How to Create Email Campaign Templates for Marketing
Over 65% of marketers use email marketing to spread the word about their product, service, or content. Out of those, 33% send weekly emails, while 26% send multiple (10 to 25+) emails per month.
So, if you’re a marketer, it’s highly likely you’re sending 10+ emails per month. And keeping up the flow of new content and catchy design will become harder over time.
That’s where email campaign templates come in. They help you whip up great-looking emails at a moment’s notice. But how do you create email templates? And what’s the best way to integrate them into your email campaigns?
Let’s find out everything you need to know below.
Table of Contents
- What Is an Email Campaign (With Example)?
- How Many Emails Should Be in an Email Campaign?
- How Do I Create an Email Campaign?
- Why Do I Need Email Templates for a Marketing Campaign?
- What Do I Put Into My Email Marketing Template?
- Step Up with Your Email Marketing Campaigns
What Is an Email Campaign (With Example)?
An email campaign is a series of emails that are sent to both current and potential customers to encourage them to learn more about your business, purchase a product or service, or increase engagement.
They also help entrepreneurs and businesses:
- Keep customers engaged – With the average customer attention span straddling eight seconds, you need to be creative and memorable to keep your customers coming back. Emails help you do just that by using hooks and payoffs.
- Nurture leads – Before your customers convert, they need to know what you can help them with. Emails help you provide educational materials to your customers, enabling them to become aware of the possibilities and benefits of working with you.
- Collect customer data – Customer data can help you create personalized promotions for your target customers, increasing their likelihood of converting. Emails help you collect that data through user sign-ups and surveys.
For instance, here’s the welcome email of a campaign created by Headspace:
It covers everything a new user would need to know about the company — such as what Headspace can offer them — and includes links that can help users navigate to landing pages they may be looking for in the future.
How Many Emails Should Be in an Email Campaign?
The number of emails in a campaign depends on your list size, email content type, industry, and other factors.
For instance, e-commerce companies with thousands of subscribers may find sending daily emails packed with hot-selling products beneficial for their ROI. But that same strategy might feel “spammy” if you’re a SaaS company selling SEO-based tools.
While there’s no “right” number of emails you can send out per campaign, you can stick to the following when starting and go down or up depending on how your customers respond:
| List size | Number of emails/month |
| <100 | 1-2x |
| 100 to 1000 | 4x |
| 1000 to 5000 | 8x |
| 5000 to 10,000 | 12x |
| 10,000+ | 30x (daily) |
Of course, not every recipient part of a big list should receive daily emails. You want to consider other factors here, such as which recipients show interest (for example, by clicking on any links your emails have). In other words, you want to segment your list and have different mailing frequencies for each segment.
How Do I Create an Email Campaign?
Now that we’ve covered the basics of email campaigns, let’s figure out how you can set them up:
1. Understand Your Goals
The first thing you have to figure out before you ever think about creating an email campaign is the why behind it. This is important because instead of becoming one of the 120 everyday emails a person deletes automatically, you want to stand out.
And understanding what you want to communicate can help you do just that. So, ask yourself what you’re trying to accomplish, such as:
- Are you looking to increase audience engagement?
- Do you want to drive downloads for a new freemium e-book?
- Are you looking to promote a new service or product?
Once you’ve figured out your goal, identify the email campaign metrics and KPIs you need to track — such as newsletter sign-ups, conversions, or click-throughs — that’ll help you track your progress and double down on them. You can plug them into a table to make your life easier.
| Goal | KPIs to Track | Time Limit |
| Build brand awareness | Impression share, open rates, click-through rates, conversions, and engagement rates. | 45 days |
| Increase click-through by 50% | Click-through rate, cost-per-conversion, dwell time, and bounce rate. | 60 days |
2. Define Your Offer
Once you’ve figured out your email campaign goal, find out how you’re going to incentivize your customers to do what you want.
For instance, if you’re running a campaign to increase click-throughs by 50%, you could offer your customers a free e-book or another lead magnet that encourages them to click through. You could even go with a discount code exclusive to those in your email list.
3. Choose Your Email Campaign Type
Once you’ve settled on your email campaign goals and know how to meet them, figure out what type of email campaign you’re going to use to achieve the results you’re looking for.
For instance, welcome emails introduce your brand and help customers understand what you offer, why, and how you work as a company. They’re great if you’re looking to increase brand awareness.
4. Design Your Email
Email campaigns with images convert 2x more than those without them. And if your email campaign has at least three unique links, you’re looking at a 13% higher click rate on average.
Plus, both illustrations and text that provide directions can help people understand what to do 323% better than those not having access to illustrations.
If you want to make sure your emails are opened by your customers, it’s crucial to select the right design and use visuals that support what your copy is saying. Email campaign templates can be a lifesaver in this case.
5. A/B Test Your Email
You don’t want to send out emails with broken links, typos, image issues, or wonky formatting. That’s not the way to high conversions and click-throughs. Ergo — always test and A/B test your emails before hitting the “send” button.
Here’s what to do:
- Send an email to yourself to check everything looks good.
- Once everything looks good, share your email with coworkers or volunteers and get feedback on what worked for them, such as the visuals, subject, headings, or value-packed links.
- Send your emails to several email providers, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo, because they may show up differently. Double-checking this will help you ensure the best customer experience.
- Send two emails with different subject lines and headings to a list segment and look at what the analytics say. Which email performs better? Select the one that hits the mark.
Once you’ve tested your emails, it’s time to hit the “send” button. Just don’t forget to perform a last-minute recheck.
Why Do I Need Email Templates for a Marketing Campaign?
It typically takes a few days for a brand to create one good email, with bigger teams taking longer. This means that it could take over a month to build and run a campaign with three emails per week.
While personalization is good for your brand and customers, it takes a lot of time you could spend on other marketing efforts, such as creating content that resonates with your users or writing high-converting copy. That’s where email campaign templates come in.
With these templates, you don’t have to start from scratch. Instead, you can actually use a single template for all your emails without your customers realizing what you’re doing.
For instance, if you’re a solar panel company selling done-for-you solutions to homeowners and businesses, you don’t have to create unique emails for each customer type. Instead, it’s better to save time using a mass marketing email template that helps you swap out content.
At Campaign Refinery, we have a rich library of pre-made campaigns that are completely customizable and ready to go. We’ve tested these campaigns rigorously, so we know they work!
Since your email campaign design template will already have cut-outs for your headings, sub-headings, and other content, you’ll only have to put in your copy and images — and you’ll have a ready-to-go email in your hand in barely any time.
What Do I Put Into My Email Marketing Template?
Your email marketing template will make or break the look of your emails, so you want to get it right the first time. And while free email campaign templates can help you kickstart your campaign, it’s better to create a custom email template to ensure you get the best results.
But what elements should you include in your email template for a marketing campaign? Let’s look at them below:
- Header – This is the heading your customer will first see, so make sure it stands out. You can do that by using design elements and playing around with sizes, contrast, and colors.
- Body – This is the “meaty” portion of your email. Since it can get long, it’s better to break it up into short sections bracketed by images or visuals. You should also start with the most important information first.
- CTA – This is the offer you’re making, such as a discount, free download, or link.
You can structure all of these in several ways. For instance, you could add the CTA within the body text. You could even add multiple CTAs talking about various lead magnets you’ve created to convert customers.
Step Up with Your Email Marketing Campaigns
Email marketing campaign templates give you a more organized way to format text and design, ensuring they work together seamlessly. This improves your readers’ experience and keeps your emails consistent in design.
While there are plenty of template builders out there, they all share the same goal: making your life easier when it comes to creating and designing email marketing messages. And that’s exactly what we’ve been helping our clients with at Campaign Refinery.
With our platform, you can create all sorts of campaigns and shoot off millions of emails every month. You can also track opens, clicks, unsubscribes, complaints, and bounces to keep a close eye on how everything’s performing.
We also take care of the nitty-gritty details like email deliverability, clean list maintenance, and positive sender reputation, so you have all the time to create lead magnets that help you achieve higher CTRs and open rates.
And speaking of lead magnets, don’t miss our FREE Lead Magnet Multiplier short course. It’s packed with four just-for-you mini-trainings that cover how you can:
- Choose a lead magnet that converts.
- Use psychology to drive lead engagement.
- Encourage authentic action and conversions.
- Get 2x to 4x more opens/clicks from every email sent.
The course also comes with million-dollar copywriter-approved email strategies that help you drive 756% more clicks to your lead magnet.
And the great thing is, it only takes seven days — sometimes even one.
Start now and thank us later.
Until then — happy emailing!
Written by Eilaf Meenai
