Different types of emails | mail trap (2023)

Email marketing is a strategy to promote a product or service by sending emails to current and potential users. The first commercial email was sent in 1978 by Gary Thuerk, a marketing manager for Digital Equipment Corp. He used the Arpanet (the Internet didn't exist yet) to send the email to 400 contacts. So we can safely assume that this was the first email campaign that produced a phenomenal result, something like$14 million in sales. However, what Thuerk did back then would have been classified as spam in modern practice, since the email was unwanted by almost all recipients. Regardless, it worked and resulted in a powerful tool for sellers. What is the power of email? They can be different and you can use different types of emails for versatile occasions. For example, you can use different visual assets, even incorporate themVideos in email marketing campaigns. In this article we will examine them in detail.

How many types of email can you Google: 5, 7, 10 or more?

Let's say you're willing to ask Google how many types of email exist in business. We did it for you, collating search results by increasing the number of email types:

15 is not the last number - you can find 16, 17 and even 19 in your search, but should you? The problem with all these lists is that they don't give you a clear categorization of the emails. We can easily specify any reason for an email campaign and define it as a separate email type. But that's not what the article is about. The approach we use is more sustainable and based on the hallowed text of every email marketer: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Email Categorization and GDPR Compliance

The GDPR regulates the protection of personal data. Because of this, you probably won't find anything explicit about email marketing. However, emails are more or less personal data such as email addresses, usernames, contact details, etc. You can find out why and what you should pay attention to in this regard in the blog post on the topic.GDPR Email Compliance.

The truth is that all automated emails can be divided into two types:

• Transactions-Emails(mainly those triggered by interactions between the user and the application)

• Marketing emails(those who promote something)

In this context, the GDPR has two main tasks:

• to protect customers from marketing emails that have not given their consent.
• to regulate that transactional emails are not used for marketing purposes.

Now let's expand these email categories to discover their many subtypes.

Transactions-Emails

The first (and last) email each of your users will receive is a transactional email.Transactions-Emailspromote nothing. Its value is to provide information related to the product/service. For example, transactional emails notify you of password changes, payment status, and more. They are considered required reading and have a consistently high open rate. For this reason, it's tempting to fill transactional emails with marketing content. But beware: the GDPR is lurking! By using a dedicatedTransactional email serviceYou can create professional emails built with transactional email best practices and manage things more easily by separating them from your marketing emails.

For every person who writes one, there are many types of transactional email. We divided them into four groups:

• User account emails
• Billing emails
• Notification emails
• Emails about orders and purchases

Now let's look at real examples of all the email types within the above groups.

User account emails

welcome emails

Welcome emails build your relationship with the user. Its open rates are as high as the Burj Khalifa and should make its mark. This is how it works, for examplemail trapwelcomes its users:

Confirm Subscription (also called double opt-in emails)

Users are not bothered by emails asking you to confirm the subscription. Instead, they show that you care about their safety.

Reset your password

Password reset is an integral part of mostdigital products. A password reset email should be clear and match the branding style of the product.

Privacy Policy Update

The Privacy Policy describes the principles of personal data protection. If you update this document, you must inform your users immediately.

Account security warning

Account security alerts notify users of suspicious activity to prevent potential harm.

End of free trial

A free trial is a great way to introduce potential customers to the value of your product. If you like it, jump. Still, you should inform customers about the expiration of the free trial to encourage them to take action.

Subscription Cancellation/Renewal

The cancellation email confirms a customer's request to cancel a subscription. For example as follows:

At the same time, you can immediately use this email to win back your abandoned user. Just add a wake button like Hulu did:

Billing emails

Billing emails

Your customers are people and people are used to forgetting about things. For this reason, billing emails should remind customers of the payment due.

receive emails

The emails received are strictly informative. They provide financial data (receipt) to customers so they can keep their records in order. It is recommended to attach PDF receipts to these emails.

claim emails

Claim emails are reminders of failed payments or expiring credit cards. They also offer suggestions on what needs to be done to fix the problem.

refund emails

A refund email notifies the customer of a successful refund.

Payment method emails

Customers must ensure that their financial data is stored securely. Payment method updates are used for this.

Notification emails

invitation emails

Suppose your friend or teammate invited you to a project based on a specific application. There is no need for him/her to manually share a referral link with you. An invitation email will do this automatically. Invitation emails invite users to files, projects, events, etc.

Message/comment emails received

It's simple: you receive a message through an app that sends you a notification. The same flow is used to notify users about comments, mentions, and other activity in the app.

Event reminder emails

Suppose you have scheduled a non-working time for your product due to maintenance work. Or maybe your users need to be notified of an upcoming event. That's the mission of event reminder emails.

Emails about orders and purchases

Abandoned cart emails

What made a user abandon their cart? He can think of the reasons or just remind the client that this happened. Statistically, abandoned cart emails have a 45% open rate. Of that, only 11% converts to purchases, which is better than nothing.

Order confirmation/cancellation emails

Today, emails confirming a financial transaction are often taken for granted. Order confirmation emails often include details such as order number, price, shipping address, etc. If an order has been cancelled, be sure to notify the user as well.

Shipping Confirmation Emails

These emails contain details on how users can track their orders. If users are happy with the way you report to them, they are likely to make another purchase from you.

Shipping Confirmation Emails

Some do not separate deliveryConfirmation emailsof those about shipping details. However, delivery emails play a special role: they activate the user's expectation of receiving their purchase. You can use this to your advantage. As? Link to your brand's social profile, invite them to share comments, etc. This can be a lot of fun and fruitful – use your imagination!

Customer feedback emails

Customers trust reviews and comments online. So be sure to give your customers ways to respond in this way. One of the best options is to send an email with customer feedback. Here is the list of the bestKundenfeedback-ToolsYou may consider sending feedback emails.

Marketing emails

Any email that contains marketing-oriented content is a marketing email. An account email containing a discount offer is no longer a transactional email. Marketing emails must have an opt-out option. If not, they are not GDPR compliant. So if your marketing emails don't allow users to opt out, beware the data protection authority will have grounds to fine you.

Here are the types of marketing emails you may encounter:

Newsletter

A newsletter is a scheduled email about the product/service or related outreach. Newsletters may containdifferent types of contentthat interest your subscribers:

• Summaries of recent or popular blog posts
• promotional videos
• Product/Service Updates
• advice related to products/services
• and much more data to keep users busy

For example, the following Cook Smarts newsletter contains one-time menu updates and cooking tips:

Standalone or dedicated email

Newsletters provide a summary of the content and can contain many CTA links. In most cases, a subscriber clicks on one and forgets about the others. A standalone email is dedicated to a single topic and has only one call to action like “buy a premium plan”, “read this blog post”, etc. In this case, the subscribers' attention is focused on the desired action.

Lead nurturing emails

The idea of ​​lead nurturing is to get your subscribers and convert them into customers. Lead nurturing emails are used for this purpose. They provide subscribers with actionable content designed to inspire them to take a desired action. Lead nurturing emails come in a series because you can't build customer relationships with a single email.

What kind of content do these emails contain? Anything that adds value to subscribers and speaks to their interests in an engaging way. As an example, consider the following Skillshare lead development email:

Product Announcement Emails

When you start a new service orlaunch a new featureof an existing product, this should be announced. Your subscribers want to be the first to know about this news, so don't let them down. Check out the example below where the Mailtrap team announced this.bcc test function:

Survey emails, also known as customer development emails

How sure are you about what information your subscribers want to receive? If your trust needs confirmation of something, use a survey email. It's a regular email that asks subscribers to answer a few questions. With survey emails, you can establish a dialogue with users instead of having a one-way conversation.air table importerHe used survey emails in the following ways:

"We're Hiring" Emails

You may be wondering what value these emails can have to subscribers who aren't looking for a job. The value is simply that you ask them, which shows that you trust them. From a marketing perspective, "We're Hiring" emails make your subscribers trust you more. look how the boys lookRailwayAsk your subscribers for help with recruiting:

Sponsorship Emails

The above marketing emails are intended for recipients you already have in your email database. However, with sponsorship emails, you can go beyond this framework. The idea is that you buy a place in a separate newsletter or email from another company. Actually, you don't even need to pay for sponsored emails. If you sponsor an event, the organizer can promote your product/service in their marketing emails. Sponsorship emails can help you attract new leads and reach different audiences. For example, the following email was sent from Yoga on the Field. However, Saint Thomas Health OnDemand captures more readers' attention.

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If you count all the types of emails we described above, you get 27! And you know, the number may actually be higher. Each project and each company may have a specific strategy that requires its own type. So don't worry if your approach doesn't fit in any of these ways. Just make sure it works.