Promotional Email

A promotional email is a commercial broadcast that usually offers incentives to drive sales and revenue for a business. The primary objective of this form of email marketing is to persuade customers to make a purchase.

In this article, we’ll unveil reasons to write and send promotional emails, the elements they should cover, and the best time to send these messages. We’ll also provide you with some tips and examples.

Why should you send promotional emails?

Sending promotional emails is an effective way to inform potential customers about special offers, discounts, and promotions that may interest them. You can establish stronger relationships with your target audience, increase visibility, and drive sales.

According to statistics, there are 4.37 billion email users worldwide, making this channel a great opportunity for reaching potential customers, updating on product releases and offers, sending delivery information, and supporting them after the purchase. In 2024, during a survey, 59% of marketers reported having email marketing campaigns with an open rate between 20% and 50%. 23.3% of them reported having open rates of 50% or higher.

By including the right elements in your email campaigns, like call-to-action buttons, you can generate more traffic to your website, landing page, or product page. The more clicks you have, the higher the chances of conversion. When you use the right phrases like “limited-time offer,” you encourage the fear of missing out. This sense of urgency motivates and leads to making fast purchasing decisions and converting them into customers. Delivering brand updates consistently allows your brand to stay top of mind. So when subscribers need a product similar to yours, they are more likely to choose your company over others.

With the right email marketing strategy, you can effectively boost sales by informing about special offers, new product releases, limited-time deals, etc. If prospects see that your offers are enticing, they are more likely to make a purchase in a short time.

Now that you understand what benefits promotional emails can bring, it’s time to clarify the differences between them, transactional, and triggered emails. This will help you decide which of them suits your business the best.

What are the differences between promotional, transactional, and triggered emails?

Since sometimes these terms can be used interchangeably, it’s necessary to clarify the difference. We’ll provide you with the details below.

A promotional email is a message sent to recipients to market a product or service, encouraging interaction and leading to a conversion. These emails are delivered to subscribers on a mailing list and often include various enticing offers, such as discounts, product launches, promo codes, free delivery, and gifts. Businesses send promotional emails only after they receive consent from subscribers. Typically, this occurs through subscription forms. Every email should include an unsubscribe link, allowing people to opt out of the brand’s email newsletter as soon as they deem it necessary.

A transactional email is a message that aims to encourage customers to complete a specific transaction or provide information about subscribers’ activity. These emails are delivered based on user actions without trying to promote specific products or services. Companies don’t need to get customer consent to send them to recipients. Examples of such emails include order confirmations, delivery updates, account activations, and password resets.

A triggered email is a message automatically delivered to recipients after they perform specific actions or meet certain conditions. Businesses use such emails to promote products and respond to users’ activities. Marketers can personalize and send triggered emails based on user actions or at a pre-defined time, depending on the main goal. Welcome messages, abandoned cart reminders, and subscription renewals are all examples of email automation.

Now that you know the main difference between these three types of emails, let’s discover how to create promotional emails that work.

With 4.37 billion email users worldwide, email marketing has become one of the most effective ways for businesses to reach customers. However, sending out emails for a product or service does not guarantee that you will make a sale; you can’t even be sure that they will reach your subscribers' inboxes. You can use SendPulse to quickly create professional promotional emails without the need to know HTML.

Add a strong subject line

When creating emails, always keep in mind that your subject lines are the primary elements of your message that determine whether subscribers will open them. You need to focus on writing short yet benefit-focused subject lines. Always use personalization whenever it’s possible. This will help catch their attention and encourage them to explore your offers. If you don’t use personalization, consider adding an enticing time-limited offer, as MAC Cosmetics does in the example below.

The brand’s subject line is short and compelling. Its time-limited 30% off drives the fear of missing out and makes more subscribers open and click through the email. Some of them will take the desired action and convert into MAC Cosmetics’ customers.

Personalize the email subject

People are more likely to open emails with personalized subjects. Rather than sending out mass duplicated emails, marketers should include customers’ data, such as their name and last order details. Aside from the subject, the content should also fit the profile and preferences of the target audience. Additionally, the promotional email should adhere to the subject line and stay on topic.

By addressing subscribers by name, Pegasus effectively grabs their attention and encourages them to explore the offer. Such emails feel more personal and more likely to drive engagement.

Pay attention to your preheader

Preheader is the second element that subscribers see after the subject line, which is why it’s crucial to make the most of it. You can tease the offer, spark curiosity, or continue the subject line. This text helps provide prospects with reasons to open your messages and explore the offers.

Below, you can see the preheader from the Shopify Blog. The company uses it to support its subject line and uncover the meaning behind it.

Keep your message concise but powerful
Once a recipient clicks on the email, there is a brief moment to capture their attention. Rather than using ‘technical’ words that will likely tire the reader, one should use easy-to-understand language. Also, long paragraphs can be overwhelming. Short, relevant, and strong ones work best. At the same time, the email should be catchy and engaging.

Ryanair’s message is short and clear, focusing on its pay day with prices starting at €19.99. The language is straightforward, allowing subscribers to instantly understand what the company offers without confusion.

Ensure that your message is benefit-driven
Creating effective emails requires you to open your messages with a hook or benefit. You should immediately reveal the benefits customers will enjoy after purchasing your product or service. Ensure that your paragraphs are short and straightforward without unnecessary information. You can take advantage of bullet points to keep all the essential details short. Additionally, address subscribers' needs and concerns so that they can understand how your product can solve them.

Below, you will find an email from Google Analytics that is straightforward in its information and instantly highlights all the benefits of using this service. It invites subscribers to get tips on improving user experience and all the necessary features for account optimization.

Use a clean but eye-grabbing design
Visual elements also have a big influence on people who have already opened your emails. Using brand colors and fonts helps you build associations with your company and remind customers of your brand, even if they don’t take the desired action. By adding product images and banners, you’ll encourage subscribers to proceed to the products that are relevant to them. However, when adding visuals, always keep in mind the importance of white space. It’s essential for improved readability and a better customer experience.

Innisfree’s emails utilize the brand’s colors and fonts, resulting in a simple yet effective design. It has white space, visible CTAs, and product images.

Include a promo code
Since people receive dozens of emails every day, it is becoming harder to stand out. However, when your offer is enticing, you have higher chances of opens, click-throughs, and conversions. To improve engagement, consider adding a promo code for a discount, free delivery, or a gift. It might grab subscribers’ eyes and make them want to purchase and use the promo code.

Below, you can see how Rare Beauty takes advantage of promo codes when encouraging customers to claim its 30% off all of the mentioned eyeshadow sticks.

Focus on a singular message
Having more than one message in your promotional email makes it less effective. Cluttered emails are harder to read, and subscribers are likely to miss the primary goal of the message. Instead, a marketer’s goal should be to ensure that the content and call-to-action emphasize the primary objective of the promotional campaign. Use words or phrases that prompt action. Active calls to action can increase click-through rates and ultimately lead to sales.

In its email, NYX focuses on a single update: 30% off sitewide for access members. Its action-driven words and call to action encourage prospects to explore the offer without hesitation.

Make the email mobile-friendly
A large percentage of the target audience will view the promotional email on their mobile devices. Therefore, it is necessary to make the email mobile-friendly and easy to go through. Including subheadings, images, and lists will enable subscribers to quickly grasp the central message of your email and easily navigate to the relevant sections. If you use an email service like SendPulse, you can access a library of email templates which are mobile-friendly and responsive.

Below, you can see how M&S’s promotional emails look on small screens. They are easy to scroll through and click, ensuring a seamless user experience.

Add a visible and easy-to-click CTA
Call-to-action buttons are crucial elements of every email campaign, as they are the primary means for subscribers to convert into customers. This is the main reason to ensure they work properly. Additionally, they should be large, visible, and easy to click through, allowing users to land on the relevant landing pages. When creating CTAs, be specific and direct, using action-driven words and phrases. For instance, “Shop Now,” "Claim the Offer,” “Start a Lesson,” etc. If you have a long email, it’s essential to add a couple of call-to-action buttons so that subscribers can click on them whenever they're ready, without having to search.

Below, you can see a short Duolingo encouragement for a student to start a lesson after a long pause.

Thoroughly proofread your email
Proofreading, although often overlooked, is crucial. However, typos and poorly written content can hurt your brand by diminishing your credibility. It is essential to review your emails and remove any errors that may be present.

Now that you have a clear idea of creating a successful email, it’s time to explore legal requirements for companies to comply with existing laws and regulations.
Legal Requirements
Before sending promotional emails to your target audience, remember that there are legal requirements that help take care of recipients’ privacy and prevent them from spam. These regulations must be followed according to the three primary laws: the CAN-SPAM Act, GDPR, and CASL. Below, you’ll find your legal responsibilities for sending promotional emails.

Receive consent before sending emails. According to the laws and regulations, you should always obtain users' permission to send promotional emails. It’s usually done through opt-in forms, which subscribers submit to receive brand updates.
Make the sender clear. Use your real business name, physical address, domain name, and a photo when sending emails. Subscribers should clearly understand which business is contacting them.
Provide a visible unsubscribe link. An unsubscribe link is a must when it comes to email campaigns. Subscribers should always have an option to opt out of your email newsletter in case they are no longer interested or overwhelmed with your promotional content. Ensure that this link is visible and easy to find, as users can flag your emails as spam or report your company, which can lead to negative consequences for your sender reputation and email deliverability. If people unsubscribe, you should process these requests within 10 business days, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act.
Add subject lines reflecting your email content. When creating subject lines, ensure they align with the content of your email body. Avoid using deceptive or misleading headers to prevent your company from being penalized by search engines.
Add contact data. According to the three laws, your emails should include contact information, such as your business name, physical address, and email address or phone number. This is necessary to prove that your company exists, and subscribers can connect with you whenever they need.

Now that you know the laws and regulations, it’s time to proceed to the main elements each promotional email should contain. So let’s dive in.
What should you include in your promotional email?
Marketers must be careful to avoid ending up in spam. Below you’ll find the most crucial elements.
A sender's name
To prevent recipients from moving your promotional email to their spam folders, you must clearly identify who sent the email. For this purpose, use your business name alone or add your name.

You can clearly understand that the email is from a clothing company, Oysho, because the sender's name and domain name are provided.

An attractive subject line
The subject line influences the open rate of your promotional email. Therefore, it should be captivating and consist of about 6 to 10 words. A/B test different variants of your subject line to discover the best one.

The North Face encourages subscribers to explore their offers by providing time-limited discounts. This drives a sense of urgency and more open, click-through, and conversion rates.

Main message
Highlight the promotion or offer you're selling to subscribers. It can consist of text along with images. This section can be divided to enhance its optimization.

Netflix tries to get viewers back by informing them about access to new TV shows and movies at a low price. The email includes all the visuals and call-to-action buttons, allowing subscribers to rejoin at any time they need.

Calls to action
Try to use action-oriented words when creating call to action buttons. However, avoid using phrases that feel too pushy because it might scare prospects off. Your CTAs should be big enough for subscribers to instantly notice them and take the desired action. If your emails are long, consider adding several call-to-action buttons and placing them in visible parts of your emails.

In the example below, you can see an email from Google Gemini with a visible, easily tappable CTA. The blue and white color combination ensures that subscribers instantly notice a call-to-action button whenever they are ready for an action.

Now that you know the most crucial email elements, it’s time to uncover the best time for sending your promotional emails. Let’s proceed to the next section.
The Most Effective Time to Send Promotional Emails
Knowing the best time and date to send promotional emails can boost a brand’s marketing campaign. Tuesdays followed by Thursdays are the best days for sending your marketing emails. For the most clicks and conversions, send your emails in the morning — preferably between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Research shows that afternoons are also great because many people are less active at work and are looking for distractions. Use a beautiful email template for your promotional campaign to draw the attention of your audience during these hours of the day.
How often should you send promotional emails?
Too many promotional messages can become a nuisance and result in users unsubscribing from a service. The frequency of emails you send depends on the competition in the industry and the type of product or service you are promoting. A/B testing can assist marketers in determining the optimal number of marketing emails to send. However, most marketers agree that sending 1 to 6 messages a month is ideal.

Now that you are aware of the best time for sending emails to your subscribers, it’s time to find out how to deliver these messages to recipients’ Gmail primary inboxes.
Sending Promotional Emails to a Gmail Primary Inbox
To ensure your message lands in the subscriber’s primary inbox in Gmail, it shouldn’t appear overtly promotional. Avoid using words that directly encourage the reader to make a purchase. Instead, opt for subtle marketing terms. Other strategies that can assist include:

Greeting the recipient by name
Placing no more than a single link in the message
Avoiding pictures and heavy HTML
Authenticating the domain

Now that you know how to send promotional emails to a Gmail primary inbox, it’s time to find out how to evaluate the success of your promotional emails. The next section will help you focus on the right metrics when assessing the performance and effectiveness of your campaigns.
How to measure the success of your promotional emails
After sending promotional emails, it’s crucial to measure their effectiveness and focus on optimization if necessary. That’s why we’ll provide you with the key metrics to pay attention to.

Open rate. It shows the percentage of subscribers who open your email campaigns. This metric unveils how strong your subject lines and preheaders are.
Click-through rate. This percentage represents the subscribers who have clicked links in your emails. Keeping this metric in mind, you can assess the quality of your content and the effectiveness of your call to action.
Click to open rate. This metric reflects the percentage of your subscribers who have clicked on call-to-action buttons in your emails after opening them. The rate unveils how engaging your content in your email is and how it helps drive the desired action of clicking the link.
Conversion rate. The metric indicates how many people completed a desired action. It can be a signup, purchase, demo, etc. This percentage allows you to evaluate the success of your campaign. The more people complete an action, the more effective your email campaign is.
Unsubscribe rate. This indicator unveils how many of your subscribers have opted out after receiving your email campaigns. High unsubscribe rates signal that your content is either irrelevant to recipients or that emails contain unnecessary information. You should always keep an eye on this metric, as it can negatively impact your sender reputation and overall business health.
Bounce rate. It’s the percentage of emails that haven’t reached the intended recipients. This may occur due to invalid email addresses, server issues, or full inboxes.

Now that you know the key metrics, it’s time to proceed to the best practices. They will help you maximize the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy.
Promotional Email Best Practices
Send emails from a familiar email address
Create an email marketing plan
Let users set preferences
Send segmented campaigns
Take into account your lead's stage in the sales funnel
Tell them about the benefits, not features
Add a clear CTA
Automate email sending

Send emails from a familiar email address. Your subscribers should clearly understand who the sender is when they see your email in their inbox. Avoid sending emails from a "No-reply" email address, as messages from such senders appear robotic. Consequently, you will struggle to build trusting relationships with your audience. Instead, consider sending emails from your brand's name or including the name of the person responsible for marketing communications.
Create an email marketing plan. With such a plan, you'll be able to communicate with your audience regularly without being annoying. Plan sending promotional emails for the next month, taking into account personal milestone emails such as anniversary and birthday emails, holiday emails, and triggered emails. The latter includes follow-ups; for example, when you send a reminder after your client views some items on your site or adds them to their shopping cart without making a purchase.
Let users set preferences. People receive dozens of promotional emails every day. To win this sharp competition for their attention and ensure subscribers eagerly await your campaigns, let them choose the desired email sending frequency along with the campaign content. Provide these options in the subscription form and add a link to the Preferences Management Center to each email footer. This way, your clients will decide how often they want to hear from you and which offers they would like to receive.
Send segmented campaigns. This marketing tool will help you approach each customer individually with minimal effort. Divide your subscriber base into segments depending on clients' needs and interests. Then, send them campaigns according to this information. You can get this data via a subscription form. Simply ask which products they're most interested in, and then segment your subscribers accordingly.
Consider your lead's stage in the sales funnel. Do not send the same promotional email to your entire mailing list. Your leads and loyal customers have different needs. Leads may need more educational and motivational content, while loyal clients expect rewards from your brand. Nurture and educate your leads, particularly if you provide services. They should clearly understand what they are paying for. You can offer them a free plan or a 7-day free trial to evaluate the benefits of your service. Meanwhile, you may run a 3-day promotional campaign to sell premium plans at a discount for your most loyal customers.
Explain the benefits, not the features. You have very little time to capture your subscribers' interest in your email, so take your email copy seriously. People aren't interested in brands and their achievements; they're looking for solutions to their problems. Thus, use your email to explain how a customer will benefit from purchasing your product or service.
Add a clear CTA. This button should inform subscribers of the next step. Keep it concise, straightforward, and easy to tap on any device. Email CTAs should be eye-catching, so make them stand out against the email's background and use sufficient whitespace around them to draw subscribers' attention.
Automate email sending. Handling each promotional campaign manually consumes a lot of time that could be better spent on more important tasks, especially if you can delegate email sending to an email service. With a platform like SendPulse, you can set automated email sending in advance. For example, if a subscriber opens your promotional email but doesn't make a purchase, send them the next email with a discount after 2 days. If your subscriber is still unsure, send them a time-limited offer with a special discount. With our Automation 360, you can set up email flows in advance.

In addition to exploring best practices, it's important to understand how they function in real-life situations. Below, you’ll find excellent examples of promotional emails that will inspire you. So, let’s dive in.
Examples of Good Promotional Emails
There are numerous successful promotional emails that can serve as inspiration. We’ll share a couple of them here for you to grab some ideas.
L’Occitane
L’Occitane, a French luxury retailer of body and home products, effectively reaches its subscribers with targeted promotional emails. In the example below, you’ll find an enticing offer that subscribers can claim using a promo code. It features a CTA that stands out, allowing customers to take the desired action effortlessly.

Birkenstock
Birkenstock, a seller of high-quality sandals and shoes, has covered every necessary element in its email. This email provides information about membership perks and member gifts with purchase. The brand also provides guidance on how customers can select the correct shoe size and recommends products that may be relevant to them. The company personalizes its emails by selecting products that customers have already explored.

Innisfree
This email has a subject line that drives instant action by highlighting the limited-time free shipping offer. Customers can withdraw Innisfree’s offer after inserting the promo code. The email uses a simple design and wise visuals in colors associated with its brand. It also includes a couple of visible action-driven call-to-action buttons.

Promotional emails are a vital part of every business, as they help marketers promote specific products, special offers, discounts, product launches, and more. With email marketing done right, you can effectively reach your goals faster without having to overpay for online advertising.

Last Updated: 19.06.2025