If the holiday season will teach you about anything, it will give you a crash course in email marketing. You most likely woke up today with dozens of ads trying to entice you to purchase an item. You might have rolled your eyes at one or two of them but chances are you actually were interested in a few of them. 

Email marketing is helpful because it’s a direct punch to your audience. They have to acknowledge the email (especially if they want to get rid of that notification on their smartphone). But here’s the thing — your email has to be actually good enough for people to read it and become interested in what you’re marketing. 

To win at the email marketing game (or at least get started), check out the following types of campaigns that will catch your reader’s eye:

1. Newsletters. If your brand has a lot to say, then a newsletter is a great way to share your recent news, events, and updates. Newsletters should have enticing articles about your industry and how your company is making an impact. 

2. Personalized approach. You often see this type of marketing in industries that closely work alongside clients. Thanks to email marketing software, you insert their name and fashion the copy in a way that makes it sound like you’re actually talking to them- even though thousands received the same message. It can be a bit tricky, but it’s a great way to approach lead generation. 

3. Sales / coupons. Widely considered the type of email marketing that has the highest click rate, coupons delivered via email will guide customers down the path of conversion quite quickly.

4. Event invitation. Do you have a big party coming up? Let everyone know via social media and reinforce your message through your email marketing. That’s the best part about email, it strengthens your other channels quite effectively.

5. Contests. There’s nothing easier than delivering a sweepstakes to someone’s inbox and in a few clicks, they have a chance to win a big prize.

6. eBooks and freebies. Offer a free piece of content through your website and social media. The only thing they have to do is enter their email and boom– free stuff digitally delivered in their inbox. Of course now they will receive everything else you send out, but that should be a good thing if they enjoyed your content.

Have you received a piece of email marketing in the timeframe it took you to read this article? If so, look at how that company takes on social media marketing and see if their angle can help out your business with the above ideas in mind.