How to create an email marketing campaign: Guide + examples

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Are you looking for an effective way to reach out to your target audience and promote your brand? Look no further than email marketing campaigns.

With their high ROI and versatility, email campaigns have become a staple for businesses of all sizes.

From welcome messages and newsletter emails to cart recovery and win-back sequences, there are various types of email campaigns that can help increase your engagement and conversions. 

In this post, we’ll explore different types of email marketing campaigns with examples and provide tips on how you can create your own successful campaign.

In this post: 

• What is an email marketing campaign?
• Types of email marketing campaigns
• How to create an email marketing campaign (5 steps)

What is an email marketing campaign?

An email marketing campaign refers to a marketing strategy where a series of distinct email messages are sent out over a defined time frame to a specific group of people. The objectives of each of these emails can vary. 

From installing an app, completing a purchase, or downloading a report—you can choose goals from across the sales funnel.

Here’s an example of Duolingo’s email marketing campaign. The first one is a welcome email, while the second email, sent after a week, includes a weekly progress report. The third email is sent when the user has been inactive for a while.

Omnisend’s research also shows that promotional emails, with a click-to-conversion rate of 6.74%, are effective at generating sales.

Welcome email marketing campaign

Welcome to Duolingo! Here are 2 important tips.

Lead nurturing email marketing campaign

📆 Congrats on your first week! Check out your progress

Event-triggered email campaign

👋 [Name], Duo missed you yesterday!

Types of email marketing campaigns

Let’s now take a look at the various types of email marketing campaigns you can launch for your business. 

1. Welcome email campaigns

2. Lead nurturing email campaigns

3. Newsletter email campaigns

4. Transactional email campaigns

5. Product upsell email campaigns

6. Cart recovery email campaigns

7. Win-back email campaigns

8. Seasonal email campaigns

9. Survey and feedback email campaigns

1. Welcome email campaigns

A well-crafted welcome email can make a positive first impression on new subscribers and set the tone for future interactions. Personalizing the welcome email with the recipient’s name and other relevant information can help make the message even more relevant and engaging.

As mentioned in our H1 2023 ecommerce statistics report, welcome emails had the highest conversion rates of 52.9% among all marketing messages. This makes welcome emails ideal for promoting products/services. 

While customers expect to receive a welcome email when they sign up, B2B brands can take this opportunity to introduce their company, its values, and its products or services.

And, this is exactly what brands such as To’ak Chocolate do.

Here’s an example of a welcome email from Bezar that not only welcomes new customers but also tells them about the different ways in which they could use the Bezar site. 

Tips for welcome email campaigns:

• Personalize your welcome emails: Tailor the email subject line and content based on the information you have about your recipients.  
• Introduce your brand: While keeping the tone warm and friendly, highlight your brand’s USPs and the benefits of subscribing to your email.
• Offer something valuable: Entice recipients to engage with your brand by offering a welcome discount, valuable tips, or explaining the next steps.

2. Lead nurturing email campaigns

These are a series of targeted email messages that can help build a relationship with prospects and guide them through the buyer’s journey. The goal here is to ensure your brand stays on top of your prospects’ minds and convert them into paying customers.

The content of lead nurturing emails may vary depending on the stage of the buyer’s journey. For example, early-stage prospects can receive emails with educational content, while later-stage prospects may receive targeted offers.

Here’s an engaging lead-nurturing email from JetBlue that uses a generous sprinkle of puns and humor to convert customers and leads into TrueBlue members.

Tips for lead nurturing email campaigns:

• Segment your list: Divide your leads into different segments based on their interests, behavior, and buying stage. This will allow you to tailor your messages to their specific needs.
• Use a compelling subject line: Your subject line should grab the recipient’s attention and entice them to open the email. Make it clear what the email is about and what’s in it for them.
• Add a clear call-to-action: Tell the recipient what you want them to do next, such as downloading a white paper, scheduling a demo, or signing up for a free trial.

3. Newsletter email

Newsletter emails are a powerful marketing tool that can help brands establish themselves as thought leaders and stay connected with their targets. By offering valuable content regularly, you can boost brand memory and recall.

According to a 2024 Statista report, the newsletter was the most used type of email marketing campaign in 2023 at 16.8% followed by promotional (15.3%) and lead nurturing 11.6%).

This is a newsletter example from Bloooooom, an art club. The welcome newsletter informs readers what they can expect from the newsletter, then introduces new art and artists, along with a list of creative resources, making it informative and helpful to readers.

Tips for newsletter emails:

• Provide exclusive content: Share educational content, industry insights, special offers, and other useful information that your recipients may not find elsewhere.
• Ensure the design is user-friendly: Use striking visuals and break up the stories into bite-sized segments to improve readability.
• Focus on the reader: Using pronouns, first names, and humor is a great way to build a personal connection with the readers.

4. Transactional emails

These are emails that are sent after someone takes an action on a brand’s website such as making a purchase, downloading a report, or changing a password. 

Unlike bulk marketing emails, transactional emails are relevant to a specific recipient and their action.  

There are so many ways to use transactional emails. For instance, you can send an order confirmation email with a CTA to sign up for newsletters. Or, you can add multiple CTAs in your transactional emails to direct recipients to other sections of your website.

In this transactional email, Holo Taco encourages its customers to leave a review and earn loyalty points.

Tips for transactional emails:

• Keep it concise: Ensure your emails are short and to the point. Use clear and concise language to communicate the necessary details.
• Test and adjust: A/B test elements of your transactional emails, such as subject lines and content, to see what works best.  
• Make it visually appealing: Use an attractive and simple design, but avoid using too many images or graphics as they can distract readers and make your emails heavy.

5. Product upsell email campaigns

The goal of product upsell emails is to increase the average order value (AOV) of each customer by encouraging them to buy more products. By offering personalized product recommendations, brands can improve customer experience and build loyalty.

SaaS companies, for instance, can send upsell emails at the end of a free trial to promote their paid plans. These emails can also be sent when the user reaches a milestone or when a company launches a new product or upgrades its features.

In this product upsell email, Grammarly promotes its premium plan by explaining the benefits of upgrading and adds a clear CTA.

Tips for product upsell email campaigns:

• Use persuasive language: Highlight the benefits of the products to make it easy for customers to understand why they should consider making an additional purchase.
• Personalize your emails: Use segmentation and make product recommendations based on the recipient’s previous purchases/browsing behavior. 
• Provide an incentive: An attractive discount can be a powerful motivator for customers to make an additional purchase. Don’t forget to add a sense of urgency.

6. Cart recovery email campaigns

These emails are designed to encourage customers to return to their abandoned cart and complete the purchase. By providing personalized product recommendations or sending a friendly reminder, businesses can show that they value their customers.

When done well, cart recovery emails can help you boost conversions and sales. In fact, cart recovery emails have one of the highest conversion rates at 39.7%, according to Omnisend research. Other studies show these emails have an open rate of 49.49%.

Here’s a cart recovery email from Pipcorn Heirloom Snacks that offers an incentive and a reminder to head back to the cart.

Tips for cart recovery email campaigns:

• Send at the right time: Make the most of your target’s shopping urge by sending the first email an hour after they abandon the cart. Send the second email 12 hours later, and the third, 24 hours later.
• Feature the abandoned product: This is a great way of reminding your users about the product they abandoned.
• Provide support: Give your audience easy ways to reach out to you for any questions or obstacles they may be facing in completing their purchase.

7. Win-back email campaigns

Win-back or retargeting emails can help you boost marketing ROI by cutting down on the cost of new customer acquisition. A recent study shows the customer acquisition cost (CAC) can be as high as $500 to $1500 across industries.

Besides, Omnisend’s research shows that lapsed purchase emails have conversion rates that are 426% higher than promotional emails. You can use win-back emails to re-engage with customers, increase customer lifetime value (CLV), and build customer loyalty.

YouTube TV does a great job of reaching out to inactive customers by highlighting the benefits of resubscribing and well-placed CTAs.

Tips for win-back email campaigns:

• Fine-tune audience segments: Analyze customer behavior and segment based on their level of activity.
• Time it right: Based on your target segmentation and goals, you may need to send reactivation emails within two weeks of inactivation or wait for 90 days or more.
• Optimize the subject line: Using a combination of “$ discount” and words like “come back” can help. However, make sure to use split tests to determine the best subject line.

8. Seasonal email campaigns

Seasonal emails are related to particular times of year — such as spring, back-to-school, Christmas, and so on. 

Seasonal email campaigns can help to generate steady sales, reconnect with inactive customers, and introduce new products. 

Some tips for seasonal emails:

• Plan in advance: Customers typically start seasonal shopping before the season begins. Planning in advance helps you create effective email marketing strategies that are relevant to your audience. 
• Space out emails: Create automated workflows to improve conversion rates. 
• Personalize messaging: To ensure relevance and higher engagement, personalize the email messaging based on the target customer segments.

Here’s an example of a seasonal email campaign:

9. Survey and feedback email campaigns

Feedback or survey emails can help collect first-hand information from customers. This information can help ecommerce marketers in various ways:

• Improve products and services based on feedback
• Understand customers’ overall experience 
• Collect specific and targeted information

An example of a survey email:

How to create an email marketing campaign

Let’s now take a look at the steps you can follow to create your email campaign. But first, you’ll need an email marketing app for it. 

How to create an email marketing campaign using Omnisend

Omnisend is an email and SMS marketing platform that was built for ecommerce. It has a free-forever plan and over 5,000 5-star reviews on the Shopify App Store.

The best part? It takes less than a minute to sign up. Get started now.

Let’s now understand the steps for creating your email campaign.

Step 1: Define your email marketing campaign goals

Every email campaign should have a specific goal, for example, to improve brand awareness, increase sales, generate leads, generate more referrals, etc. The first step is to get clarity about your email campaign goals.

Step 2: Identify your audience

The next step is to know who you want to send your email marketing campaign to. You can choose segments based on demographics, purchase history, location, etc.

Step 3: Add subject line & preheader

First, sign up for a free account by downloading the Omnisend app or by signing up on Omnisend’s website.

Now, go to the ‘Campaigns’ tab in your account and click on ‘New Campaign > Create Campaign’ under Email.

In Campaign settings, add the subject line and the preheader:

When writing your subject line, remember that if it’s too long the inbox will show a truncated part of it. When you enter the subject line in the Campaign settings, an inbox preview is displayed next to the subject line field. This can give you a good idea of the ideal length for your subject line.

Step 4: Choose a campaign template

Omnisend offers a wide range of responsive email templates that are customizable and free. You can filter these templates by goals (welcome and engage, product promotion, sale, or discount) to find the right one for your email marketing campaign.

You can also create a custom design from scratch by choosing one of the pre-built layouts and modifying the template. After creating your custom template, you can save it and use it for all your email marketing campaigns.

To get started, select the goal on the left side and choose the template.

Here, I’ll choose the “Welcome & engage” template.

Step 5: Add the content

The next step is to add the content to your emails.  

Here are the elements to add:

• Logo: Under the Header tab in the left-hand sidebar, you can find the option to add the logo and the image.
• Email body: You can add new content to improve the existing content in the templates or change it entirely. It’s also possible to add a discount, social media buttons, and lines at this stage.
• Images: Drag and drop an image from the left sidebar, click on the image, and then click “Replace” on the right sidebar. Choose an image from your image library.

Click Finish Editing once you’re done.

Your email is now ready.

You can send a test email to see how it would look in your recipients’ inboxes.

Step 6: Select recipients

Depending on your email marketing goals, you can send your emails to all subscribers or a specific segment.

Omnisend’s campaign builder gives you the option to exclude certain subscribers from your contact list. You can select the ‘’Exclude segment’ option to ensure your email is not sent to specific customers (such as inactive customers or those who have already received your welcome emails).

You can also select the “Let me choose segments” option to specify who you want the emails to be sent to. 

Step 7: Send the campaign

Check all the elements, such as the recipient list, images, text, and header, before clicking on the “Send now” button.

Or, select the ‘Schedule for later’ option if you want to send the email at a later date and time.

Once you click on “Send now”, the email will be sent within 5 minutes to your chosen recipients.  

Note that there may be a delay in sending emails if this is your first email campaign. We follow a verification process where we send the email to a small batch, check the spam and bounce rates, and then send the email to other contacts.

Email marketing campaigns: summary

Email marketing campaigns are cost-effective and incredibly powerful tools to reach target audiences, increase engagement, and boost conversions. 

The key is to understand your target audiences and study their behavior to segment them into specific groups. This will allow you to create and send targeted marketing messages that are likely to result in high open and conversion rates.

Utilizing the best practices discussed in this article will help you create successful email marketing campaigns that not only drive conversions but also build long-term customer relationships.