How to Create Promotional Emails for Inbound Marketing

While nurture campaigns are in place to guide leads through the sales funnel naturally, sometimes you’ll need to be more direct. For situations like new product releases, seasonal offers, or service feature highlights, promotional emails are the way to go. However, especially if you’re running an inbound campaign, you’ll need to send promotional emails that blend well with your nurture campaign and aren’t overly “salesy.”

Here’s how to create promotional emails that align with your inbound marketing strategy: 

1. Segment your email list 

Getting your email to the right people is very important to your promotional campaign. For example, an email highlighting a discount for new subscribers would need to go to a list that has NOT already subscribed to your service.

A promotional email regarding a new product accessory might be baffling to readers who don’t already own your product. Sort and filter with care.

2. Nail the subject line

• Keep your subject line short.
  • According to Marketo, a subject line length around 41 characters or seven words is ideal.
• Personalization increases clicks, too
  • Campaign Monitor reports that “emails with personalized subject lines are 26 percent more likely to be opened.” 

Be careful to avoid words in your subject lines that could trigger spam filters. Because you’re creating promotional emails, this can be challenging. For example, words like “unlimited,” “lowest price,” and “limited time” are all on HubSpot’s list of email spam triggers. You’ll have to get creative to avoid using these words.

3. Sell with substance

Although your promotional emails may feel separate from your nurture campaign...they’re really not. Your focus should be not only on highlighting your promotional offer, but also on strengthening your relationship with the lead. 

How can you do both at once? It’s pretty simple: just focus on your audience’s needs and wants, and how you can make their lives better. It’s a win-win to focus on helping people rather than making an immediate sale at any cost: you’ll have some leads that convert now, and some that move closer to a conversion later.

4. Optimize your CTA

All warm, fuzzy lead nurturing aside...don’t hold back on your call to action (CTA).

The purpose of your promotional email is to make a sale, so follow these CTA best practices:

• Use a button: Button-based CTAs increase click-throughs by almost 30% over link-based CTAs.

• Make it time-sensitive: Use words like “now” or “today” to infuse a sense of urgency

• Make it easy to find: Your readers shouldn’t have to hunt for your CTA, your CTA should hunt THEM.
  Ok, maybe that’s a tad dramatic...just be sure to make your CTA unmissable by setting it apart from the rest of your copy and using eye-catching colors.

With the right audience and the right messaging, you’re sure to knock your next promotional email campaign out of the park! If you still have some questions on how to create promotional emails, or need some guidance on your overall strategy, reach out to the experts at Tobe for a free consult.