You’ve poured your blood, sweat, and tears into a new product. You release the product into the world and send out an email announcement... only to get a lukewarm reception, which may leave you wondering: what went wrong?
Too many great products have flopped because of a lousy release. After doing so much work to get to launch day, companies sometimes make the mistake of treating a product launch email as an afterthought. You know the value of your new product inside and out, so you assume that customers will instantly see its value, too, and be thrilled to try it out.
The reality is that email inboxes are flooded. To get your message across, you need product launch emails—yes, plural—that pique the interest of your audience and get them excited about what you’re offering.
What is a product launch email?
A product launch email is an email a company sends to its customers or subscribers announcing either a new product or a feature and offering adequate details about the launch. The idea is to provide insight into how the new product update can benefit current and potential customers.
A good product launch email reveals just enough to boost awareness and pique curiosity.
That said, there are actually different types of product launch emails that each have a distinct purpose.
What are different types of product launch emails?
The purpose of a product launch email may seem straightforward. You’re making an announcement about something new. But there are actually different types of product launch emails that each have a distinct purpose.
- Product release emails inform your customers about a new product or new version of an existing product.
- Feature announcements let your customers know that you’ve added cool new functionality to your product.
- Pre-order emails allow your customers to guarantee receipt of your product and can build hype.
- Future sales emails make your customers aware of special pricing upon release.
- Event invitations can be for an upcoming webinar series or a special launch party.
Each of these emails has a slightly different spin, but they’re all working toward the same goal of educating your customers about your new product and when it will be available.
Best practices for product launch emails
Your product launch emails should catch your audience’s attention so that they want to learn more about your upcoming release. Making one aspect of your launch email compelling isn’t enough. You need to look at the entire campaign and make it engaging for a variety of users—from those who are eagerly waiting to those who barely know your brand.
BOOST AWARENESS
Make every message count
- Craft a seamless messaging strategy across emails *and* in-app
- Target the right users with the right message
- Make sure your next product launch doesn't go unnoticed
Plan a sequence of emails
Your product launch announcement should not occur in a single email, but rather a series of emails. If you send a single email, you risk your message being lost or not being memorable. The success of these emails has to do with both the timing and the messaging.
- Two weeks before launch - Build Anticipation: This teaser email lets your audience know that something new is coming without giving away too much. You can hint at the problem that your product is going to solve. Don’t send this email more than two weeks before launch (unless you send more than one teaser email), or you’ll risk your audience forgetting about the product launch.
- One week before launch - Announce the Product: This is the big moment... you are ending the suspense from your previous email. Tell your audience exactly what is coming and when. Include photos of your new product or screenshots and provide the exact release date and pre-order information.
- Launch Day: Toss the confetti—it’s your product’s birthday! Share your enthusiasm with your audience, so that they are excited to make a purchase or upgrade to the latest version. Don’t forget to include social share buttons so that customers can help spread the word.
- One+ week later - Follow-Up: Time for the #ICYMI email. Wait at least a week, or when you notice a slow down in adoption, to send this follow-up email to remind your audience of your new product. These emails should be targeted to the segment of your audience that hasn’t made a purchase or an upgrade yet.
Take a look at this example from Hootsuite, one that is part of launch day and announces upcoming features. The company is grabbing its audience at the right moment by timing the release with a new year when people are typically thinking about trying new things.
Craft an attention-grabbing subject line
Your email needs to stand out amidst hundreds of other emails in your readers’ inboxes. You want to create enough intrigue so that your audience wants to learn more.
- Keep the subject lines short, ideally under 50 characters.
- Convey urgency to make your subject line catchy, such as “Don’t miss out!”
- Use emojis to help your email stand out.
Try writing at least 10 different subject lines. Or 25! The more you write, the greater your chances of creating a compelling subject line.
Use A/B testing to see if different subject lines generate different open rates. This will help you know what subject lines work best for future announcements.
Don’t forget about the preview text of your email body that follows your subject line. It’s often ignored, but this language needs to be compelling—just like subject lines—to captivate customers when they’re skimming their inboxes.
Take this subject line from Amplitude announcing a new product.
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The subject line grabs the reader’s attention by forcing the reader to think about a choice: disrupt or be disrupted. The preview text provides more context about the announcement with the line “Introducing Amplitude Digital Optimization System.”
Tips for writing a product launch email
It may be tempting to stuff a bunch of details into your product launch emails, such as all of the new cool features your product has. But you’ll want to keep it brief so you don’t lose your audience’s attention. Your emails should be a concise reflection of your brand and your audience.
- Start with a short greeting.
- Use images or videos to catch your audience’s attention.
- Include links to more info, such as a blog post or a product demo.
- Include multiple CTAs so that it’s easy for your audience to take the next step.
Project management software Asana chose to announce several new features in a single email.
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This product launch email has all of the right elements: a brief intro, a visual, a link to another resource, and a CTA button.
What does a great product launch email look like?
Naturally, your email strategy will depend on your product and your relationship with your customers. Even though your own product launch emails should be a reflection of your brand, here are 14 examples that have elements to inspire you.
1. Apple’s sleek announcement
Apple has product launches down to a science. The promotional email for the release of AirPods Pro does a great job of highlighting each new feature.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- Minimal copy and sleek imagery allow the product to take center stage.
- The email includes several prominent CTAs, including “Learn More” at the top and “Buy” next to the price.
3. Mailchimp’s beta early access invite
Mailchimp offers marketing tools for small businesses, from email campaigns to landing pages and digital ads. The brand is defined by a conversational tone and a warm, friendly illustration style.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- The intro “We’re giving you early access...” creates an air of exclusivity and creates a sense of urgency for the recipient to act.
- The following email is perfectly on-brand—it feels personal, not promotional.
3. Grammarly’s new feature announcement
Grammarly is a popular writing and grammar-checking tool that ensures all of your correspondences are grammatically correct.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- The email body is super short—three sentences—making it easy for the reader to digest.
- Grammarly showcases the new feature with an informative illustration placed against a bold background, so it stands out.
4. Everlane’s new product line introduction
Everlane is an ecommerce company that prides itself on designing ethically made modern basics for everyday life.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- Everlane highlights the new Court Sneaker’s versatility, showing the shoe with an array of different outfits.
- Everlane understands that sustainability is important to their customers and emphasizes their efforts to make a low-waste shoe.
5. Comrad’s social endorsem*nt email
Comrad designs compression socks for travel, work, and everyday wear. The key to the company’s success is that, unlike most compression socks on the market, Comrad’s products look like regular sporty socks to the unassuming observer.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- Comrad uses a cleverly annotated product photo to point out features that differentiate Allies from ordinary socks.
- A social banner displays photos from fans on social media to show how other customers love the product.
6. Venmo’s compelling cross-sell
Venmo is a cashless, peer-to-peer exchange app that has an impressive 40 million users, more than most banks. Venmo’s cross-promotion product launch with Mastercard calls upon Venmo lovers to bring their cashless, digital transactions to the real-world.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- The scanning reader can easily see what the new card does because the list of features is evenly spaced.
- The email combines sleek design and animation with carefully crafted copy.
7. Blissfully’s reflective redesign announcement
Blissfully allows companies to manage all of their technology assets and workflows in one comprehensive IT platform.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- A personal reflection from founder Ariel Diaz helps readers feel connected to the company.
- By using a variety of visuals—a gif, bullet points, video—Blissfully maximizes their chances of grabbing the audience’s attention.
8. InVision’s compelling CTA
InVision gives designers the workspace they need to innovate, iterate and collaborate with team members.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- The layout makes it easy to consume the content from top to bottom: header, CTA, image, body, CTA.
- Two “free-for-all” CTAs are strategically placed at the beginning and end of the email.
9. Designmodo’s new product promo
Designmodo offers powerfully simple website and email design tools for businesses of any size.
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What makes this a great product launch email:
- The bold, beautiful imagery is likely to stand out in an inbox full of long, overdone promotional emails.
- Designmodo’s email design entices people to click through with “View Presentation” to learn more about the new feature, Postcards.
10. WeTransfer’s friendly mobile app intro
WeTransfer offers products that make it easy to share creative files. The product launch email for their mobile app, Collect, is one of our favorites on this list.
What makes this a great product launch email:
- WeTransfer’s cheerful pastels give the email a friendly feel instead of a sales pitch.
- The adorable illustration looks like artwork and is likely to appeal to creative users of the WeTransfer platform.
11. CraftCellr’s gracious approach
CraftCellr is a mobile app for beer lovers. CraftCellr users find local breweries and beer releases in their area, while connecting them to a community of fellow beer enthusiasts.
What makes this a great product launch email:
- CraftCellr builds trust with users by starting the email thanking them for their patience, acknowledging the wait for the Android app.
- Each feature highlight comes paired with a corresponding screenshot separated by borders for easy differentiation and digestion.
12. Billie’s visual sell
Billie is a subscription-based women’s razor company that promises high-quality, low-cost razor blades delivered straight to your door.
What makes this a great product launch email:
- Billie shows a picture of the glowing razor in action so readers can see how it works.
- A neon green CTA button reflects the color of their new product design.
13. Airbnb's appeal to wanderlust
Airbnb started offering Adventures in 2019—fully planned overnight trips that include meals, activities, and (naturally) accommodations.
What makes this a great product launch email:
- This email uses compelling travel photography to draw readers in and set the tone ("this isn't your grandmother's travel tour," the photos say).
- The layout of the email keeps readers scrolling for more but provides consistent opportunities to click through when their interest is piqued.
14. Appcues exudes excitement
Of course, we have to include our own announcement as an example (😉). This email introduced our new Insights feature.
Why we're proud of this email:
- We outline the problem that our new feature solves.
- An embedded video gives a preview of the new feature in action.
- Multiple emojis in the subject line and email body keep the tone fun.
Product launch emails: An opportunity to connect with customers
These emails all have something essential in common. Hint: It's not the copy, or the tone, or even the call to action.
Every single one of these companies understands their users’ needs and is able to speak their language effectively. They focus on the value that each new product or feature provides. No matter which direction your own product launch emails take, make sure you’re connecting with your readers about what makes your product worthwhile.
🚀 Want help planning the perfect product launch?
The Appcues Product Launch Planner is an easy (and totally free!) way to get started. Answer 8 simple questions and we’ll give you a personalized and detailed timeline of everything you need to do to make sure that your next product launch is out of this world!
