In this article, you are going to learn about the 8 email marketing types that a small business should be using.
As a beginner at email marketing, there are a lot of things you need to get a grasp of.
You need to know the types of emails that you can send to your customers.
This is one of the most important factors after choosing your email marketing software.
For a business that is new to email marketing you would be glad to know that channel allows you to send different types of emails to your subscribers.
There are two main categories of email marketing types and they are:
- Transactional Emails
- Engagement Emails
For your email marketing strategy to be successful, you need to mix up your email content using the different types of emails.
This is because if your business sends only one type of email, your subscribers will soon get bored and that will hurt your conversions.
I will get into the types of emails now...
Here are the 8 types of emails you can start using right away in your business:
- 1Welcome e-mail
- 2Newsletter e-mail
- 3Promotional e-mail
- 4Abandoned cart e-mail
- 5Lead Nurturing(Drip Campaigns) e-mail
- 6Milestone e-mail
- 7Co-marketing e-mail
- 8Re-engagement e-mail
So I will walk you through each and every one of these types with examples that are coming straight from my inbox.
1. Welcome Email
A welcome email is very important in that, this is your opportunity to welcome your customer into your database.
Your customer has voluntarily given you permission so that you can email them.
In my example, as shown by the image, BrightTalk is acknowledging me by my first name as a customer.
They have informed me about how many talks I have access to.
Also showed me how easy it is for me to unsubscribe if I wish to.
This type of email has high open rates compared to all the other types.
Most email marketing services let you import your brand colours so that your emails are easily branded.
A welcome email should be plain text so that it builds that rapport and trust with your customer.
It conveys a message that you have sat down and thought about them.
These types of welcome emails can be written once and be sent using an autoresponder.
They are usually set based on a trigger after opting into your list.

Welcome Email
2. Newsletter Email

Newsletter Email
This type of email is used to inform, educate, and for branding purposes to your customers' list.
Depending on where they are in their buyer journey.
Plain text emails perform very well because they help build trust and connection with your audience.
When you get a subscriber, depending on what details you have collected.
This will help you going forward when you send your newsletter emails.
If you have their first name then personalise the email message.
But when you only have their email, this is your opportunity to brand yourself.
In my example e-mail. Philip Borrowman is introducing himself and informing me about what is going on.
And insert your image for building rapport and branding as is shown in the image.
3. Promotional Email
Promotional email campaigns are for driving sales and increasing revenue in your business.
You determine what offer you want to present to your customers.
Most businesses lean on seasonal promotions for example Valentines, Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday Easter, Diwali, Hanukkah, and the most popular back to school.
Some businesses offer a certain percentage off or discounted shipping.
The offer has to be so good that it delivers on your email marketing strategy.
You need to segment your list and send personalised promotional campaigns.
If you send a back-to-school campaign to a customer who does not have children who are in school.
That is definitely going to hurt your conversion rates.
This type of email marketing campaign allows you to test different offers and see which one converts more.
I have an example of a promotional email from secret sales as shown in the image.

Promotional Email
4. Abandoned Cart Email
This type of email aims to engage with the customer to recover potential sales.
Baymard.com reports that the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate is 68.82%
There are many reasons why a customer may abandon their cart.

Abandoned Cart Email
So creating a cart abandoned sequence is worth your while.
Sales that result from this type of email marketing strategy are very high.
According to freshrelevance.com, a massive 13.29% being 8.4% from Cart Recovery plus 4.9% if Browse recovery is done.
This figure represents the percentage of sales from recovery emails which cart abandoned is one of them.
It is worth implementing this strategy among others because it delivers on the intended goal of revenue generation.
Your customers will normally engage with this type of email campaign because it shows them that you are paying attention to what they want.
The email can include courier information and also other products suggestions so that you can increase your order value.
5. Lead nurturing email (Drip campaign)
Lead nurturing emails are set up in an automated workflow and delivered as a sequence to educate, inform the leads that have just subscribed to your database.
This email campaign starts soon after the welcome and lead magnet have been sent out.
Lead nurturing type of email kicks in with the aim to achieve a conversion.
In my example email, Zizzi is letting me know that their garlic bread is the best thing since sliced bread.
They are offering it to me for free and also I can have it with chilli.
Zizzi has put all the details to enable me to access the treat and if I want to order online using a code.
There is an opportunity for me as a customer to view their entire menu and even book a table at one of their restaurants.
Based on the contents of this example email, your business can model it in a way that suits you.

Lead Nurturing Email
6. Milestone Email

Milestone Email
With this type of email marketing strategy, you are able to wish your customers a happy birthday or whatever anniversary they might have shared with you.
You can encourage them to make a purchase by offering them a discount.
In my example, Sloggi offered me a £10 voucher.
Some customers like to treat themselves on their birthdays and this might nudge them a bit towards making the purchase.
A milestone email is often received with joy and it can encourage your subscribers to stay loyal.
Simply because you have shown them that you care about their lives.
This can be automated and be sent out on the specified date.
Bear in mind that, if you did not manage to gather your customer's date of birth.
Your brand will need to come up with a way of collecting that information.
For you to be able to make use of this type of email marketing campaign.
7. Co-marketing e-mail
This type of email marketing aims to provide value to your audience by bringing in other experts in your industry or related business.
They will be piggybacking on your email database and you get a cut from sales that arise due to this joint venture.
This type of marketing suits any business, all you need to do is just tailor it to your own specific business needs.
In my example, this email is showing that Rethink is hosting a webinar and they have two guest speakers.
So if I am interested in the topics to be covered and I buy if they are selling anything.
This will bring in sales to Rethink as the host but also benefit the presenters. By having me on their email list and a potential sale.
So this type of email marketing strategy should be in place in your business.

Co-Marketing Email
8. Re-engagement email

Re-engagement Email
As the name suggests the purpose of this type of email is to re-engage with a customer.
You can set the conditions on when you should trigger messages to be sent.
Then you can analyse the data and campaign results.
This is good practice to keep your list warm.
You can win back some customers by implementing this type of campaign.
In my email example, HubSpot is implementing this exact email strategy.
It is time-sensitive and gives you options to either get help or just unsubscribe.
The aim is to re-engage so the call to action button is saying just that Sign in...
You can use this type of email in your business to keep your subscribers engaged.
The benefits of an engaged list result in increased sales and you can get feedback that will help grow your business.
Conclusion:
So far I have covered the two main email marketing categories and the 8 email marketing types that a small business should be using.
These will help you achieve most of your business goals. If you are unsure about the benefits of using email marketing in your small business.
Let me provide you with some of the advantages that you can uncover in the article below.
The article is titled 17 advantages of using email marketing in small businesses, and you can read it here!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article.

I would love to hear what you think is your favourite email type and why?
You can leave a comment below and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
If you think someone will benefit from reading this article please share or tweet and the choice is entirely yours.
Hi Sibusisiwe, and thanks for the this wonderful article.
I agree that email marketing is a powerful tool for small businesses, and this gives everyone great examples of the types of emails they can use.
There’s a few here I need to start doing myself, haha.
Thanks again,
Suzanne
@Suzanne…Thank you for stopping by and yes go for it. It is all about testing each type of email and measuring the results. Good luck.