Email campaign strategy relies on the concept that “different strokes for different folks” will allow marketing messages to hit (and resonate with) different buyers. Choosing the right type of campaign for your purpose – and your target audience – is critical.
That’s why email campaign types are so important to understand and map out. The strategy often starts with one big question: What are the “different strokes”, or, email campaign types, and the “different folks”, or, types of contact in your funnel?
For B2B marketers, email campaigns boil down to two primary types: newsletters and SMEs (single-message emails).
Email Type: Newsletter
An email newsletter campaign brings together multiple types of information in one email, for example: news/announcements, content/information, offers and deals. There are often multiple CTAs (Call to Actions), and a variety of information for the reader to consume. The idea is to keep your subscribers in the loop with your story and provide relevant and useful content. These are updates that get sent out regularly.
The Goal: This email campaign type has a pretty simple goal – making sure that your brand stays consistently top of mind, establish brand recognition, and build authority or credibility. Companies use newsletters to deliver a collection of recent content to subscribers, or as a touchpoint with customers. Newsletters can also be used to research audience behavior, and how they respond to offers and promotions versus informative content.
When to Choose a Newsletter: Newsletters are ideal for light top-of-funnel lead nurturing, and for loyalty campaigns to current or past customers.
Email Type: SME (Single Message Email)
Single Message Email campaigns are just that: one message with a specific goal. Unlike a newsletter, SMEs are focused messages with a clear CTA. The goal of a SME is to convince contacts to take a single specific action. Single message emails can be used in both content or lead generation, or for transactional functions.
That means it’s crucial to have a very clear goal in mind.
The Goal: Your first step should be to ask “what do I want someone to do once they’ve read my message?” Whether that’s “click on my CTA and convert on my landing page”, “download our ebook”, or any other action – that’s your goal.
When to Choose a SME: This is an incredibly versatile type of email. Whether you’re looking to generate new leads, nurture contacts down your funnel, or prep them for sales with a personalized promo offer, a single-message email is a powerful tool for when you need to communicate a specific message to your contacts..
In both cases, you’re reaching out to contacts with information. Newsletters are primarily informative – you’re letting your subscribers know about new promotions, providing blog updates and relevant industry news. SMEs are the meat and potatoes of email marketing, and are ideal for convincing contacts to take a specific action.
