In email marketing, if you aren’t planning a week or two ahead, you’re too late. To plan a timely and relevant campaign – and avoid “blasting” - you need to give yourself some time to let an idea “marinate”, create unique content, creative, landing pages and the like. We’re here to help jump-start that process.
Below is an Email Marketing Calendar of real holidays, wacky holidays, and pop culture events in August and September that you can utilize to develop timely and relevant email campaigns
August 13th – International Left-Handers Day
If 7-10% of the world is left-handed, there’s a good chance your email list is the same way. Have you ever watched a left-hander use a pair of scissors? If you have, you know that the world is designed for us righties. Even if you don’t have any products for lefties, such as Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton, a simple shout-out would probably go a long way. If you do, that would be an amazing and rare segmentation opp.
August 15th – National Relaxation Day
Cue the massage music and fire up the black tea! It would be hard to make s case that reading email is relaxing. It’s more like the exact opposite – except for maybe Inbox Zero. Because the holiday is about unplugging and recharging, maybe you can leverage this before the 15th, and let your subscribers know they won’t be hearing from you that day, out of respect for National Relaxation Day. Then go ahead and queue up a great email for the 16th or 17th. Namaste.
August 16th – Roller Coaster Day
The Roller coaster was patented on this day in 1898. See if you can beat this splash-worthy email from Beach Park in Brazil. If ever an email embodied the spirit of the Email Marketing Calendar, this is it.
August 19th – National Aviation Day
There are less than 1 million pilots in the USA, but over 1.5 million people take a flight each day in America. If you ever had a chance to make a case that your products or content are worthy of those mostly miserable hours packing, traveling to, waiting for, flying on, waiting for, traveling to, unpacking…today might just be your day. (I personally couldn’t do without my Bose Noise Cancelling headphones, almonds, and an Esquire.) If you have some great advice on traveling, don’t be stingy!
August 21st - Wilt Chamberlain’s Birthday
There are 3 numbers that spring to mind here you may be able to tie to pricing or creative:
- 7′1″
- 100
- 20,000
August 26th - National Dog Day
“Spoil your dog on this day and always.” If there is no relation to dogs with your services, how about connecting with your audience on a more personal level? Create a gallery on Facebook of all your employees dogs and ask your audience to head there and Become a “Like” (this “Like” thing is hard to work into a sentence, maybe stick with “Fan”). A good opportunity for Email Marketing and Social Media collaboration.
August/September – Back to School!!!
Let’s be honest, there are very few “school kids” on your email list. You need to connect with parents. You can do so in 2 ways – sell them on things for their kids, or sell them things to pamper themselves.
Things for the kids: You’re really going to have to connect with a budget-minded parent in this economy. A sale isn’t enough, you need to resonate with their state of mind. Here’s an example: “The last calculator you will ever need to buy…for 30% off!”. A sale is not enough right now. Go deeper and connect with the emotional and long term side of buying. If the hand-me-downs are going to keep your audience from replacing or upgrading, you better change their mind. Or, go for retro/nostalgia connection and remind them of how much they loved their Trapper Keepers and new duds. Connecting with their memories might be a better approach.
Things for the Parents: I don’t have children, but those I work with are ready to get their kids back-to-school. A week night dinner or mid-day lunch might be the perfect gift offer right now. From a B2B perspective, late afternoon webinars and marketing events will see more attention. If you are doing heavy Back-to-school messaging, you may want to mix in an option in your preference center for a subscriber to specify if they have children or not. If they don’t, a nice offer for a non-parent would stand out with all of the other kid related messaging.
August/September – Labor Day (Sept. 7th)
With the lack of economic growth, it looks like another Staycation weekend for Labor Day. Anything that can be used for fun at the house or at a park is good to promote, make sure the shipping options are clear and the items will arrive on time. Sometimes, people need more than a product, they need a reason to use it. Give them a reason, then sell them your product. This weekend also marks the beginning of the holiday email marketing season, and competition is going to be fierce. As I said with Back-to-school, discounts aren’t going to be enough. Your going to need to do better. Stay tuned for next months Email Marketing Calendar where we’ll talk about how you can cut through the noise this holiday season with your subscribers.
“Summertime, the livin’s easy.”
Ostensibly it makes sense for brands to use a media like radio or television to drive email subscriptions. Promoting channels with other channels isn’t new, innovative or even creative, but it is a good idea. It shows a brand’s interest in getting to know their customers better, intent to engage with customers in a more meaningful way, and a departure from the brand’s traditional way of thinking. Excellent! This is what we all want right? However, some brands don’t seem to be thinking through the experience their shiny new subscribers will have before they drive people to their sign up forms. There is a lot that goes into a well-constructed email program, from capturing the email address through the first message. Creating an experience that teaches new subscribers how to interact with you is the best way to start your new relationship and maximize the lifetime value of your list.
