A product launch is an exciting time for a business. Having a solid email marketing strategy makes it less stressful and more exciting. A product launch is more than just sending one email. Instead, it is about creating a sequence that keeps customers engaged before, during and after launch.

A successful strategy thus combines planning, timing, personalisation and good design. It helps your business create excitement around the product, build customer relationships and generate sales.

5 important steps for a successful email marketing strategy

Here are some of the most essential ingredients of an effective email marketing strategy that can make all the difference in your business

1. Define your audience first

An important part of the email marketing strategy is defining who your audience is. Your business should do an exercise where you look at your mailing list and check the types of customers you have. Remember that your audience is not a homogenous group of people but very different. Some of the ways to divide your audience are:

• Age, gender and location
• New subscribers
• Purchase history
• Loyalty Tiers
• Highly-engaged customers

Each audience should receive a slightly different message. For example, someone who always buys makeup should not receive skincare marketing and similarly, new subscribers should be sent product information while regular customers might need rewards to come back. This makes the email look more personalised instead of sending a generic email blast.

2. Build excitement before launch

A good strategy focuses on creating the right emotion. For a product launch, you should focus on creating excitement about the upcoming product before it is released.

One way of doing that is to send a teaser email. This should include some bits about the product but should not reveal the entire product at once. These can include sneak peeks, testimonials, behind-the-scenes activity, countdown emails or product hints.  All of these would create anticipation in the customer and make them look forward to what’s new.

To help you speed up the writing process, you can use an AI writer. It can give you an email draft that you can later edit. You can ask it to write a teaser email, create different versions for various audience segments, write product descriptions and brainstorm subject lines.

3. Announcement Email

The announcement email is the most important part of your email marketing strategy. It should begin with you selecting the design that showcases your product well. You can do this quickly by taking inspiration from professionally designed product announcement email templates. You can customize the template with your brand colours and fonts. Keep the design consistent with your social media posts.

Use eye-catching high-quality visuals that show the product from different angles. Choose the strongest visual for the hero image and add the rest in different sections.

Keep the copy of the announcement email focused on the benefits of the product rather than just mentioning the features. Remember to keep the email short and to the point.

4. Collect Reviews and use them strategically

Your email marketing strategy should focus on customer reviews because most people trust other customers and not the advertisement itself. Often underrated, this is an important part of your email marketing strategy.

Add reviews in your announcement email as social proof. You can include testimonials, ratings or reviews about the product. If your product is new, you can use reviews of the business, the quality of the rest of the products, customer service and any beta testers that you might have sent to influencers or others for review.

This should make hesitant customers feel more confidence about their purchase.

5. Follow-up with reminders and offers

Customers often forget to buy or procrastinate on a purchase. This does not mean they do not like the product but that they could forget. You should remind them with follow-up emails to stay top of mind.

Reminder emails are also a good way to focus on reviews and update the customers about the response to your product launch. Write a copy that makes them want to be a part of the wave. Use subject lines such as “Items Are Running Out” or “Last Chance to Order”.

You can also include a limited-time discount, countdown or bonus gift in the final reminder email to encourage customers who are still undecided.

Frequently asked questions

1. What should a good email marketing strategy have?

• It creates a sense of excitement, combines a good design with timing, personalises for customers and leads to more sales and brand loyalty.

2. How should a business measure and improve an email marketing campaign?

• You can track click rates, open rates, conversions, which emails performed better than others, what subject lines worked and which audience segment responded.

3. How many emails should be included in a product launch email campaign?

• A typical product launch email sequence includes one or two teaser emails, a strong announcement email, one or two reminder emails followed by a final offer or last-chance email if needed.

A winning email marketing strategy!

A good email marketing strategy is built on data, but it never forgets the people behind it. The more personalised your message, the better the results!