back to school supplies

Best Practice for Back to School Email Campaigns: Our Top Tips and Examples

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

As the peak of summer edges closer, so does the start of the back to school season. In many sectors, the back to school season is one of the most significant sales periods on the marketing calendar and kick starts an array of exciting promotions to help gear up students and parents alike for a new academic year.

For many, the back to school period is synonymous with getting stocked up with supplies: Whether it's a new wardrobe, textbooks, study equipment, tech, or other school essentials, your customers will be in the mood to buy. For this reason, a back to school promotion is a great way to put your business on their radar.

back to school supplies

The Back to School period is a major shopping event for parents and students alike

In this post, we're sharing the basics of back to school email marketing, along with some best practice examples of some of our favorite back to school email campaigns and steps on how to recreate them for your business.

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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:

back to school promotion by grammarly

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.

back to school pennant graphic - made in Mail Designer 365

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.

back to school email from Staples

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.

fun email campaign for back to school by Kate Spade

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:

building a back to school promotion 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).

back to school email promotion by vitruvi

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.

back to school product launch campaign by britannica

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.

back to school promo by Bose

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.

back to school email campaign by childsplay clothing

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:

back to school comic book style headline in mail designer 365

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.

back to school shopping design idea

html email template for back to school promotions

back to school sale html email template

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.

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Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.
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Enjoyed this post?

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your one stop hub for all things email marketing strategy and newsletter design.

What's New in Mail in macOS 13 Ventura?

By Uncategorized
Apple have just announced brand new macOS 13 Ventura and it is set to introduce some major new features to the Mac when it's released this Fall. Among these features is an exciting new feature-set for their native Mail app.

Following on from last year's introduction of Mail Privacy Protection to the Mac, Apple have spruced up Mail even more under macOS Ventura. The new Mail features are set to vastly improve email productivity and even serve as a potential lifeline against email fails - if you're fast enough!

new mail features in macOS Ventura

Discover all the new Mail features coming to macOS 13 Ventura below.

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LGBTQ+ rainbow flag

LGBTQ Pride Month Email Templates - Ideas and Inspiration

By Uncategorized

June is just around the corner, which means it's time to start considering your LGBTQ Pride Month email campaigns!

The Pride movement is one of great significance in the US as well as all over the world. In this guide, we will take you through the basics of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, including great examples of email templates for LGBTQ Pride and creative campaign ideas.

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What is LGBTQ Pride and why do we celebrate it?

LGBTQ+ Pride Month is an annual event taking place every year throughout the month of June. Like all international Pride events, this month celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and aims to promote equality and raise awareness of challenges faced by LGBTQ individuals across the world.

Why is LGBTQ Pride Month in June?

In the USA, Pride Month is celebrated in June. This is to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of June 1969 - a prominent turning point in LGBTQ history which paved the way for the gay rights movement across the world.

Although LGBTQ+ Pride Month is celebrated in June in the US, many other countries also have their own dedicated Pride events throughout the year.

What should my business do for LGBTQ Pride Month?

As a business, showing your support for the Pride celebrations in your country is a great way to demonstrate inclusivity and a positive working environment for both staff and customers.

Alongside social media, email is also a great channel to use to support LGBTQ Pride. Many businesses spend time creating meaningful email campaigns to either promote a Pride event, spotlight important charities or show solidarity with their LGBTQ+ community.

Email Template Inspiration for LGBTQ Pride Month

LGBTQ Pride is most famously associated with the rainbow motif. The colors of the rainbow are representative of the diversity within the LGBTQ+ community and the symbol is frequently included in Pride Month email templates and other campaign materials.

LGBTQ+ rainbow flag

Other important elements of an effective Pride campaign may include:

  • Words of support for LGBTQ+ staff and customers
  • Promotion of LGBTQ+ charities
  • Special events like parades and festivals
  • Dedicated product launches
  • Information and awareness about issues in your local community

Here are some bold and colorful examples of Pride Month email templates which you can use as inspiration for your own campaigns.

Spotify

LGBTQ pride email by Spotify

Spotify take the rainbow theme seriously in this color-overload email design that perfectly captures the vibrant nature of the occasion.

Uber Eats

pride email design by uber eats

This campaign by Uber Eats is more serious and highlights what the company are doing to promote equal rights for all their employees and customers as well as what they wish to improve on.

YouTube

LGBTQ pride event email by YouTube

Events play a large part in Pride Month celebrations and in recent years, these have been both virtual and in person. YouTube's example of an exciting Pride event invitation is a lot of fun and helps get the recipient in the mood for a celebration.

Tripadvisor

pride email campaign by tripadvisor

In this email campaign, travel giants Tripadvisor use their platform to promote upcoming LGBTQ Pride events around the world. They also take the time to include some of the history of the Pride movement.

New Look

LGBTQ pride email campaign by new look

LGBTQ pride email campaign by new look

In this special Pride campaign, New Look shared the stories of LGBTQ individuals within their organisation to promote inclusivity.

Dr Martens

The Dr Martens team also incorporate the rainbow theme in this charity-focused email campaign, shining the spotlight on LGBTQ+ charities.

Goodreads

Goodreads used their platform to highlight books that are particularly relevant for the LGBTQ+ community and therefore perfect for Pride Month.

Reebok

LGBTQ pride email campaign by reebok

In recent years, many retailers have chosen to launch a themed Pride collection for LGBTQ+ Pride Month - often with the proceeds going to charity. Reebok have taken a similar stance in this rainbow themed campaign.

Canva

pride email by canva

Web designers Canva curated a Pride themed collection of templates which they showcased in this colorful email.

Creating LGBTQ+ Pride Month email templates in Mail Designer 365

We hope you're inspired and ready to start working on your email campaigns for LGBTQ Pride Month.

In need of some more inspiration? Mail Designer 365 offers a diverse collection of Pride themed email templates - perfect for a bold event invitation or a meaningful show of solidarity to the LGBTQ+ community.

You can try out all of these tips and Design Ideas in Mail Designer 365. Download the app for free today and see what you can create.

Get started with Mail Designer 365 today

Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.
No credit card required
Compatible from Mac OS X 10.11 onwards

Enjoyed this post?

Get more inspirational tips, tricks, and best practice examples in the Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy -
your one stop hub for all things email marketing strategy and newsletter design.

Top tips for Easter email marketing

Easter Email Campaign: How to Egg-cel at Email Marketing this Easter

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

As one of the biggest holidays of the year, Easter creates the perfect opportunity for your business to do something special. Creating an Easter email campaign is one great way in which you can get involved in the seasonal fun this year.

Designing an email template to use for your Easter email campaign is super fun, but with so many businesses competing, you want to make sure your campaign stands out to your customers.

Here are some of our top tips how you can egg-cel (we think we're funny) at email marketing this Easter season, plus some awesome examples of previous Easter campaigns...

Tips for Your Easter Email Campaign

Try out a new color scheme

With Easter falling in the middle of spring, it's fun to change things up in your email design and opt for a bright, fresh new color scheme.

Typically, pastel colors are popular at this time of the year and really give your design a springtime feeling. Experiment with different background colors, or just a subtle pop of color in your headline or CTA (call-to-action) buttons.

Bright orange and yellow tones are also typical in many Easter-themed designs. Again, if you want to keep things simple, you can use these colors as an eye-catcher to help highlight important aspects in your design.

Yellow and orange Easter email campaign by J Crew

J Crew go all out with colors in this bold Easter-themed design.


Easter email design by B + C

This design by B + C shop keeps it more simple and uses yellow to highlight headlines and important text.

Include typical Easter themes

Lambs, the Easter Bunny, small chicks, Easter eggs, etc; these are all traditionally associated with the start of spring and the Easter celebration. Incorporating some of these symbols into your email design will help make the Easter theme clear from the get go.

Easter email by Sunuva

Sunuva use a sweet bunny/Easter egg combination as their feature image in this Easter email campaign.

Tip: Check out Unsplash to find a huge range of license-free stock images to use in seasonal email designs. Mail Designer 365 offers direct Unsplash integration in the app, so you can browse our curated collection, or use the search feature to find exactly what you need:

Searching for Easter stock images in Unsplash

Use Unsplash integration in Mail Designer 365 to search for relevant images to use in your Easter email campaign

Hold a sale

Spring is a very transitional time, which makes Easter a great occasion to hold a new season sale or special promotion. Send out an email campaign promoting your latest products, so customers are prepared for the new season.

Of course, a regular X% off sale is also always effective - especially during a special occasion.

Sales such as this work particularly well for fashion brands, furniture retailers, and consumer goods businesses, where stock is frequently being updated.

Easter email campaign by Oasis

Oasis use Easter as the perfect excuse to hold a new season promotion.

Promote family activities

As well as many school holidays taking place around this time, bank holidays also often fall around Easter. This makes it a great occasion for service- or activity-based businesses to profit from.

Use your Easter email campaign to promote fun activities that the whole family can do together and get customers inspired.

Try putting together a holiday activity guide or suggesting some top travel locations for the time of year. Helping customers come up with creative ways to keep their kids entertained over the holidays is always a big win.

Trainline's travel-themed Easter email campaign

Trainline sent out this email campaign to give customers ideas of things to do over Easter.

More Examples of Easter Email Campaigns

Here are some more awesome Easter email campaigns that demonstrate these best practice tips...

New Look

In this colorful email design, New Look include some fun pastel tones to compliment their Easter promotion:

Easter promotion by New Look

Packlane

Packlane also use a seasonal shade of pastel blue in the background. The calendar date at the bottom of the design is also a smart way to remind customers of the upcoming holiday and create a subtle sense of urgency.

Packlane's Easter email campaign

NOW TV

This bold design by NOW TV contains a classic Easter egg graphic to make things seasonal. In addition, it also stays relevant by providing a suggestion of something to do over the holiday weekend.

NOW TV Easter email campaign

Hobbycraft

This sweet Easter email campaign by Hobbycraft simply focuses on wishing all subscribers a Happy Easter. The pop of yellow in the center graphic is also bang on trend for the occasion.

Happy Easter message by Hobbycraft

Fortnum & Mason

What would Easter be without some delicious chocolate? This Easter egg buying guide by Fortnum & Mason incorporates all the right colors and seasonal imagery, while also showcasing their top products.

Easter egg buying guide by Fortnum & Mason

Creating Easter email templates in Mail Designer 365

We hope you're inspired and ready to start trying out these Easter email campaign ideas. Remember to be bold with your email designs in order to convince your readers.

In need of some more inspiration? Mail Designer 365 offers a diverse collection of Easter email templates - perfect for a seasonal promotion or vibrant Easter email campaign.

You can try out all of these tips and Design Ideas in Mail Designer 365. Download the app for free today and see what you can create.

Get started with Mail Designer 365 today

Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.
No credit card required
Compatible from Mac OS X 10.11 onwards
How to create anniversary emails

How to Create Awesome Anniversary Emails - Plus Examples We Love

By Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy, Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

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.

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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.

Anniversary email by Grammarly

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.

Anniversary email design by ModCloth

Twitter

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

Anniversary email by Twitter

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.

Anniversary email by Uber

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 email by Playstation

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.

Anniversary email by Casper

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.

Anniversary email statement by Fitbit

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.

Anniversary email by DAVIDsTEA

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.

Product anniversary email by Harley Davidson

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.

Anniversary email promotion by Vimeo

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.

Anniversary email by theSkim

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.

Get started with Mail Designer 365 today

Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.
No credit card required
Compatible from Mac OS X 10.11 onwards

Enjoyed this post?

Get more inspirational tips, tricks, and best practice examples in the Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy -
your one stop hub for all things email marketing strategy and newsletter design.

NEW: Mail Designer 365 Version 2.8 with Seasonal Templates and Sales Graphics

By Uncategorized
November is here, which can only mean one thing: It's time to start getting ready for the festive sales season! To help you along the way, the latest Mail Designer 365 version brings a selection of brand new seasonal sales templates to the app, plus new graphics and important optimization for macOS Monterey.

Find out everything that's new in version 2.8 in our detailed update guide...

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