Email marketing is one of the effective ways to improve conversion or drive sales. However, not all email marketing campaigns work out as you would prefer. Well, wonder no longer!
In this article, I will list a few best email marketing templates that I have come across and that work superbly across industries, geographies and even time – January to January.
SendGrid
This is another excellent source for free email and newsletter templates with a mobile-responsive design and layout. They provide a whole gallery of customisable email templates that you can modify using their design editor.
If you want to design your own email templates then you can do that as well using their “marketing campaign” dashboard. Given their wide range of 40+ template designs, you don’t really need to start from scratch.
Image Source: SendGrid
Cakemail
This is another source where you will find free email and newsletter templates that you can use for your campaigns. The templates are available for different kinds of emails that your business might send like welcome emails or deals and offers. This source is especially good for finding newsletter templates as they have quite a few unique designs.
Are these templates right for you? They can be used by businesses from different industries as these templates can be easily customised.
Image Source: Cakemail
Still not satisfied with the selection of templates provided by the sources mentioned above?
Email Octopus
This is a lesser-known source that also has a good selection of free email templates. Their template designs are mobile-responsive and look just as good on mobile devices as they do on laptops.
While they do not boast a large selection of templates, their designs are minimal and can be used by anyone. Their 11 unique email templates are enough to meet your basic email design needs and get you started. However, unlike some other sources listed here, there aren’t dozens of options by category. So, either you like their design or you don’t, there’s not much to choose from.
Image Source: Email Octopus
Stripo
If you prefer to look at multiple design options and don’t want to put much effort into customisation, then this is the source for you. With over 300 email template designs you’d want for nothing more. Whatever kind of email you want to send, you will find several email templates for it. This is an excellent source for email templates for marketers that are looking for tons of unique design ideas.
They also provide customised email templates for different industries. So, all you need to do is use a template predesigned for your industry and you won’t need much customisation. Of all the sources listed here, this is probably the biggest in terms of their collection of email templates. And, after you look at their selection, chances are, you won’t need to look any further.
Image Source: Stripo
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is another popular email marketing tool that also provides free email templates. They have tens of email template designs for different kinds of business and personal emails. They use different colour schemes, layouts, and designs to make engaging email templates that are ready-to-use. You can scroll through their selection and see which layout will work best for your email. You can also customise these designs and make these comply with your brand aesthetics.
BEE Free
Still looking for more great email marketing templates? BEE Free is a great source for finding unique and vibrant email templates suited for all occasions, both for personal and business use. They have a selection of 200+ designs that you can choose from, depending on the type of email that you want to send. They also categorise their email templates by industry and type of email, so it is easier for you to find something that you can use as-is, without modification.
And, given their selection of templates, there will hardly be any need for you to check out any other sources. This is not a popular email marketing tool. In fact, not many people know about it. It is kind of a hidden gem. And you can use to your advantage.
Image Source: BEE Free
Colorlib
This is a website that boasts thousands of email templates and design assets. They provide 39 of these free of cost that are available for download by anyone. These cover templates for different kinds of emails that you need to send in the course of your business. So, scroll through their selection and see if anything catches your eyes. Also, all these templates have a responsive design so these will work well with any kind of device.
Because a lot people check their emails on the go. So, that is one less thing that you need to worry about and you can use any of these templates as-is.
Airbnb
Airbnb‘s entire marketing strategy, from its customers to its hosts, hinges on a single foundation: trust.
The company, which provides an online marketplace for people to rent out their properties, has built up a strong reputation. One of its best strategies has been to connect with customers (and future customers) using personalization. Their emails often use the customer’s data, such as their current city, to personalize emails in a way that builds a deeper connection with them.
They’ve started to use this strategy to bring relevant data into their email campaigns to personalize every piece of communication. Take this example, where Airbnb tracks what city you’ve explored for available properties and sends you personalized recommendations:
The email works because even though it’s clearly a template, key information has been swapped out to personalize it specifically for the reader. By adding their name and the city they were previously searching for, Airbnb makes it easy to find the perfect property.
Airbnb’s Email Specialist Lucas Chevillard says personalization is an important part of their email strategy:
“We’ll spend some time reviewing all our emails to see how we can optimize them with personalization; we want to bring more relevant data in the content of all emails.”
How to steal this template
Setting up analytics tools on your website is the key to mimicking the best parts of this template. For example, Google Analytics can track your customers’ website behaviors and help you understand what pages they’ve visited, and what products they’ve looked at:
By tracking your customers’ behaviors, you’ll be able to use that information to personalize your email communications to them.
Dollar Shave Club
If you’ve already made a sale to a customer, it’s the perfect opportunity to ask them if they’re interested in any more of your products.
When Dollar Shave Club emails out a customer’s order confirmation, they gently nudge the customer into making additional purchases. Underneath the customer’s order, the company has added related products a customer can add to their shopping bag with a single click.
How to steal this template
Take a look at the ways your products or services are offered on your website. If you can identify a group of products that complement each other, add them to the bottom of your order confirmation emails as a suggestion. Offering a discount code or a limited-time offer can also increase urgency and encourage a customer to add extra products to their order.
Dropbox
Not every customer or subscriber on your list is eagerly waiting for your emails to land in their inboxes.
In fact, many people on companies’ email lists are becoming disengaged from those companies every day, whether it’s from email fatigue or from just being too busy with other things in life. The worst-case scenario is if they unsubscribe from your email list, which might lead to you losing their business entirely.
The way to get them to start paying attention again? Use an email reengagement campaign. Here’s how Dropbox did that using humor:
The email has a simple, funny message: do you want to let your computer files collect dust, or bring them to life using Dropbox?
It’s a gentle reminder to Dropbox’s customers and subscribers that have stopped using the product that it’s useful and can help them keep their files in order.
How to steal this template
The most effective email marketing templates will reveal who your company really is. Whether you’re trying to be creative, funny, or useful, injecting this quality into a reengagement campaign is a great way to reestablish brand awareness and remind your customer why they became a customer in the first place. Keep your message short and sweet, make sure you remind them of how your product can help them, and make it easy for them to reach out to a human if they ever need help.
Cafepod
Asking for (and acting on) customer feedback is one of the most powerful things you can do to keep your customers around.
If you really want to hear what your customers are thinking, ask them! Solicit feedback through email surveys and pre-built templates is both quick and relatively easy, and you can do it even with a small (or one-person) team. Be sure to choose your timing wisely too—try sending out feedback emails to customers a few days after they’ve received an order or right after they talked to someone on your support team. (An excellent way to build customer service teamwork.)
Here’s an example survey from CafePod Coffee Co:
Every time a customer talks to the company’s support team, the conversation is followed up with a simple question: How did we do?
Once again, the focus is on how easy it is for a customer to actually give that feedback. Adding the responses as clickable links into the email allows CafePod’s customers to give feedback quickly without writing out an email.
If your email template is configured correctly, these answers will be automatically collected in a database or spreadsheet, so you can see what you’re doing right—and wrong. For example, using a tool like SurveyMonkey, you can embed surveys into your customer service emails and collect feedback:
Then, you can track these metrics over time and know how to make improvements in the future.
Conclusion
Email marketing has always been one of the most effective ways to market your business. The reason for this is simple, email marketing can be performed very quickly, its cheap and you can learn how to do it from the comfort of your home. However, one of the biggest challenges in email marketing is coming up with a professional looking email template that will make you stand out from the crowd.