How to send an email blast (+ 21 email blast examples)

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Last Updated on December 21, 2021 by Alex Birkett

You know that one thing that you can’t live with can’t live without?

That’s an email blast for you!

Click here! Click here! Click here! Now, don’t you feel like a schoolteacher trying to get your kids to pay attention? That’s what your customers feel like during an email blast.

And unlike your school teacher, you may face some repercussions for this behavior.

But there are ways to transform yourself from a grumpy old teacher into a cool and hip email marketer – while reaping the benefits of the good old email blast.

What is an Email Blast?

A blast email is an email that you send to your extensive list of contacts, and it goes out to a larger group of people than usual. It’s an effective way to reach prospects, clients, and customers in bulk.

There’s a reason there’s a “blast” in email blast campaigns…they are meant to send bulk emails.

Usually, a blast email contains:

  • Information and links to the most recent blog post
  • Business-related announcement
  • Welcome emails
  • Company updates
  • Event information (online conference, webinar, etc.)
  • Flash sales and discounts

They are also a great way to publicize your products and services.

Here’s an email blast from Amazon announcing their mega sale on specific products:

But sending an email blast does come with a few risks.

While an email blast is an effective way to reach your customers, you run the risk of annoying them. You should, therefore, be very careful with what you include in your email blast and make sure it’s relevant to your customers.

Then there’s the matter of your email landing up in spam folders. And I don’t know about you, but I sure as hell see SPAM emails with distrust and usually give them the side-eye before hitting the delete button.

No brand wants to invoke such emotions in their audiences’ since it leads to a bad sending reputation.

While this may not seem like a news flash, there are steps you can take to ensure that your email does not end up in the spam folder.

If you want to create a captivating and persuasive email blast, avoid using spammy words and phrases. Instead, try reserving the “sales language” for your longer forms and opt for a less aggressive tone. Explain why you are sending out emails and where you got their information (if they bought a product or signed up for your e-newsletter).

We’ll discuss these tips and tricks in detail later in the article.

Before that, let’s see how to send an email blast.

How to Send an Email Blast?

Statistics say that email blasts are still useful today. But to succeed, you need to know how to send an email blast – the right way.

Step #1. Select an Email Service.

You could either use your web host to send emails in bulk or use an email service provider.

Using a third-party provider is better in many ways.

Email marketing services often give you an understanding of how likely your recipients are to open your emails, how long they will spend on your content, and how likely spam filters are to label your emails as spam.

While these factors help make an informed decision, there’s another department that gives email marketing services a solid edge. And that’s the visual appeal.

You can either choose to send an email like this:

It probably makes you reminisce about the emails you used to receive back in the day. They were short, largely text-based, and lacked any pizzazz or design elements — in short, they could have been written by anyone.

Here’s another email blast example:

This time with all the bells and whistles. It includes an eye-catching color palette and product images to attract the audience.

We all know which email will endear you more to your customers.

Luckily, creating an attractive email blast campaign is much easier with the top email marketing software on the market. They often provide pre-built themes and templates and a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to create your campaign within a few minutes.

Here are some of the email marketing services with pre-built email templates:

  • MailChimp
  • SendinBlue
  • Constant Contact
  • ActiveCampaign
  • Moosend

Here’s the assortment of themes you get with SendinBlue, for instance:

There are templates for various industries, including ecommerce, tech, events, and more.

While picking your email marketing platform, it’s equally important to figure out the best email service that suits your budget and functionality needs. There are tons of them out there, but businesses need to decide which one fits them the best.

In a nutshell, your email marketing platform should have features like:

  • Attractive themes that look good on all devices and an easy-to-use email builder.
  • The ability to preview your email blast before sending it to the email list.
  • Audience segmentation features.
  • Real-time analytics to identify your progress and the campaign’s performance.
  • Dependable email delivery rate.

Services like Sendinblue even enable businesses to create contact groups to save email addresses. While sending blast emails, they can simply be addressed to the contact group name. It saves time and effort by eliminating the need to input email addresses manually. Since manual entry is quite error-prone, businesses should maintain a previously compiled list of email addresses to send to.

And then it’s also a user-friendly service that incorporates multiple templates to choose from – if you’re looking for something colorful.

Step #2. Select a Theme and Build Your Email Blast Campaign.

The emails you send out need to look good. After all, you don’t want people to negatively perceive your brand from the get-go, and this encompasses your emails as well.

And as we’ve already established, people will react more positively towards emails they find aesthetically pleasing.

So, once you pick a relevant email template, you’ll get directed to the email builder.

Here’s Sendinblue’s drag-and-drop email builder, for instance:

SendinBlue is my personal favorite for email marketing. It truly won me over when it defeated even the usual customer favorite, Mailchimp, in my detailed SendinBlue vs. MailChimp comparison.

Step #3. Build an Email List.

Having a mailing list is the foundational cornerstone to any successful campaign. Whether it’s launching a new product, trying to drive traffic to that killer blog post, or looking for new leads for your business… email lists are vital to getting you there.

Many marketers take the easy route of buying the email list – but don’t be that person. If you do, you’re taking a risk with spam laws (CAN-SPAM Act of 2003), which includes hefty fines and a shoddy reputation. And that’s the last thing you want.

Building your own email list is starkly juxtaposed to buying one.

When you build your own list, you’re sending your email blast to a list of interested individuals who actually agreed to view your content. And with the application GDPR-laws, you can’t send unsolicited emails anymore.

Building an email list helps you:

  • Boost click rates and open rates.
  • Minimize the chances of violating SPAM-based rules.
  • Better email deliverability rate (directly proportional to the above two).

To build your email list, you’ll have to start by creating an opt-in signup form and embedding it wherever you expect to find your target audience.

For example, this is the opt-in form that you’ll find on this blog page:

Here’s another example of an opt-in form:

(Source)

These forms are super easy to create and embed, especially if you take the assistance of a third-party email sign-up form builder.

For example, SendinBlue comes preloaded with a template to get you started. You can further customize the form using the drag and drop editor.

Choose your own text, size, font, color, and even add your images and graphics.

You can also create a multi-list subscription form with multiple form fields to gather whatever information you want or even get consent for different types of email lists.

Now embedding your opt-in form in your website won’t suffice. Millions of brands and marketers are vying for their audiences’ email addresses – they’ll all give a whoop of delight if that were the case.

You have to use tips and tricks to build a stellar email list.

Here are some of the tested and proven list building techniques:

  • Offer lead magnets (offer free coupons or ebooks).
  • Use exit intent pop-up forms.
  • Embed your opt-in form on a separate landing page.
  • Articulate precisely how you intend to use the collected email addresses.
  • Run giveaways.
  • Use a chatbot on your site to gather emails.

These are just some of the few quick techniques to build your email list. They’ll entice your target audience and get them to enter their emails.

Step #4 Segment Your Audience.

While sending an email blast, businesses can’t target 100% of their list.

You need to be aware of who you’re speaking to based on actions, behaviors, and preferences—simply put, segment your email list.

While contacts can be segmented for a variety of reasons, the most common are geographical location, age, gender, interests and hobbies, online activity, and purchase history.

When you segment your email list, you’re utilizing techniques that allow you to reach specific audiences within your mailing list.

Here’s an example:

Suppose you are a business offering lawn mower parts on the internet. In that case, you might choose to send coupons for more expensive items to people who have already purchased lawn mower maintenance supplies.

You may also decide to send a newsletter about the newest in lawn mower engines specifically to people who aren’t interested in purchasing lower-level items and don’t need regular reminders about their lawn mowers or other outdoor equipment.

For that, you need to understand who is on your list and how they behave. Those little details can make the difference between growing your list and annoying subscribers. Like doubling your open rates or having more people buy from you. So understanding your list is a prerequisite for segmenting it.

Most email services understand its importance and make it easy for businesses to do so.

For example, Sendinblue offers advanced segmentation and list management options.

You can even create multiple conditions in a single segment. There are also options to create workflows and manage multiple attributes simultaneously within the workflow.

Step #5 Create a Targeted Message.

Now that you’ve segmented your email list, it’s time to craft targeted messages for different types of audiences.

I love receiving emails from brands. From womenswear to beauty products, skincare to shoes, I really don’t care, as long as it adds value to my inbox and doesn’t fall into the spam folder.

My rule of thumb here is simple – I only open those emails designed to cater to me.

But when I see something completely irrelevant, I instantly mark it as SPAM (if it’s not already in the spam folder).

For instance, take this “Study Abroad” email that I found in my spam folder:

I have no idea what made a “resume-building and scientific research writing agency” send me an email?

Why the hell would I feel inclined to “Explore” when I have never shown any interest in studying abroad.

No wonder they got marked as spam!

An email blast sent out to people who don’t care about your content is a waste of time and money, especially when testing conversion rates. To reach relevant audiences, try targeting your email blast based on interest instead of just blasting the same thing to everyone in your email subscriber list.

You have to create stellar buyer personas to achieve this.

A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. Clearly understanding the needs and behaviors of your target audience will help you create effective email blasts based on your customer’s desires.

Here’s an example: Dan is married with two kids, so he cares a lot about family life and wants to buy something that will make him feel like he’s contributing to it.

Ann is single and lives with three friends who she goes out with every other day – she cares way more about popularity than Dan does.

Surely, you don’t expect to address these two starkly different personalities with the same pitch and still get good results?

Here’s a Buyer Persona template you can use:

A buyer persona like this can help you build more effective email marketing campaigns, landing pages, and ad copy that resonates with your audience (aka speaks their language).

Finally, complete your email blast with a CTA (call-to-action) button, compelling your audience to take the intended action.

Step #6 Measure Results and Optimize Your Email Blast Campaign.

You know that email blast your marketing team did last week? Well, it was a hit — you got a ton of new opt-ins and sales.

Now it’s time to sit back and have a well-deserved beer, right? Nope.

Measuring and optimizing your email blast campaigns can be as important as checking your goals after the click.

Your next step is revisiting pertinent metrics, including:

  • Click-through rate
  • Bounce rate
  • Open rate
  • Delivery rate
  • Product orders
  • Downloads
  • Unsubscribe rate
  • Spam complaints

Before sending out another email blast, compare the data from this email campaign versus the previous one and look for ways to improve continually.

Businesses need a steady list of email addresses to target and must grow it to balance users who unsubscribe. While this is a ceaseless process, businesses must track fake email addresses, improve targeting, enhance the quality of content, and strive to offer value to their customers.

Email Blast Tips And Best Practices

Oh boy, you’re ready to start blasting some emails. But are you sure you know all the best practices? Let’s talk about what works and doesn’t work when it comes to email marketing.

While the starting point must be an excellent software service, like Sendinblue, ConvertKit, MailChimp, etc., it all boils down to the emailing approach.

Here are some quick tips and best practices to help you create a killer email blast:

1. Choose The Right Time to Send Your Email Blast

Understanding the best time of day to send an email blast often increases opens and clicks.

According to a report by GetResponse, marketers in the US and Canada who sent their emails at 4 am had the highest open rates. And those who did it at 6 am enjoyed the highest click-through rates.

The same report suggested that sending your emails on Friday and Tuesday might result in a high open-rate and click-through rate, respectively.

While identifying the best time to send your email is better than hitting the send button at a random time, you can still do better.

What if you could identify the optimum send time for each recipient rather than assuming they’ll all be responsive at the same time?

Luckily, doing that is no chore either if you have the right email marketing software in your arsenal.

For example, Sendinblue’s send-time optimization feature.

They use a machine learning-based algorithm to send your email campaigns at the optimum time. You just have to choose the date, and they’ll leverage the available data for each contact in your email list to calculate the best send time for that recipient.

2. Don’t Send Email Blasts Frequently.

​​The frequency of email blasts should be ideal for the customer to deal with. A high frequency can lead to an increase in unsubscribes and spam labeling. On the other hand, a low one can lead customers not to take the brand seriously, leading to a loss in traction.

The key is balance – which businesses need to figure out based on their industry.

Here’s some food for thought!

 

This report from 2015 revealed that 43% of subscribers would prefer if businesses emailed them less frequently.

You have to hit a sweet spot based on your industry and the type of response you get from your audience. Start with two emails per month and then increase it to one email per week.

Make sure to compare the open rate, click-through rate, and other metrics to determine what’s working the best for you.

3. Personalize Your Email Blast

Over the past 12 months of the pandemic, 78% of marketers have seen an improvement in engagement via email marketing. A lot of it has to do with the ability to personalize emails.

According to statistics, 74% of online consumers get frustrated over an impersonal experience, and 91% of customers today will move brands to get a taste of personalization.

Today, most email services understand this and have made it easier for businesses to create personalized email blasts for the maximum hits.

While e-blasts don’t call for out-and-out personalization, you can still make the receiver feel valued by personalizing subject lines and addressing them by their first name.

Let’s go through the basics of personalization with Sendinblue:

For starters, add your recipient’s name since emails with the recipient’s name have a higher chance of being opened.

Sendinblue allows you to replace any attribute with a placeholder.

Here’s the final result:

You can also add a fallback text that will appear if the contact attribute is empty for that particular recipient. For example, “Hey there” in place of “Hey FIRSTNAME.”

You can personalize the subject line similarly.

Also, make sure you use a catchy subject line that appeals to the customer. Subject lines are just like the title of a blog post or article. They need to be an attention grabber to get someone to open them.

Thorough research can help with what needs to be included or omitted from it. For example, the word “alert” in your subject line may boost your open rates by 61.8%. On the other hand, the word “Newsletter” in the subject line may decrease the open-rate by 18.7%.

Here’s an infographic on the latest email subject lines stats and trends by Invesp that can help you write subject lines that get opened, read, and converted.

Another common mistake to avoid is writing the entire line in capital letters. So, be mindful of how you write your subject line and what words to include.

If there’s a need for further change in the email template, the drag-and-drop functionality is handy.

4. Add Your Branding Elements

Adding your branding elements into your email design is an easy way to boost brand awareness and build a sense of trust.

Brand recognition is the key to occupying the consumer’s memory space. Part of selling your services is branding yourself. Your service brand needs to be consistent and recognizable across all communications – from websites to emails to marketing campaigns.

The average worker receives 120 emails per day, and it’s hard to go into the context every time. Using the right mix of brand elements, keywords, and logos will prove to be more attractive and help you stand out. So use plenty of those in your email blasts.

Here’s an example from Adobe Acrobat:

5. Avoid Using a “Salesy” Tone

If you’re currently sending out emails with a salesy tone, but you aren’t getting many click-throughs, now might be a good time to make some changes. You can still send out emails with a salesy tone; just make sure you check the box labeled “not annoying” first.

Telling people how wonderful you are and what makes you so great just doesn’t work.

Talk about problem statements instead.

For example, an email blast campaign about running footwear should highlight the many problems plaguing a runner. You can then sneakily add your gear and hint how using the right running gear (your brand) can help.

6. Avoid Using SPAM Words

The solution to getting your email marketing messages past your recipients’ spam filters is not to do things that are on the spammer’s checklist.

If you want your email placed in the inbox of your recipients, avoid using words like “free,” “credit card,” or “inheritance.”

These are red flags for spam filters and will result in your email ending in someone’s junk folder. After all, everyone and their grandma Betty are now wary of Nigerian princes and Mongolian princesses on email.

7. Be succinct

When sending an email blast, you want to be succinct. You do not want to ramble or wax lyrical about your product.

Otherwise, the recipients will be like:

According to Sujan Patel, the founder of Mailshake and an expert marketer, “Few people want to read 500-word emails regardless of the writing quality. That means you must summarize information and write persuasive calls to action that entice readers to click and find out more.”

Your goal should be to put forward business information in a succinct, engaging, and digestible manner that consumers can retain.

8. Make it Visually Appealing

We live in a visual, sensory world. If your email is all plain text without design elements or formatting, then you’ll find that most of us won’t open it, much less read it all.

According to HubSpot, posts with images are most likely to increase audience engagement.

And I can vouch for that, for I have known to splurge on clothes I don’t need after receiving emails like the one below.

Yeah! Yeah! Mass consumerism and all of that, but then, what’s a girl to do?

That’s what a beautifully crafted email can do to you!

Images in an email improve the acceptability and pique the interest of their target audience, which is a win-win scenario.

Email Blast Examples

As you can probably tell by now, email blasts aren’t your regular promotional emails anymore.

You can’t send out e-blasts without permission now. And more than that, generic emails won’t cut it anymore with your customers since it’s a competitive market, making personalization and segmentation necessary.

Taking everything into account, here are some email blast examples from the brands that did it right.

1. Email blast just ahead of Christmas (any festival will do)

It’s that time of year again… Christmas is on the way, and you’re feeling festive. We are all busy shopping, wrapping up the gifts, and decorating our houses with bright colors and sparkling lights.

But did you forget something? Are you sure you didn’t miss someone while buying gifts?

Amid this chaos, an email like this will make you feel as ecstatic as shedding your top on a secluded beach in Miami!

Okay, probably not that ecstatic. But, close enough!

This email by Swiggy, a local platform for ordering food, groceries, and other essentials, taps into the festive fervor – and how!

The best thing about the email blast is the vivid color pattern without being gaudy. It also paints words in the customers’ eyes, so they don’t even know they’re reading an email blast.

I especially love the use of graphics in the email.

The brand also rightfully assumed that the recipients could do with a helping hand while busy preparing for Christmas.

They could probably draw more attention by announcing a festive offer, which brings us to the following example.

2. Email with a festive offer + social cause

This email by Brain.fm taps into two winning formulas. They are heralding social cause and portraying it as a festive offer.

They welcome you to join their “Pro” plan, and they’ll donate $10 on your behalf to the Alzheimer’s Association.

3. Listing key trends and how-to tips

For too long, email marketing has been about telling people you’re best-in-class.

They all seemed to be about the same thing. The emails told me that I needed this product, but they never showed me why I would need it.

Mango’s (a famous clothing brand) email blast is refreshing.

They don’t tell me that I need to buy their little black dress. Instead, Mango takes a different approach to promote their dresses. The emails are informative and deliver key fashion trends routinely – which effectively shows how you can style a particular outfit.

The best part? Simply clicking on the image will direct you to the product.

The beautiful design is like the cherry on the top.

The saying “show don’t tell” gets thrown around a lot, but it can make all the difference when getting your message across, especially if your business is ecommerce or based online.

4. Multiproduct email

At first glance, it’s apparent that this multiproduct email was sent out without any segmentation or personalization in mind.

It works if it’s a one-time thing. However, it would start to annoy the recipients if Apple TV made a habit of sending generic movies options.

Multiproduct email blasts can be a great way of understanding your customer’s preferences and requirements.

The brand would most likely take a cue from their audience’s engagement pattern and send more targeted movie options next time.

For instance, if I choose to explore more and watch historical documentaries, their next email blast would display the top historical documentary or short films available on their platform.

Best Email Blast Tools

Here’s a quick overview of the top email blast software:

1. Sendinblue

Best overall email blast software for businesses of all sizes.

Sendinblue is one of my favorite email marketing platforms owing to its easy-to-use email editor, pre-built customer journeys, advanced segmentation, mobile-friendly email templates, among other features.

It’s also a great option if you want SMS marketing, email marketing, transactional email functions, and even live chat under one umbrella.

Key features include:

  • A full-fledged CRM system
  • Automated customer workflows
  • Send-time optimization
  • A/B testing
  • Heatmaps and real-time email analytics
  • A freemium plan with the sending limit of up to up to 300 emails daily
  • Unlimited contacts with all the versions

Pricing: Starts at $25/mo for up to 10,000 emails.

2. ConvertKit

Best for bloggers, ecommerce businesses, and course instructors.

ConvertKit is a simple email blast tool with an intuitive interface and a drag-and-drop builder.

It doesn’t have pre-designed email newsletters and templates like its counterparts. You’ll only get access to three simple, HTML-based templates, making it primarily suitable for bloggers, freelancers, and course instructors who want to send a simple newsletter with their own brand in focus.

ConvertKit’s key features include:

  • Email list segmentation
  • Email marketing automation
  • Automated workflows
  • Tags your customers based on their actions
  • A/B testing
  • A freemium plan that allows 1000 subscribers per month

Pricing: It starts at $29 per month.

3. Mailchimp

Best for startups and small businesses with a small email list.

Mailchimp is known for its smooth interface, email builders, and attractive email templates.

Thanks to its free plan that allows up to 10,000 emails each month and 2000 email subscribers, it’s a go-to tool for startups with a small email list.

It does get more expensive after that, which doesn’t seem worth it sometimes due to its underwhelming CRM tools and segmentation options. Nonetheless, it’s an excellent tool for complete beginners. For more advanced email blast services, you can always turn to the top Mailchimp alternatives available on the market.

Pricing: Starts at $10.46/mo for 5,000 emails and 500 contacts.

4. ActiveCampaign

Best for businesses of all sizes.

ActiveCampaign is not your run-of-the-mill email marketing tool. From email marketing to SMS and social campaigns and mobile notifications, they’ve got you covered.

It also offers automation workflows, attractive email templates, send-time optimization, real-time reporting, and more. You can also use it to personalize your email blast using gestures like lead scoring, advanced segmenting, predictive sending, and more.

However, it doesn’t offer a freemium plan, unlike most competitors.

Pricing: Starts at $9/mo for 500 subscribers and unlimited emails.

5. HubSpot

Best for large businesses.

HubSpot is, without a doubt, one of the best CRM software on the market. And it gets better when you use it in tandem with its email marketing services.

While HubSpot markets itself as an all-in-one marketing platform, it has all core email marketing features. You get a library of templates, a drag-and-drop builder, email reply tracking, A/B testing, live chat, and more.

Features like lead scoring, event-based segmentation, dynamic personalization, and behavioral triggers also help you send winning email blasts.

You also get access to HubSpot’s coveted CMS tools, sales tools, CRM hub, and customer service solutions.

What more could one ask for?

Pricing: $45 per month. The free version allows up to 2,000 emails per month.

This was just a brief overview of some of the best email blast software. There are more equally if not more worthy options available on the market.

I reviewed more options and the above tools in detail in this email marketing software review. Make sure to check it out before reaching a final decision.

Over to You!

How can you get more people to read your mass emails? Are they targeting the right people? Will they care if you send them on holiday? These are all things that you should be asking yourself and answering when writing an email blast.

The bottom line is that most emails should be relevant, concise, and engaging. Doesn’t matter if they’re email blasts, campaigns, or broadcasts.