Have you ever wondered if your important event or product launch might have gone unnoticed? Or worry that too much time has elapsed since your announcement and your customer base has forgotten all about it?

The solution? Reminder emails. Reminder emails enable you to keep users up to date on important events, announcements and milestones and give them a heads up to ensure they don’t miss key dates and times.

Not only do they help boost awareness and attendance, but they show that you are on top of things and are a reliable, professional company that takes themselves seriously.

In this article, we’ll explore what reminder emails are, the best reminder email etiquette and how to create them for different occasions. We’ll also provide you with a few templates that you can adapt for your own use.

What is a reminder email?

Email communication should remain a top priority when deploying your marketing strategies.

Through confirmation emails, you can send a receipt for events, purchases, bookings and RSVPs. This assures your customers that when they signed up for a webinar or purchased a ticket for a future event, for example, everything went through successfully and there were no glitches in the system.

Reminder emails are the next stage of these customer interactions, especially if your events don’t take place right away. Reminder emails relating to events help to ensure that customers:

• Don’t forget about their purchase

• Have everything they need ahead of time (e.g. ticket, seating arrangements, items they may need to bring, etc.)

• Are given key information about the event itself (e.g. speakers, agenda, etc.)

• Are excited and eager for the big day

Reminder emails can also apply to broader business interactions, like reminding a customer that their yearly subscription is about to auto-renew, or that they haven’t completed a process they were in the middle of (like completing a checkout online).

A gentle reminder email can be a great tool for increasing the effectiveness and open rates of your email marketing campaigns. It will show your customers that you care about them and the business they bring you and that you’re there to offer support every step of the way.

Here are a few examples of situations that your customers might benefit from getting a reminder email about.

An important event is about to take place

Remember that event confirmation you sent to your clients a couple of months ago? Well of course you do, but it might not be the case for your customers.

A simple 'coming in X days' email reminder will make sure that you keep them interested in order to help the attendance of your event meet expectations.

An important event is about to take place

Remember that event confirmation for an upcoming meeting or webinar you sent in a previous email to your clients a couple of months ago? Well of course you do, but it might not be the case for your customers.

A simple “coming in X days” email reminder will make sure that you keep them interested in order to ensure your projected event attendance meets expectations.

Inaction from the recipient

When someone misses out on a follow-up or fails to act in a timely fashion, you want to encourage them to take action.

For example, if someone fails to go through with their double opt-in to confirm their subscription, you might want to send them a kind reminder in case there was an oversight on their part.

Expiration / automatic renewal

If you’re offering a service that has an expiration date like a yearly subscription, it might be a good idea to keep your customers informed about their impending expiration or automatic renewal date.

Countdown reminder

Let’s say that your advantageous offer is ending soon. With a reminder for such an occasion, you’ll be able to create a bit of “fear of missing out” (FOMO) and seize the opportunity to end your promotion with a bang.

Delivery reminder

When reminding your customers about the delivery of a product they purchased, you can inform them about offers on similar products which might interest them. This way, you’re creating an upsell or cross-sell opportunity while keeping them updated about the status of their purchase.

Reminder emails best practices

Here is a list of best practices you should be following when writing a reminder.

Choose a clear subject line

The email subject line should clarify the purpose of your email, which will increase the chances of your email getting opened. If you’re reminding a customer about an event, for example, you might want to include the event name (keep reading to see some event reminder email templates).

Furthermore, you can incorporate power words like “important” or “response needed” to catch the reader’s attention and stand out in a crowded inbox.

Be friendly, yet direct

As you’re implying that your customer may have forgotten to do something, it’s important to tread lightly and adopt a friendly tone.

However, you don’t want to go overboard into the “too sweet” spectrum and come across as disingenuous.

Be brief

This should be something that you practice throughout all of your email marketing campaigns, but even more so when writing reminders. Nearly no one will read through a reminder if they're met with a wall of text.

Your contact won't care how important the information is if it takes more than a couple of minutes of their precious time to read through it.

Include a CTA

Even though your main purpose is to remind people of something, there’s always room for additional feedback or engagement.

Adding a CTA button within your email or when you sign off will help the reader to get to the bottom of the issue easily.

Find the right sending time

Timing might be the most important element in the success of emails. The amount of time you wait to send a reminder email will depend largely on the situation at hand.

For example, regarding late payments, a day after the due date is usually well accepted when sending payment reminder emails.

We’ve also observed that waiting too long before sending your reminder can hinder your chances of getting a response. The more time that passes, the less your customers will remember that they had something to complete.

A great solution to finding the perfect timing is to A/B test on the delivery date and time. The perfect time to send an effective email will vary case by case, such as at the beginning of business days or at the very end of the day, so it’s a good idea to A/B test the results to find out what works best for your business.

Follow up more than once if needed

It doesn’t matter if your reminder is about a missing payment or a product launch, don‘t be afraid to follow up if you feel your message is important, helpful and worth reading.

Combined with good timing, a second follow-up email might get your customers to take action and complete the task at hand, even if that’s telling you they are no longer interested in making a purchase or can no longer make an event.

Use it as a marketing opportunity

When able and in context, add images or links of featured products, promote upcoming offers or give the incentive to join your social media channels. Just remember when adding images to make sure they’re correctly sized for all email service providers such Gmail, Outlook and iCloud.

Now that we’ve explained their purpose, let’s check out some fine examples of different types of reminder emails.

Great examples of reminder emails

Here are some great reminder email samples.

1. Black Friday offer ending email reminder

First of all, the intention is very clear at first glance. Just a couple of words are sufficient to convey the message that the offer is ending in order to create incentive and build FOMO.

The main text in the email conveys a message about their products, clearly explaining the company‘s philosophy in just a couple of lines. With this, they manage to avoid lengthy introductions and get the reader accustomed to their vision.

The call to action is clearly present under the text, inviting the customer to take advantage of the offer right away so there are no missed deadlines.

Some featured products are present, showing what they’re actually selling. They’re presenting additional offers and discounts on potentially interesting products.

Finally, an invitation to download their app and join their social networks in order to retain loyalty from their recipient is present at the bottom of the email.

We can conclude that this email didn’t need a complicated graphic design to convey a simple but effective message. Attention is drawn right from the start and the reader can scan it quickly for the relevant info they’re looking for.

2. Event invitation RSVP email reminder

In addition to great eye-catching design, we get a good example of how to make an upcoming event reminder effective.

First, you’re welcomed by a “You Are invited” message, giving you the incentive to discover what it‘s all about. The category “design + finance” is clearly stated at the beginning, so interested parties know what to expect from the event.

Next comes a CTA that allows people who are too busy reading the rest of the email to book their seats right away. It’s a time-saving technique that works for both the reader and the sender.

Side by side, there’s a short and concise explanation about the event and its content, making an irresistible offer with complementary food.

Again, FOMO is tapped into with the “limited seats” statement.

What follows is an eye-catching list of the panelists to underline the event’s exclusivity. Finally, for those who went through the entire email, a repeat CTA is featured at the end. This serves as another time-saver for the reader to avoid them having to scroll back up to confirm their presence.

These two CTA buttons show that the sender understands how precious their reader’s time is, conveying a very professional email stance.

3. Simple “Action Needed” email reminder

Tookapic is a 365 photo challenge, meaning one photo a day needs to be uploaded to keep up with it.

With so many people on the go, this is a great short reminder about what the platform is really about.

A clear title and a short explanation get right to the point. The body text is very short, but cleverly leads into the CTA asking the user to upload their photo right away, so they don’t forget to do it later.

Finally, they give the option to the recipient to change the time when they receive this polite reminder email, making it flexible and convenient.

How to write a reminder email that works

Once you’ve clarified your intention and ensured it aligns with your target audience or segments, it’s time to create some great copy.

We’ve already discussed several best practices, now the focus will be on how to incorporate those techniques into a high-performing reminder message.

Choosing a great subject line

The importance of a subject line that captivates attention cannot be stressed enough. This is the first thing that your recipient will see, so you have to make it count.!

You can use an array of different power phrases that will catch their eye, depending on the action that needs to be taken. For example, you can start out with “Response Required” or “Action Needed” instead of “Kind Reminder”.

Subject lines like “Don’t miss out on…” or “Offer ends in” also can do the trick if you’re trying to tap into the reader’s fear of FOMO.

Next, be sure that you include enough relevant information for your contact to know what you’re reminding them about. Keep the subject line short and concise and get right to the point.

Greeting your contact

Depending on your brand's voice, and especially your audience, you will want to adapt your message using an appropriate tone.

If your audience is mainly composed of younger people, you shouldn't hesitate to address them more casually, as using highly formal language might alienate them.

The same goes for the opposite. If your contacts are CEOs and executives, more polite and restrained language usually works best.

This greeting is important as it sets the tone for the rest of the email.

The content or body

Once you’ve created a proper greeting, it’s time to move on to the main purpose of your email. You can divide the body of your reminder messages into two distinct parts:

1. Reminder explanation. After the greeting, be sure to be precise and brief. After all, this is why your contact opened the email in the first place. Whatever issue or event you’re reminding them of should be clearly explained in a couple of short and easily perceivable sentences.

2. Call to action. Once you have stated the main reason for your email, add a CTA button or a link to make it easy for your readers. The last thing you want is to frustrate your readers by having them search for that next step. Need an overdue payment to be made? Add a link directly to their account where they can go through with it.

Remember, one type of call to action is enough. You want your customers’ undivided attention for them to proceed with the action.

Finishing touches and extras

Offering related content or helpful resources is a good way to show your user base that you care about them. For example, when sending a friendly reminder email about an offer ending soon, you can upsell by showcasing a few of your flagship products.

Although this is a great way to promote your business, try staying in context. For example, don’t send discount coupons when sending payment reminders to your subscribers.

Finally, inviting your customers to join your social networks is a great way of building brand presence. Also, don’t forget to include a salutation at the end of your email when appropriate, such as “thanks” or “best regards”.

Now that we’ve gone through those reminder email samples, it should be easier to apply the knowledge and best practices in a couple of templates for different occasions. Feel free to adapt the following for your personal use.

Reminder email templates

Gentle payment reminder template (1st follow up)

Countdown reminder (upcoming hotel stay)

Q&A session

Event reminder + offer ends soon

Delivery reminder: upsell tactics

Final Thoughts

The guidelines, best practices and reminder email samples discussed above should help you get started with writing a reminder message that brings results.

To ensure your email reminders are effective, make sure to test out different email elements with an A/B split test campaign.

Whether you want to use different reminder email subject lines or delivery dates, your email provider’s reporting tools will allow you to quickly compare the results and determine what works best for you.

Find out how our marketing suite and CRM can assist your marketing activities and automation on our website.