Types of Email Campaigns
Newsletters, welcome series, drip sequences and promos — each kind of email has a different job.
What you will learn
- Name the main types of email campaigns
- Match an email type to a goal
- Understand what an automated series is
Not all emails are the same
Sending the same kind of email forever gets boring fast. Smart marketers use different campaign types, each with a clear job. Knowing them helps you pick the right email for the moment.
The four main types
| Type | What it is | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Newsletter | A regular update with useful content | To stay in touch and build trust |
| Welcome series | A few emails sent to brand-new subscribers | Right after someone joins your list |
| Drip / nurture | A planned sequence sent over days | To slowly guide people toward buying |
| Promotional | A direct offer or sale email | For launches, festivals, and deals |
Automated vs one-time
Some emails you write and send once (a festival sale). Others run automatically: the moment someone joins, the software sends email 1, then email 2 the next day, and so on. That is a welcome series or drip — set it up once and it works for every new person forever.
A welcome series (sent automatically):
Day 0 -> "Welcome! Here is your free plan."
Day 2 -> "3 mistakes beginners make (and how to avoid them)"
Day 5 -> "Ready to start? Book a free trial."Note: Each email has one job: the first delivers the gift, the second builds trust with useful tips, and the third invites action. You build it once, and every new subscriber gets it automatically.
How an automated series runs, step by step
The word “automatic” can feel like magic, so here is exactly what happens behind the scenes once you have set the series up:
- A new person joins your list (this moment is called the trigger — the event that starts the series).
- Straight away, the software sends Email 1 (the welcome and the free gift).
- It then waits the time you chose — say 2 days.
- On day 2 it sends Email 2 (the trust-building tips) automatically.
- It waits again and on day 5 sends Email 3 (the gentle invitation to buy).
- The series ends, and the person now gets your normal newsletters.
Note: You set these steps up only once. After that, every single new subscriber walks through the exact same journey on their own schedule — whether one person joins today or a hundred do, the software handles each one.
Tip: A great place to start is a welcome series. New subscribers are most interested in you right after they join — a warm welcome turns that interest into trust and, later, sales.
Watch out: Do not make every email a promotion. If people only ever get “sale! sale! sale!”, they unsubscribe. Mix in genuinely useful newsletters so people stay glad to hear from you.
Q. A subscriber joins your list, and over the next 5 days they automatically get 3 emails that welcome and guide them. What is this called?
✍️ Practice
- Match each goal to an email type: stay in touch, greet new joiners, run a festival sale.
- Outline a 3-email welcome series for a local bakery (one line per email).
🏠 Homework
- For a business of your choice, describe when you would use each of the four email types, with one example each.