Marketers have always embraced special events (should I mention the Superbowl, the Olympic Games and Christmas?) to reach out to their (potential) customers. One of the events that’s approaching fast is Valentine’s day.
As Valentine’s Day comes closer some companies start sending promotional emails on great gifts. They all try to influence the reader with romantic messages, useful tips and emotional call to actions. Did you plan to do the same?
Here are some tips I ran into on the blog of Campaigner, following a press release the ESP sent yesterday.
Protus’ Campaigner, a Canadian email marketing service provider, is helping small businesses target their perfect match with email marketing campaigns focused on the most romantic day of the year.
Before sharing the tips, let me quote Campaigner’s director of product marketing, Wendy Lowe from the press release: “Email is a very effective way to bring highly-tailored messages to specific audiences. With an occasion like Valentine’s Day, email marketing automation allows small businesses to segment a list by gender, so women can find the right gifts for their guys, and vice versa. With compelling offers suited to their sweetheart, it may set the foundation for a lasting relationship.”
Valentine email marketing tips for your sweethearts (your email recipients)
Valentine’s Day offers the chance to attract customers and prospects to your brand, and Campaigner shares several email marketing tips on its blog to ensure your customers are smitten.
A sampling of how you can take advantage of Valentine’s Day with email marketing:
Develop a Valentine’s Day template with words, pictures and even a prize
Target a special email to people who bought from you last year around Valentine’s Day with an even better offer for this loyal audience. If the offer is right, they will most likely buy from you again.
Segment your list
Split out your list by gender. Send female oriented offers to the guys and male oriented offers to the ladies. However, think about your audience before doing this sort of segmentation! Your offer may not be appropriate for all audiences.
Go viral
Spread the message by using forward-to-a-friend functionality. Encourage people to forward your offer on by including forward to a friend links.
Use testimonials
Use testimonials and reviews in your email marketing campaign. Most people will buy if they know another person has had a positive buying experience with your product or service.
Make it easy
Make sure it is super easy for people to take advantage of your offer. If fulfillment is to come to the store, give clear directions or a store finder link, if by phone, make phone numbers prominent, or if online, make the button or text link stand out in the email. Best to place it as close to the upper-left corner of the email as possible.
Consider using coupons
E-coupons are the ideal way to generate traffic to your shop and convince potential buyers to make a purchase. Those coupons should be easy to handle and print. Moreover, they can be personalized with the subscribers name and email address. And don’t forget to mention terms and conditions clearly.
Integrate email and social media
If your business has a blog, Facebook or Twitter account, mention the Valentine’s Day promotion. As you all know: the more you spray, the more you get. And the integration of email marketing and social media is, after all, a key topic on this blog.
E-cards: do you still use them?
For those of you that have e-card features, I guess I shouldn’t explain what you can do with e-cards on occasions like Valentine’s Day. On the other hand: e-cards have a negative reputation since spammers of course use opportunities such as Valentine’s day also.
The security specialists are already warning consumers. I just ran into a press release by Australian Internet security software distributor AVG that warns consumers for Valentine’s Day e-cards by saying, and I quote, “criminals are using this increasingly popular medium to deliver viruses and other malware to the computers of their unsuspecting victims. Because risky e-cards are typically made to look like they have been sent from a trusted friend, they fool the recipient into opening them”.
Expect more of these warnings to come. Let’s say that Valentine’s Day is a good marketing opportunity for security companies to get in the picture too 🙂
Last but not least this tip: send out your email campaign in time. You will need some time for fulfillment. It is rather painful if the package gets delivered the day after Valentine’s Day.
Spread the love and stay tuned as I guess we might receive more Valentine’s day marketing tips.
And, as always, your tips are more than welcome!
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