When is the back to school period?

In the United States, Canada, the UK and Europe, back to school kicks off in late July / early August, as most schools start to resume from the end of August. However, depending on where you're located, the official back to school period may have a different start date.

For example, in Australia in New Zealand, the back to school season starts in January, as schools there resume in February.

What should I include in my back to school emails?

Looking to create a back to school promotion for the first time or want to freshen up your previous campaign with some new ideas? Here are a few ideas of content you can include in a successful back to school marketing campaign.

New product launches

What better time to launch a new product than the start of a new school year? Use your email campaign to showcase new product lines that are bound to keep customers looking and feeling fresh for a new academic year.

Checklists

The start of the school year can be a stressful time for many. With so much to organize and buy, customers may be feeling the pressure.

Clearly present your back to school essentials in the form of a handy checklist or shopping guide which readers can refer back to to ensure they've covered everything they need to.

Tip: Include direct links to any products you mention to make the shopping process even easier.

Discounts and multibuy offers

With so much to buy, a promotion or offer can also be a saving grace for many customers - especially for families with multiple children who need new school supplies.

An attractive multibuy offer such as "3 for 2" or "buy one get one free" can serve as an effective incentive for your customers to buy more and truly stock up on all they need.

Free express shipping

Some of your customers may have left things to the last minute - we're all guilty of it! To ensure they have everything they need on time, consider offering free or discounted express shipping as an added bonus.

Tips and tutorials

As well as standard sales emails, you can also go the extra mile and provide your readers with some more educational content.

In particular, students heading off to university or college for the first time or parents preparing for their child's first day at school will certainly appreciate any tips or advice they can get.

Think about some practical tips or ideas related to your core business and products that you think could benefit your target audience. As well as helping your customers, showing your products in relatable, real life situations makes your campaign much more relevant and effective.

Examples of back to school email campaigns

To help you get inspired for creating your own back to school emails, we've collected some of our all time favorite back to school email promotions. Keep your eyes peeled for top tips on how to recreate some of these great styles in your own back to school campaigns!

Grammarly

Clearly aimed at older students, this back to school promotion by Grammarly is a great way to help get their target audience ready for the upcoming semester.

The email copy does a good job of concisely outlining the benefits of their product and the attractive promotion is instantly highlighted with help from the creative pennant-style banner:

The pennant eye-catcher in this design helps boost the promotion even more

Tip: Use basic shape tools in Mail Designer 365 to easily recreate this pennant graphic in your own back to school campaigns.

Staples

Staples keep things simple yet effective in this back to school promotion. We love the use of strong primary colors and bold black text which really highlight the back to school vibes.

Kate Spade

This clever and creative pop quiz themed design by the team at Kate Spade is a fun and stylish way to showcase essential products for the start of a new school year.

This promotion by Kate Spade stylishly highlights back to school essentials with a clever pop quiz theme

Tip: Effortlessly recreate this pop quiz layout by Kate Spade using combi layout blocks in Mail Designer 365:

Use combi layout blocks in Mail Designer 365 to create a similar pop quiz style layout

Vitruvi

This back to school promotion by Vitruvi is a good example of how to integrate "non-typical" products into a seasonal promotion. As well as a useful tip about essential oils, the advertised product also takes center stage with a prominent product image and CTA (call-to-action).

This campaign by Vitruvi showcases their products by giving them a convenient back to school use case

Britannica

This insightful campaign by Britannica shows how you can use the back to school period as an opportunity to launch a new product or service.

By listing the core benefits of their new online service for kids returning to school, Britannica make their campaign much more relatable to their target audience and, thanks to good timing, will likely generate more revenue from motivated parents  at the start of the school year.

Bose

Bose use big headlines and product photos to make their back to school campaign loud and exciting.

Emphasising the potential savings makes the offers even more tempting to prospective buyers and by only running the sale through a limited period, a sense of urgency is automatically generated.

Childsplay Clothing

As well as an eye-catching feature image, this back to school email by Childsplay Clothing also uses a bold, comic book style header to make the back to school theme clear from the get go.

This bold comic book style headline ties in great with the back to school theme

Tip: Use the font Bangers (found under Web Fonts) and experiment with shadow effects in Mail Designer 365 to reproduce a similar comic book headline in your own design:

Use the font Bangers to achieve this style in your own designs

Creating email templates for Back to School in Mail Designer 365

We hope you're now feeling inspired for the upcoming back to school period!

Mail Designer 365 is your one-stop solution for creating brilliant back to school emails. Whether you're building a template from scratch using the tools in the WYSIWYG editor or using one of our dedicated back to school HTML email templates, you will find all the tools and resources you need.

Don't have a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Sign up free today to start testing Mail Designer 365 and designing your own unique back to school campaigns.

A key factor behind successful email marketing is the ability to produce interesting content for your subscribers. One popular trend which has really taken off over the past few years is sending anniversary emails as a way to keep subscribers engaged with your business.

In this guide, we're showing you step by step, how to create awesome anniversary emails and sharing our favorite examples from the past few years.

Menu

• What is an anniversary email and why should I be sending them?
• Anniversary emails for customer milestones
• Anniversary emails for business milestones
• How to create anniversary emails

What is an anniversary email and why should I send one?

An anniversary email is sent to commemorate a special event or milestone. This can either be a customer's own personal milestone, or a general business milestone. Typically, the main aim of these emails is to maintain the relationship between your business and your email subscribers.

Here are some great advantages of sending an anniversary email:

• Make customers feel special. Anniversary emails can easily be integrated into your existing automated email workflow and sent out after certain triggers (e.g. 1 year after signing up). This is a great way to use email to make the customer journey more personalised.
• Create a new sales opportunity. Many businesses take anniversary emails as an opportunity to launch a sale or offer a discount code.
• Showcase your achievements. Use your anniversary email as a way to share your success with customers and other key stakeholders.
• Provide interesting email content. An anniversary email gives you the chance to put a unique spin on your typical marketing emails and provide new content.

Anniversary emails for customer milestones

Every business has a unique customer journey and aims to create a specific experience for both new and existing customers. This plays an important role when considering which milestones to celebrate.

Anniversary emails are a great addition to your automated email strategy, as they are unique to the recipient and therefore offer much more potential in terms of open rates and clicks.

Examples of customer anniversary emails

Here are some great examples of emails sent by businesses to celebrate customer anniversaries.

Grammarly

In this fun, birthday-themed email design by Grammarly, the customer is offered an exclusive discount. We especially like the way the white space in the design makes the messaging even clearer.

ModCloth

Keeping to the birthday theme, this email by ModCloth uses a colorful center graphic to win over customers and get them shopping on their site.

Twitter

This anniversary email by Twitter has a prominent CTA (call to action), prompting the recipient to spread the word on Twitter right away.

Uber

In this anniversary email, Uber reminds drivers of all they've achieved during their time together. Celebrating those key moments is an important part of improving the user experience for all and helps motivate drivers.

Playstation

In this mesmerising anniversary email design by Playstation, the customer is rewarded with fun bonus content. Thumbs up for the use of personalization in the main design of the email!

Anniversary emails for business milestones

As well as gaining access to the latest information on your products and offers, many customers signed up to your mailing list to learn more about your business. For this reason, sending out updates on important milestones your business achieves can also be very interesting to your customers.

These emails differ greatly from the customer-specific email examples we just showed. Generally, a business event such as a birthday or sales milestone is a big occasion and an excuse for a grander, one-off mailing.

Examples of business anniversary emails

Here are some examples of firms who have used email to creatively celebrate their anniversary with customers and stakeholders:

Casper

Casper stay nicely on brand with this fun anniversary email, sent out to celebrate their 2nd birthday.

Fitbit

The Fitbit team takes a slightly more formal approach in this email statement celebrating their 10th birthday. This kind of email is great, as it is also suitable for investors and stakeholders. We love the numbers section in the middle which recognizes their achievements so far.

DAVIDsTEA

This anniversary email by DAVIDsTEA is unique, as it combines the customer's personal milestones with the anniversary of the business. This helps the customer to feel like part of the business and strengthens the B2C relationship.

Harley Davidson

Harley Davidson sent out this impressive mail to celebrate the anniversary of one of their classic products. Releasing a unique, anniversary edition is one creative way to get more customers on their site.

Best Practice Tips and Ideas for Anniversary Emails

Now you've seen some great examples of anniversary emails, here are some best practice tips to abide by.

Use personalization

Emails are proven to be much more effective when speaking directly to the recipient. Use personalization in your anniversary emails to capture the reader's attention and let them know it's all about them.

Adding a first name placeholder is a simple way to ensure your automated email will address each recipient personally. Mail Designer 365 supports a wide range of placeholders, including Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and custom placeholders.

Offer a gift

Every anniversary is a special occasion and warrants a gift. In this case, it's just the same. Say thanks to your customers for their loyalty over the years and reward them with a free gift or special offer.

Vimeo offer customers an exclusive discount to celebrate their anniversary.

Highlight your shared experiences

As we mentioned, the customer experience is an important part of how your business connects with users. Particularly in service-based businesses, it's a good idea to celebrate your shared experiences with customers to help them feel more connected to you.

In this email by theSkimm, customers are reminded of their personal experience with the business over the last 5 years.

Reflect on shared experiences with customers to help strengthen their connection with your business.

Include a CTA

Every email needs a clear call to action and anniversary emails are no exception. Include a prominent CTA button in your email design to show the reader what their next steps are.

Here are some ideas:

• Shop now (i.e. with discount or promo code)
• Refer us to a friend
• Log in (i.e. to your service)
• Share the news (e.g. on Twitter)

How to Create an Anniversary Email in Mail Designer 365

Got a big anniversary coming up? Mail Designer 365 makes it easy to celebrate your success with customers and stakeholders.

Choose from one of our many HTML email templates, or use the drag & drop editor to build your own design using an impressive set of creative tools.

Once you've finished building your design, check out the huge range of export options to send your template to your chosen email service provider for a mass, one-time mailing, or a long term, automated campaign.

Not got a Mail Designer 365 plan yet? Download your free trial to get started.