlocks, a design system similar to the WordPress block editor. This makes it remarkably easy for experienced WordPress users to make landing pages with Instapage. They can then publish their newsletter landing pages directly to WordPress.

Unfortunately, Instapage doesn’t integrate directly with MailPoet. If you want to display an opt-in form on an Instapage landing page, you’ll need to use a third-party form builder that integrates with both MailPoet and Instapage, such as OptInMonster.

Cost

The basic plan of Instapage costs $199/month ($2388/year). when purchased annually. Instapage also offers custom plans; you can find more about these on the Instapage pricing page.

3. Unbounce

Standout features

• Unlimited landing pages, pop ups, and sticky bars
• Access to both the classic drag and drop builder and the new Smart Builder
• Conversion tracking
• Conversion mapping
• Unlimited client sub-accounts

Overview

Unbounce gives users access to a variety of AI-powered tools that make it easier to both create a successful landing page and refine that landing page over time. The company recently unveiled the Smart Builder, an upgraded landing page builder with several new features, including an AI-powered Design Assistant.

The downside of Unbounce is that it doesn’t integrate directly with the WordPress block editor, so you can’t paste MailPoet forms directly onto landing pages built with this tool. To put forms directly on an Unbounce landing page, you’ll need to use a tool like OptInMonster that integrates with both MailPoet and Unbounce.

Cost

The Launch plan from Unbounce costs $81/month ($972/year) when purchased annually and allows for up to 500 conversions. Plans go up to $225/month.

Final advice on building your newsletter landing page

Landing pages are incredibly powerful marketing tools that can be created for anything: a product, a service, an event, and of course, your newsletter. You can use a tool like Instapage or Unbounce to create a newsletter landing page, but all you really need is WordPress and some best principles:

• Get specific about your goals
• Write persuasive copy
• Make your calls to action highly visible
• Add social proof, especially if you have visual social proof
• Use large, high quality images
• Add a video
• Eliminate distractions
• Use any testing tools you have access to
• Check your analytics regularly, using the data to refine your landing page over time
• Create multiple landing pages

Most of all, remember that a landing page doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, many of the best newsletter landing pages are quite simple. Yours can be too.

In this guide, we’ll explore the best practices for marketing your sale via email, with real-world examples. I’ll also show you how you can use MailPoet’s WooCommerce segmentation features to create even more effective email promotions for your sale.

Best practices for promoting your sale via email

1. Plan a series of emails to promote your sale

There are a few major benefits to sending multiple emails to promote your sale:

• Increase the number of people who see it. If they miss the first email for whatever reason, they’ll see the next one. 
• Have multiple points of contact. The more often someone sees your sale, the more likely they are to become curious about it.
• Build urgency. You can increase your emphasis on the limited-time nature of your sale with every email.

Personally, I recommend sending a minimum of five emails. 

The first email should be sent a few days ahead of the sale. This email should explain what the sale will be, how to take advantage of the sale, and when the sale will happen. This is your opportunity to get people excited in advance of your sale. 

Next, you’ll want to send an email on the opening day of your sale. This email will include a clear explanation of the discounts available and a highly visible call to action. You want to keep this email as short as possible. One or two sentences and a call to action button is often all you need. 

The third email will come out around the midway point of your sale. As you might expect, this email will be more time-focused, reminding people that the sale is halfway over and encouraging them to act now so they don’t miss it. You may also want to include some reviews and testimonials in this email to win over anyone who’s on the fence about making a purchase.

Your fourth email will be a warning email. This one will focus entirely on urgency, letting people know that they only have one or two days left to act. 

Finally, you want to send out an email on the last day of the sale, reminding people to act before the discount is gone.

Countdown campaigns

If you’re running a particularly long sale or a sale that provides an extreme discount, you may want to run a countdown campaign. This is a series of emails that goes out every day for either the days leading up to your sale or the final few days of the sale.

If you choose this route, remember to keep your emails short and direct, showing that you respect your audience’s time. 

2. Treat your subject lines like headlines

A subject line is to an email what a headline is to a blog post. If it doesn’t catch their eye, or if it gives away too much information, people won’t bother to read beyond it. With email, they might even delete it at a glance. 

There are several strategies you can use to create an effective subject line:

• Pitch your sale. Tell subscribers what they’ll find in your email. For example, you might use a subject line like “Take a look at spring discounts from (company name)” or “Get 10% off almost everything in our store (details inside)”.
• Emphasize the benefit of buying your products/services. For example, if you’re offering a video course on fitness, you might use a subject line like “Get into the best shape of your life – and save 20% doing it”.
• Focus on urgency. Use your subject line to remind people that your sale won’t go on forever using phrases like “Limited time discount” and “Last chance to get 10% off”.
• Keep it short. Remember that mobile devices have limited space for email subject lines. We suggest limiting your subject lines to 50 characters.
• Build continuity. Use a series of subject lines with increasing urgency to build interest as the sale goes on. You might also want to use similar language in each subject line to make the email series feel like a cohesive whole.

For more ideas on how to create an effective subject line, check out our list of the best email subject lines we’ve ever seen.

3. Put a call to action in your preview text

Next, you’ll want to work on your preview text. You don’t have a lot of space here, especially if you want to optimize your email for mobile devices. This means you need to focus on getting them to take action, specifically to open your email. And the best way to do that is to ask them.

The best way to create this call to action is to use language that mirrors your subject line. Make the subject line and preview text work together to give subscribers information and an incentive to act. For example, if the subject line is “Save big with our spring sale”, you might write preview text along the lines of “Look inside for savings of up to 40%”. 

You’ll note that this example also elaborates on the discounts promised by the spring sale. This further entices subscribers to open your email, since they’ve got a good idea of what they’ll find. 

4. Perfect your copy

I’ve already covered the types of content you should include in each part of your email series; now it’s time to discuss how you can optimize that content to drive sales. 

Namely, you’ll want to understand how to use the principles of persuasive writing: 

• Reciprocity. This principle states that if you help people in some way, they’ll want to return the favor. You can use this when marketing a sale by reminding subscribers of how your brand has helped them before. For example, if you offer an email course about graphic design as an opt-in bonus and you’re selling video courses, you might say something like “We taught you the basic principles of design. Now, you can learn to build powerful social media graphics with our video course and save 15%, too.”
• Scarcity. The less of something there is, the more people want it. You can take advantage of this principle by mentioning that you have a limited number of products, especially if you won’t be creating another run of those products.

• Authority. People are more likely to listen to you if they consider you an expert in your field. You can take advantage of this by talking about your educational background, the number of years you’ve spent in your current field of work, or anything else that demonstrates your authority.
• Commitment and consistency. People like to maintain a consistent sense of identity and self-image. If you can write your copy in such a way that it reinforces a person’s identity, they’re more likely to pay attention to what you’re saying. For example, if you sell books about how to write fiction, you might say something like “You love writing. Now we can help you master it.”
• Liking. This one comes as no surprise: people are more likely to listen to you if they like you. Since your subscribers liked your stuff enough to join your list, all you need to do to take advantage of this principle is remind them why they signed up.
• Consensus. Also known as social proof, this principle states that if people know other people trust and/or like you, they’re more likely to listen to you. You can demonstrate this by talking about the number of products you’ve sold or by adding reviews and testimonials to your emails.

Most of all, don’t just write your copy once and assume it’s going to drive sales. At the bare minimum, you want to edit it for grammar and spelling. For even better results, you’ll want to edit for clarity and consistency of brand voice. You might even want to ask a colleague or trusted employee for feedback on the copy for your email marketing campaign.

5. Use high-quality images

Of course, the text isn’t the only important aspect of your email marketing campaign. Images, especially product images, can also make a major difference in the success of your email campaign. If your images are grainy or poorly lit, that difference might not be a positive one.

There are a couple of ways to get high-quality visuals for your email campaign:

• Pay for professional photos. Sometimes your best solution is simply to pay a professional to do this for you. However, if you have a lot of products or you release new products on a regular basis, this gets expensive fast, which leads us to the next solution:
• Learn how to take professional product photos yourself. This will take a lot of trial and error, but there are many tutorials about DIY product photos that can guide the process. 

Most of all, remember that high-quality images aren’t optional if you want to grow your business. You can only choose whether you’ll invest money or time into getting them.

Visuals for service-based businesses

We’ve talked about product photos, but how can service-based businesses create high-quality visuals?
Well, you have three options:

• Stage photos of yourself and/or colleagues working. You can hire someone to take these photos or learn to do it yourself.
• Hire an illustrator to create branded imagery. For example, you might commission a piece that shows a cartoon version of you working on a computer.
• Turn your copy into imagery. Write your copy in a fancy font, throw it onto a colorful background, add a logo, and voila! You have a high-quality image you can use in your email campaign.

And these are only the ideas that came to mind at a moment’s notice. You may find other opportunities to create visuals that represent your brand.

6. Personalize your emails

Personalization isn’t just effective, it’s expected: 56% of consumers say they’ll look elsewhere if a company doesn’t personalize their emails. 

There are two main ways to personalize the email campaigns for your sales:

• Use a person’s name. One of the simplest, yet most powerful, ways to personalize an email is to address your subscriber by name. You can add a person’s first and/or last name to the subject line and main text of your email. In MailPoet, this is done with shortcodes.
• Send customized emails to different segments of your audience. Segmentation tools let you create sub-groups within your list based on things like how long they’ve been in your audience or products they’ve purchased. We’ll talk more about this, and specifically how to use WooCommerce segmentation to customize MailPoet campaigns, later on.

You shouldn’t just be personalizing emails when you’re promoting a sale, either. Personalization can be an effective way to improve engagement with all of your emails.

7. Use visual cues to make your call to action stand out

Your email as a whole should be designed to emphasize your call to action. You can do this in a few ways:

• Use contrasting colors. For example, if the background of your email is white, you might put your call to action in a vibrant or dark color. You can even use a black button with white text.

• Use directional imagery. Things like arrows or images of people with their eyes or hands pointing are a great way to direct viewers’ eyes at your call to action.
• Pay attention to size. Your call to action should be large enough to stand out from your copy. 

Remember, every part of your email should focus on directing people to your call to action.

8. Schedule promotions around your existing workflow

You want to send a series of emails to convince your audience that your sale is worthwhile, but you don’t want to overwhelm their inboxes. This makes it important to consider your existing email workflow when scheduling the email campaign for your sale. 

There are a couple of things to consider here. First, you’ll want to look at promoting your sale in regular emails. For example, if you send a biweekly newsletter and you’re having a month-long sale, you might mention the sale in both newsletters sent out during that month. These updates can be separate from your main marketing campaign.

You also want to limit the number of emails you send in any one day. Personally, I avoid sending more than one email per day. This means that if I have a newsletter going out on a specific day, you should avoid scheduling promotional emails for my sale on that day.

Level up your promotions with WooCommerce segmentation

WooCommerce segmentation options

As a MailPoet user, you can take advantage of our integration with WooCommerce to create personalized campaigns for users who have interacted with your store in a variety of ways.

• Ordered a specific number of products
• Purchased specific products
• Purchased products in a specific category
• Total spent in your store

If you have the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension, you’ll also be able to access segments for each membership level on your site.

To send an email to a WooCommerce segment, create your email as normal. In the “Send” part of the process, click the “Lists” dropdown menu, then scroll down until you find the WooCommerce options.

After selecting one of these options, you’ll be asked to configure the details. For example, if you’ve chosen “# of orders”, you’ll be able to specify the precise number of orders someone must have made to be included. You can also segment groups who have made “up to” or “less than” a certain number of orders.

As you customize the segment, you’ll be able to see the number of people in it. Most companies don’t have time to create personalized copy for every user, so they can use this knowledge to determine what groups are most worth sending personalized emails to.

When you click “Save”, the segment will be permanently saved. This allows you to easily use the same segmentation settings for future campaigns.

How to personalize emails based on WooCommerce segmentation

The main way to use WooCommerce data to personalize campaigns is to create copy and imagery that emphasizes a customer’s existing relationship with you. 

Here are a few examples of how this might work:

• If someone has purchased a specific product, you might say something like “Save now on complimentary products”.
• If someone bought a product in a specific category, you can say something like “Since you enjoyed (product), we thought you might enjoy this sale on (product category)”.
• You can send early promotional emails to customers who have spent a significant amount (say, over $100) in your store, saying something like “As one of our best customers, we wanted you to be the first to know about these deals”.
• If someone has made at least one purchase in your WooCommerce store, you can send an email saying something like “Save 10% on your next purchase from us”. 

Remember that the most effective copy is often the most specific copy. For example, if you sell dresses, you might turn “Save 10% on your next purchase” into “Save 10% on your next summer dress”. 

Final thoughts on how to promote your sale with email marketing

Most of the principles for creating a successful series of promotional emails for your sale is the same rules you want to follow every time you send an email: 

• Treat your subject lines like headlines
• Use one or more principles of persuasive writing in your copy
• Use high-quality visuals
• Direct the subscriber’s gaze to your call to action with visual cues
• Personalize your emails with names and segmentation
• Schedule all promotional emails around your existing workflow

MailPoet users can also take advantage of advanced personalization through WooCommerce segments.

To learn more about how you can improve your WooCommerce marketing with MailPoet, check out the full list of our recently added WooCommerce features.

We’ll discuss:

• Where to place your newsletter signup form
• Types of signup forms + how to create them in MailPoet
• What makes effective signup form copy
• How to create a compelling call to action

And more! 

By the time you’re finished reading, you’ll have all of the knowledge you need to create effective newsletter signup forms.

1. Choose a strategic location for your newsletter signup form

Many business owners place a signup form somewhere in their sidebar and leave it there, giving no real thought to form placement. This is better than having no signup form at all, but you can drive more conversions with strategic placement. Even making sure that your signup form is at the top of your sidebar, rather than placing it haphazardly into the middle of the sidebar, can make a difference.

To encourage more subscriptions, consider placing an additional signup form in one or more of the following places:

• Directly under your top menu
• At the end of each blog post
• In your footer
• In a slide-in form (more on those later) at the bottom of the page

This ensures that your visitors encounter your signup forms consistently as they explore your site and read your content.

2. Use multiple types of forms

You’ll notice pretty quickly that your usual newsletter signup form doesn’t look good in every location. Sometimes all you need to do is change the dimensions, but often you’ll need to create a wholly different type of form.

Here’s a quick rundown of popular types of signup forms:

• Embedded forms. These forms are designed to be embedded directly into your content. You can use these forms in your sidebar, the header or footer of your site, and at the end of long-form content pages. 
• Fixed bar forms. Also known as floating bar forms, these are signup forms in a bar across the top of your page. These forms follow your visitor as they scroll down the page, so they can subscribe to your newsletter at any point.
• Pop-up forms. Perhaps the most infamous signup forms, these forms open over the page you’re looking at. Many people consider these forms intrusive, since they block the primary content from view. On the other hand, this level of visibility means that people can’t escape it. Plus, you can set it up so that your pop-up form appears after users have read your content.
• Slide-in forms. These signup forms slide into view as a user scrolls down the page. Typically the first view of the form is a tab that appears on the bottom or side of the page asking users to click for more. When users click on this tab, the full form appears. These are a great compromise between embedded forms and pop-up forms, since they follow users through the page without obstructing content.

Take a look at our ultimate guide on how to use pop-ups, slide-ins, fixed bar forms, and more!

3. Use time delay and exit-intent technology when possible

One of the biggest advantages of modern pop up and slide-in forms is that you can set them up to display after users have interacted with your content. There are a couple of ways to do this:

• Time delay. This feature allows you to specify how long a person must be on your page for this form to appear. Typically this is expressed as a number of seconds. In MailPoet, time delays can be added to both pop-up and slide-in forms.
• Exit-intent. When this setting is enabled, your newsletter signup will appear when someone attempts to leave a page. In MailPoet, this setting currently only exists for pop-up forms.

As a MailPoet user, you can customize these settings in the sidebar of the form builder. For more detail on how to use exit-intent forms effectively and how to set them up in WordPress, take a look at our guide.

4. Write compelling copy

There isn’t a lot of space for text in more signup forms, which means you’ll need to convince visitors to subscribe with one or two sentences. Some forms, like fixed bar forms, might only have space for a few words. 

There are several strategies you can use to write compelling signup form copy:

• Set clear expectations. Tell viewers exactly what they’ll get when they sign up for your newsletter. 
• Create a sense of exclusivity. Focus on the content your subscribers will get that can’t be found anywhere else, even on your website. This shows visitors that your newsletter is a unique and valuable experience.
• Be clear about how you’ll use data. Specifically, explain that you won’t spam the person or share their data with anyone else.
• Use your brand voice. The copy on your signup form should feel like part of your overall brand experience. For example, if most of your content is light and humorous, you might add a joke to your signup form copy.
• Emphasize your opt-in bonus. If you have a signup bonus like a discount or free content, you want to tell visitors about it here. 

Most of all, don’t just go with the first thing you think of. Draft a variety of pitches for your signup form, choose the best one, and edit it until it sparkles. If you have employees, you may also want to ask them for feedback.

5. Use a specific call to action

A generic call to action like “sign up” or “join now” gets the message across, but you can make your signup form even more effective by mentioning exactly what users will get. 

Here are some examples of more specific calls to action:

• Join my fan club
• Grab your free book
• Claim your discount
• Start learning

All of these calls to action provide a specific impression of why people are signing up for your newsletter, whether it’s an affinity for your work or the desire to grab a discount. And these are just what I thought up in a couple of minutes. Your deep understanding of your brand can help you create an even more specific call to action. For example, if your fans have a nickname like “greencoats”, you might use the call to action “Become a greencoat”.

6. Make your newsletter signup form easy to use

Your signup form should provide a clear path to joining your newsletter, not put obstacles in visitors’ way. 

There are a few ways to make sure your signup form is easy to use:

• Only ask for information you actually need. Your signup form should only require people to enter their email addresses and possibly their names. Other information about your audience can be discovered through a combination of analytics and surveys. 
• Make the signup button clearly visible. The signup button should be fairly large and use contrasting colors to make it “pop” off of the screen. 
• Make sure it’s mobile responsive. If your form doesn’t work well on mobile devices, you could be missing out on a chance to convert more than half of your visitors. Luckily, MailPoet signup form templates are already responsive!

You may also want to look into the basics of accessible web design to make your signup form (and other content) accessible to a wider range of people.

7. Create an opt-in bonus

An opt-in bonus or signup bonus is a reward given to subscribers when they sign up for your newsletter, such as a discount. These bonuses can then be used as the focal point for lead generation campaigns.

Your signup bonus can be anything that’s both relevant to your business and beneficial to your customers. Some common opt-in bonuses are discounts, short ebooks, and exclusive video or email courses. Personally, I suggest choosing a signup bonus that you don’t have to put a lot of up-front work into, like a discount or access to an expanded version of a blog post you’ve already written.

Once you’ve created your opt-in bonus, you can rewrite all of your marketing content, including the text of your signup form, to emphasize the signup bonus. You can also create a new landing page that focuses on your signup bonus. For more information on how to use these, take a look at our guide.

Time-limited signup bonuses

A great way to get a large number of subscribers to your newsletter is to offer an opt-in bonus with a time limit, such as entry into a competition or a limited-time discount. This creates a sense of urgency, encouraging users to sign up right away so they can get the full benefits.

8. Incorporate social proof

Social proof is anything that shows that people have interacted with and enjoyed your content. Most often when I talk about social proof, I’m referring to reviews, testimonials, and social media posts about your brand, but there are other ways to demonstrate social proof. For example, you might display the number of people already subscribed to your newsletter.

If you do decide to add a testimonial or review to your opt-in form, you’ll want to keep a few guidelines in mind:

• Use social proof that talks specifically about subscriber benefits. For example, if you offer an ebook as an opt-in bonus, you might choose a testimonial that talks about the benefits of that ebook.
• Keep it short. Even in a pop-up or slide-in form, you only have space for 1-2 sentences. This might mean taking an excerpt from a testimonial instead of using the whole thing.
• Weave it into your copy. Since there isn’t a lot of room, you want to make sure your copy flows smoothly into your testimonial. In some instances, the testimonial can even serve as the copy.
• Include a picture. If you have a photo of the person who gave you the testimonial, use it. This reinforces the idea that your review came from a real person.

If you don’t have any reviews or testimonials yet, check out our guide to asking for customer feedback by email.

9. Make it pretty

Your signup form should draw the eye and contribute to the visual experience of your site. There are a few things you can do to accomplish this while building your signup form:

• Incorporate your brand colors and imagery.
• Add an animation; our eyes are naturally attracted to movement.
• Use a font that emphasizes legibility; handwriting-style fonts are pretty, but they can be difficult to read.
• Make sure the font is large enough to be seen properly by visually impaired users and on small screens.
• Test what your signup form looks like on different devices. You can use a free tool like Responsinator to see what your form, and your website as a whole, will look like on various devices.

For more information on designing your signup forms, check out our guide to creating mobile-friendly signup forms.

Final thoughts

Throwing a signup form into your sidebar and calling it a day is better than not having a signup form at all, but there are a lot of ways you can optimize that form to drive more conversions:

• Place multiple forms in strategic locations on your site
• Use a variety of form types, being sure to take of specialized features like the ability to set a time delay
• Refine your copy with a goal of explaining the benefits subscribers will get in as few words as possible
• Create a specific call to action
• Make sure your forms are easy to use
• Offer some kind of opt-in bonus
• Feature a testimonial, ideally related to the newsletter itself or to your opt-in bonus
• Use your brand colors and imagery to make your signup form feel like part of the experience of your site

With these rules in mind, you’ll find yourself getting more subscribers in no time!

I’ll explore:

• How to use MailPoet to enhance the subscriber experience
• How to upsell and cross-sell to subscribers
• How to use email marketing to get reviews for your subscription business
• How to use email marketing to get referrals for your subscription business
• How to use the MailPoet integration with WooCommerce Subscriptions

By the time you’re finished reading, you’ll be ready to create an effective email marketing plan for your WooCommerce Subscriptions business. 

Enhance the subscriber experience

As always, you want to consider the customer experience first. What can you send them to supplement the materials they get through their subscription? How can your emails help subscribers make the most of the goods or services they’ve paid for?

Here are some ideas for using emails to enhance subscriptions:

• Provide sneak peeks. If you do a monthly subscription box where most of the items are a surprise, you can build excitement by showing one of the items inside the box. This lets users see some of what they’re getting while also building anticipation for the surprise items.
• Remind people about the goodies they have access to. This is particularly effective if some or all of your subscriber content is available on a limited time only basis, or if you host subscriber-only events. You can then remind people when things will become available and send another reminder before they lose access.
• Send bonus materials. For example, if you sell a subscription box of wine bottles, you might email customers a mini-book of recipes that go well with each month’s wines. 
• Add an email component to your subscription. You can also bundle a premium newsletter into your subscription business. This is a great way to share high-quality knowledge with your best customers.

The key to success here is to focus on content that provides a benefit directly connected to the subscription. You also want to make sure the materials are things you can reliably create at a high quality level. Remember, the best way to keep subscribers is to sustain a consistent quality level.

Upsell and cross-sell to subscribers

Another way to leverage your subscribers as an audience is to send them personalized marketing campaigns for higher subscription tiers and other products. 

You can personalize content for subscribers by emphasizing and rewarding their loyalty to your brand. For example, if you’re trying to get subscribers to your fitness membership site to buy your video course, you might write copy along these lines:

“Hi (Name),

You’ve enjoyed the fitness tips and community here at Fitness XTreme. Now you can take it up a notch with our 12-part video course, High Intensity Core Workouts! 

Think that’s awesome? Here’s some even better news: to thank you for your long term support, I want to offer you 20% off High Intensity Core Workouts! Simply click on the button below before (Date).

Thanks,

(Name)”

On the other hand, if the same fitness site offered access to video workouts as part of a higher membership level, the email might look like this:

“Hi (Name),

Now that you’ve had time to put your extreme fitness tips into action, why not kick it up a notch with our Workout Group membership? 

At this membership level, you’ll keep access to all of the content you love and gain access to our entire archive of video workouts. You’ll also get a new one-hour recorded video workout every month.

Even better, since you’re already a member, your first month’s subscription will be prorated to $15 instead of $20. 

Sign up today!

Thanks,

(Name)”

These emails share some key features: they remind people why they like the membership site, tell them a little bit about the video workout options, and thank customers for their loyalty before wrapping with a call to action. This shows customers that you recognize and appreciate their continued business.

Of course, remember to use other personalization techniques too, such as using subscribers’ names. 

Get reviews for your subscription business

Another great way to use MailPoet to enhance your subscription business is to ask your subscribers for reviews or testimonials. This content can then be used on your membership landing page and social media pages, as well as in your social media promotions and other marketing campaigns.

Here are some basic guidelines to follow when you create an email request for reviews:

• Remind customers of the benefits they’ve gotten from your brand. 
• Thank them for their continued support. You can take this a step further by sharing how that support has allowed your business to grow and change.
• Ask politely for a review or testimonial.
• Share how reviews and testimonials help your business and how they will be used in your marketing campaigns.
• Include some reviews or testimonials to give customers ideas on how to phrase their own reviews/testimonials.

You may also want to consider rewarding customers for reviews. For example, you might provide a discount on their next year of membership or a related product. 

Get referrals for your subscription business

You can also ask your subscribers to recommend your business directly to friends and family. This is a great way to get your business in front of more qualified leads without spending a lot of money on advertisements.

Referral requests must include a clear call to action, complete with an easy way to share your business, such as click-to-share buttons that make it easy for people to send your link via email or social media. Technically, this is all you need, but there are a few strategies you can use to make your request more compelling:

• Emphasize your customer’s relationship with your brand, either by thanking them or by reminding them of the benefits they’ve gotten from your products/services.
• Talk about how a shared love of your products/services can bring people closer together.
• If your business focuses on sustainability or social good, share how referrals can help you do more good.
• Give subscribers the ability to provide a discount with their referral. For example, you might create a referral link that automatically gives a 15% discount to new customers.
• Reward your subscribers for sending referrals. One great way to do this is by providing subscribers who make referrals with the same discount you give to the people they refer.

• Give subscribers the option to join an affiliate program. You can create one of these using a plugin like Easy Affiliate.
• Run a contest that people can enter by making referrals. This is most effective when every referral counts as a new entry to the contest. You can even make this an annual event, building it up as something for subscribers to get excited about.

Referrals are one of the best ways to get new long-term customers, so be sure to run these campaigns on a regular basis.

Email marketing for WooCommerce Subscriptions with MailPoet

Create segments for active WooCommerce Subscriptions customers in MailPoet

Now that you’ve got some ideas about email marketing for your WooCommerce subscription business, let’s take a look at how to create these segments. To do this, you’ll need to go to the “Lists” area of MailPoet and click the “+New Segment” button at the top of the screen.

This will open a page where you can configure basic details about the segment, including its name, description, and the group of people included in this segment.

Click on the “Segment” dropdown menu and scroll down until you see “WooCommerce Subscription > Has An Active Subscription”. 

Once you’ve set this up, a dropdown menu will allow you to choose the subscription tier you want to include in this segment. 

Send emails to your new segment

Next, head to the “Emails” area of MailPoet, select the type of email you want to send, and create it as you normally would. Note that you can send all email types, including WooCommerce emails, to your WooCommerce subscribers. 

When you’ve finished building the email, you’ll be directed to schedule it and set up sending details. Open the “Lists” dropdown menu and scroll until you see the appropriate segment.

After that, all you need to do is click “Send”! 

Final advice 

Email marketing for WooCommerce Subscriptions businesses is easier than ever with MailPoet. If you’re using the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension, you can set up specialized segments for different subscription tiers and use them to enhance your business in a variety of ways:

• Add something to the subscriber experience, such as bonus content to help subscribers make better use of your products/services.
• Send personalized marketing campaigns to upsell or cross-sell products/services.
• Ask subscribers for reviews and testimonials.
• Encourage subscribers to tell their friends about your business.

And these are only the main ways you can use MailPoet to boost your WooCommerce subscription business! With a little creativity and the ability to send all types of emails to this segment, the sky is the limit.

In this guide, I’ll explore:

• Why it’s important to market your newsletter
• How to create a newsletter marketing strategy: a step-by-step process
• How to refine your newsletter marketing strategy over time

When you’re finished reading, you’ll have a clear road map to getting more subscribers.

Why marketing your newsletter is important

Email subscribers are incredibly valuable: on average, email marketing has an average ROI of $42 for every $1 spent. In other words, the average return is 4,200% of the investment. 

Email marketing is also an excellent way to retain customers over a long period of time, which is important when you consider that acquiring a new customer typically costs five times as much as keeping an old one. This means that aggressively growing your email list can dramatically increase your income and help you build a more stable business over time.

Unfortunately, in today’s busy world, the “build it and they will come” approach doesn’t work. Every business your audience interacts with has a newsletter, and a person can only read so much email in a day. If you want to get their email, you’ll have to set yourself apart from the competition. You can do this by creating a detailed newsletter marketing strategy.

How to create a newsletter marketing strategy

Step one: make sure your newsletter is worth marketing

If you don’t have a consistent content plan for your newsletter, it’s time to make one. This will ensure that your newsletters are sent on a regular schedule and filled with content your audience is actually interested in.

I’ve already created a full guide to creating a newsletter, so let’s just go over some of the basics here:

• Decide the types of content you’ll publish. Remember that all content should focus on providing value to your subscribers.
• Set a publishing schedule. Establish how frequently you’ll send your newsletter and a regular time for it to come out each week/month. For example, you might choose to send your newsletter on the first Tuesday of every month, and set a recurring appointment to schedule the newsletter on the Monday before its release.
• Create a template. You can use the same template for every newsletter to build brand consistency.

Be sure to check out the full guide for more detailed information.

Step two: choose your goal(s)

Goals can be used to guide your creative process and measure the success of your marketing strategy. 

For your newsletter marketing strategy, you’ll want to focus on a subscriber goal. This is the number of new subscribers you want to get during a specific period of time. Since this is the subscriber goal for your overall marketing strategy, rather than a specific lead generation method, you’ll want to aim big. For example, if you’re starting off with a hundred subscribers, you might aim to get that number to 500 in four months. You might also choose an ongoing goal, like an ongoing rate of 100 signups/month.

Once you’ve created an overall subscriber goal, you can determine the number of subscribers you want to get from each aspect of your newsletter marketing plan. For example, if you’re aiming for 100 subscribers/month, you might aim to get them from the following mix of sources:

• Landing page – 50 subscribers/month
• Signup form during checkout process – 25 subscribers/month
• Signup form on content pages – 25 subscribers/month

Note that it’s somewhat harder to track how many of your subscribers came from individual social media platforms. You can view how many visitors are sent to a given page from each platform, but there’s no way to track how many of those visitors become subscribers. 

Step three: consider an opt-in bonus

An opt-in bonus is a reward of some kind that new subscribers get when they join your list. Your bonus can be as simple as a 10% discount to your WooCommerce store or as complicated as a four-part video course. If something is relevant to your business and provides tangible value to your audience, it can be used as an opt-in bonus.

Some business owners dislike opt-in bonuses because they tend to attract a certain percentage of junk emails, people who only sign up for the free bonus and may even unsubscribe right away. However, many businesses find that they get more than enough long-term subscribers to outweigh the junk emails. You can also clean your list regularly to limit the number of junk emails you’re sending to at any given time.

If you want to create a signup bonus, check out our full guide to opt-in bonuses.

Time-limited signup bonuses

One great way to encourage subscribers is to offer a signup bonus for a limited period of time. This creates a sense of urgency, as well as a sense of exclusivity, since other subscribers won’t necessarily get this bonus.

If you decide to do this, you’ll want to build an entire campaign around the time-limited nature of your signup bonus. For example, you might offer new subscribers a 10% bonus if they sign up during the month of August. You can then create content that focuses on why people want to buy your products/services before summer ends. You can also repeat this event every year with only minor edits to your campaign.

Step four: populate your site with signup forms

If you have a list at all, you’ve probably already put a signup form somewhere on your site, like in the sidebar. You might even have optimized it with excellent copy that focuses on what subscribers get when they sign up for your newsletter. 

This is a great first step, but you can dramatically increase your subscriber rate by putting signup forms in other key places:

• At the end of long pages and blog posts.
• In a popup that appears when someone has spent a certain amount of time on your site.
• In a floating bar form below the top menu of your site.

You can check out our guide to signup forms for more information on various types of signup forms, including instructions for setting them up with MailPoet.

Step five: create at least one newsletter landing page

A landing page is a web page created for a specific marketing campaign, typically with the goal of getting visitors to take a singular action. These pages minimize distraction, sometimes going as far as to remove the top menu and any references to parts of your site that aren’t directly related to the desired action. 

Some landing pages are incredibly simple, featuring only a signup form:

Others are lengthy pages with detailed copy and/or social proof in the form of testimonials and reviews, like the landing page for Growth Tools:

You can either create landing pages directly in the WordPress editor or use a specialized tool like Instapage. Specialized landing page tools tend to be on the expensive side for new business owners, but they provide access to advanced tools like A/B testing and even expert feedback. 

When you build your newsletter landing page, remember to follow some best practices:

• Make sure your first call to action appears above the fold (before users scroll down).
• Use visual cues like contrasting colors, buttons, and directional imagery to point users’ attention at your call to action.
• Incorporate high-quality photos or illustrations.
• Include a call to action on every screen. Users should be able to take action at any point.
• Consider including reviews or testimonials, especially if you have permission to use customer photos (this helps cement the idea that your reviews are from real people).
• Build personalized landing pages for different segments of your audience.

Most of all, remember to keep your content focused on how signing up benefits your audience. 

Step six: add a link to all of your pages

Make sure your newsletter landing page is linked to everywhere you are. If a person is looking at something related to your brand, there should always be a link to your signup page visible.

Here’s a quick list of places to add links:

• The “About” page of your website.
• The social media bios on all profiles associated with your business.
• Bios used for things like guest posts and interviews.
• The email signature associated with your business account.
• Your personal email signature.
• In “Thank you” emails to customers.

Really, anywhere you’re promoting your work is a good place to share your landing page. You may even want to create specialized landing pages for some of these purposes, like a personalized landing page for your Instagram followers.

Step seven: schedule newsletter promotions on social media

The next step in developing a newsletter marketing strategy is to establish how and when you’re going to market it on social media, beyond adding a link to your bio. 

This will look a little different depending on the platform you’re marketing on:

• On Facebook, you might post a reminder post about your newsletter once per week, with additional marketing messages posted any time you have a limited-time signup bonus. You might also want to create paid advertisements for your landing page.
• On Twitter, things move a lot faster, so you might post about your newsletter once or even twice a day, increasing that frequency any time you have a limited-time signup bonus. You can schedule these posts using a tool like the Revive Old Posts plugin.
• On YouTube, you can link to your newsletter in the description of each video, then mention it at the end of your videos. Depending on your permissions, you may also be able to add a link to the end card that displays when someone finishes one of your videos.
• On Instagram, you can post screenshots of your newsletter or your opt-in bonus and tell people to look at the link in your bio to sign up. You can also mention it during live sessions.

Whatever platform you’re sharing your newsletter on, make sure that you maintain a balance between promoting your list and promoting actual products/services. You want to give your social media audience as many opportunities to interact with your brand as possible.

How to refine (and expand) your newsletter marketing strategy

As with everything in marketing, your newsletter marketing plan should be a living document, expanding and changing as your business does. At the bare minimum, when you start building a presence on a new social media platform, you should add information about what you’ll do to promote your newsletter on that site or app.

You can also expand on your core newsletter marketing strategy with temporary lead generation campaigns. 

Here are a few types of lead generation campaigns you might want to run:

• Newsletter swaps. This is when you collaborate with a business owner in your industry or a complimentary one. You share their business on your newsletter, and they share your business on their newsletter. It’s a win-win situation. Just make sure you trust the business you’re swapping with!
• Paid ads. I touched on this briefly in the last section, but it’s worth talking about in more detail. You can create paid ads on every major social media plan and many search engines. There are even courses for things like Facebook advertising and Google Ads.
• Influencer marketing. People usually rely on influencer marketing for selling paid products because of the high cost, but it’s also an effective way to market your newsletter. You’ll just want to set up an excellent automated welcome sequence first to ensure that those subscribers become customers.

You might find that when you think about your own business, you can imagine even more ways to gain subscribers.

Final thoughts on creating a newsletter marketing strategy

Marketing your email list is crucial to the long-term survival of your business. You can create an effective newsletter marketing plan in seven steps:

• Double down on the quality of your newsletter.
• Create overall goals for growth.
• Add a variety of signup forms to your website.
• Create at least one newsletter landing page.
• Add links to all of your business pages and email signatures.
• Add newsletter promotions to your social media calendar.

Once you’ve established an ongoing promotion plan, you can start building temporary campaigns with things like paid ads.

Do you have any ideas about your newsletter marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments section below! 

In this guide, I’ll explore the benefits of abandoned cart emails, how to send WooCommerce abandoned cart emails with MailPoet, and best practices for creating abandoned cart emails.

Let’s dive in!

What are abandoned cart emails?

Abandoned cart emails are automated emails sent to users who leave items in their online shopping carts. These emails remind customers about the items they were interested in and encourage them to make a purchase. A great example of an abandoned cart email is the Headspace email pictured below:

Abandoned cart emails are a great opportunity to remind people about your products, further demonstrate the value of what you’re selling, and encourage people to take action. But you don’t need to take my word for it. There are some fascinating stats to back me up:

• Abandoned cart emails have an average open rate of over 40%
• People click on the links in more than 21% of these emails
• 50% of those clicks resulted in purchases

In short, abandoned cart emails can significantly increase your number of successful sales and help you retain customers. Remember, it’s always easier to keep an old customer than to find a new one.

How to create WooCommerce abandoned cart emails in MailPoet

MailPoet offers direct integration with WooCommerce, making it easy to set up WooCommerce abandoned cart emails (and other WooCommerce emails). This feature also offers several benefits:

• GDPR compliance. MailPoet will only send WooCommerce abandoned cart emails to people who are already on your list, ensuring that you stay compliant with the law.
• Ability to create multiple emails. You can create an entire series of abandoned cart emails. In fact, we recommend it!
• Access to email templates. MailPoet offers several templates specifically for abandoned cart emails.
• Complete automation. Once you’ve created your emails, MailPoet will automatically send them any time a cart is abandoned in your WooCommerce store. You don’t have to worry about a thing!

To get started, go to the “Emails” area of MailPoet and click the “Add New” near the top of the screen. This will take you to a page where you can choose the type of email you want to create.

Scroll down the page until you see the WooCommerce email options, then select “Abandoned Shopping Cart”.

This will open a page where you can configure exactly when your email will be sent. You can specify a number of hours, days, or weeks that need to pass between the cart being abandoned and the email being sent.

Once you’ve specified a time to send your abandoned cart email, you’ll be directed to the templates area of MailPoet. You can select and edit a template as you normally would.

When you’re satisfied with the design and copy of the email, click “Next”. This will direct you to a page where you can customize the email’s settings. This includes an opportunity to change when the email is sent out and to rename the Google Analytics campaign associated with this email.

When you’re satisfied with all of these settings, you can click “Activate”. MailPoet will then automatically send this email out any time someone abandons their cart in your WooCommerce store.

If you’re setting up more than one abandoned cart email (and you totally should – we cover why further down!), simply repeat the process and adjust the time lapsed after a shopper has abandoned their cart. If your abandoned cart email is successful in recovering the purchase, MailPoet will automatically stop the series for that customer for you.

Best practices for WooCommerce abandoned cart emails

Knowing the technical details of how to send WooCommerce abandoned cart emails isn’t enough to guarantee conversions. You’ll also want to follow some best practices in writing, designing, and scheduling these emails. 

We’ve got an in-depth guide to abandoned cart email best practices, so I’ll stick to covering the most important things here.

1. Understand why people abandon shopping carts

Online marketing agencies have collected an enormous amount of data about shopping cart abandonment. We know that 34% of shoppers abandon their carts when a site forces them to make an account, 23% abandon their carts because of issues with shipping, and 18%  of shoppers abandoned shopping carts so they could compare prices with other retailers.

You can use this data in a couple of ways. First, you can assess the shopping experience on your site for leak points, reducing the number of people who abandon their carts in the first place. For example, you might decide to remove the need for customers to create an account. Or you can make the idea of creating an account more appealing to encourage people to follow through.

Second, you can address some of these issues in your abandoned cart emails. For example, if you do want users to create an account before making a purchase, you can use your abandoned cart emails to emphasize how signing up benefits the customer. You can also offer a discount that can help defray shipping costs. 

2. Create a series of WooCommerce abandoned cart emails

A single abandoned cart email is a great start, but you can recover even more sales by creating a series of emails. In fact, we recommend sending three emails:

• Immediate email. This email is sent 30 minutes after someone abandons their cart, while your products/services are still fresh in their mind. This email should be a quick, simple reminder about your products. You can also include contact information for customer service.
• Second email. This email should be sent 24 hours after a cart is abandoned. If your first email isn’t opened, it’s time to switch up your tactics. Share your reviews and testimonials and remind customers how your products/services will help them.
• Third email. You want to send this email 72 hours after a shopping cart is abandoned. This is the time when you offer customers a discount. Just remember to make sure that you’re still going to make a profit after the discount. 

This structured series gives potential customers more opportunities to interact with your brand. And if they purchase your product/service after the first email, MailPoet will automatically unsubscribe them from the email series.

3. Use a persuasive subject line

Your subject line should make the purpose of your email clear in as few words as possible. Remember, mobile email clients only display 25 – 30 characters. You need to catch your audience’s interest that quickly.

Many subject lines for abandoned cart emails use some variation of “Don’t forget your stuff”, but there are several tactics you can use to create a subject line:

• Ask a question. For example, if you sell running gear, you might ask “Don’t you want to run in comfort?”
• Offer a discount. If you’re offering a discount, make it clear with a subject line like “Save 10% on your stuff”. 
• Use time sensitive language to create a sense of urgency. This works particularly well when combined with a discount. For example, you might say “Come back today for 10% off”. 
• Use action words. Tell your customer what you want them to do. Phrases like “Complete your order” offer powerful, clear direction.
• Personalize where possible. Something as simple as using your customer’s email address can make a big difference. You can find the appropriate shortcodes in the MailPoet knowledge base.

If you need some inspiration, check out our list of 12 of the best email subject lines we’ve seen.

4. Remind people about the products they were going to buy

You want to remind people about what they planned to purchase by emphasizing high quality images of your products/services.

Beardbrand does a great job of this in the email displayed below:

If you sell products like clothes or shoes, you may also want to include information about things like color and size.

You can also add things like product descriptions and reviews/testimonials.

This can easily be done in MailPoet by using the Abandoned Cart Content Widget. 

5. Make your call to action clear

A successful call to action has two main characteristics:

• Specificity. When someone sees the call to action, they should know exactly what you want them to do. In abandoned cart emails, you might stick with “View Cart” or “View Item” as your primary call to action.
• Visibility. Your call to action should have prominent placement. You can also use things like buttons and contrasting colors to make the call to action more visible.

You also want to make sure that the call to action is repeated. The easiest way to do this is to place a button at both the beginning and the end of your email.

Final advice on how to create WooCommerce abandoned cart emails

If you’re not using WooCommerce abandoned cart emails, you’re potentially losing hundreds or even thousands of sales every year. 

Luckily, MailPoet makes it easy to create fully automated abandoned cart emails for your WooCommerce store. Advanced tools like the Abandoned Cart Content Widget and personalization shortcodes allow you to optimize these emails for the highest possible conversion rate. 

So what are you waiting for? Start creating WooCommerce abandoned cart emails today!