How B2C and B2B Brands Can Boost Email Newsletter Engagement
Email marketing remains an effective tool for businesses looking to connect with their customers. Whether you’re announcing a new product, offering exclusive insights, or re-engaging your customer database, a well-crafted email can help brands build and maintain strong relationships with their audience.
But let’s be honest, our inboxes can get full pretty quickly! With the average person receiving over 100 emails a day, it’s important that your email cuts through the clutter. A well-crafted newsletter should engage, inform, and provide value to your audience. Otherwise, it risks being ignored, landing in the dreaded ‘bin’ folder, or the contact may simply unsubscribe.
What makes an email newsletter worth opening? In this blog, we’ll explore what encourages customers to sign up, why businesses (both B2C and B2B) invest in email marketing, and highlight great examples, including a few of our own.
Why Do Businesses Use Email Marketing?
For businesses of all sizes and sectors, email marketing is more than just sending out content, it’s about engagement, retention, and driving conversions. Here’s why brands continue to invest in email marketing:
- Direct Communication: Unlike other tools that are mainly controlled by algorithms, like social media, email marketing directly reaches customers in their inboxes.
- Stronger Customer Relationships: Personalised, helpful, and relevant content keeps customers engaged and encourages long-term brand loyalty.
- Sales and Conversions: Promotional emails, discounts, and exclusive offers help drive sales.
- Data-driven Marketing: Tracking open-rates, click-throughs, and conversions helps provide valuable insights for businesses to refine their marketing strategies. Along with adjust content to better suit their audiences.
- Automation: From re-engagement campaigns to abandoned cart emails, automation makes it easy to scale smartly.
But success doesn’t just come from sending emails, it comes from strategy. This includes choosing the right frequency, targeting the right segments, and sending out content your audience actually cares about.
What Makes People Subscribe to Email Newsletters?
Customers don’t just subscribe to any old newsletter, they want something valuable in return. Here’s what encourages your customers to sign up for your newsletter:
- Exclusive offers: People love feeling like a VIP. Whether you decide to offer exclusive discount codes, birthday rewards, or offers such as free shipping or early access to sales, these offer value for signing up to the newsletter.
- Helpful Content: From tips, tutorials, and expert advice, sharing helpful content in your newsletter can help the customer get the most out of the product/service and make them look forward to the newsletter.
- Sense of Community: Newsletters can create a sense of belonging, sharing behind-the-scenes content, interactive features, or shared values that resonate with your audience. This connection not only builds trust but also strengthens loyalty, turning subscribers into long-term customers.
- Keeping Up To Date: Customers appreciate being the first to hear about new product launches, extensions to existing ranges, expert advice, and tips for getting the most out of the product/service. It keeps them engaged and encourages repeat purchases.
The more you know about your audience, the better you can tailor your content to meet their needs, making your emails more relevant, valuable, and less likely to end up in the unsubscribe folder.
5 Examples of B2C Email Newsletters We Love:
Jellycat: Adorable Product Updates
Jellycat keeps its audience engaged with fun and playful email campaigns. Their newsletters feature adorable images and CGI, whimsical copy, and a strong brand identity that appeals to both the younger and older target audience. Whether they’re launching a new product or restocking a popular favourite, their emails keep customers excited and eager to shop.
Hotel Chocolat: Sweet Birthday Surprises
Hotel Chocolat makes birthdays even more indulgent with personalised emails offering a £5 voucher to treat yourself. This thoughtful approach not only surprises customers but also encourages in-store visits and tempts online purchases, making it a win-win for both the brand and its audience.
Duolingo: Fun re-engagement emails
Duolingo is famous for its witty and playful approach to marketing. If you’ve neglected your language lesson, you can expect a lighthearted (and slightly guilt-inducing!) email from their mascot, Duo. These clever reminders keep users engaged and coming back to continue their learning.
Infil Double Glazing: Engaging Informational Content
Infil Double Glazing, a trusted local business, benefits from monthly B2C-focused e-newsletters designed to strengthen customer relationships, boost brand loyalty, and drive conversions. A key part of our strategy is delivering valuable educational content, whether that’s explaining differences between products or sharing practical tips on window and door care.
These informative emails help customers feel more confident when making their purchase decision and help position Infil as a knowledgeable, trustworthy expert. By reflecting the brand’s warm, family-run values, the tone and messaging help create a personal connection that resonates with their audience.
Scribbler: Seasonal and National Day Promotion
Scribbler, a greeting card and gift retailer, cleverly leverages seasonal events and national days to engage customers and boost sales. Whether it’s a Mother’s Day reminder or a funny Valentine’s Day promotion, their timely and humorous emails capture attention and help drive purchases.
But What About B2B?
B2B emails don’t have to be boring! When they’re done right, they can be effective in building relationships and promoting products or services. The goal of these newsletters should be to offer clarity and value on your product or service, while also enhancing your credibility.
Here are a few examples of great B2B email newsletter:
Canva: New releases & Productivity Boosters
Canva regularly sends out email newsletters aimed at businesses that use their software, to showcase their new features, tools, and templates. These updates often focus on helping teams design more efficiently, from branded resources to social media graphics. It helps the reader stay informed on updates to the software which may help with their day-to-day work.
redPepper: Service-Led newsletters
As a full-service marketing agency, we use our email newsletter to educate and inform our readers on marketing trends. We focus on industry changes and aim to demonstrate our leadership while showcasing our work and services. This helps us strengthen relationships with our clients and position ourselves as a trusted marketing team.
CARO Group: Product Insights & Industry Knowledge
CARO Group, one of our manufacturing clients, uses their email newsletter to keep B2B customers informed about new product lines, technical specifications, and industry developments. We curate content that breaks down complex product info into easy-to-understand, benefit-led messaging. This helps to build trust by showcasing their expertise, while also supporting the decision-making process of their buyers.
A well-crafted email newsletter isn’t just about selling, it’s about adding value to your audience. It’s all about being helpful, relevant and timely. Whether you’re targeting parents looking for birthday gifts or operations managers sourcing a supplier, the principles are the same: provide value, build trust, and keep things relevant. If you’re looking to enhance your email marketing, take inspiration from these brands and find creative ways to engage your audience.
Looking for expert guidance? At redPepper, our team is experienced in crafting well-thought-out email campaigns using platforms such as Brevo, Mailchimp, and Mailerlite. We can help you with everything from email marketing campaign strategy to automation and design.
Elevate your email marketing strategy. Book a meeting with us today.
