Marketing email: types, rules and examples

What is marketing email?#

A marketing email is an email whose main job is to promote something: a product, a service, an offer, an event or your own content. A weekly newsletter is marketing email. So is a sale announcement, a launch post sent to your list, and a note asking lapsed customers to come back. The legal names differ — a “commercial message” in the United States, a “commercial electronic message” in Canada, “direct marketing” in EU guidance — but they draw the line in roughly the same place.

The US definition is the easiest to quote. The FTC describes CAN-SPAM as “a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them”, and it covers “any electronic mail message the primary purpose of which is the commercial advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service”.^[1] Despite its name, the FTC adds, the law “doesn’t apply just to bulk email” and “makes no exception for business-to-business email”.^[1] One message to one former customer can be marketing email.

This guide covers what marketing email is, the kinds worth sending, the rules in the United States, the EU and Canada, and how to keep a list healthy. Where to send it from is a separate question, answered in the marketing email subdomain guide.

Marketing vs transactional email#

Transactional email finishes something the recipient started: the receipt for an order, the password reset they asked for, the notice that their plan changed. Marketing email tries to start something new. The distinction matters because the law treats them differently and mailbox providers judge them differently. The glossary entry on transactional vs marketing email has the short version.

The FTC sorts a message by its primary purpose. A message is transactional or relationship mail only if it consists of content that confirms a transaction the recipient agreed to, gives warranty, recall, safety or security information, reports a change to an account or subscription, concerns employment, or delivers goods or services already agreed.^[1] When a message mixes the two, it is commercial “if a recipient reasonably interpreting the subject line would likely conclude that the message contains an advertisement” or if the transactional part “does not appear mainly at the beginning”.^[1]

Google draws the same line from the delivery side: “Don’t mix different types of content in the same message. For example, don’t include promotions in sales receipt messages.”^[6] It also asks that “messages of the same category should have the same From: email address”.^[6] Keeping the two streams apart protects the receipts when a campaign draws complaints. The longer argument, with examples of mail that sits on the boundary, is in transactional vs marketing email.

Types of marketing email, with examples#

Seven kinds cover most of what businesses send. Each example below is one we wrote for an invented company, Acme, which makes project-planning software. None is a template with measured results; they show what each type is for.

Newsletter#

A newsletter arrives on a schedule and is worth opening even when you have nothing to sell. Example: Every other Thursday, Acme sends “Planning notes”: one short essay on running projects, two links to articles its team found useful, and a single line at the bottom about a feature shipped that fortnight. The subject line names the essay, not the feature.

Promotion#

A promotion makes an offer with a reason to act now. Example: At the end of the quarter, Acme emails people on its free plan: the paid plan is discounted for annual billing until Friday, here is what the paid plan adds, and here is the one button that applies the discount. No countdown timer, no invented scarcity, and the deadline in the subject is the real one.

Product update#

A product update announces something new that changes what customers can do. Example: “Acme now has timelines” opens with a screenshot of the new view, explains in three sentences who it helps, and links to a two-minute walkthrough. It goes only to customers whose plan includes timelines, so nobody is told about a feature they cannot use.

Onboarding and lifecycle#

Lifecycle emails are triggered by what a person does, or has not done yet, rather than by a calendar. Example: Two days after someone creates an Acme workspace without inviting a colleague, they get one email: projects work better with a team, here is how to invite one, and here is what the invitee will see. If they invite someone first, the email is never sent. The first email in this family has its own guide: welcome email best practices.

Re-engagement#

A re-engagement email asks people who stopped responding whether they still want your mail. Example: Acme writes to subscribers who have not clicked anything in months: “Do you still want Planning notes? Keep me subscribed, or send me less.” Anyone who does not answer stops getting the newsletter, which is the point. The whole process is in how to sunset inactive subscribers.

Event#

An event email invites people to something with a date: a webinar, a launch, a meetup. Example: Acme invites customers in one city to an evening session with its product team, gives the date, place and agenda in the first three lines, offers a calendar file, and sends one reminder the day before only to people who registered.

Survey and feedback#

A survey email asks for an opinion. It still counts as marketing when its purpose is to sell more, and it gets better answers when it asks little. Example: A month after a customer upgrades, Acme asks one question in the body of the email (“What nearly stopped you upgrading?”) and lets them answer by replying. Every reply is read by a person on the product team.

The rules by region#

United States: CAN-SPAM#

Documented by Google None of CAN-SPAM’s requirements is a permission step before the first message: the law regulates what a commercial message contains and gives recipients the right to make you stop.^[1] The FTC lists the requirements plainly: don’t use false or misleading header information; don’t use deceptive subject lines; “identify the message as an ad”; tell recipients where you are located with “your valid physical postal address”; tell recipients how to opt out; and monitor what others do on your behalf, because both the advertiser and the sender can be held responsible.^[1] An opt-out may not cost a fee, require personal information beyond an email address, or take more than a reply email or a visit to a single web page, and once someone opts out you cannot sell or transfer their address.^[1]

European Union: the ePrivacy Directive and the GDPR#

Documented by Google In the EU, two laws apply at once. The European Data Protection Board, the body of the EU’s data protection regulators, puts the first plainly: “under the ePrivacy Directive, the sending of unsolicited communications for purposes of direct marketing by email, SMS, MMS and other kinds of similar applications can only take place with the prior consent of the individual recipient”, and that consent must meet the GDPR’s standard.^[2]

The GDPR’s standard is demanding. The EDPB’s consent guidelines say “the use of pre-ticked opt-in boxes is invalid under the GDPR”, that silence or inactivity is not consent, that people “must be able to withdraw consent as easily as it was given”, and that an informed request names, at least, the controller’s identity and the purpose.^[3] You also have to be able to show the consent was given, so record when, where and how each person agreed.^[3]

There is one narrow exception, often called the soft opt-in. Under Article 13(2) of the ePrivacy Directive, a business that obtained a customer’s email address “in the context of the sale of a product or a service” may email them about “its own similar products or services”, provided the customer can object “in an easy manner and free of charge”, was told about this when the address was collected, and is offered the choice again in every message.^[2] The right to object to direct marketing under Article 21(2) GDPR “is unconditional and irrespective of the legal basis relied on”: an objection needs no reason and must always be honoured.^[2] National laws implementing the directive can go further, for example for marketing to professionals, so check the rules of each country you send to.^[2]

Canada: CASL#

Documented by Google Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation prohibits sending a commercial electronic message unless the recipient “has consented to receiving it, whether the consent is express or implied”, and the message identifies the sender, gives a way to contact them and sets out an unsubscribe mechanism.^[4] If you rely on consent, you have to prove it: the Act puts “the onus of proving it” on the person who claims to have it.^[4]

The CRTC’s regulations spell out the identification: the name you carry on business under, and “the mailing address, and either a telephone number providing access to an agent or a voice messaging system, an email address or a web address”. That information and the unsubscribe mechanism “must be set out clearly and prominently”, and the unsubscribe “must be able to be readily performed”.^[5] The mechanism must work at no cost to the recipient, through the same electronic means the message used where practicable.^[4]

How often to send marketing email#

Unproven No regulator or independent study sets a right frequency, and a vendor who tells you the ideal number of sends per week is guessing on your behalf. What is documented is the cost of surprise. M3AAWG, where senders and mailbox providers write best practices together, says senders “should notify recipients of the potential frequency and type of communications, and should give recipients a choice in each of these areas”, because “unexpected increases in the frequency of messages often leads to increased abuse complaints”.^[7]

• Say the cadence at signup, then keep it. “One email every other Thursday” is a promise a reader can hold you to.
• Offer less, not only nothing. Topics or a digest option give people a way to stay that is not the unsubscribe link.
• Use addresses only for what you said. M3AAWG says addresses “should only be used for the purposes disclosed to recipients at the time of signup”.^[7] Signing up for a product does not, by itself, mean signing up for a newsletter.
• Plan seasonal peaks. If you will send more around a sale, tell the list beforehand rather than tripling the volume without warning.

List hygiene#

A clean list is one where every address belongs to a person who asked for your mail and still wants it. Most of the work is done at the edges: who gets on, and who comes off.

• Confirm addresses on the way in. Google’s guidelines say: “Confirm each recipient’s email address before subscribing them.”^[6] Double opt-in does this and stops typos and fake signups before they cost you anything.
• Remove addresses that keep bouncing. M3AAWG’s rule of thumb is below; a hard bounce should stop mail to that address at once.
• Suppress complaints and unsubscribes immediately. Put them on a suppression list checked before every send, so an old export re-imported next year cannot add them back.
• Sunset people who stopped engaging. Ask first with a re-engagement email, then stop marketing to anyone who does not respond.
• Never buy or rent a list. Bought addresses carry no consent you can prove, which CASL requires and the GDPR asks of whoever relies on consent, and they bring the bounces and complaints this list exists to prevent.^[4][3]

Complaints matter beyond the one campaign that drew them. Google asks senders to keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools low and never let it reach the level below:

One-click unsubscribe means the List-Unsubscribe headers plus a visible link in the body; the one-click unsubscribe guide shows the headers and the request a mailbox provider sends.

Step by step: marketing email that follows the rules#

The steps below satisfy the strictest of the three regimes at once, which is simpler than running a different process for each country on your list.

1. 1

   Decide which of your emails are marketing

   Sort every message you send by its primary purpose. If the subject line or the opening reads as a promotion, treat it as marketing, and keep receipts, password resets and account notices free of promotions.

2. 2

   Collect consent that satisfies your strictest reader

   Ask people to opt in with an unticked box or a form they submit themselves, record when and how they agreed, and confirm the address. EU and Canadian rules expect consent before the first marketing email.

3. 3

   Identify yourself in every message

   Send from a From address that names your business, and put your business name, a valid postal address and a way to contact you in the footer of every marketing email.

4. 4

   Make leaving easy and honour it quickly

   Include a visible unsubscribe link and one-click unsubscribe headers, process opt-outs without asking for anything beyond the address, and stop marketing to that address well inside the legal deadline.

5. 5

   Promise a cadence and keep it

   Tell subscribers at signup what you will send and how often, offer topics or a lower frequency instead of an all-or-nothing choice, and avoid sudden jumps in volume.

6. 6

   Clean the list and measure what people do

   Remove addresses that keep bouncing, suppress complaints and unsubscribes, sunset people who stopped engaging, and judge each email by clicks, conversions, unsubscribes and complaints rather than opens.

What to measure#

Measure what a person does, and treat everything else as a hint:

• Conversions. The sign-up, purchase, registration or reply the email asked for. It is the only number that says the email worked.
• Clicks. A tracked click is a person choosing to act on the email.
• Unsubscribes and complaints. A rising complaint rate means people do not recognise you or did not expect this mail; look at signup and cadence before copy.
• Bounces. Hard bounces on new addresses point to typos or fake signups.

Marketing email in Rasket#

Rasket’s Campaigns send to contacts you own, filtered by segments on contact fields, your own properties and topic subscriptions, so a reader can leave the product updates and keep the newsletter. Every campaign carries one-click unsubscribe headers, and bounces and complaints are added to your suppression list automatically, which every send is checked against. Automations handle the lifecycle types: start on an event your product fires or on a contact entering a segment, wait, branch and send.

Campaigns go through the same pipeline as transactional mail, so keep them on their own From address and, ideally, their own subdomain. What Rasket cannot do for you is collect consent the way your readers’ countries require; that happens in your signup form, before an address ever reaches us. More on the product side is on the marketing email page.

Marketing email myths and facts#

• Documented by Google “CAN-SPAM only matters if you send bulk email.” Myth. The FTC says the law covers all commercial messages and makes no exception for business-to-business email.^[1]
• Documented by Google “A pre-ticked box at checkout counts as consent.” Not in the EU: the EDPB calls pre-ticked opt-in boxes invalid under the GDPR.^[3]
• Documented by Google “Customers can always be emailed about anything.” Myth. The EU soft opt-in covers only your own similar products, and Canada’s implied consent from a purchase runs out.^[2][4]
• Documented by Google “A receipt with a coupon in it is still transactional.” Not if the subject line reads as a promotion or the receipt is not mainly at the beginning; then the FTC treats it as commercial.^[1]
• Unproven “There is a best day and time to send.” We found no independent study that holds across audiences. Send when your readers have shown they read, and test by clicks rather than opens.

Once the rules are met, where a marketing email lands in Gmail is a separate question: the Gmail Promotions tab guide explains how Gmail sorts it and what moves it.