12 Super Powerful Sales-Boosting Email Marketing Examples for Your Online Store

Email marketing examples can be a great way to learn how to do email marketing right.

Here are 12 email marketing campaign examples from other e-commerce stores, as well as an explanation of why they’re SO brilliant and powerful at boosting sales.

Review them at least 5 to 10 times so that you’re absolutely familiar with the key elements that give them their special superpowers.

Now, before, we get into the examples, I want to be very clear about one thing: I am not sharing these here so you can copy them. Please don't do that! You need to give it your own original touch and your unique spin.

6 Key Elements and 12 Sales-Boosting Email Marketing Examples for Online Stores

Here are the 6 key elements for any sales-boosting email for your online store and there are 2 examples of each to help you create your own email marketing campaigns.

 1. Have a Clear Call-to-Action

Do your emails encourage people to take action? Check out your products? Click through to the website? Or join you on social media?

A clear call-to-action can make or break an email campaign.

Your product-based business or online store can have a highly visual email campaign where a stunning image with the call-to-action catches the reader’s attention straight away.

Love this email example from Open Sky’s campaign that spotlights 3 key things in ONE image: the 30% off savings, the last day and the invitation to shop now!

Or you can have a more content-driven email marketing campaign that shares tips, ideas, suggestions and how-to's, and visuals like the email below from Full Beauty, along with a call-to-action, like a discount code.

This campaign highlights blog content on their site, inviting readers to check it out, while also showcasing their products, as well as the fact that you can use a special discount code to save.

 2. Add Humor and Personality

With the number of emails the average customer gets, it is absolutely vital that your email stands out by being filled with personality. They should be fun and engaging to read and make people want to stay subscribed.

Zanui, an Australian retailer, does that with their subject lines. This one, a little before Valentine’s Day, caught my eye right away with its reference to chocolate, the little heart emoticon, and the low price point as well.

Another great example is from Urban Ladder, a furniture retailer who uses a play on words in the preview area of the email and also adds personality by giving the email newsletter a name. Love that!

 3. Use Psychological Sales Triggers

Does your email press the right sales buttons, psychologically?

Yes, there is a psychological reason behind all your purchases and there are words and phrases that can flip that trigger fast.

Now you know who to blame for that shopping spree you just went on! It wasn’t you, it was psychology.

Seriously speaking though, expert copywriters like Dan S. Kennedy, as well as influence experts like Dr. Robert Cialdini, have showcased how powerful the psychological principles of reciprocity, commitment, social proof, and others are when it comes to increasing sales.

That is the reason why promotional codes on signing up work so well. You sign up, you get a promo code, you want to give back by using that promo code.

Shop Compliment does that beautifully by sharing the vision behind their business and offering a 15% on the first purchase.

You can also do that by giving a free sample to new subscribers. Passion Planner does that by giving free downloads of the digital version of their planners in exchange for social shares and support. Pretty cool idea!

 4. Encourage Social Sharing

Do your emails encourage social sharing? Do you invite people to forward the email to a friend or to tweet it out? It can often be as simple as adding some social share buttons and drawing attention to them.

AppSumo does this brilliantly with not only “share” and “tweet” buttons but also a comment field!

Etsy goes for another fun twist by pairing a fun phrase and call to action with social share buttons.

5. Use a Solid Subject Line

Your subject line is what will get people clicking through in the first place and subject lines are such a huge topic in themselves that we really can’t cover them all here.

Here are a few things for clickable subject lines:

• Aim for emotional appeal. It can range from shock and awe to fuzzy, feel-good feelings.
• Keep them short and sweet. You want your subject lines to be easy-to-read and understand.
• Use humor and personality. Let your brand voice speak loud and proud.
• Numbers and questions do well. See how you can use them.

Here’s how AppSumo rocks their subject lines with emotional and psychological triggers. Notice the use of questions and numbers, too. Doesn’t it just make you want to click through now?

Etsy, on the other hand, goes for headlines that infuse images and sensory appeal into our heads. You can almost, picture colors, whimsical, hand crafted items. Notice the use of adjectives, like “wild side”, “colorful surprises” “gifts with heart” and more.

 6. Add a Personal Touch

Finally, see if you can add a personal touch by using the reader’s name or by asking relevant questions, or even by adding YOUR own personal details –name, photo and maybe, a phone number at the bottom of the email.

Adding personal touches not only increases conversions, since 94% marketers seem to agree that personalization is critical to success, but also adds a human touch to an electronic interaction.

Here’s how Paper Style did it by asking smart questions to get to know its readers better and direct them to the right shopping sections.

I hope you found these 6 key elements and 12 email marketing examples helpful, so you can start maximizing the returns you get from every email that you send to your list.

Looking at the post, share with me in the comments, which elements are currently missing from your newsletters?