An email blast is the strategy of sending a single email to a large number of recipients at the same time. Email blasts are also sometimes called mass emails, mass broadcasts, bulk emails, or e-blasts.
Many marketers think of email blasts negatively. Rightfully so, as most of these messages resemble unsolicited emails like the one below.
Worry not, however. In this article, we won’t be talking about such emails. What I’ll do instead is teach you how to send email blasts the right way and make them relevant and compelling for your audience.
Pro tip: If you’re unsure if email marketing is the right fit for you, read this guide to email marketing first.
How to send an email blast (in 7 easy steps)
So, how do you send an email blast that generates high engagement and a positive ROI? Just follow these seven steps.
Step 1. Stop calling it an email blast
Email blasts are outdated and have a bad reputation.
They’re often thought of as unsolicited emails that are sent to an unsegmented audience.
First of all, I’m sure you’re aware that buying an email list is a bad idea. If you’re sending emails to your own audience, that makes them solicited.
Secondly, you’re most likely planning to target only a subset of your audience, e.g., your blog subscribers or customers who bought something from you. That’d make your emails targeted – the opposite of email blasts.
There are other better terms that you can use, like email marketing campaigns, newsletters, and broadcasts. So pick one of them and ditch terms like email blasts or email blast campaigns immediately.
Step. 2 Choose an email marketing service
To launch an email marketing campaign, you’ll need a reliable email service provider.
Here are a few ways email service providers can empower your email marketing strategy:
- They can help turn website visitors into email subscribers via popups, signup forms, landing pages, and other lead-generation tools
- They can help you design and write stunning email templates that look great across all devices
- They can help you test and check your email templates for common errors before hitting send
- They can provide you with real-time data reports to see how your email campaign is performing
- They can ensure your emails reach your recipients, thanks to stellar deliverability
Behind the curtains, your email marketing tool also takes care of various processes like bounce and complaint handling, managing unsubscribe requests, delivering your messages, contacting the ISPs, authenticating your communication, and providing you with analytical reports.
If you aren’t currently using email marketing software or you’re considering switching, GetResponse can help you run your email campaigns effectively.
Alternatively, if you’d like to see what’s out there on the market, we’ve reviewed the most popular platforms in our email newsletter software guide.
Step 3. Set up a custom email address
In the past, you could get away with sending emails through a free email domain like @gmail.com. This isn’t the case any longer.
As a result of Gmail’s and Yahoo’s recent announcements, it’s critical that you send your emails using a properly authenticated company domain.
The good news is that setting up a custom email domain only takes a few moments and can have a massive impact on your deliverability and brand reputation in your subscribers’ inboxes.
You can find more information about this in our detailed guides to email authentication and custom email domains.
💡Pro tip: In case you think these steps are too technical, you’ll want to know that you can now register a domain directly through GetResponse, and we’ll authenticate it for you automatically.
Step 4. Set a goal
In email marketing, it pays off to keep your end goal in mind.
So first, you’ll want to figure out what is that you want your email blast to achieve:
- Click-throughs to your site?
- Resource downloads?
- Product orders?
If you’re unsure as to what’s possible to measure in your email blast campaigns, consider reading this guide to email marketing KPIs and metrics.
The answer to this question should guide you when designing your messages and choosing the right audience for your campaign. It should dictate what you’ll include in your subject line, the preheader, the copy, and most importantly – the call to action.
The following is an example of an email blast with a clear goal (generating sales), highlighted in its call to action.
Step 5. Choose your target audience
Next, you’ll need to choose the target audience for your email campaign.
There are two options you can choose from:
- Your whole email list
- A subgroup of recipients, a.k.a a segment
Unless your campaign is relevant to all your subscribers, I suggest that you choose an individual segment.
By focusing on a smaller group of recipients, you’ll be able to tailor the message better and make it more relevant. This will result in a higher engagement rate and higher ROI from your email campaigns.
You can learn more about the most common segmentation strategies in our guide to email segmentation.
And what if you don’t have an email list yet? This guide will teach you how to build an email list from scratch.
Step 6. Create your email
It’s not enough to write up some copy and add images to create a successful email blast. Every element plays a part, and there are multiple tactics you can use to make them work effectively.
Let’s consider what goes into your email:
- Sender name and address
- Subject line
- Preheader or snippet text
- The message content itself
The first three elements affect how likely people will open your message. That is why you’ll want to pay special attention to how you identify in peoples’ inboxes and how convincing your pitch is.
The email subject line itself is one of the key elements you can continually A/B test and optimize. Most marketers test their subject lines by adjusting and adding elements such as emojis, personalization, number of characters, and names of products/brands people immediately recognize.
Our latest data suggests that using personalization in email subject lines doesn’t always bring positive results. Nevertheless, I’d still suggest that you test this tactic in your own email blasts. When doing so, consider going beyond using the simple “first name” personalization, as marketers often overuse it.
What’s also important is that the subject lines also play a big role in driving conversions. After all, if a contact sees an interesting offer in the subject line, they’re more likely to read it and click through to your website.
Now onto the email template itself. You’ll want to make sure that your email not only looks great across all devices (if you want to research this more, read our email design guide), but you’ll also want to make sure it drives sales.
Here’s what you should focus on to make your email blasts engaging:
- Tailoring your message content
- Actively managing your email list
- Increasing your email click-through rates with these tactics
- Delivering your email blasts to the right people at the right time with email automation
One example of a company that maintains high subscriber engagement by running A/B tests and personalizing its email campaigns is a lead generation agency called Submission Technology.
To learn more, read the full case study where they share the tips and tactics they use to achieve click-through rates that are 121-149% higher than the average results in their industry.
For inspiration, check out this article where we’ve listed the best email marketing campaigns we’ve seen on the market.
Step 7. Track your email marketing efforts
As the old saying goes – you can’t improve what you don’t measure. So now, it’s time to track your email blasts and how they’re performing.
In your email marketing tool of choice, you should get access to an email analytics dashboard that’ll look similar to this:
Inside the dashboard, you should be able to see various KPIs such as open rates, click-through rates, bounces, unsubscribes, complaints, your list growth, and more.
In addition, if you’re adding Google Analytics UTMs to your links, you should also see the direct effect of your email blasts in your GA dashboard. There, you’ll see additional information like how long people have stayed on your pages, whether they’ve purchased any products, or triggered any events you’ve previously configured.
Equipped with this data, you can get into the minds of your subscribers. Evaluate what content makes them click, what offers turn casual contacts into paying customers, or decide what the ideal email schedule is.
At the same time, seeing the negative metrics like bounces and complaints, you can identify potential problems that may lead you to the spam folder.
As you can see, this step is critical if you want to make sure that your campaigns are performing well.
What is the best time to send an email blast?
According to our latest study, the best time to send an email blast is 4 AM (in terms of opens) and 6 AM (in terms of clicks.)
That said, there’s no easy answer to this question, even though we’ve tackled it a couple of times in the past in the Email Marketing Benchmarks report or our best time to send an email by location study.
In my opinion, generalizing that your entire audience will open your email blast at a certain time or day of the week is not the right approach. Consumers are all different, and they change their behavioral habits depending on the situation they’re in.
Instead of choosing one hour that’d fit all your subscribers, I suggest that you use an algorithm that’s going to adjust the email-sending time for each of your contacts individually. In GetResponse Email Marketing software, this feature is called Perfect Timing.
And if you want to step your game, consider implementing a strategy using marketing automation and sending messages triggered by your contacts’ behavior.
7 inspiring email blast examples
If you need a little creative nudge, here are seven email blast examples we’ve found interesting.
As you’re about to see, there’s no blueprint you need to follow when designing your email messages. This is what we’ve been experiencing over the years and what we’ve seen while gathering submissions for this post on best email marketing campaigns.
Keep in mind that your email design should resonate with your audience. Not your family, friends, or other marketers – but people seeking to get value from the relationship with your brand.
Let’s take a look.
1. CAT
This is an email blast example from CAT.
Right away, you can see that this message was sent to CAT’s email subscribers, likely buyers and non-buyers.
This is a good strategy (from time to time), especially if you don’t know your audience too well and you’re unable to tailor the content to their needs.
What you can do from here is analyze which links your audience clicks on within the message (e.g., clothing category vs. individual shoes) and try to use this insight to craft your next email better.
Alternatively, you can send a discount code to those who haven’t made their first purchase yet.
A good incentive will likely be enough to convert them into first-time buyers. And, it will provide you with additional data you’ll be able to use to personalize your email campaigns.
2. Live2Lead
This is another animated one, this time from Live2Lead.
This email blast invited the email subscribers to join the brand’s upcoming event, a leadership training.
Right from the opening (“Friend”) you know it’s meant for everyone who has subscribed to receive updates from John Maxwell Company.
Is this a bad thing? Not necessarily.
Everyone who has subscribed to their newsletter is likely interested in the topic of leadership.
While this message isn’t personalized, there are a few things that are particularly good about it.
It clearly states the benefits of joining the event and who will be running the training. Also, its design is eye-catching. Everything in that message is leading you toward a single call to action button at the bottom.
3. GAP
Now, take a look at this email blast example from GAP.
This message announced their back-to-school offer to those who’ve opted in and chosen the appropriate categories of interest.
Theoretically, it means it was targeted, but from the message itself you cannot say for sure that the content’s been tailored to the recipient’s needs.
Since the offer is appropriate for children of all ages, they’ve sent it to everyone in this specific segment.
Assuming that they don’t know too much about the recipient’s preferences, I’d suggest that they pay attention to the categories they click on or the types of products they purchase.
Alternatively, they can simply ask their audience about their characteristics or preferences (e.g., how old their child is) via survey and recommend products based on those answers.
4. TRX
Now, onto our fourth email blast example, sent by TRX.
I’ve had to crop it out, because it was too long to put here, but the main part’s visible.
It’s a President’s day offer that’s most probably been sent to everyone in the brand’s database.
Since it’s a one-time offer related to a particular holiday, there’s no harm in sending that message to everyone.
If they were to send email blasts like this one every two days, the content would have quickly become boring to their audience.
Once again, I’d look at how the subscribers react to this campaign and segment based on their behavior, like what types of products they bought (for indoor or outdoor training) or based on their order value.
5. Casper
Take a look at this example from Casper.
This is a typical sales promo campaign you’d expect to receive from an ecommerce brand.
It was sent to a large number of recipients, and it’s not personalized, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad. Especially considering its interesting design.
The header includes a GIF that shows you the different kinds of sheets they’ve got on offer.
Underneath it are small icons that let you pick the bed sheet color you’re most interested in.
If you saw these icons on a website and clicked one of them, you’d expect to be presented with a product variant that matches your choice.
Since this is more difficult to achieve with emails, they’ve linked each icon to a different version of the landing page so that clicking them will take you to the appropriate product on their page.
This is a clever tactic. One they can improve even further if they use interactive emails, but as a quick email blast this works out perfectly.
6. Magic Spoon
Here’s another inspiring example of an email campaign sent out by an ecommerce brand – Magic Spoon.
Here’s what I really like about it:
- It’s vivid and colorful but not overwhelming. The colors contrast each other nicely & everything that you should be seeing (like the call to action button) stands out.
- They’re using a subtle animation to provide social proof & show their audience’s excitement for their products. It also shows that they’re listening to their customers, hence the new product launch.
- Their copy is descriptive and playful, especially around their call to action buttons.
Last but not least, this is a nice single-column layout that’d look great on any device.
7. Puma
What’s so interesting about this example? In my opinion, three things:
- The topic of the campaign is very creative. Rather than directly promoting its products, Puma wants you to learn how to customize your shoes so that they’ll match your personality.
- It looks very authentic. Although the photos and images are very sharp, they don’t look like they’ve been rendered in a studio. They show real people.
- The email has only one clear goal and a CTA. Because of that, it’s very clean and visually appealing.
Overall, although this email is made up of mostly images, it looks fresh and definitely like something I would want to click through and explore.
Time to step up your email marketing game
Sending email campaigns to your whole audience in 2023 or beyond may not sound like the best tactic, but as you saw, many marketers still succeed with it.
As long as your campaigns are purely permission-based and you’re following the email marketing best practices, like segmentation, personalization, and keeping your list clean, you’ll do well.
And in case you need support or are looking for a tool that’ll empower your email marketing strategy, I suggest you check out GetResponse.
You can try it today completely free without providing your credit card details.
So what do you say?