3.1 Basic E-mails and Types

You made it!

You have officially passed the beginner phase of e-mail marketing and are ready to go down to actually doing this yourself. 

Until now you’ve been able to sit back and relax while we introduced you to the fundamentals of e-mail marketing. 

However, from here on, we’re going to prep you to actually execute what you’ve learnt. So you might need to get off that couch, your notepad, get some coffee and head to your desk. In other words, get your life together, maybe? We’ll wait. No, for real, go. 

Alright, to simplify e-mail marketing, you can divide it into two parts. Writing your e-mails and then actually setting it up. 

 In this chapter, you’ll learn how to write all the various kinds of e-mails that we’ve talked about. You will see what goes into a great marketing e-mail and how you can effectively write them yourself. 

And in the next chapter, we’ll show you how to set these up with the help of e-mail tools. 

Now, we have a really neat way to teach you how to do this. Please pay attention guys, we’ve put a lot of effort into this.

We’ve created an entire fictional brand for us to work on together. This means that through this learning process we’re going to teach you how to carry out an entire campaign within the context of this fictional company. This will help you step into e-mail marketing at a practical level and be able to apply it to a future client or project. And we’ve picked a business that I’m sure that as a student you are familiar with - Study Abroad Consultants. Now let’s call this company - Lancify Abroad. 

Lancify Abroad is going to be your playground for the next 2 chapters. We've put together this website and a whole e-mail marketing setup to walk you through it. You’re gonna love it. 

So what is Lancify Abroad?

Lancify abroad is a study abroad consulting firm that counsels students on the different kinds of universities they can apply to, helps them with their GMAT, SAT or whatever new exam the world keeps coming up with every year. It also helps them with their college and scholarship applications and even with securing loans and settling into the new country.

We’re going to set up Lancify Abroad's e-mail marketing from scratch.

And for that, let’s start off with writing all the e-mails you will need for this company.  We’ll do this in the order we looked at in the last chapter. Basic, Drip, Sales and Personalised. 

Let’s start with basic. 

You know what comes first? Welcome E-mails.

So when would Lancify Abroad need to send out a welcome e-mail? 

Only every time someone goes to their website and drops their e-mail address.

Now this could be a student looking to connect with a counsellor, see if they’re eligible or even apply to a few universities. While each of these different purposes need to have e-mails specific to them, the first step is always to welcome the use. Now let's do a quick recap. 

A good welcome e-mail needs to do 4 things, besides getting your spellings right obviously. 

1. Welcome the person and appreciate them for joining your list.
2. Specifically respond to the need they have. 
3. Build brand credibility.
4. Give clear next steps.

Using these 4 basic principles, let's write a welcome e-mail for a person who has requested to talk to a counsellor. Now why don’t we write this e-mail together.

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Subject: Akshay, let's connect you to a student counsellor.

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Hi Akshay,

Welcome to Lancify Abroad!

We appreciate you trusting us with your time and your goal to study abroad. Every year, over 5000 students trust us with their career dreams and we’re keen on seeing you

 advance your career. 

You've requested for a session with a student counsellor, so let's set that right up. Go ahead and click on the button below to pick your date and time, and a counsellor will reach out to you at that time.  Button - Book your slot

If there are any specific questions you’d like answered during the session, please reply to this e-mail with them. We’ll be happy to pass them on to the counsellor who will be speaking to you, 

Talk soon!

Maya,

Head of community, 

Lancify Abroad

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Now what we’ve done here is we've welcomed the student into the system, talked about how thousands of students trust us which builds credibility and gave the student exactly what they wanted - a counselling session, and clear next steps for them to take.

Always remember, first impressions are everything and how you welcome the person is going to set the tone for how they engage with your brand hereon.

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Next up we have Event E-mails.

Event e-mails are always contextual to the brand. Different brands choose to address different events. How you write your e-mail depends on the kind of event you are using to reach out to your users.

In the case of Lancify Abroad, this could be:

1. The students birthday
2. A festival or a national holiday 
3. The start of Application season 
4. The start of University intake season

Let's use option 4: University Acceptance. The context here is that a lot of students are waiting on this season to hear back from universities and it's a great time for the brand to connect with them and encourage or support them. Now, let’s go ahead and write this e-mail. 

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Subject: Are you ready for the application season?

Hi Aryan,

This is Maya from Lancify Abroad.

It's University acceptance time and thousands of applicants across the world are biting their nails. We understand that this can be a stressful time and we just wanted to extend our support. Our website has constant updates on different universities and acceptance dates that can help you keep a track of universities you might have applied for.

You can also book a slot HERE with a counsellor if you have any questions or doubts.

If you haven't applied to universities yet and are planning on doing so this fall, you're probably going to be biting your nails this time next year. But if you go through our student application program, you're gonna breeze through it because we’ve designed the process to ensure an acceptance rate that is consistently higher than other applications. 

If you’d like to know more about the program, please reach out to us by going here. 

Again, we’d like to wish you the best in this season. 

Regards,

Maya, 

Head of Community

Lancify Abroad 

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What we did here was we used the application season to connect with both the students who have already applied or the ones that are going to apply next year and created ways for each of them to engage with the brand. In both cases, we have tried to solve a key need that the user has and that is a thumb rule to always keep in mind.

What we have next are Support E-mails.

Support e-mails are used to respond and connect with a user when they have raised a complaint, have a question or have requested for some kind of support. Unlike the welcome or the event e-mails, the support e-mails do require human intervention in most cases and can't be totally automated. 

When someone asks a query or raises a concern, they expect a person to get in touch with them. The job of support - is to respond and connect with the user as soon as the request is sent in so that they know their needs are being taken care of and then helping them actually solve the issue. 

In Lancify Abroad's case, there are several reasons a student might need support. But let's take the example of a student who has a specific question about a specific university.

So why don’t we go ahead and write this e-mail. 

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Subject: Lisa, your question is important to us. 

Hi Lisa,

I hope you’re well. My name is Maya and I’m a community specialist here at Lancify Abroad. We got your question about New York University and are working on connecting you to a counsellor who will guide you. This shouldn’t take more than 2 working days. 

In the meantime, we have a bunch of valuable resources in our FAQ page including university specific questions. We would encourage you to explore them as we connect you to an expert. 

Button - Go to FAQ

Please feel free to reply to this e-mail at mata@lancifyabroad.com or just by replying to this e-mail. 

Regards, 

Maya,

Head of Community,

Lancify Abroad

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This e-mail did the job of creating a personal connection with Lisa, letting her know she will be taken care of, giving her clarity on next steps and even nudging her towards the website FAQ section. 

And now, let’s look at  push e-mails. To quickly recap, push e-mails are used when a brand wants to reach out to it's users to convey some key information. It could be a reminder to complete payment or finish a process, drop some important news about the industry or even crucial updates on the brand's products or offerings.

In Lancify Abroad's case, there are several scenarios where push e-mails would be necessary. Let's take an example where a student has to complete an application before an upcoming deadline. 

Let’s go ahead and write this e-mail. 

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Subject: Ron, you don't want to miss out on X university!

Ron, 

We see that you chose X university as one of your top options to do your post graduation. However, we see that you haven't submitted your application for X University yet and the application deadline is approaching. 

Please complete your application and have it sent to us within the next 3 days so that we have enough time to review and submit your application.

If you are having trouble with filling out your application, please click HERE and we will have one of our counsellors call you and help you through the process.

Rooting for you!

Regards, 

Maya, 

Head of Community,

Lancify Abroad 

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In this case, Lancify Abroad had to reach out to the student to convey critical information and get them to take action. Push e-mails can be both contextual to the person, like the case above or even general to all users like new updates on a university deadline or even new visa laws in a particular country.

And that brings us to the end of Episode 1. We've gone from sitting on the couch to taking a deep dive into the pool of e-mail marketing and you've done great! At this point in your journey, you are no longer a stranger to e-mail marketing and can probably carry a conversation with any brand looking for a little help! 

The next chapter is going to take you deeper still into drip e-mails and user nurture. So, brace yourself!