Here it is, your April Email Marketing Calendar. April is an interesting month. From April Fools to Tax Day to Earth Day, the emotions run the gamut.
Below is a list of real holidays, wacky holidays, and pop culture events in April and ideas you can utilize to develop timely and relevant email marketing campaigns.
Thursday April 1st – April Fool’s Day
April Fool’s Day is the one day of the year you have free reign to play practical jokes and pranks on family, friends, coworkers, and most importantly your email subscribers. I will warn you, this is very dependent on your product or service. If your content is heavy and serious, you will want to consider whether a joke is appropriate. On the other hand, it may be the perfect opportunity for you to loosen up your tie and connect with subscribers on a different level.
Sunday, April 4th – Easter Sunday
The nice thing about Easter is that you have multiple angles you can work from a marketing standpoint. Easter bunny, Easter eggs, Easter basket, etc… One idea to consider is to add a hidden element to your email layout, which is essentially a hidden item that is only accessible by discovering a hidden link (known as an “Easter Egg”). Since users don’t typically spend a great deal of time with an email, you need to make sure the hover isn’t to difficult to locate – think 20x by 20x pixels instead of 5px by 5px.
Wednesday, April 7th – No Housework Day
Think of all the great products, services and locations that can be enjoyed instead of housework. Procrastinators world-wide will rejoice with your No Housework Day special!
Monday, April 12th – Walk On Your Wild Side Day
Push your edgy content on Walk On Your Wild Side Day. Some fun creative of your staff or some of your more eccentric content will do the trick. Lou Reed approves.
Thursday, April 15th – Tax Day
For the procrastinators out there, April 15th might not be the day. It might be the 16th, after a good night of sleep and dreams of refund or less worry about payment just paid. If you want your subscribers to blow off some steam and celebrate, it might be interesting to A/B split the 15th & 16th and see what works best for future campaigns. Stay away from politics and focus on the value your content of offer provides.
Friday, April 16th – High Five Day
National High Five Day originated at the University of Virginia in 2002, and has since spread across the globe. Anything and everything can be high-fived, and gives a perfect opportunity to focus on the social/viral side. The official website gives some great ideas. Can you adapt them to your email?
Monday, April 19th – National Hanging Out Day
The goal of this holiday is not to sit on a couch, it’s to educate communities about energy consumption. National Hanging Out Day was created to demonstrate how it is possible to save money and energy by using a clothesline. Can you come up with a list of ways to save energy with your product or service? If not, maybe just in general?
Thursday, April 22nd – Earth Day
This year is the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, and a chance to provide the tools and structure for individuals and organizations to organize around environmental issues. The official website offers ideas and tips to take action.
Wednesday, April 21st – Administrative Professionals Day
We all know how important the administrative professional is, don’t we? Celebrate them, empower them, reward them, or spoof them (in a fun way). Think about your list…how many of them consider themselves “Administrative Professionals”?
Last Friday in April - National Arbor Day
You can find the official date for your state here. Continuing on the environmental kick in April, how do you reward your subscribers for planting a tree? How can we prove that they did it? Easy: through user-generated content on Flickr, Twitpic, YouTube, etc. Sounds like a perfect chance to seed a social campaign through email!
See you next month for the May Email Marketing Calendar… in April.
“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.
