We’ve waded through our inboxes to find out which tech brands are sending the kind of emails you wish were yours
We all know that the cardinal sins of dud links, duplicates, inaccurate personalisation and ‘Hi {insert name here}’ are the stuff of marketing nightmares, but what does brilliant email marketing look like?
To the savviest among you, it’s about content, design, tone of voice and that all-important click rate. A show-stopping email has to be at once eye-catching, informative, personalised and on-brand; it takes into account its audience, has a clear CTA and engages its reader from the get-go. And it has to meet its objectives: is it about general brand awareness, promoting yourselves as thought leaders or nudging prospects towards spending with you?
I spoke to a handful of B2B marketers to find out which tech brands stood out for them and why.
HubSpot
If email marketing was a competition, HubSpot would be front of the pack, inches away from the finishing line. It’s not hard to see why. An email like this is as short and sweet as digital communication gets, and reminds us of the importance of brevity, that elusive golden goose marketers across the globe are chasing after.
“I’m an Inbox Zero disciple and an ‘unsubscribe’ button fiend, but I rarely have reason to complain when I get an email from HubSpot,” enthuses
Colin Myer
, marketing manager at Skipjaq. “Content is king when it comes to these sorts of lead nurturing emails, and HubSpot gets it right every time with its incredibly useful, free resources. The first time you download something from them they drip-feed you a series of ebooks and templates, each more useful than the last, and my guess is that the goodwill they create with their email campaigns has a big impact on their bottom line.”
Phrasee
Great email marketing is about design and tone of voice as much as it is about content – and these guys manage to be playful and fun without losing credibility. And it’s all backed up with science, of course. “Phrasee uses AI to optimise subject and marketing language within email,” explains
Jason Stockwell
, digital marketing manager at Modern. “What makes their emails stand out in my inbox is the way Phrasee uses emojis and conversational language to engage its audience straight away. Not only do the subject lines stand out, but the content is readable, clickable and sharable.”
Uberflip
This campaign stands out in the inbox because of its undeniable fun factor. “Uberflip’s ’12 days of Christmas’ campaign’s got me clicking where before I might not have done with their emails,” says
Gemma Davies
, marketing director at Apttus. “The email lands in my inbox at about 4pm, which is a good time for me, and each one offers something fun or useful. One day you could win sticky notes, the next was a free thought leadership piece on ABM. Yesterday it was ‘tweet about a partner event and you could win a free ticket’.”
Litmus
Litmus was mentioned by a number of people when asked whose emails got them hot under the collar. With their content, personalisation goes two ways: not only do they treat their recipient as individuals, but they also present themselves as a warm, human brand rather than a cold, faceless corporation.
“One of my favourite things about Litmus’ emails is that they sound like they were written by a real person,” says
Tara Robertson
, demand generation manager at Uberflip. “I got this email as a follow up after downloading their
Ultimate Guide to Content Distribution
, and I like how it starts by reminding me how I got on their list. The combination of educational content and prompting me to sign up for more emails is great (and worked on me!).”
MailChimp
MailChimp or ‘Mail… cimp’ as it’s so famously been pronounced, is all about stylish messaging, simple layouts and intuitive software (you can tell I’m a fan). “These guys are known for their friendly brand and it really shines through in their emails,” says Tara. “They’re bright and cheery, which helps them stand out in my crowded inbox. They always have clean, simple design and straightforward CTAs. In this email, for example, I like the unexpected use of images (the pineapple is really summery and fun), and the employee photos at the bottom gives you a glimpse into their culture.”
Unbounce
These guys specialise in ready-to-use landing pages and overlay templates, and with a name like theirs you’d hope they’d got the whole email marketing thing sewn up. And they kind of have. “I really like them because their tone of voice is friendly and personable and they get straight to the point,” says
Catherine Brown
, content marketing manager at Dialpad. “It’s not about big flashy images but rather occasional pictures of who the email is coming from, which I think helps you identify with them – puts a face to a name.
“It feels genuine, like they’re genuinely grateful for our business and genuinely want us to succeed. They don’t bombard me with webinars and content that I don’t have time to look at (which some other vendors do, especially if you sign up as an agency).”
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