Lessons to Learn From Uber's Email Marketing
We are living in an era when the sharing economy is booming. Once named UberCab and founded in 2009, Uber is trying to establish a strategy to maximize profits, but this is a complicated process in a dynamically competitive global economy. Uber’s entry into the traditional taxi market has caused many conflicts. However, eleven years later, Uber has grown into the most famous sharing economy service provider.
Today, Uber operates in over 70 countries and regions and has made more than 7 billion trips. In 2021, Uber’s market size has reached 117.34 Billion USD, a 55% increase compared to last year.
These numbers reflect a deeper understanding of their target audience and a highly customer-centric approach. Both of which constitute the fundamentals of a successful email marketing campaign.
For this reason, we thought it would be beneficial to our readers to take a closer look at Uber emails.
Uber emails to learn from
Uber sends the same type of email campaigns every company sends. If we were to break down their marketing campaigns, we would find:
- the standard welcome email
- product launches and updates
- promotional emails offering discounts
- referral emails
- the typical transactional emails
- and other seasonal campaigns, surveys, and one-off email campaigns
Welcome email
The first step towards communication with clients. These emails should be informative and clear to demonstrate the benefits and unique features that can be useful for the customers. Uber’s welcome email is concise and gives just the right amount of information to get users started.
In just three blocks, Uber’s welcome email onboards users and helps them get the most out of the app.
Welcome to Uber, Cyrine!
However, before setting up the account and sending an expected welcome email, Uber sends a confirmation email asking the user to confirm their email address. This not only helps confirm the identity of the user but adds a layer of security and increases the levels of trust in the brand. This is what we call a double opt-in.
Here’s what Uber’s double-opt email looks like.
But not only that, Uber goes one step further to protect the users (and the company), by sending another automated email with the full terms and conditions of use.
Uber Terms and Conditions
Informational email
These are emails about the improvements, important information, or changes implemented in the product. These emails might sound boring and uninteresting to some users. However, they are probably the most important type of campaigns, as they allow you to promote your latest features and enhancements. And generally informational or functional emails are the emails that get more clicks, and opens.
Uber’s informational emails always start with a short paragraph and a clear CTA redirecting subscribers to a blog post or a landing page, containing details about the app updates.
This guarantees that subscribers who don’t scroll through the email will still have a chance to learn about the updates.
You’ve got options, San Francisco
Uber’s informational emails are also divided into blocks: one block per update. Each block has a different background color, allowing readers to visually distinguish between the new features. Not to forget the email copywriting, focused more on benefits, rather than actual technical updates.
Instead of saying: “New ride rating system”, the email says “Your experience matters”. This makes the reader feel acknowledged and more interested in the outcome.
Let’s move forward, together
Privacy policy update emails are essential for any brand that doesn’t want to be sued. In their privacy policy update email, Uber focuses more on the email copy using a straight-forward email design (illustration + text only).
The email copy is structured in bullet points, allowing the reader to skim over it and memorize the main headlines.
Updates to Uber’s Privacy Policy
Referral emails
Referral programs allow companies to exploit their customer’s network, in order to expand their client base. Referral programs usually encourage customers to invite a friend or a colleague to try out the product, in return for a gift card or a discount.
These offers can greatly encourage customers to become ambassadors for the brand.
This example of Uber’s referral email contains all the necessary elements of a successful email campaign:
- A catchy, season-appropriate illustration
- A compelling headline, containing all the key information of the email
- An imposing and call to action
This combination makes the email clear and very understandable. Referral programs are sometimes complicated, and customers feel overwhelmed by all the details and legal information. However, Uber’s referral email simplifies the whole process and tempts readers to go through with the CTA.
People who want more information can scroll down the email to find a detailed description of the referral process, with only adds credibility and reassurance.
Promotional emails
Promotional emails allow brands to increase sales by offering discounts. And who doesn’t love a good discount? This type of email usually performs well. But they still need to look good, have a clear message, and provide a relevant offer. While there are many ways to do it, mobile app retention relies on increasing use of the app.
These are also great ways to send offers triggered by certain events of the customer’s behavior history.
Grab a ride pass before they’re gone 💸
Transactional emails and notifications
These emails are the most popular amongst users. They will almost always grab your customer’s interest, as they are triggered by actions they took. And for that reason, they are extremely important for both the company and its customers.
Here’s an example from a notification email sent by Uber, to inform the user of new device detection.
Your Uber account was used on a new device
Seasonal campaigns and surveys
End of year review emails
Created with simple fonts and impressive design, it can easily attract people’s attention. What is more, the email content has a lot of interesting information like personal trips, offers, or discounts, which encourages people to share this data on social media platforms and start a new trip with Uber service.
Furthermore, personalized emails have such benefits as boosting customer satisfaction, increasing revenue, etc. Also, the company can share some useful or interactive content to stay connected with their target audience and increase the number of loyal customers as well. Sounds great, isn’t it?
Uber frequently sends out survey emails to collect feedback from users about their experience. This type of email helps the company improve its service and avoid customer churn. It also makes the customer feel heard and appreciated.
We want to hear from you! ✈️
On Valentine’s day 2021, Uber sent this gorgeous email, encouraging customers to send gifts to their loved ones. This Valentine’s day email is very relevant to our current context, which a key factor to any successful campaign.
With people stuck at home and Uber usage declining, the company is adopting an agile approach to keep generating revenue.
The use of Gif in the email header not only catches our attention right away but also sums up the email message in just a few words.
Send Valentine’s Day love with Uber Connect
What makes Uber emails great?
Having figured out the major benefits the Uber company gets with their emails, now it’s time to learn the tips for email marketing they use. So, here is the anatomy of Uber email marketing, that every company should learn from.
Animated Design
The very first thing that makes an email stand out among the competitors of the same area is the design. By making the one concept for each of the company’s emails, you can influence the way users interact with them. It is crucial to grab their attention first with the unusual design to call their interest towards the email content. Otherwise, the final consumers won’t even click on it.
Uber has made a note of that and made its own concept of email design. All the emails are simple to read and extremely informative at the same time, which is obvious thanks to the great email structure.
Personalized Analytics
One of the most effective ways to retain your audience is to provide them some customized information. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers say they are more likely to shop with brands that provide offers and recommendations that are relevant to them.
That is why, the personalization points can greatly affect users’ behavior, especially when it comes to email reading. Providing a warm greeting and some points with the relevant information, the company is more likely to build a great image, as well as gain more trust from the customers.
For this purpose, Uber has made personalized emails with information about the person’s history of trips based on their location. These infographics help clients understand their interaction with the service, and get a general idea about the company itself. As an example, on their fifth anniversary, Uber has sent a special email with information about the customer’s ride history, the most explored city, and places to ride next using this service. The impressive statistics obtained from this email have definitely made a great impression on the final consumers, and inspired them to continue using this service!
Customer Experience Focus
Needless to say how important the customer experience is nowadays. More and more companies move the focus towards the final consumer instead of better revenue. That becomes effective because the final decision about the product or service’s purchase depends on the client.
By optimizing the customer experience in various aspects, companies automatically improve the customers’ satisfaction level, which results in the revenue increasing. So, this point is extremely important for the company’s development.
And Uber completely understands that idea. For customers’ convenience, there is a huge number of different letter templates, which are delivered at the time they need them. Of course, the emails with the highest open rate are still the transaction messages, but also sometimes you can find the discounts or special offers which totally meet their expectation.
Device Optimization
According to HubSpot, mobile opens account for 46 percent of all email opens. That is why mobile optimization applying is a must for email marketing strategy success. By adapting your email structure to any type of device, you not only boost the customer experience but also increase the email open rates as well.
Furthermore, such a responsible approach towards the email structure definitely impacts the clients’ first impression of your company.
Needless to say, that Uber, being a technologically developed company, definitely cares about this point. So, in addition to launching different apps and platforms for their services, they have also optimized the emails for various types of devices. No matter which service has sent you an email, you will be able to read it anytime and anywhere.
Advanced Content
The email structure is certainly a crucial point, which influences the possibility of company emails being read or ignored. Thus, there are some important aspects to keep in mind if you want to strengthen the communication with your audience.
The essay writer pro experts insist on following the KISS rule (Keep It Short and Simple), to deliver a clear message to the final consumer about the transactions, offers, and discounts, or some information that might be useful for them at the moment. Besides, it’s a great idea to make different emails for any type of interaction, like transaction messages, important information about the services, and some interactive emails to increase audience engagement.
Uber gets that, and most people enjoy using the services of this company because of the way they communicate with clients. For instance, most people find it really convenient to get the receipts of transactions to their email so they can clearly see the price of any trip. Also, a lot of people use these emails to get reimbursement for the expenses on business trips.
Clear Call-to-Action Button
To make the most of the emails, companies at a first-come include the link button for getting more clients on their website. This is a perfect option for interaction with busy subscribers, loyal clients, and new customers. Since people now have no time to spend lots of time reading the emails, they just scan the message content and get the idea of the further actions with it.
To engage this type of audience, Uber always applies a visible CTA button to grab the reader’s attention at once. As a result, the company provides its audience with a clear message and a link with more information related to it. So, the client won’t get too much text in your email unless he needs it.
Summing Up
If we had to sum up Uber’s email marketing campaigns in one word, it would be: customer-centric. The brand clearly understands its customers’ needs, and consequently delivers relevant and pertinent information that is always appreciated.
A good email should be written with purpose, presenting a clear and unique message to the readers. It should also stay on-brand and respect the basics of good email design.