We’ve got a few marketing secrets here at Litmus… and maybe your email team does, too.
We talk a lot about designing and coding emails from scratch. And we do a lot of that! But we also… sometimes… occasionally… use email templates. 😅
46% of email marketers have up to five emails in production at any given time. Sound familiar? And with teams averaging about 2 weeks to produce a single email, that’s a lot of concepting, designing, writing, HTML coding, reviewing, and testing in a short amount of time.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a few strategic shortcuts for your email marketing campaigns with an email template. But where email marketers go wrong is leaving templates exactly as they are, making them pretty blah campaigns—potentially sacrificing better business outcomes for speed.
Why personalization is fundamental to your email marketing strategy
Whether you’re creating an email from scratch or using a template, you need to think about email personalization. Email remains one of the most effective marketing tactics because it’s so personal. Your subscribers had to actively say yes to hearing from you—so make it count.
At this point, your subscribers expect hyper-personalized communications from you. But most email marketers are sticking to the basics. Even though 95% of email marketers we polled for the State of Email Innovations Report did some kind of personalization, only 3% said they do live or real-time content in their emails. That’s a big missed opportunity.
“When personalization is done right, it’s something subscribers are more likely to engage with,” says Litmus email marketing manager Tracie Pang. “They’re more likely to click on a product, browse your website, and make a purchase.”
If you’re going to use a template, add a little pizzazz to it. We’ve compiled hundreds of templates in our free email template library for you to use—here’s how to personalize them:
Before you change a single element, organize your data
The power behind any kind of effective personalization? Data. You don’t need to be a data science wizard to spruce up your templates, but it’s helpful to know what exists and where to find it as you build your campaigns. We think about four types of data that flow into personalization efforts in your customer relationship management software (CRM):
- Zero-party data is information given to you directly by your audience, like their location or company name from a checkout flow, survey results, or feedback via customer support. Anytime you’re asking your subscribers a question and they answer it, it’s zero-party data.
- First-party data is the individual-level data collected from your subscribers, like browsing data from your website, shopping history, or social media engagement.
- Second-party data is purchased from another company to help you understand consumer trends, analyze the competitive landscape, or conduct research.
- Third-party data comes from tracking Internet activity outside of your owned channels, like purchases, browsing history, or media mentions. With Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, which hides subscribers’ IP addresses, this data isn’t as reliable as it used to be. And while Google has backtracked on its plan to kill third-party cookies, it’s more important than ever to focus focus on your zero-, first-, and second-party data because you simply can’t rely on third-parties for your data needs.
Mapping out the data you already have, and implementing the right integrations to be able to use it in your email service provider (ESP), is what makes great personalization possible. “Lean into the zero-party and first-party data that you collect from your subscribers,” says Pang. “You can always create a generic fallback for anyone who doesn’t fit the criteria. Find ways to use what you already have.”
Personalizing elements of an email template
You don’t have to completely redesign an email template for it to become yours. (That defeats the purpose of using a template in the first place!) Instead, pick one or two elements within the template to change, like:
1. Personalized email subject lines
If you’re not able to change anything else about your email template (besides swapping out the template parts, of course), then this is a great way to dip your toe into the waters of personalization. Use your ESP to add a “first name” merge tag to add a subscriber’s name into the subject line.
If you’re still unsure, subject lines make for great A/B testing. See whether adding a first name helps your open rate on your next campaign. But remember: Don’t overdo it!
2. Relevant images and copy
Building a customized email from a template means changing out images (and adding the appropriate alt tags, of course) so they suit your campaign. Creating multiple versions of the same campaign but using different product images based on the segment of your audience is a “more is more” strategy.
There’s no one way to segment your audience. You can split up your campaigns by personas, location, industry, or your prospect’s company. Here are a few examples of swapping out relevant imagery and copy using segmentation:
| Campaign Example | Swap | Data Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Promotional/Sale | Imagery of bestselling shirts vs. pants, as an example | Bestselling item by category Browsing or purchase behavior |
| Cold Outreach/td> | Industry-specific imagery and copy, depending on your segments | Company industry Demographics |
| Social Proof | Use case studies, reviews, or quotes that speak to recent browsing behavior | Browsing behavior Demographics |
3. Dynamic content
Starting with an email template can save a lot of time and energy in your email workflows. Every subscriber on your email list receives hundreds of emails in a week.
If you want to stand out, add dynamic content to your emails that make your subscribers excited to read them, like:
- Interest signals, which display live click totals so you can show subscribers what their peers are most excited about
- Countdown timers, which add a sense of urgency to your promotional emails
- Live polls, so subscribers see in-the-moment how their opinion matches with other subscribers
- Scratch-offs, which add a little interactive fun to emails by revealing a product or promotion on a click
While many of you haven’t tried real-time or live content in your emails (we still can’t believe it’s only 3%), the tactic showed up again and again when we asked you what you wish you could do with personalization. Use the time saved with your email template to do something your subscribers have never seen before.
Get email insights from nearly 1,000 marketers
Dive into the State of Email Reports for the latest trends, innovations, and best practices across the email marketing industry.
4. Customized CTAs
“Learn more” ain’t gonna cut it when it comes to your call-to-action (CTA). This is THE moment to get your subscriber excited about what you have to say. Whether you’re sending a newsletter, information about your product/service, or are promoting a sale, your CTA should reflect the goal of the campaign.
Then, personalize your CTA based on where subscribers are in their customer journey. Some of your subscribers may be ready to make a purchase, while others are still learning who you are and what you do. Serving dynamic content like recommended products, recently viewed products, or specific content based on their on-site behavior could be just what you need to get them to make a buying decision.
10 personalized email templates by use case
You can’t just grab any old email template off the web and hope for the best. That’s why we created a series of pre-tested email templates ready to best finicky email clients like Outlook and Gmail. Save one of these, or use them as inspiration to create your own. Take a look at some of our favorites for you to personalize:
1. Welcome email template
Download the welcome email template →
The first email someone should get from your brand is a welcome email. In addition to introducing your brand and a few of your biggest selling points, set clear expectations about what kinds of emails they’ll receive, how often, and where to change their preferences up front.
Personalize it: Go one step further by personalizing this email based on where the subscriber signed up. If they attended a webinar, for example, shout out the name of the webinar and welcome them to your email list.
2. Email newsletter template
Download the email newsletter template →
How you organize your email newsletter depends on what kind of news you have to share. If it’s mostly product information, keep it short and sweet. But if you’re sharing content or relevant links, then don’t be afraid to share more about why you’re excited about it. Either way, try not to bombard your subscribers with lots of links and images here.
Personalize it: Use browsing data to provide recommended articles or products for a dynamic newsletter. That way, you’re nudging them toward a section of your website they’re already interested in.
3. New product launch template
Download the new product launch template →
Launching a new product or feature is one of the more fun campaigns for email marketers. Make the most of this event by showcasing everything about your product, including key features and other information so excited subscribers can buy right away.
Personalize it: If you have a brick-and-mortar store, use location data to invite subscribers to try out the new product themselves at a store near them. Or if you’re hosting in-person events to promote the new product, invite them to an event close by.
4. Abandoned cart email template
Download the abandoned cart email template →
Triggering an automated abandoned cart email when someone leaves items behind reminds them what they were excited to purchase and can address any unspoken concerns they may have. Abandoned cart emails should be super simple, like this template, which focuses just on the items in their cart and a link to customer support.
Personalize it: Sometimes, all it takes is a little something to sweeten the deal. Generate a unique abandoned cart code for each shopper after they’ve left items in their cart for a certain amount of time and add it to this email. (Bonus points if it automatically populates the discount in their cart when they click the link.)
5. Product recommendations template
Download the product recommendations template →
Once someone goes from subscriber to customer, your next objective as an email marketer is to get them to buy again. A great way to do this? Create product pairings based on previous purchases. If someone has already purchased an item in one color, for example, offer them something different.
Personalize it: Offering recommended products based on what shoppers are actually browsing for is one of the most effective personalization tactics out there. If you don’t have the right kind of data to use, then make a bestsellers product email and recommend those.
6. Sales email template
Download the sales email template →
Sales reps send out a lot of cold outreach emails. You want those emails to feel as personal as possible to increase conversions, so minimize the design and focus on the copy like this plain text-style email template. Reps should swap out the greeting, body copy, and signature with their own ideas, focusing on building a mutual connection.
Personalize it: Cold sales emails straddle a fine line between effective personalization and uncanny valley. This is a great spot for adding first name, company name, and industry while keeping your message short and to the point.
7. Birthday email template
Download the birthday email template →
Sending your subscribers a sweet birthday message is already a great personalized tactic. It shows them how much you care—especially if you offer a special birthday gift or discount with it.
Personalize it: This is one of the few emails where using first name is a must. Using quick start templates in Litmus Personalize, you can easily embed your subscribers’ first name into an image—like a birthday cake!
8. Password reset email template
Download the password reset email template →
Certain automated emails just have to work. Password reset emails are one of them. You don’t have to go overboard with this kind of transactional email. Instead, focus on getting them their reset information as quickly as possible. Include any instructions or information about resetting their password, like case or special character limits, and get them the link.
Personalize it: This is another email example where first name (or account name) is a good idea. Scammers love to use password reset emails, so make sure you’re adding enough brand touches that someone knows for sure it’s you.
9. Ask for a review email template
Download the ask for a review email template →
Set a standard amount of time to ask for feedback after someone makes a purchase and send them an automated email. This template makes it easy to ask for a review. You can either link directly to your own reviews or use an integration with a third-party platform like Tripadvisor or Yelp to gather more reviews about your business. Either way, explain why feedback is important to you in the email.
Personalize it: Including the specific product or service in your email that someone purchased is a great way to jog their memory about it, whether they stayed in your penthouse suite or ordered a new purse.
10. Re-engagement email template
Download the re-engagement email template →
Sometimes, for whatever reason, subscribers stop engaging with your email campaigns. If you have someone who hasn’t opened, clicked, or otherwise interacted with your brand via email in sixty or ninety days, send them an automated re-engagement email.
Personalize it: Update this email with products or content from previous browsing sessions or use it to promote new products or information they might have missed. Either way, tailoring this email to content you know they used to be interested in could help them engage with you again.
Tips for using industry-specific email marketing templates
When you pick out an email marketing template, you also need to adapt it to your industry. Consider your audience segmentation, what products you want to promote, timing, design elements, and a robust testing strategy as you evaluate which email marketing templates to use. Here are five examples of industry-specific email marketing templates that may fit your marketing strategy:
1. eCommerce: Order confirmation email template
Download the order confirmation email template →
eCommerce and retail companies send plenty of transactional emails as they do their business. But transactional emails don’t have to be boring! You can (and should) bring in your brand elements to a transactional email with colors, fonts, and imagery specific to your products. An order confirmation template like this one makes it easy to send a receipt directly to your customers.
Personalize it: Include images and product information from the actual products your customers purchased to make this super relevant for your customers. The more information they have, the more confident they can be that their purchase was the right one.
2. Financial services: Flexible design email template
Download the flexible design email template →
Financial services firms deal with more regulations about what they can and can’t send to their subscribers, so pick a flexible email marketing template like this one for your emails. An f-shaped pattern gives you enough space to promote your products and services without bogging the reader down in too much information.
Personalize it: You can personalize this in several ways depending on your business. You can use dynamic content to add the day’s market information if that’s relevant, or you can add a promotional block encouraging subscribers to make an appointment at their local branch, with their address and phone number.
3. Education: Event invitation email template
Download the event invitation email template →
Whether you’re hosting an information session or a special workshop, you’ll need to give attendees the details. This template for registered guests is a way for you to update all the information they need, from parking to the Zoom link.
Personalize it: Using add-to-calendar functionality and a countdown timer makes it easy for your guests to remember when and where the event takes place. Make sure to include multiple kinds of add-to-calendar to accommodate Google, Yahoo, iCal, and Microsoft Office users.
4. Travel and hospitality: Pre-event email template
Download the pre-event email template →
This email template is designed for events, but you can easily adapt it to invite returning guests or diners to enjoy your hospitality again. Start with your hotel or restaurant information at the top of the template and a heartfelt note from the owner or manager. Then, you can update guests with new information about your property’s amenities or menu items instead of the “agenda” section.
Personalize it: Segment this email just to guests who have already visited your business. Then, include dynamic information like seasonal specials, discounts, or the weather in your location to help them remember what it was like to stay or dine with you.
5. B2B: Multiple columns email template
Download the multiple columns email template →
B2B products aren’t quite as easy to explain as most retail items (sorry) so multiple columns can do the heavy lifting for you. Add information about your features, benefits, or include case study information in this template for your next product promotion.
Personalize it: This is a great spot to work with your personas. What are their major pain points, and how does your product solve them? Create multiple variations of your email based on each persona and how they interact with your product, emphasizing the benefits that resonate the most with each.
Make personalization part of your email strategy
You can personalize any email campaign if you put your mind to it. Pang recalls a personalization-driven email strategy at her previous company, YETI. “Whenever we had a specific email go out, we saw an opportunity to personalize it,” she says. “Whether it was speaking to the number of times they had purchased, creating different variations based on their preferred product vertical, or segmenting based on their engagement behavior. Basically, if we had the content and products to support it, we would personalize it.”
Using an email template takes care of the design part of your email workflow so you can focus more on what data you need and where it will go.
Personalize emails the way you want to, with or without complex code
Whether you use a template or code from scratch, sending personalized emails has never been easier with Litmus Personalize. Because the fastest path to achieving your revenue goals is through genuine connection.
Drive engagement with dynamic content
Personalize emails with live polls, personalized images, scratch-offs, and more. No coding experience required. Learn more.
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