10 Great Business Email Examples to Use as Inspiration

Illustration by Camille Portales Illustration of 10 hands holding a flower

Millions of professionals are launching newsletters as often as every single day. It takes just 5 minutes to check ProductHunt and Twitter or LinkedIn to see how many companies and individuals are trusting email as the main tool when it comes to lead generation and nurturing.

While they all claim to be that ��email you’ll always open”, many do fall short from that and fail within the first year. For one, the overload of email marketing examples shouldn’t discourage you from focusing your own efforts on sending regular business newsletters. It can only help you see what’s working and what you should never waste your time on.

So what actually makes a business email eye-catching and readworthy? 💌

We’re having a look at 10 best business email examples we’ve reviewed over the course of multiple months to understand why they are better than the rest. Here are our findings for every specific instance:

Morning Brew

Morning Brew sends out daily emails to over 2 million people every single morning. Plus, they have separate editions for retail and emerging tech. No wonder an entire team with multiple writers, designers, and coordinators is working on these.

The first thing I like the most about this newsletter is simply how it appears in your inbox. All editions come with a coffee cup ☕️ emoji in the subject line so you can easily identify them.

But let’s take a closer look at the actual newsletter:

Screenshot of best business email example, Morning Brew
See the full latest edition online.

You’ve got from the beginning a super friendly introduction paired with a mention of their daily sponsor (this is how they monetize their newsletters). Then, we get into a series of separate news for different industries and areas of interest. 

People won’t read the whole thing but they can skip to the same section every day. All news is summed up for busy professionals and they make it easy to share anything through handy social media buttons after each section.

They’ve also made sure to include a section on their sponsor (complete with a special offer for readers) not too high up where it would distract people from what they signed up for.

Like any reputable business email, they also provide a bunch of unique sections with their own content: BREW’S BETS, a podcast, and even fun facts or quizzes. So you can start your day with something else other than just business on your mind.

Why these business emails are great

Morning Brew has profited a great deal from subscriber retention, making sure to deliver just what they promised. They even have their own referral program that’s helped them gain millions of subscribers. On top of this, everything is shareable so word of the “media outlet” keeps spreading whenever readers find the content useful.

MailPoet

As a WordPress plugin that helps businesses of all sizes send newsletters, it’s only natural for MailPoet to deliver fantastic emails. The approach they’ve taken is to focus half of the content on their own brand while keeping the rest of the email fun and educational.

The goal behind these emails is to approach a mix of brand promotion and informative materials in a fun manner. The tone, colorful images, and monthly employee pic help readers get to know the team better without feeling like they’re talking to a company.

The best part is the “Links That Got Us Chatting” section which alone is a good enough reason to subscribe. The team shares a series of informative articles that are sure to give you your monthly fix of fun facts. Clearly explains why they have 30,000 happy readers.

Why these business emails are great

The business newsletters are sent once a month, giving just enough time to compile handy content and have a solid list of product updates. Taking a similar stance, you won’t clutter your subscribers’ inboxes but you’ll still be able to deliver your promo content and cater to their needs.

Social Print Studio

Social Print Studio sells just what their name suggests: prints. From photo books to stationery, wall art, cards, and so much more. With so many ways in which you can personalize these, it only makes sense for their emails to provide loads of ideas and tips.

The main thing that you notice after a while of receiving these emails is the effort that’s put into copywriting. The tone is consistent throughout all messaging and they prefer to opt for perfectly chosen words instead of long text. 

Here’s a perfect example that includes the language customers are likely to use, has just the right words for the call-to-action, and (fun fact here) they always add something funny to brighten up your day in the P.S. section:

Screenshot of best business email example, Social Print Studio

Plus, all of their business emails are mobile-friendly, displaying best practices such as having limited large images, keeping only one CTA button that’s easy to click, and obviously, getting the responsive design in check.

Why these business emails are great

They send emails on a regular basis but the thing is that every single email is different. They’ve managed to send out giveaways, lists of tips, fun events and discounts, brief tutorials, surveys, app updates, team and brand insights, and even solely promotional videos.

For every holiday they have either a small giveaway or special offer. For every other day, they keep things educational and occasionally product-oriented without making their emails too long.

Changing up the type of content you send out keeps users engaged and ensures you meet all of their needs.

Casper 

The reason I chose to add Casper to this list of best business email examples is because they sell mattresses. But this hasn’t stopped them from turning an apparently not-so-email-friendly industry into email marketing success.

The first thing that stuck with me ever since I subscribed is how many emails I got. 🤯

A lot. Sometimes every single day. Whether it was for a holiday, special offer, company update, and many more reasons. Here’s an email that stood out:

Screenshot of best business email example, Casper

Frankly, it has all of the classic ingredients of successful business emails:

  • Strong focus on one product, which shows how you don’t need hundreds of items to put together a good sales-oriented email
  • Perfectly placed CTAs
  • Lots of supporting images along with short and sweet descriptive text
  • Customer testimonials
  • Social sharing options
  • Clean design.

If you’re in charge of marketing for a product or service that doesn’t seem as “email-friendly”, I strongly encourage you to sign up to their emails and check just one month’s worth of their messaging. Their tone is both fun and educational, delivering fun tips among the rest of their promotional newsletters.

Why these business emails are great

They’ve turned the boring mattress industry into emails you won’t mind receiving on a daily basis.

The variety of emails they send makes readers eager to see what kind of tip or offer they’ll share next. Definitely impressive given they sell 3 mattresses and just a couple of extra bedding accessories.

Drop.com 

The business idea behind Drop.com is unique in itself: they make use of real people’s insights and collaboration to come up with products they will truly want to buy.

In addition to this, they’ve still kept their initial business model through which people would request a product but the company would purchase them in bulk so costs were lower for buyers although they had to wait to get them. 

The main direction the company is going in right now remains developing their own products with the help of their community. So the emails they send out are aimed at showcasing and recommending products.

When you sign up on their website you’ll be asked to choose your main product interests. From watches to mechanical keyboards and trendy tents. This is how you sign up for the emails too and ensure they’re customized.

Anything that’s popular goes into their business newsletters. But let’s see how these emails are different from the usual eCommerce and retail ones.

On one hand, there’s no mention of the price. Instead, the focus is on how many people have bought or ordered the product. Talk about using testimonials and social proof at genius levels. 💯

The second win is that all products will likely find a buyer to love them. Since they’re using potential buyers to create product concepts, they don’t add in products nobody needs.

Finally, there’s the brilliant visuals. The images you get in the newsletter clearly depict a product’s best traits including design, lighting, and texture. Every single product looks so good, it’s impossible not to click on them even if you don’t necessarily want to buy them. And every product page has 10+ images of all angles and options. A true visual delight.

Why these business emails are great

This email is all about the items they choose to display. Much like smart product recommendations, literally all of the products you’ll be suggested have been approved by buyers at some point. Otherwise, they wouldn’t even be selling them. Plus, the segmentation they do when you sign up ensures you’ll at least want to open the email and have a look.

Sleeknote 

We’re taking a break from item-oriented emails to see how a SaaS company tackles email marketing.

Here’s just one of Sleeknote’s emails:

Screenshot of best business email example, Sleeknote

There are really 2 things they do extra well. One is the GIF they add to every single email. They record these themselves to make sure it includes the author and is relevant to the topic of the email as opposed to just choosing a random GIF.

The second pro for these emails is that they don’t look like they’ve been sent by a company. They’re written in the 1st-person, talk about the sender’s experience, and aim to help the receiver by offering useful content just like you would send it to a friend.

Sleeknote also shared a list of their top 10 best performing emails that other marketers can use as an inspiration.

Why these business emails are great

These examples of business emails are personal and fun, keeping everything straight-to-the point through simple text and design, proving that you don’t need a huge marketing team to send great emails.

Instead of regular “buy our tool” or “we launched a new feature” messages, they send friendly emails with links to neat content, guides, and templates that people might find a need for and won’t have to pay to get.

Grammarly 

These emails are any writer’s dream. Grammarly excels at staying top-of-mind for users and having them come back to use the tool by providing super useful stats in return for their subscription. 📈

Their sheer usefulnesses makes it hard for me to unsubscribe since I want to keep getting the insights into my productivity. For free.

Why these business emails are great

These regular emails are a top example of how to stay on a user’s mind by providing practical statistics and mixing them with subtle hints of your tool.

In the example above, you’ll notice the Grammarly brand introduced through blog posts, a huge CTA, and the mistakes section which you can obviously fix using their tool. They even show you which features you’re not using yet along with a special offer that’s easy to claim.

The Hoxton 

The Hoxton is a hotel chain that sends weekly emails targeting a new location every time. While they do reference their hotel from time to time, most of their newsletters are kept educational and, above all, fun.

Screenshot of best business email example, The Hoxton

The Portland edition above focuses on all the events you can attend over the upcoming period of time in the city. They make it all about the actual experience you can have in the city.

The hotel is presented at the end as something you can opt for to complete your experience. Since space for promo is limited, they made sure to include their top benefit: flexible check-in and check-out time.

Why these business emails are great

The Hoxton manages to appeal to a potential client’s real interest. And that is not necessarily the stay itself, but the experiences they can have in the city. Nailing a subscriber’s intent is often of top importance compared to any design or copy tweaks you might attempt.

Digital Nomad Girls

DNG is a digital nomad community that connects people from all over the world and is also available on Facebook so anyone can join in the conversation. 

If you’re not yet one, imagine for a second that you were a digital nomad or freelancer. What are the things you’d be looking to get from an email newsletter of this kind?

Fun tips and job opportunities are highly common as answers. And that’s just what you get in these business newsletters.

The community relies on memberships and retreats for monetary benefits but these are never the main focus of the emails. Every edition is extra friendly, personal, and riddled with emojis. This sure is a breath of fresh air from the rest of the emails any freelancer or nomad would get.

The real value of these business emails I make sure to always open is that they summarize everything that’s happening in the community. From hot topics of conversation to a list of all the other members who can offer a work opportunity.

Why these business emails are great

Communities are huge these days. Whether they’re standing alone like this one or connected to a brand.

If creating a following is your top goal, fun and insightful business emails such as the ones from Digital Nomad Girls help you create loyal leads which will turn into active community members, further spreading the word on your brand. And it doesn’t even look like you’re selling something so no need to make it entirely promotional.

Books That Matter

Books That Matter is an example of a small business that continues to offer value to customers, without the main focus being their product.

As soon as you get the email you’ll notice it’s all about catering to the reader’s needs. From a friendly introduction to hand-picked inspiration and curated content. In the very example above the article snippets are focused on opportunities the subscriber can try right away as the writer has done all of the research work in their place.

Why these business emails are great

This specific business email example excels by keeping the attention on humans (in this case the subscriber) and away from the product.

The main principle behind this attempt is that people don’t want to subscribe to a newsletter that’s all about advertising and promotions. Instead, they’re looking for educational content that will be of real value to them.

How to use these business email examples

Take only the best practices from these examples of business emails as an inspiration for your next newsletter series. Don’t just copy these business newsletter examples. Write down the elements you’ve liked and see how you can bring your own unique touch and tone to them.

For more inspiration, check out our review of 12 other email newsletters that are sure to give you some more ideas.

If you’re just getting started, the MailPoet plugin can help you send WooCommerce store emails to improve your email deliverability. 🦄

Try MailPoet for free today for 1,000 subscribers. Already have more? Sign up for a plan.

Do you have a business email example you’ve been using as an inspiration or just can’t wait to get every single month? Share them in the comments below.