20 Creative and Successful Email Marketing Examples

Creating your first email campaign can be difficult considering that creating an effective email marketing campaign requires both creativity and a strong strategy. This guide covers some creative and successful email marketing examples that are super easy to implement and can inspire you to create effective email campaigns.

20 Best email marketing examples

Looking for some creative and out-of-the-box email marketing campaigns that you can get inspired from? Below are some of the best and popular email marketing examples you can get started with:

1. Mailmodo

Type: Value email

Goal: Getting more report downloads Value emails are one of the best types of emails that can help you engage with your customers by providing value to them. In this email marketing , Mailmodo sent an email announcing the State of Emails Report to their customers in this way:

Why it works:

• A glimpse into the report to give a preview of what’s inside the email

• The success of the resource is clearly mentioned which urges the user to download it.

• Use of appealing brand colors and minimal content structure.

• offering resource free for email geeks

2. HeadSpace

Type: Newsletter

Goal: Generating more subscriptions

Newsletters are a very common type of email marketing campaigns and are sent weekly or monthly. Headspace is a meditation and well-being app that helps you sleep and live mindfully. Since they wanted some more subscriptions, they sent out these beautiful and creative emails to their subscribers.

Why it works:

• Used storytelling to make their newsletter engaging and interesting.

• Use of clear CTA and visually appealing color palette.

• The overall content of this newsletter is interesting with the phrases like “Kick off new year’s resolution” that urges users to take action.

• Added expiry date for urgent action (six months for 20$) that creates engagement and entices the readers .

3. Root Houseplants

Type: New Arrivals

Goal: Showcasing new arrivals

New or fresh arrivals are emails that showcase a new product and lets your customer know about its features. Root Houseplants is a plant store delivering all kinds of houseplants at home. Here’s how they announced their new arrivals with this email.

Why it works:

• Brand consistency throughout the email through the use of brand colors and plant visuals.

• Clear visuals of the product within the email.

• Clear and concise headline and product description in the email

• Background is consistent with the offered products

4. Medium

Type: Membership email

Goal: Welcoming and communicating platform features to the user.

Medium, being one of the most popular newsletter platforms, has a great way to communicate with their audience through emails as well. Look at this example where medium sent membership email to their subscribers urging them to upgrade their plan.

Source: Medium

Why it works:

• Excellent use of visuals of books that entices the subscribers.

• Use of a long reading format that their subscribers are keen and are used to reading

• Clear CTA and representation of in-app features

5. Pizza Hut

Type: Birthday wish

Goal: Wishing happy birthday and rewarding the customer

Birthdays and anniversaries are perfect for building trust, showing appreciation, and driving sales by offering offers to your subscribers. Here’s how Pizza Hut incorporated this type of campaign:

Why it works:

• Dark-themed birthday email wishing subscribers with a cupcake and candle, asking them to make a wish

• The whole email creates perfect birthday vibes by bringing fun and excitement into play

• Highly personalized, making it look like it is coming from a friend rather than a brand

6. Off Court

Type: Referral program email

Goal: Increase the number of referrals by providing rewards to the subscribers

Most referral programs need to be communicated well in order to spread the word and what’s the better medium than emails? In this email marketing campaign, Off Court, a skincare brand for men and women in athletics. offered rewards for their referral program with this interesting email: Why it works:

• The brand identity and tone is consistent (use of words like Alley-oop)

• The image used represents the referral program idea well.

• The rewards are highlighted very clearly and are appealing to attract the customers.

• Actionable text in CTA

7. Starbucks

Type: Welcome email

Goal: Welcoming the user and communicating app features

Welcome emails are the first email your customers receive when they sign up with you. Starbucks is a well known coffee brand known for its super engaging marketing style.This example of Starbucks highlights how Starbucks uses appreciative expressions to welcome their customers while communicating the features and benefits.

Source: Starbucks

Why it works:

• Well-thought, warm and appreciative email copy.

• The way the app features and next steps are communicated clearly.

8. Apple

Type: Promotional email

Goal: Communicating product features and benefits

Apple is known for its simple yet extraordinary branding and the same is true for their emails. Look at this example of this promotional email by Apple.

Why it works:

• Consistently features their signature minimalist style and clean fonts that define their brand identity.

• Brand recognition simplifies the identification of the sender for recipients and strengthens their perception of the brand.

• Clearly depicted features with images for each feature

9. The Skimm

Type: Win-back email

Goal: Reengaging customer through emails

TheSkimm is a popular daily newsletter that excels in delivering information without overwhelming the reader. In this example, The Skimm wanted to re-engage the user by sending them an email:

Why it works:

• Minimalist design with huge visuals.

• Clutter-free email with clear-cut information.

• Use of copy which is friendly and concise.

• Copy of the CTA is personalized to the brand

10. The New York Times

Type: Newsletter

Goal: Sharing curated content with subscribers to engage engagement.

The NY Times is a newsletter platform that offers information in a concise and minimal manner with excellent user mobile experience even in their emails. To send curated content to their subscribers, they sent this email:

Why it works:

• Provides easily digestible content.

• Content is optimized for various devices, ensuring that readers have a seamless reading experience whether they open the email on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop.

11. Airbnb

Type: Product email

Goal: Sharing in-app features, compelling users to visit the platform.

Airbnb is one of the most popular travel and hotel booking websites. This email marketing example shows a product email by Airbnb that consists of in-app features and makes the user re-engage with the app/website:

Why it works:

• Features compelling CTA buttons. They use action-oriented language like "Book Now" or "Explore Destinations" and employ contrasting colors to make these buttons pop.

• Minimalist and simple email design that is pleasing to the eyes.

• Use of beautiful travel images and scenes to entice the subscribers.

12. TED

Type: Newsletter

Goal: Sharing educational content to gain more traction.

TED's newsletter shares thought-provoking talks on diverse topics. It empowers subscribers with a daily dose of knowledge and inspiration. In this example, TED Ed@Home used interesting visuals and content from their stories to send to their subscribers.

Why it works:

• Categorisation for each school and university tier.

• Use of interesting illustrations and visuals according to the understanding and level of education.

13. Missguided

Type: Re-engagement email

Goal: Urge the customer to visit the website and shop

Missguided is a clothing store that sells contemporary clothes for modern women. To re-engage with their dormant customers, they decided to send this email:

Why it works:

• Fantastic and context-driven copy.

• Rewarding the customer for re-engaging.

• Using emojis to divide content.

• Highlighting the word FREE

• Use of puns like 'solemates'

14. Goody

Type: Promotional email
Goal: Promote gifts for Boss’s Day and encourage immediate purchases.

Goody, known for its curated gifting services, created this email to promote their Boss’s Day gifting selection and encourage users to purchase gifts through their platform.

Why It Works:

• The email uses bright, celebratory visuals with purple tones, gift icons, and product images to make the Boss’s Day theme stand out.

• The messaging is friendly and persuasive, clearly urging the reader to appreciate their boss and take immediate action with a strong “Gift Now” CTA.

15. Surreal

Type: Limited-time offer email
Goal: Boost product awareness through humor-driven seasonal content

Limited-time offer emails are often used to drive urgency or attention, but can also creatively build brand personality during seasonal moments.

Surreal, a brand known for high-protein, low-sugar cereals, used this email to poke fun at heatwave cravings while indirectly promoting their core product.

Why It Works:

• Unfiltered visuals of DIY cereal popsicles on a mint background create an absurd, summer-specific hook.

• The humorous, self-deprecating messaging is so unexpected that it creates memorability while still nudging users to shop.

16. Codeacademy

Type: Onboarding email

Goal: Help new learners get past the tricky first steps and start coding using beginner-friendly resources.

Onboarding emails like this one are designed to welcome new users, make those first steps feel simple, and guide them quickly to something valuable.

Codecademy, known for its hands-on coding courses, created this email to help beginners avoid feeling overwhelmed and to spark some motivation with carefully chosen free courses and quizzes.

Why it works:

• The email uses clean visuals like code-themed graphics and bold headers, which make the email scannable and stress-free for newbies

• The tone feels like a friendly mentor saying, “We’re here to make this easier,” ditching the jargon-heavy tech talk and making learning feel like a supported journey.

• The calls to action are low-pressure, like “Start course” or “Take the quiz,” giving learners multiple easy ways to jump in.

17. Canva

Type: Product launch email
Goal: Highlight the new features in Canva Visual Suite 2.0 to boost engagement and get more professionals using it.

Product launch emails are all about introducing exciting new updates to get current users re-engaged and ideally, convert free users to paid plans.

Canva, well known for making design accessible to everyone, uses this email to position Visual Suite 2.0 as a powerful, AI-driven all-in-one workspace for creative pros.

Why It Works:

• It leads with the main benefit right away. The headline “Productivity, meet Creativity” tackles a common frustration among marketerer of juggling too many tasks.

• The AI-powered features are framed as big leaps forward such as “reimagined spreadsheet” and “text-to-interactive experiences with Canva Code.” That kind of language really clicks with tech-savvy users.

• The call to action feels personal and friction-free. Using your name ("Keep exploring, Jasmine!") and offering multiple platform options (iOS, Android, Mac) makes it super easy to jump in wherever you are.

18. Delta

Type: Promotional partnership email

Goal: Get Delta members excited with exclusive Mission: Impossible perks that boost loyalty and make in-flight entertainment more fun.

Promotional partnership emails like this highlight special collaborations and rewards linked to a brand’s loyalty program.

Delta, famous for its SkyMiles travel rewards, created this email to ride the wave of Mission: Impossible movie buzz, giving members early access to screenings and exclusive in-flight content.

Why it works:

• The email nails the Mission: Impossible vibe with bold red and black colors and punchy lines like “YOUR MISSION HAS ARRIVED,” making it feel urgent and exclusive.

• It offers rewards for everyone, whether you’re just in for the free in-flight movies or a top-tier member who can use miles for VIP screening access.

• The copy is fun and clever, using movie phrases like “This message will not self-destruct” to keep the pitch entertaining instead hard sell.

19. Grammarly

Type: Limited-time promotional email

Goal: Get users to upgrade to Grammarly Premium during Cyber Week with a 50% off deal.

Limited-time promos like this are all about creating urgency to drive quick action. Grammarly, known for its AI-powered writing help, sent this email to pitch its Premium plan as a kind of magical writing upgrade.

Why it works:

• It builds urgency fast with bold “50% OFF” messaging and a clear “ENDS 12/4” reminder to spark that FOMO feeling.

• The email leans into spell-casting lines like “Cast a Spell With Your Words” and “abracadabra away mistakes” to keep things playful and perfectly on-brand.

• It clearly spells out the value of Premium, showing how features like tone tweaks and instant fixes can feel like magic for your writing.

20. Going

Type: Referral email

Goal: Motivate subscribers to refer friends by offering tiered rewards like giveaway entries and cash bonuses.

Referral emails are used to turn loyal customers into brand advocates by rewarding them for sharing. Going, known for its flight deal alerts, created this email to boost sign-ups before a deadline (Feb 18) using urgency and gamification.

Why it works:

• It offers two kinds of rewards, one being entering a sweepstakes to “win $1,200” plus guaranteed perks like a “$100 gift card for 3 referrals,” so there’s something for everyone.

• Sharing is made super easy with clear, step-by-step instructions (like sharing a link or forwarding an email), and it even auto-includes referral links to cut down on hassle.

How can you create your own email marketing campaign?

So, how do you make these examples actionable? We are here to help you create your first email marketing campaign that can get you started. Here are some steps that you can start with:

• Define the goal or ‘why’ for the email marketing campaign.

• Create a senders’ list for the campaign.

• Design the email campaign: This includes creating email templates, writing email copy and optimizing for mobile.

• Schedule your email campaign.

• Measure, iterate and improve.

You can also look for pre-made email templates by Mailmodo and get started with email marketing immediately.

Wrap up

These were some creative and super interesting email marketing examples that will inspire and get started with designing your first email campaign. Remember to be sure of your goal and target audience before designing your email marketing campaign.