What are the 3 types of email marketing?

What Are the 3 Types of Email Marketing?

Dec 14, 2022

AudiencePoint Team

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Using different types of email marketing can benefit companies in many ways. Marketing emails can be used to:

  • Maintain or improve brand awareness. 
  • Build positive relationships with subscribers.
  • Encourage purchases.
  • Provide a good customer experience.

Different types of marketing emails are necessary to achieve each of these results from email marketing. This article will cover the three types of email marketing and when each type of marketing email should be used. Keep reading to learn more about email engagement

What are the 3 Different Types of Email Marketing?

There are different types of emails you should implement to make your company’s email marketing strategy successful. The three different types of email marketing are:

  • Promotional emails
  • Relational emails
  • Transactional emails

Each of these types of emails will benefit your company by creating a good consumer experience throughout the buyer journey. 

Promotional Emails

Promotional emails involve promoting an offer to your email subscribers. Promotional emails are usually used to encourage product or service sales, but they can also be used to create other types of conversions like subscription sign ups, app installs, or signing up for a consultation. 

Typical ways that promotional emails can be used include:

  • Advertisement: An email advertisement promoting product or service sales is the most common promotional email. Email advertisements typically show the features and benefits of a product or service and follow with a call to action. In addition, some email advertisements will use a special offer, like a discount, to increase sales volume. 
  • Educational: Emails that educate about how to solve a common problem can still be promotional if they use a call to action and other promotional elements to encourage sales. Educational emails can benefit product promotions by showing the product’s usefulness to your subscribers before encouraging them to make a purchase. 
  • New product release: Many companies use promotional emails when releasing a new product. Email marketing is an excellent way to reach people who have already purchased from your company or know about your brand. This can get your product launches off to a great start by informing your most loyal customer base. 

To get the best results from email marketing, you should be sending promotional emails. Statistics show that 50% of people buy from promotional emails at least once per month, making it an excellent idea for companies to send promotional email content to encourage sales. 

Relational Emails

Relational emails create positive relationships with your email subscribers and maintain brand awareness. Different types of relational emails include:

  • Welcome emails after someone subscribes to your email list
  • Email newsletters
  • Company announcements
  • Surveys or asking for feedback
  • Sharing blog articles or other useful information

You should be sending relational emails because your customers want to hear from you. Around 61% of consumers report that they enjoy receiving weekly emails from brands. In addition, 38% of consumers say they would like to receive emails more frequently. 

Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are sent after consumers take a specific action. Different types of transactional emails include:

  • Order confirmations
  • Receipts
  • Shipping notifications
  • Coupon codes
  • Password change requests
  • Reminders

While many of these emails are automated messages sent out after consumer actions, they should not be overlooked. Consumer opinions can still be swayed positively or negatively from their experience with your transactional emails. 

To make your transactional emails successful, you should ensure they provide all necessary information and resources, are sent on time, have a user-friendly design, and maintain your brand’s voice. Doing these things will create a better experience that keeps customers coming back to purchase from your brand. 

How to Tell Which Type of Email Marketing Is Right for Your Company?

Each of the three types of marketing emails will be used in different instances as part of your email strategy. It’s important to know the right times for your company to use each type of email to ensure they are successful. 

When Should You Use Promotional Emails?

Promotional emails should be sent when trying to encourage sales or other types of conversions. Creating promotional emails with a specific goal or type of conversion in mind will ensure they are successful. 

While it may seem tempting to consistently send promotional emails, sending too many product or service promotions can give subscribers the wrong impression and lead to reduced engagement rates over time. It’s usually best to mix promotional emails with relational email content to provide sufficient value to your subscribers.

If you’re looking to send promotional emails at the right time, AudiencePoint’s email insight software can help. AudiencePoint’s software tracks subscriber activity and can help determine when subscribers are most likely to convert. Knowing the right subscribers to send promotional content to creates higher conversion rates and a better consumer experience. 

When Should You Use Relational Emails?

Relational emails are best used to maintain brand awareness and consumer engagement over a long stretch of time. Companies that want to nurture leads, create customer loyalty, and build positive relationships with subscribers should be sending relational emails. 

Many companies will send a relational email newsletter once a week to keep subscribers engaged with their email content. However, the right frequency can vary depending on the industry and consumer needs. 

Tracking data from your email newsletters is a great way to determine when and how often you should send relational email content. AudiencePoint’s email insight software helps track real-time data from marketing emails and subscriber activity to determine the best time to send emails and how frequently your subscribers like hearing from your brand. 

When Should You Use Transactional Emails?

Companies that should be using transactional emails are those that:

  • Sell products or services on their website.
  • Need to send receipts or shipping notifications.
  • Have users create accounts.
  • Want to inform customers about important updates.

Transactional emails provide a good customer experience, so both the company and the customer are on the same page. These emails should be timely and consistent. 

Use a Mix of Different Types of Emails

Many companies will benefit from using a mix of the three different types of marketing emails as part of their email strategy. Knowing the right times to send each of the types of emails and tracking email marketing metrics will help you find the best practices for your company’s needs.

How AudiencePoint Helps You Refine Your Email Marketing Campaigns for Success

AudiencePoint helps you refine your email marketing campaigns for success by providing you with actionable insights into how you can optimize your email marketing efforts. Insights from AudiencePoint will help you determine the frequency, timing, and types of emails your subscribers respond to best. Knowing this data will help you create an effective email marketing strategy that leads to higher email engagement rates, increased ROI from email marketing, and a better experience for your subscribers. Contact us today for more information about how AudiencePoint can help you create better email marketing campaigns.