Reminder Emails: The Art of Staying Top of Mind With Customers

If you keep your promotional emails sparse out of fear of annoying your audience or repeating yourself, you may want to reconsider your messaging strategy. Here’s why being consistent and proactive pays off.

Within one hour, people forget around 50% of the new information that was presented to them, according to the learning curve theory. So, it’s unreasonable to expect your customers to always keep your brand in mind. Abandoned carts, missed sales, and unfinished orders are unavoidable — but it is your power to help your buyers pick up right where they left off.

In this post, we’ll be talking about reminder emails and how you can use them to bring your audience to action and convert first-time visitors into loyal fans. You’ll learn how to write and design stellar reminder campaigns to ensure they won’t be ignored. We’ll also show you how to create and send a reminder email through SendPulse — quick and easy.

What are reminder emails?

Reminder emails are messages that businesses send to their subscribers or customers to remind them to complete an important action — sign up for a webinar, place an order, renew a subscription, and so on.

Reminder emails are always time-sensitive and highly personalized. They are designed to create a sense of urgency or reinforce the value of the offer or event. These emails usually have one clear call to action and little to no distractions.

How many types of reminder emails are there?

Whenever your customer is expected to perform a certain task or attend an appointment, there’s always a chance that they’ll forget to do so. Reminder emails can be relevant and helpful in many areas, from event marketing to abandoned cart recovery. They serve as gentle nudges to keep subscribers informed, motivated, and prompted to take action.

Event reminders

If you’re hosting a webinar, workshop, conference, or any other event, you can send reminder emails to registered participants to remind them of the event details, including the date, time, and instructions for joining. These emails will help increase attendance rates and generate some buzz around your event.

Deadline reminders

If you have a limited-time offer or promotion running, you can use reminder emails to drive urgency and remind your subscribers of the approaching deadline. These emails can emphasize the unique nature of the offer and prompt recipients to take advantage of the one-time opportunity.

Abandoned cart reminders

When a customer adds items to their online shopping cart but doesn’t complete the purchase, you can use emails to remind them of their abandoned cart and encourage them to complete the transaction. These emails often list the items left in the cart, sometimes with additional incentives like discounts or free shipping to entice the customer to proceed with their order.

Subscription or membership renewal reminders

If you have a subscription-based service or membership program, reminder emails will help you notify subscribers about upcoming renewals. These emails can serve as a reminder to ensure that customers continue their subscription or membership without interruption.

Appointment reminders

If your business relies on appointments, you’ll benefit from sending emails to your clients to remind them of their upcoming meetings. These emails can include details like date, time, location, and any preparation instructions, helping reduce no-shows and ensuring better scheduling efficiency.

Reorder reminders

Reorder reminders, also known as replenishment emails, help drive repeat purchases and ensure a smooth product experience. For instance, if someone ordered a six-pack of bi-weekly contact lenses from you, six weeks later, you can hit them with an email inviting them to repeat their order. Reorder reminders can also serve as upsell emails.

Reminder email best practices

When it comes to sending reminders, you want your messages to be effective but also somewhat casual and packed with value. Your customers won’t be psyched about seeing another generic ad in their inbox — but they’ll appreciate any helpful information that can make their life easier.

With that in mind, here are some reminder email best practices to follow:

1. Nail your timing. Send your reminder email with enough lead time to allow recipients to take action or prepare accordingly. Ensure that the email is delivered well in advance of the event, deadline, or offer expiration. However, avoid sending reminders too frequently, as it may annoy your audience. For high-value deals, you can send up to three reminders spaced in time.
2. Send personalized reminders. Whenever possible, address your recipients by their name or reference their shopping preferences or interests. Personalization helps create a sense of relevance and strengthens the connection with the recipient.
3. Keep it short and to the point. Keep your email layout clear, concise, and focused. Clearly state the purpose of the reminder, provide all necessary details (date, time, location, instructions), and include a clear call to action (CTA) that directs recipients on what they need to do or where they can find more information.
4. Incorporate visual elements to drive the point home. Visuals can help draw attention to important points and make the email more appealing. Use color, contrast, typography, images, and icons to help recipients instantly grasp your message.
5. Mobile-friendly design. Optimize your reminder emails for mobile devices, as your recipients are likely to read them on the go. Use responsive email templates and test them on your smartphone to make sure that your layout looks good and that all CTAs are clickable.
6. Segment your audience. Consider segmenting your email list based on recipients’ preferences, behaviors, or demographics. This allows you to send more targeted reminders with tailored incentives. For instance, Gen Z may appreciate free shipping while older customers may derive more pleasure from a free upgrade to a family plan.
7. Use action-based reminders. Customize reminder emails based on the recipient’s previous actions or engagement. For example, if a subscriber has already registered for an event, the next step would be to send them a gentle reminder along with an event map a few days later to make sure they come on time and well-prepared.
8. Set up automated reminders. Marketing automation tools let you schedule reminder emails based on predefined triggers or timelines. This way, you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your messages will always be delivered at the right time.

The best way to find out what your target audience best responds to is to test different versions of the same email. Try various subject lines, content, visuals, CTAs, and send times, to identify what clicks with your audience. Analyze email performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to optimize your future reminder emails.

Reminder email subject lines and how to write a perfect one

Subject lines are like trailers that grab your attention and make you want to see the whole movie. A well-crafted subject line sets the tone for the entire email — it can convey excitement, urgency, or even a touch of mystery. In short, it’s like a sneak peek, giving your recipients a glimpse of what awaits inside.

An ideal reminder email subject line should be short, relevant, and compelling, highlighting the time-sensitivity or value of the information inside. Anything too vague, random, or formal may turn off your audience.

Here are some event reminder email subject line examples:

• Join us for [Event name] Tomorrow!
• We’ll hate for you to miss this
• Just one day left! Reserve your spot for [Event name]
• Reminder: [Event name] is happening soon!
• Too good to miss! Join us at [Event name]

Deadline reminder subject lines are similar to those of last chance emails:

• Last chance: Only X days left to claim your exclusive offer!
• Act now! Our final sale ends tomorrow
• Important reminder: [Deadline] approaching fast!
• Hurry up, only two days left
• Submit your application before it’s too late

Abandoned cart reminder subject lines should sound urgent but also friendly:

• Oops! You left something behind in your shopping cart
• Complete your purchase: Your items are waiting for you
• Hurry! Don’t miss out on your items in the shopping cart
• The items you wanted are selling out fast
• [User name], we’ve saved your cart

Subscription renewal reminders call for catchy, motivating subject lines:

• Renewal notice: Your [Product/Service] subscription expires soon
• Your subscription needs attention
• Keep enjoying [Product benefits]: Renew your membership now
• Just a heads up, your subscription is about to expire
• Renew your membership today to get 15% OFF

Appointment reminder email subject lines need to be simple but informative:

• Your appointment with [Business Name]: Tomorrow at [Time]
• Don’t forget: [Date] is your scheduled appointment
• See you tomorrow at [Time/Place]
• Friendly reminder: Your appointment is just hours away
• All set for tomorrow?

Webinar reminder email subject lines can help you create suspense:

• Join us tomorrow: Learn the industry’s best-kept secrets at our webinar
• Mark your calendar: [Webinar name] happening in [X] days
• [Webinar name] is in one week! Save the date
• Don’t miss out: Register for [Webinar Name] now!
• Learn live with [Speaker] this week

No matter what kind of reminder you’re writing, you can’t go wrong with active, engaging verbs in your subject line as they’ll naturally communicate and extend your CTA, helping you craft a more complete message.

8 powerful reminder email examples and what we can learn from them

Check out these inspiring and versatile reminder email examples along with our design and copywriting tips.

Create personalized product recommendations

This attractive reminder email is from the eco-friendly household product retailer Grove Collaborative. Here, we see an attractive, sunlit product photo showing that gives the recipient an idea of what they’re about to receive.

We love the fact that this email is also a recommendation email, gently helping customers discover something new for their household. The CTA “Complete your order” is consistent throughout the email, and there are no distracting links or unnecessary information.

Put extra effort into your visuals

Your reminder email doesn’t have to be overly dry and formal. If your brand voice allows, feel free to use charismatic characters, like this Jack from a playing card, or even goofy comic strips to illustrate your point and help your customers create an emotional connection with your brand.

Misc. Goods Co produces timeless, high-quality goods for people who appreciate good design. This email is nicely stylized and fits the overall aesthetic of the company. The typography highlights the craftsmanship spirit of the brand, and the colors also remind us of premium natural materials like ceramic or wood.

Remind your customers of what they already have

If you want to score some points with your audience, empower them to make the most out of their existing status, subscription, or product. Google does exactly that, reminding its seasoned Google Maps Guides to get nice freebies from Google’s partners.

This reminder email example is minimalistic but effective — the main CTA grabs the focus, and the illustrations give a quick overview of the free games that seasoned Local Guides are entitled to.

Give your customers step-by-step instructions

If you suspect that your subscribers got confused by your interface or ran into a problem, send them a helpful reminder explaining how to get back on track. Here’s how Venmo does it.

Here, we see clear instructions along with an explanation of why the user has to go through verification before the set date. This email addresses possible FAQs and links to Venmo’s support resources. The illustrations help convey the message and break down the chunks of text.

Keep it simple

Our next reminder email example proves that simplicity is the key to crafting elegant and compelling messages. The email from Hims barely has any text, but it does its job just fine, informing the customer that their shipment is due soon.

Hims is a telehealth platform, and this visual minimalism helps the company maintain a modern, professional image. We also love how this email allows the customer to jump to the right page and change the delivery date in a couple of clicks.

Prevent problems before they happen

Show your customers how much you care about them — let them know when to update their products and give them some repair and maintenance tips. You can also link to related products to help your customers quickly find a better replacement.

This reminder email example is so clean and informative that it stands out from the crowd of typical commercial emails. Although there are two CTAs, they’re made in contrasting colors, so there won’t be any confusion.

Set a strict time limit

If you want to really push your users toward a specific action, use scarcity marketing tactics and create an artificial deadline or add a countdown timer to your reminder email.

In this example, we also can see how much difference a strong accent color can bring. Although this template is pretty minimalistic, it instantly grabs attention.

Invite your customers to restock their shelves

Make use of replenishment emails to remind your audience that they’re about to run out of a certain product. Make sure to link to the said product to let them seamlessly place a new order.

This is more of a formal reminder email example, but it’s far from being boring. Bright CTA buttons are the main focal points here — nothing distracts the reader. The email copy sounds professional but friendly, just like a good doctor would.

How to create and send a reminder email with SendPulse

Forget about having to create reminder emails from scratch. With SendPulse, you can quickly customize one of our professionally designed templates, set up automations, and bring your customer communication to the next level.

We offer a visual drag-and-drop editor and other intuitive tools to help marketers and business owners create attractive campaigns in minutes.

Working with SendPulse is easy, even if you’ve never used email automation tools before:

1. Create or log in to your SendPulse account. Open the “Email” tab and click “Create a mailing list.” Import your contacts in bulk or add them manually.
2. Click on “Create campaign.” Choose your mailing list or segment and move on to the next step.
3. Take a look at the template selection and pick the template you like the most.
4. Drag and drop individual elements to change the structure of your email. Customize the email design, including adding images, text, buttons, and other elements. You can use your brand colors and logo.
5. Preview the email to make sure it looks cohesive and without any mistakes.
6. Move on to the campaign settings, such as the sender name, subject line, and preheader text. Set the sending schedule and delivery time for the campaign.
7. Take another look at the campaign settings and adjust them if necessary. Finally, click “Send” to launch your reminder email campaign.

You can find detailed tutorials and guides in our knowledge base, blog, and webinars. We also offer 24/7 customer support with real human agents.

Did you know that SendPulse allows you to send up to 15,000 emails per month to 500 subscribers at no cost? Create your free account now and check it out!