#89. Email Marketing Content Ideas for April 2022 | Podcast

Vira: 0:16

Today’s episode is about April. So we’re going to talk about April holidays, about monthly observances, about all of the things that you can really talk about in your emails in April.

Alissa: 0:50

Hello. Hello everyone and welcome back to Email Einstein. Vira and Alissa, here we are, two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are super passionate about email marketing and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world. We specialize in providing a premium, full service, e commerce email marketing experience for all of our clients. Our service tailored specifically for your business and is designed to help increase your online retail revenue. We deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment. That’s what we’re all about here at Flowium. And today’s episode, Vira, take us away.

Vira: 1:35

Today’s episode is about April. All things April, month of April. So we’re going to talk about April holidays, about monthly observances, about all of the things that you can really talk about in your emails in April. And also, spoiler alert, sometimes I will be muting myself because I’m like coughing like crazy because of COVID.

Alissa: 1:56

So Vira is literally recording this podcast while having Covid.

Vira: 2:00

That’s so funny. That’s so funny. I like, I finally had it after like two years. I thought I was like invincible. Some sort of like Neo from Matrix or something because like everyone had it in my circle and I haven’t. And then my husband went to a conference in Vegas and I guess he brought it.

Alissa: 2:18

What happened in Vegas did not stay in Vegas this time around.

Vira: 2:22

Apparently it didn’t this time around. So thank you, Vegas. I finally had a Covid, so I will be muting myself time to time. So don’t, don’t worry, we’re fine. But yeah, let’s talk some April holidays. I’m like so happy. We are finally at that point of the year where we can talk about like April holidays. Honestly, spring holidays are the best. April Fool’s Day and Easter and Earth Day. And just like generally people are happy in April. It’s beautiful outside. It’s officially not winter anymore. I’m excited about this month.

Alissa: 2:57

I love it.

Vira: 3:41

So let’s talk about the very first one and very obvious one. April 1st. April’s Fool’s Day. Actually this holiday is observed all over the world, which is funny. I don’t know the history of the holiday, but I remember like back in school our teachers were always like pranking us and we were like pranking our teachers. That was like so, so random. I love that holiday. Growing up. Is it like big in the States? Are you guys doing any like April’s Fool?

Alissa: 4:08

Pretty big. Like some families are real pranksters, but I’m not. My husband is, which makes me nervous for April Fool’s Day, this house. But I mean it is what it is. There are a lot of people who like go all out, really go all out for it.

Vira: 4:22

So I love it. I love that holiday. I love. But sometimes for businesses sending out April Fool’s email campaigns, it can be a bit like tricky, right? Like getting that messaging. Right. But the cheekier your brand voice is, the more fun your brand voice is, the more it might make sense to actually do something around this holidays and do some around this holiday do something like over the top do something fun and something creative. I really like this example of the, of the email from the company called V’s gear on April 1st a few years ago. They actually sent a bit of a risky email to be honest. But if you read, read the text quickly, you’ll notice that that was actually April Fool’s joke, the prank that the company said. So what they did, they said that they are actually have. Their store is closing. So they are doing 55% of almost everything with the code closing 55 or whatever. So they basically said that they are going out of business and they said that it’Ve great four years but we are packing up shop and heading to, heading to Antarctica to study the emperor penguins. So I mean, if you actually read the text, you’ll see that it’s a, it’s a joke. But the entire like messaging of the subject line and preview text and header image, it all looks very like, serious, you know, so you could actually believe them that, oh my goodness, my favorite brand. I wonder how people do business.

Alissa: 5:54

Yeah. And then you freak out and you’re

Vira: 5:56

like, they actually send the follow up email right after that saying something. Okay, yeah, it was a joke. Even the text of that, like email alone, like, who’s. Who’s going out of business and flying to Antarctica to study emperor penguins. Right. It’s weird, but that campaign was like pretty successful. So if you want to go a bit riskier this year, maybe you can do the same. That’s a fun little idea, but honestly, there are like so many, so many things you can do for April.

Alissa: 6:24

Risky Business. Risky Business is my favorite. Okay, so with Risky Business all done now we move into something pretty contrastingly different. We go into April 7, which is World Health Day. So it’s typically celebrated annually and each year it does draw a lot of attention to a specific health topic of concern for people all over the world. So some ideas for content that you can use. You can educate or share about your favorite healthy meals, recipes. You could have a sale in honor of whatever the specific topic is. Usually the World Health Day topics have to do with like being more mindful or like getting more sleep or anything like that. So whatever the topic is of the year. Actually, what is the topic of this year? That’s probably something this month. Oh yeah, this. Yeah. So this month is interconnectedness between the planet and our health, which I love. That’s really cute. That’s a lot of fun.

Vira: 7:15

So just focusing on with that talk. Yeah, you can talk about the earth sustainability, like going green and like health and everything.

Alissa: 7:23

Yeah, that’s something I was going to say to Vira is like the sustainability of like your packaging, like how you’re preserving the earth, like how it helps people when they receive your packaging, like different things like that. It’s definitely a good focus to have. So yeah, April 7th, World Health Day and then the next day, which honestly I love this day. It’s not that I actually celebrate it every year, but it is important for me. Siblings day. So this is a really good day to just recreate an old childhood photo.

Vira: 7:50

Oh my gosh, I love those.

Alissa: 7:51

Yeah, these are really funny and you see them like on Instagram pretty constantly and everything. But this is also a really good day to just send an awesome email campaign where you can do bogos and you’re basically telling people to buy one and then get one for their sibling. Anything like that. That’s kind of like a play on the day. Play on the day is a lot of fun. If you happen to also operate a family owned business, you can share your sibling story with customers as a way to kind of deepen your customers relationship or connection to your business and then also the people behind it. I actually just started while my husband did. There’s like a real estate show. It’s in French on Netflix. Remember what it’s called? I think it’s called like oh, here comes my French accent. Lia Gens where it’s like the agency, it’s four brothers and then parents and they basically run this real estate agency with like luxury homes in France. So it’s really cool.

Vira: 8:46

There’s also American show selling sunsets.

Alissa: 8:48

Yes.

Vira: 8:49

But it’s also run by siblings.

Alissa: 8:52

By. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Vira: 8:54

The Oppenheimer.

Alissa: 8:55

That’s right, that’s right, that’s right.

Vira: 8:56

Oh, look at you. They say you know all the names.

Alissa: 8:59

I binge that show hardcore. I love some ridiculous reality TV drama. But yes. Anyways, so those are two brands that could sell out a really good campaign for Siblings Day. But even if you’re not the Oppenheim group or Lia Gens, you could also send out a really fun campaign for siblings day. So April 8th. So check it out.

Vira: 9:20

Now when you said it, I actually have a sibling duo who’s running a Betas business and it’s one of my clients. Maybe. Yeah. Tionic is actually run by siblings.

Alissa: 9:30

No way. Vira, you have to do it. That’s so fun.

Vira: 9:34

We have to do something around Siblings Day. For sure. For sure. They’re a perfect combination too. The analytical sibling and the artsy or creative one. Wow.

Alissa: 9:46

They’re like, I love it.

Vira: 9:48

They’re unstoppable. Yeah. Cool. April 11th. It’s actually a big one too in the industry. Especially if you are in the pet industry in the pet niche. It’s a national pet day. Even though it’s very similar to Love your pet day that we celebrated. I think it was in March or something. Something I remember that we like recently talked about it. The national pet Day actually emphasizes supporting different organizations that help animal in needs. And honestly there’s like so much you can do for this holiday. You can use national Pet Day as an opportunity to connect with your customers. You can ask them to share the pictures of their pets. You can even show the pets behind the brand or share or share your thoughts on why this day matters to you. But also you can market different like pet themed product designs for your animal loving customers. It’s funny, I’ve seen this image of one brand that they are selling bras like and lingerie. But for the National Pet Day they said that we’re actually launching the pet bra collection or something. But what they did, they actually put the regular bras on puppies. It was super cute and super regular bra on a puppy. But everyone loves puppies. Obviously people who follow the brand love the brand. So why not connect the two, right? You can also spotlight your office puppies if you, if you have them do something like happy National Pet Day from our office pets or office pups. Dodge did a cool campaign too. So even like, even like brands that have nothing to do with pets, they also like capitalize on this holiday. And a few years ago Dodge the Car did a cool campaign. It was like a happy national Dog day. And they said something like Hank with the big dogs. And then they like like showcased their cars and something. So you can be creative, you can be creative. And also you can do some sort of like a loyalty sale because loyalty should be rewarded. But of course, as I mentioned, a lot of brands are emphasizes emphasizing supporting organizations that help animals in need. So maybe you could do sale plus some sort of like donation. So like the portion of this sale will go to ABC Shelter or whatever. So that’s something that a lot of brands are doing as well. So no matter whether you are in the pet industry or not, everyone love pets. Everyone loves dogs. Well, most people do. So why not? Why not doing something cute and good at the same time for the National Pet Day, April 11th.

Alissa: 12:19

I love it. I love it.

Vira: 12:21

I love dogs.

Alissa: 12:22

Who doesn’t love puppies? You’re right, Vira. You’re so right. Yes, we love puppies. Put a bra on any puppy and I’m sold.

Vira: 12:31

Not really.

Alissa: 12:31

That doesn’t make any sense. But anyways, okay, so April 17th is actually Easter Sunday this year, which it does fall a bit late and actually it’s interesting. So it actually falls in line perfectly with Passover, which is like I guess the Jewish version of Easter. So Passover for us starts on April 15th, the night of April 15th.

Vira: 12:51

So close together, super close together.

Alissa: 12:53

And then Passover is a week long. So yeah, Easter Sunday, April 17, which means that you have a lot of extra time to pull together an awesome Easter themed email campaign. And actually more than $18 billion are spent in usually around that holiday. So there’s like a lot of potential for people to spend money on your. In your brand and wow.

Vira: 13:12

18 billion. Yeah. Right.

Alissa: 13:14

That’s not a small or insignificant number. And actually I’m starting to already get some Easter emails in my inbox. So if you’re not doing it yet, you are just a little bit behind, like a little, little bit. So, yeah, there’s actually a fun one from Jack Threads that’s actually some pretty funny visual email content. And then they also combine it with a site wide 25% off incentive. But it’s basically like a picture of a little Easter bunny with his chocolate butt bit off, which is h. And yeah, I love me some chocolate bunnies. I love me some chocolate bunnies. But the other thing that we’re actually doing for one of our clients is we’re doing like an Easter egg hunt that’s starting a week before.

Vira: 13:54

I’m doing it too.

Alissa: 13:54

You are Vira? Great minds think alike.

Vira: 13:57

This is why we’re. Tell me more like, how are you doing it?

Alissa: 14:00

This is why we’re the email Einstein. So it’s actually for our client, Better Brand. So they sell bagels. And what we’re doing is we’re hiding a bagel in four different emails over the course of like two weeks. And the idea is that if you are receiving the email and you find one of the bagels, one of the hidden bage, the email, you have to screenshot it, reply to the email, which is good because that helps increase deliverability or improve deliverability because you’re having people engage directly with the email by replying. So that’s the first thing. So they have to send the screenshot back. And then once they send the screenshot back, then the team over at Better Brand will kind of keep note of it and whoever. Well, if you send back a screenshot of the found bagel for all four campaigns, then you basically get entered into a drawing where you’ll get a free eight pack and some merch, some Better Brand merch. So there’s like a big prize at the end, which is a lot of fun. And actually the really cool thing is it starts on the founder of the company’s birthday, April 10th. So we’re going from April 10th to April 17th. We’ll have four campaigns within that timeframe. April 10th is Amy’s birthday. Amy Yang, she’s actually the founder of Better Brand. Hey, Amy, if you’re listening to this, so it’s her birthday, so we’ll start the promo then and then it will end on actual Easter Sunday. So, yeah, I’m excited about it. How are you doing?

Vira: 15:16

Well, we’re going to do the Easter egg hunt, but we’re basically going to h eggs with discount codes and the emails. So they will be like hidden in the emails. You’ll have to find the discount code written on the egg.

Alissa: 15:28

Oh my gosh.

Vira: 15:29

Different. Different discount codes. Like, different sort of like tiers. You can use all of them, I guess. But obviously people will be hunting for the bigger one, but the bigger one will be hidden like really, really well. Yeah.

Alissa: 15:41

Are you just on Easter Sunday?

Vira: 15:44

No, we’re gonna start it a bit sooner for return customers. We’re gonna do it like a few days before, before the Easter or something. We always like to give those like VIPs and returned customers that like extra, extra time to shop on the sale and that like extra good treatment. But yeah, we’ll open the sale to everyone on like Easter Friday probably and we’ll end it on Monday. So that’s going to be a big one. Nice.

Alissa: 16:09

That’s a big one.

Vira: 16:10

That’s a lot of fun.

Alissa: 16:11

Yeah.

Vira: 16:11

No, people get creative around Easter time and it’s not necessarily about like Christian aspect of the holiday. Right. It’s more about like spring and egg hunt and all that kind of stuff. So. Ye. It’s not, it’s not necessarily like a religious holiday.

Alissa: 16:54

Yeah, it doesn’t need to be.

Vira: 16:56

It doesn’t. It doesn’t have to be. Yeah, it can be just like spring themed or like Easter egg hunt themed or whatever.

Alissa: 17:04

Candy themed. Chocolate themed.

Vira: 17:05

Candy. Chocolate.

Alissa: 17:06

Candy. Chocolate bitten off. But rabbit.

Vira: 17:11

Bring it. All the themes.

Alissa: 17:13

All the themes.

Vira: 17:14

Yes, please. Whatever. With chocolate in it. I’m there.

Alissa: 17:18

Yeah, I’m there. I’m there. I’m there.

Vira: 17:19

Yeah. April 20th. That’s a weird one. Which honestly I just learned about last year in Vancouver. Obviously it’s a big one in some circles.

Alissa: 17:28

Wait, you’d never heard of it before? That’s so funny.

Vira: 17:33

For the 420. 4 21. Yeah. How do, how do you, how do you call it? Is it like 420 or is it 4 slash 20?

Alissa: 17:40

No, it’s just 4. It’s 420 because. So this may be a myth, I’m not sure. But what I understand is that like police code for like in certain states, like when marijuana was illegal, is illegal, whatever it is. Like that’s what they would say. They would say like, I have a 420 and then that’s like the code for like, oh, I have like a marijuana illegal substance carrying or whatever. That’s why the holiday Came to be on 4 20, but I could be totally making that up. That might be something that I heard in high school, but 420 was like, a thing. Gosh, growing up for me, like, I never smoked. It just wasn’t my thing. But, like, I had a lot of friends who did in high school, and they’d be like, yeah, man, are you gonna smoke? Are you gonna celebrate 420? You know, and it was like, gosh, I was like 15 when I found out about that. So. That’s so funny, Vira, that this is new for you.

Vira: 18:26

When I found out about it. Y. Yeah, apparently it’s a big. Apparently it’s a big thing for 20s a day celebrating cannabis, like businesses and culture in general, which, honestly, I think it’s a holiday to, like, support the legalization and everything. But, like, in Canada, everything is, like, super legal, so probably they are just, like, celebrating. Oh, yeah. Everywhere. Like, literally everywhere. You can, like, buy it, you can, I guess, sell it. It’s.

Alissa: 18:49

And you can smoke. It’s not just for medical purposes in Canada. That’s so interesting.

Vira: 18:54

Everywhere. You can. You can buy it everywhere. Yeah, in. In each and every province. Province. Actually, a few years ago, they legalized it everywhere. Wow. It wasn’t, like, legal legal until, like, three years ago, but everyone was doing it. And now it’s like, it’s legal. You can, like, literally buy it in supermarket. Well, not in the supermarket, but you can, like, go to the stores and buy it. It’s. It’s all allowed. So, yeah, it’s. It’s interesting that this holiday is apparently a big one. So if you are in, like, a CBD industry or if you’re in marijuana in this, like, business, in, like, cannabis business business, do something fun. Go and go and celebrate it. It’s not a usual. Not a typical holiday. Right. But you can definitely do something creative with it. Maybe you can tell the reasons why you think cannabis should be, like, legalized in the States. Maybe you can do some sort of, like, sale. You don’t have to be in that industry to talk about it if you support the cause. So, yeah, you can do a lot of creative stuff for 420.

Alissa: 19:53

Yeah. 420, man. 420, man. Yeah, I’m making fun, but it’s funny.

Vira: 19:59

Yeah, I’ve never. I’ve never celebrated. Yeah.

Alissa: 20:01

Yeah. Okay. So 422 is April 22nd. So each year, April 22nd, we actually celebrate Earth Day. And this is actually something that I’m doing for one of my clients as well. Just talking about, like, their sustainability packaging and Everything. But we usually use this data, kind of show support for eco friendly initiatives. So brands usually try to raise awareness on the planet with their creative Earth Day ads and posts. So you have different ones that are like Earth Day every day where they showcase sustainable products and practices. There’s actually a really cool email example from under the canopy that sells sheets and towels. But in the email what they do is they specifically highlight the organic and chemical free process by which their cotton based products are created. So that’s really cool. The other thing that you can do as well. So like a brand that I actually used to work for a long time ago, Athleta, it’s actually a Gap owned brand. They’re very, very, very focused and aware of like sustainability practices, eco friendliness. They’re constantly trying to figure out ways to like minimize their carbon copy. They’re actually a B plus certified.

Vira: 21:09

What does it mean?

Alissa: 21:10

Company, which basically means like there’s a certain level of like sustainability and like best practices that help promote like world health, like the earth’s health, like our planet’s health that they’re committed to abiding by like on a regular basis. It’s actually a really interesting certification if you’re interested in knowing more. Certified corporation is what it is. So yeah, so it’s, it’s really like. So I just looked it up really quick. But it’s a global nonprofit network that transforms the global economy to benefit people, communities and the planet. So a lot of it has to do with like, what are your hiring practices, what are the practices that you maintain as a company, like internally, but then also like what are you doing to better the earth around you? So with Athleta, the cool thing about them is when they send out campaigns, like they’re not selling any aspect of their product, they’re really focusing on initiatives that the brand as a whole are really pushing that year in honor of Earth Day. So like for example, when I used to work there, like one of the initiatives for that year was to like initiate. So have all of the brick and mortar stores initiate a beach cleanup near you. And if you don’t live near a beach but you live near a lake or something like a park cleanup or anything like that. So just anything that helps to promote these events or different kinds of events that, or inspire your customers to start these kinds of events that will kind of help promote Earth Day and just generally speaking, bettering and improving our planet. And the other thing that you can do, as always, is you can find a cause or a nonprofit or another effort that’s in your local community, like, where your business is based, or encouraging others to find stuff like that that helps and is related to, like, the land, ocean, air, animals, something like that that sort of aligns with your business. And the other thing that you can do is you can also offer to donate a certain portion of sales to cover to help with the nonprofit that you’re kind of going towards or moving towards. So it very powerful, especially because there are a lot of initiatives in our day and age that are really oriented towards promoting the Earth’s health and making sure that, like, we’re recycling, not wasting water, different things like that. So there’s a lot that you can do there. And honestly, like, I’ve even seen some brands where they’re like, yes, today is Earth Day, but, like, for the next three weeks, we’re doing ABC where, like, they really carry it out for a longer period of time because it’s important, right? We have to take care of the world that we live in.

Vira: 23:25

So, like, in every day is an Earth Day sort of thing, right?

Alissa: 23:29

Yeah, exactly. Every day. Every day is an Earth Day. Every day is an Earth Day. If it should be like that.

Vira: 23:36

Yeah. Honestly, guys, there are, like, so many funky and weird holidays in April too. But we decided, like, this time we decided to focus on, like, some big ones. Right. But just like, go ahead and Google some, like, funky holidays if that’s. If that’s something you want to do this month and. Yeah, and come back next month. Because every month we’re trying to do this, like, calendar in advance to give you some inspirations and some ideas for your upcoming campaigns. And thank you for listening as always. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. And if you have any questions at all and you’d like to us to feature you or someone you know on our podcast or episode, send them in at flowium.com/ask and we’d be happy to connect.

Alissa: 24:21

Yay. I love it. I love this podcast. And make sure that you tune in for next week. We have a very special special guest and we’re going to be talking about retention marketing. Okay, let’s sit down and talk about, like, important retention strategies and tactics. And that’s what we’re going to do next week. And this is like, a hot topic for everybody, so make sure that you come back and join us. Our special guest is very special and, like, the awesomest dude ever. His name is Robbie Fitzwater. He’s an MBA professor. He’s an agency owner. Like, do I really need to say more.

Vira: 24:54

No.

Alissa: 24:55

Without giving too much away. So come back next week and thank you guys as always, for. For listening.

Vira: 25:00

Thank you for listening. Bye.