5 email marketing templates inspired by examples created by top startups

“Come on, it’s time to get to work,” you tell yourself. And you sit down at your computer, focused and determined to prepare your next bulk email send.

To write direct, persuasive copy.

To launch an email marketing campaign that strengthens your relationship with your customers or drives sales.

And at that moment, inspiration strikes… or it doesn’t.

It doesn’t? No problem. There’s no need to keep thinking until smoke comes out of your ears.

Finding that magic touch your email campaign is missing doesn’t have to be so complicated.

Sometimes the best way to move forward is, as Newton would have said,

“Standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Or, put another way: by looking at what others with more experience than you have done before. And by asking yourself questions.

1. What kind of emails do email marketing geniuses send?
2. What do they do well, and how could you apply it?
3. What can you learn from their copy? And from their sales tactics?

That’s exactly what we’re going to do in this article, thanks to some really good newsletter examples.

We’re going to learn by looking at email marketing done right. We’re going to follow their lead. And we’re going to give you 5 email templates inspired by two top startups: Asana and Buffer.

· How to use the email templates

The instructions for using these email templates are as simple as the instructions for eating an Oreo (in case it’s been a while since you had one: twist, admire and eat).

Basically, it’s a matter of copying, pasting and adapting the content to the needs of your bulk email and your email marketing software. But there are a couple of things to keep in mind.

Each email template includes variable text, that is, parts you’ll need to fill in with the specific details of your product or service. You’ll recognize them because we’ll use this format:

[example of variable text]

And after each template, we’ll always show an example with the variables filled in. So you can get a more precise idea of what the final result will look like.

If you want to make a more personalized campaign, you can edit the rest of the text too, not just the variable parts. Feel free. It’s your choice.

That said, we recommend reading the final content of the email several times—out loud if possible—to make sure the result sounds natural.

So, without further ado, let’s get started.

· Email marketing templates inspired by Asana

Email template #1: the educational one

Example of an educational email from Asana

Yes, a bulk email can be one of the best ways to announce your next promotional campaign.

But an email marketing campaign can pursue goals beyond generating immediate sales.

And educational emails are a clear example.

By helping your audience solve their problems, you’re helping yourself. And there are a thousand ways to do it: with an explainer video, a mini-course, a guide or ebook, an infographic…

Look at how the Asana team does it in the example email.

Marketing and creative teams work hard to tell compelling stories, yet the process to get there can be chaotic.
This free, 15-minute course helps you identify pain points within your team’s work and offers strategies for how to fix them.

They focus on a recurring problem for their users and invite them to a free mini-course where they’ll learn strategies to solve it.

A great way to build their brand, stay top of mind, position themselves as experts and, along the way, communicate that they’re the perfect solution to their audience’s problems.

And this formula can be replicated for any kind of product or service, because whoever your audience is, they’ll always have problems.

And if you lend them a hand, they’ll pay attention to you.

All you need is valuable content that solves one of their problems in a concrete way. The more closely that pain point is related to your product or service, the better.

It may seem like a lot of work, but keep in mind that you don’t always need to create something from scratch. Often, you can adapt or reuse pieces you’ve published in the past.

Do you already know what content you’re going to use? Now it’s time to create the email campaign and give it an educational, selfless touch.

It’s a super simple email template based on the classic problem-solution sales formula:

1. You find the pain point
2. You describe it clearly so the customer (potential or actual) becomes aware of it and understands the consequences
3. Once you’ve created the need, you hand them the solution on a silver platter

Let’s fill in this email template so you can see how it would look.

In this example, the email is sent by an advisory firm for freelancers that wants to provide value to the future entrepreneurs in its audience.

Email templates #2 and #3: the “Let’s celebrate World… Day” ones

Example of an Asana email for World Productivity Day

It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or what you do… just as your audience will always have problems, there will always be a world day to celebrate.

(And an email campaign to remind your audience about it.)

1. Are you a copywriter? Prepare something for World Book Day.
2. Do you have an organic store? Take advantage of World Environment Day.
3. A pet food ecommerce store? Celebrate International Cat Day.

The point is to link your product or service to a timely date that’s relevant to your audience.

And with this you achieve two things:

1. Getting attention: information about what’s happening right now is always more relevant than timeless information. And that’s exactly why they’re more likely to open and read your email (remember to mention it in the subject line).

2. Creating a sense of belonging: by celebrating a date that matters to both of you, you can strengthen your connection with your (potential) customer, creating a sense of shared interests and closeness.

So there you have it: you have your audience’s attention and, with luck, you’ve made them feel part of your community or your project.

At this point, you can take the opportunity to guide them to a promotion on your website or to valuable content related to the topic you’re celebrating.

In this second Asana example, they take advantage of World Productivity Day. After all, the main benefit they sell is exactly that: increasing your productivity.

A large part of their audience is interested in everything related to this topic. Asana knows it, and that’s why they offer them a series of tips to be more productive on that day (and always).

Once again, a simple email marketing campaign, but one that deserves a round of applause, because it’s hard to be more relevant than that.

Let’s follow their example, but with two variations: one email template to promote some content related to the special date and another to run a sales promotion.

Let’s see how we could fill in the template.

And now let’s see how this email template would look

· Email marketing templates inspired by Buffer

Email template #4: the anniversary one

And we continue with celebrations, but this time an anniversary.

In this email template, we’ll take the opportunity to remind your users and/or customers that they’ve been with you for a certain amount of time. And to thank them.

Think about it: each of your customers or subscribers is (or should be) important to you. After all, you work for them; they’re the reason you exist, right?

So you shouldn’t miss the chance to tell them, to explain to each and every one of them how important they are to you.

(Not that you have to do it one by one—that’s what bulk email platforms are for—but you know how important it is to speak to them one-on-one)

What to celebrate? You have several options: one year as customers, one year since they signed up on your website or subscribed to the newsletter, etc.

And you don’t have to choose one or the other; you can combine them.

1. For those who’ve been customers for a year: send a thank-you email to improve the customer experience and strengthen the emotional bond.
2. For those who aren’t customers but have been subscribed for a year: send an email thanking them for their loyalty. If you want to strengthen the relationship without sounding salesy, offer them some premium content. If you want to use the moment to generate sales, offer them an exclusive promotion.

If you look at Buffer’s email example, they take the opportunity to strengthen the emotional bond with their users.

They do it by putting the spotlight on the people behind their team. Arielle and Kelly greet the customer directly (and you can even see them waving, because it’s actually a GIF).

But they also achieve that closeness by showing gratitude and humility:

“We feel so grateful and humbled that you’ve chosen us to play a small part in your social media success.”

It seems like a simple, informal email, doesn’t it? Well, notice how they highlight their own value in the very same sentence in which they show humility (to play a small part in your social media success).

That’s persuasive copywriting in action.

In this case, we’ve chosen to congratulate those who’ve been customers for a year and we’ve added premium content as an anniversary gift.

But you can also easily adapt this email template to offer an exclusive sales promotion.

And if you don’t want to get into promotions or creating premium content, that’s fine. Skip this part and just say thank you.

Email template #5: the “upselling” one

Example of an upselling email from Buffer

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The goal of this last Buffer email is clear: to get more subscriptions to one of their higher-priced paid plans.

To do this, they inform their customers that the “awesome plan” is becoming the “pro plan,” which will have better features but will also come with a price increase.

And they add a touch of urgency: if customers upgrade before the end of the day, they get a special price and special terms.

In other words, they offer a higher-tier plan with a very attractive deal so it’s very hard to turn down.

And watch out, because this email has a master stroke. Look at what they say to close the email:

“And if the Free plan is perfect for your needs, please don’t feel pushed by this email. We’re grateful to have you with us!”

They include this sentence with the part of their audience that isn’t ready to pay yet in mind. That way they tone down the sales pitch and make everyone feel special (whether or not they pay for the pro plan).

After all, retaining a customer is cheaper than acquiring a new one.

You already know that.

But on top of that, statistics tell us that 65% of companies get new sales by using upselling and cross-selling techniques with their existing customers.

That’s an opportunity you can’t afford not to explore and make the most of in your bulk emails.

So let’s quickly review the two concepts:

● Upselling = selling higher-tier products or services. For example, a personal trainer who offers clients the option to move from a plan with two sessions a month to one with two sessions a week.

● Cross-selling = selling complementary or related products or services. Going back to the same example, a personal trainer who offers a complementary sports nutrition service.

In this last email template, we’ll go for upselling, although you can use the same idea to create an email marketing campaign that boosts cross-selling.

To create urgency, we’ll apply a price increase to the product or service we want to sell, as in Buffer’s email example.

When what you sell is services, it may seem harder to use these kinds of techniques. But it really isn’t.

If you package your services into monthly plans or bundles, you’ll make them easier to sell and recognize, and you’ll be able to play with upselling more easily.

Imagine you have a chain of yoga studios. You could offer your students two options: the “Ohm Plan” (for beginners, two sessions a week) and the “Sadhana Plan” (unlimited sessions for daily practice).

Well, that’s all for now. We hope you liked these 5 email templates and that you can use them to get one of your campaigns out the door in record time.

Is there any kind of email marketing template you’d like to see on this blog? Leave us a comment and we promise we’ll consider your suggestion 🙂

See you next time!