7 Basic Email Templates Every Business Needs
January 30, 2008 – 1:14 pmGetting started in email marketing? Here are 7 email templates every business will eventually need (this is basically a list of templates I’ve had to create for our own company over the years). You might as well go ahead and get these email templates built, so that they’ll be ready when you need them…
- Your Monthly (or Quarterly) Newsletter Template: This one goes out to the general public who opted-in for your company news. You’ll probably want it to be a 2-column layout, so you can put self-gratuitous promotions in the side column. Be sure to keep the “main” column full of useful content.
- Company Letterhead Template: Use this for rare announcements, such as pricing changes, shipping problems, billing errors, or “system is temporarily down” alerts. But read this before you send any public apologies with it.
- Special Promotions Template: Use this when you have big, splashy product photographs to promote a big sale. We recommend MailChimp’s “postcard” email template.
- Holiday E-card Template: This can be a variation of the postcard template. You’d insert a nice, beautiful graphic into the postcard image slot. Here are some free templates for your holiday e-cards.
- Event (e-vite) Template: Use this when you want to invite people to a company event.
- Event followup/Survey Template: Use this after your event has taken place, and you want to thank your attendees for coming. You might include a link to an online feedback survey (we recommend SurveyMonkey) and you might include digital photos from the event.
- Internal Newsletter Template: Use this for sending internal newsletters to your staff.
If you’re a MailChimp customer, just use our built-in HTML email template designer to go ahead and create these templates now. Save them in your templates gallery, so that when the time comes (trust me, it will), you can just pick the template, add content, and click send. Our free email templates have been tested to work in all the major email programs, and they can be customized to look like a big expensive agency designed them for you (see some examples).
If you’re not a MailChimp customer, you can customize the free HTML email template code we provide here.
If you prefer to design your own HTML email templates, here are some coding tips and tricks from MailChimp’s Email Marketing Resource Library. Just be sure to test your email designs in all the major email programs before sending.
4 Responses to “7 Basic Email Templates Every Business Needs”
Apologies for being off topic - but what’s with the redesign? The old MailChimp design was refined and enticingly quirky, but still felt reliable. This new fascia looks plan-jane corporate.
Seriously, you guys have got a fantastic logo in the lil’ chimp… the stock-image girl is a step backward I feel. To qualify my comments, I am a professional graphic designer. Apologies for the mini-rant, but I really liked what you had before.
By Francis Booth on Jan 30, 2008
I actually agree with Francis. I know this was mentioned before… but I feel like your mojo was in the monkey stuff. Why so serious?
By adam on Feb 1, 2008
Hi Francis and Adam, thanks for your input.
Before I talk about the logo and the stock art lady, it’s important to keep in mind that our public website serves a different purpose than the back-end application.
The chimp is in full glory on the back-end application (where your big stuffy clients and customers can’t see him). And we’re actually working on adding a little *more* monkey-mojo to the interface for you soon.
But on the *public* website, we comb our hair, and tuck our shirts in a little. That way your clients and bosses don’t freak when you tell them what product you chose for their email marketing.
That being said, we’re actually working on an updated chimp mascot (for use in marketing, and the back-end). We’re updating the chimp to be “fun” but more, “fun for grownups.” Our logotype needs a little updating too. Working on it.
And the lady? All I can say about her is: According to our research, visitors to MailChimp.com are actively comparing us to ONE major competitor out there. They want the stability of that particular company, but “minus the evil and ugly.” If you can guess who they are (big clue in the headline next to the lady’s face), open their website, then open ours, and compare them side by side. We’re making a statement there, and it’s got some attitude IMHO.
So that’s the background for you. Moving forward, the public-facing identity is going to be “cleaned up” a little, and the back-end interface is going to be a little more monkey-rific.
By Ben on Feb 2, 2008
My two cents, I appreciate the tucked shirt & the backend MC. I’m a small biz trying to be cheap, definately not easy, jsut $ conscience. So thanks for all your good info & insights.
By A.M. on Feb 17, 2008