In this article, we’ll delve into product launch emails — what they are, why they are needed, and what types of product launch emails you can adopt — as well as the best real-life email design examples from which to gain inspiration.
Launching your new product is always an exciting event. You have a green light on teasing and presenting a product to the masses, so you can put your creativity to work on email marketing. However, there’s not always inspiration around; also, the whole product launch email creation process is tied to some nuances you should know. So we’ve decided to gather everything you need to know about product launch email sequences, as well as the best examples from world-known brands to fuel your inspiration.
(Source: Email from Nescafé)
What is a product launch announcement?
The product launch announcement is a set of activities aimed at promoting a new product.
Hopefully, your new or upgraded product’s features will meet customers’ needs and even exceed their expectations.
Prior to promoting and announcing your up-and-coming product, try it out and define its pros and cons — and be honest with the target audience during the whole announcement campaign.
(Source: Email from World of Tanks)
Why product launch emails are important
If product launch emails weren’t so beneficial, we wouldn’t see them in many companies — big or small. It’s time to talk about why this type of email is important for any business that provides services and actively develops its product range.
Generate anticipation and excitement
The first and most important reason why product launch emails are sent out is to generate buzz around the event. Something new will drop from you very soon, and your email will tease this new product, hint at benefits, announce future events related to this, and so on. Emails are a reliable communication tool for raising overall awareness about upcoming product launches.
Inform subscribers about something new
The next task of such emails is to tell subscribers something new. Your new product has been in the works for a long time, and now is the time to introduce your audience to its appearance, features, and other details. Such emails are a kind of dedicated showcase of your innovation and the reasons why the audience should pay attention to them.
Capture early social proof
A product launch can be a big event, involving not only the entire marketing department for promotion but also your audience. If the product is supposed to be available early for some people, this allows you to build social proof based on the content that the audience creates (text reviews, video reviews, product tests, etc.). Such content is an excellent basis for product launch emails and creates positive social proof that will significantly influence the future of your product.
Drive traffic to dedicated pages
Lastly, and most importantly, product launch emails can drive traffic to the pages you need. Placing a link in the email under an attractive CTA works wonders, and you can direct recipients to the right pages like purchasing, pre-ordering, registering for a live product launch event, and so on.
Types of product launch emails
The broad term “product launch emails” covers several types of emails that differ in their content and purpose. Each type is worth taking into account.
Type #1. Teaser email
The first email we’ll discuss — a teaser email — is to inform recipients about the upcoming launch. In this way, you build anticipation. Here, you can mention a few unique features that your product possesses, or you may just say that something huge is coming. Specifying the launch date is optional at this stage.
(Source: Email Love)
Type #2. Product launch announcement email
The second type is made to update your audience. Remind them about the features you mentioned in a previous email, and add a new one.
(Source: Email Love)
Type #3. Product announcement email along with the pre-order option
The next thing you can do with your product launch emails is add a pre-order option. Once you have revealed the product’s main options, it would be wise to add photos and the “Pre-order” button — just like Apple always does in their iPhone launch emails.
Many staunch fans would love to be the first to own your product.
(Source: Email Love)
Type #4. Announcing that the product has been launched
This type of product launch email is needed to inform recipients that the product has been released. Here, you explain to customers how they can get this product.
(Source: Email from EverQuest)
Type #5. Follow-up email
No matter how ardently your customers had been waiting for your product, some still might have missed the new product release email. Remind them that they can still buy your product.
(Source: Email from Adidas)
20 effective product launch email examples
It’s about time to see how famous brands handle their product launch emails, which will give you valuable inspiration for your own email campaigns.
Example 1. Keep customers intrigued until the last moment — Roli
Keeping intrigue to the last moment is a great way to generate the needed buzz. This famous bike manufacturing brand knows how to maintain customers’ interests without a single word. This is a perfect teaser that doesn’t show what is about to come. What will these new products look like? How much will they cost? What new things will they bring? You won’t know until the launch.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 2. Give your brand fans early access to the new products — Three Ships
Allow early access either to those subscribers who buy from you more often than other customers or to those who downloaded your app, just like Three Ships did.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 3. Let your staunch customers be the first to know — Italic
In this email, the famous skincare brand Italic promised to notify customers about the product release a few hours before they sent over the product launch announcement email to the entire contact base.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 4. Add some mystery to your emails — Surreal
You don’t really need to show the product you are about to launch in a product launch announcement email. Show its prototype or what it could look like. Give a small hint, so your audience can guess until launch day.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 5. Add tasty texts — Ben & Jerry’s
It’s hard to show how good your new food product is with only the images. So, it’s about time to put your creative muscles to work and tell your subscribers why they should taste your new product line, just like Ben & Jerry’s did. They added a whole paragraph dedicated to describing their new ice cream flavor. And it’s really hard to read — in a good mouth-watering sense.
(Source: Email from Ben & Jerry’s)
Example 6. Show the product from different angles — Nissan
There are cases when an image is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to product introduction emails. Nissan implemented an interactive carousel in their email to show their brand-new car interior, as well as what is hiding under the hood.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 7. Try out some FOMO — ROKA
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a great approach if you want to spice things up. Even a small hint that your new product won’t be there for long can create a sense of urgency and push your audience to make purchases. ROKO sprinkled their FOMO in just a few words: “They won’t last long,” which is a pretty neat approach.
(Source: Maillibr)
Example 8. Be supportive — Everlane
This is a new product item, and prospects do not know whether it’s about to go well with the rest of their wardrobe. Be supportive — provide them with fashion recommendations on how to wear this cashmere rib with other pieces of the brand’s apparel. Everlane even shared photos of what it was about to look like.
A nice trick to increase sales, huh?
(Source: Email from Everlane)
Example 9. Persuade to buy from you/play on people’s vanity — Maybelline
When it comes to fashion and trends, for a number of your subscribers, nothing can be more convincing than feedback from prominent people. Oprah Magazine awarded this lipstick, right? — Then, you should definitely try it, too.
(Source: Email from Maybelline)
Example 10. Make it clear — Rivian
You certainly need to be mysterious and intriguing but not on the product launch day. Once the product is available to order or pre-order, make your copy straight. Add photos or even videos of the newly launched product. There should be no misunderstanding. Learn from the best, like Rivian. Their new car launch email is a perfect example of a straight-to-the-point email. We’ve released a new car model. You can buy it, you can lease it — here’s the button; enjoy. Perfectly clear.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 11. Use videos to highlight the goods — Rockstar Games
Can’t fully describe your new launch with words and photos? Videos are what you need. A short but flashy video will speak better than a copy with photos. For example, Rockstar Games put trailers of their newly launched updates in their email newsletters that highlight what new features they bring and what fun players can have with them.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 12. Send an invitation to a live presentation — Velotric
If you are hosting an entire event where a speaker on behalf of your team presents a just-launched product, be sure to send the event announcement email to your contact base, including existing customers. This bike manufacturer provided its email with links to Google and Apple calendars, so the recipient can add them and won’t miss the launch day event.
(Source: Maillibr)
Example 13. Encourage to purchase your product — Apple
Apple is probably the best at running product launch email campaigns. Every word, every character matters.
One more thing that makes them unique — once the exact product launch date is set, they hurry to share it with prospects!
(Source: Email Love)
Example 14. Be appealing — Ferrari
This is a perfect announcement of an upcoming product. Ferrari here appeals to vanity :).
Because who wouldn’t like to be the first to possess something luxurious? And to win…
The “Pre-order” button helps — it means you won’t have to stay in line; you will receive your parcel on release day, and you will be really the first to try.
(Source: Email from Ferrari)
Example 15. Emphasize the feeling of anticipation — Grammarly
Top-requested feature…nice trick! Even if some of your prospects did not care about this option, they are now likely to try it out to find out what made it so anticipated.
(Source: Email from Grammarly)
Example 16. Highlight the new features in detail — Fae Beauty
Innovations drive sales, so you shouldn’t neglect showing them in your product launch email. This beauty brand made a flashy email that introduced their new lip balm with all the needed information like colors, better coverage, long-wearing formula, and so on. Besides that, they made it in style with bold visuals and layout.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 17. Remind how soon the product will be launched — VIIA Hemp
No matter how big your product is, you should still remind your audience on launch day — just like VIIA, which included this small reminder about next week’s launch on their email banner.
(Source: Email Love)
Example 18. Build a product launch email sequence — Everlane
Everlane sent out a sequence of three emails.
Email 1
They just informed us that every minute, a million plastic bottles are made — and added that they are about to do something about it:
(Source: Email from Everlane)
Email 2
They notified us that they were going to eliminate virgin plastic by producing outwear out of it:
Email 3
They finally announced that the sale had started and added the CTA button.
This is simple yet amazing!
Example 19. Let the stars promote your product launch — Beats
If you have a collaboration dedicated to the product launch or your product is tied with some famous influencers, it’s a great thing to mention in your product launch email sequence. Audio equipment manufacturer Beats created limited speakers in collaboration with Kim Kardashian, so she promoted these speakers and became a “cover star” for their product launch email.
(Source: Email from Beats)
Example 20. Connect a new product release with previous releases or your brand history — Porsche
Let your customers buy not only your product but also your story. Things that have a history normally cost more and are cherished more.
(Source: Email from Porsche)
Tips for creating effective product launch emails
Now that you are inspired, it’s about time to create your own product launch email sequence. To make it by the book, here are some tips for flawless product launch emails.
Write a compelling subject line
An attention-grabbing subject line is a must for every email; if your subject line is not like it, no one will open your email, so the content will be useless. We’ve gathered subject lines for product launches from famous brands, so you can see from their experience what words you should use to receive that sweet email open click.
Here are 45 subject lines from world-known brands and their product launch email sequences:
- You have signed up for the Alphaedge 4D Shoes release — Adidas.
- We are bringing our vision to the road: Mission E becomes Taycan — Porsche.
- A BIG launch! MAJOR NEWNESS 🤩 — Function of beauty.
- Introducing Campaign Precheck — Email on Acid.
- Introducing the seamless Train Tee — Hill City.
- JUST RELEASED: An Exotic New Collection! — Brighton.
- Cashmere Rib Is Here — Everlane.
- T-Minus 48 Hours Til the Launch of the Season ⏰ — Velotric.
- Introducing Shine Compulsion Lipstick’s Newest Shades! — Maybelline New York.
- Tesla Updates: Model 3 is Available to Order — Tesla.
- Introducing The Growth Lab! — Appcues.
- Something Incredible is Coming! — Nissan.
- Get Ready — Livestream Cybertruck Unveil! — Tesla.
- The first Scuderia Ferrari gaming headphones: don’t miss out! — Ferrari.
- Grammarly’s Chrome Extension + Google Docs, Together at Last! — Grammarly.
- Nokia steel HR has arrived — Nokia.
- Inspired by the future: The VISION AVTR — Mercedes.
- In 7 Days: ReNew — Everlane.
- 💥 NEW 💥 LAUNCH 💥ALERT — Billie.
- [NEW SEASON] Join the WAR HEROES! — World of Tanks.
- In 2 Days: ReNew — Everlane.
- See the all-electric Macan make its US debut — Porsche
- The Wait Is Over: ReNew — Everlane.
- AlphaEdge 4D Reflective: Coming soon — Adidas.
- Meet the Superhero of Jeans — Athleta.
- Introducing the first ever Gap Home Collection — Gap.
- We asked, we listened, we launched! — Monica Vinader.
- YEEZY LAUNCH STARTS IN… — Adidas.
- In The Details: Launching Enchanted Garden — Brighton.
- The new Taycan Cross Turismo. Arriving Soon. And Fast — Porsche.
- Our next product…🤫 — Three Ships.
- Get to know R2 — Rivian.
- GTA Online: Agents of Sabotage Now Available — Rockstar Games.
- Play The Outer Brood Now! — EverQuest.
- Official launch: ROKA LTD x CrossFit® — ROKA.
- 🎈Peek inside our newest Debloat launch — Lemme.
- New Waffle Launches! — Brooklinen.
- LAUNCH: The Hismile Electric Toothbrush — Hismile.
- Just Launched: A New Perspective — 🚀tentree.
- 24HRS TO LAUNCH — THE WESN BARD — WESN.
- Just Launched: The Hawaii Collection — Dakine.
- Tomorrow: Italic Beauty — Italic.
- New: RIMOWA Hammerschlag — RIMOWA.
- The Icon has Arrived — Nissan.
- A bold expression of the Porsche vision: the all-new Panamera — Porsche.
Some of these examples are trivial, some are bold, some have emojis, and some have a FOMO approach. There are no best practices on how to write effective product launch subject lines. There is only one rule: be creative and bold when working on a new subject line for your launch messages.
Still, if your ideation stage takes longer than it should, it’s about time to use some special tools to create your precious email subject lines. That’s where our AI subject line generator comes into play.
It’s a free tool you can use to create a whole pack of subject lines, thanks to the creative capabilities of GenAI. Besides that, it’s an easy-to-use solution.
Enter your query into the respective field that will set a path for GenAI creativity.
After that, pick a style for your subject line from a whole variety.
Once it’s done, pick the needed capitalization style.
Last but not least, choose whether to use emojis or not, as well as the preferred subject line language.
With a click of a button, you’ll receive a pack of different subject lines you can use and gain inspiration from. If the results still don’t suit your needs, you can make the necessary tweaks and generate subject lines from scratch.
Build full-fledged email sequences
Product launches are rarely limited to a single email. Often, a product launch is accompanied by a whole chain of themed emails, each slightly different in content depending on when they are sent. A typical product launch email chain might look like this. This sequence is not obligatory, but it can be a good reference point for what you should cover in your product launch emails and at what stage of your launch preparation.
|
Number in sequence |
When |
What’s included/aimed for |
|
1 |
1 month before launch |
Provides a hint or preview of your new product. |
|
2 |
2 weeks before launch |
Shows the details of the launch date and other relevant details, such as the venue or presentation scope. |
|
3 |
1 week before launch |
Grants early access options and exclusive offers to loyal customers. |
|
4 |
Product launch day |
The product is live and open for selling. The main aim of the email is to encourage sales and participation in the event. |
|
5 |
1 week after launch |
Follow-ups for audiences that have not yet made their purchase. |
Hook your audience
You don’t have time to waste, so grabbing attention right away should be your priority. Once recipients open your email, the first line should hold their attention. This hook sets the tone for the rest of the email and should be consistent with the subject line. Hook your audience with product benefits, statistics, or a story related to the product. The main focus should be on the audience’s desires or challenges and how the product addresses them.
Work on your visuals
Product launch emails often have eye-pleasing visuals. This is not surprising because the main task of such emails is to attract attention. Your email should be bright and show the product from different angles and in different states. Large CTA elements that attract attention and other elements that say “click on me” will never be superfluous. Such emails are also a good platform for using animated GIFs and full-fledged videos. To summarize, we can say that, in general, your product launch email should work on the principle of “visuals over text.”
Wrapping up
Email is a powerful channel. We just showed how to properly email a customer about a new product.
But we recommend that your launch campaign also include social media announcements and ads on mass media — to make your product launch campaigns even more powerful.
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