Valentine’s Day provides the perfect opportunity to roll out email marketing campaigns that stand out. More than just a commercial tradition, the renowned “lover’s holiday” offers advertisers a strategic opportunity to strengthen customer relationships and increase engagement by touching the hearts of their audience.
In this pursuit of excellence, Valentine’s Day opens a chapter where each email sent is an opportunity to forge deeper connections with your clients, capitalize on emotion, and strengthen your brand image. During this period, there is a significant increase in email open rates by 20% and a higher click-through rate by 10% compared to other times of the year. Consumers, driven by a desire to celebrate and share, are more inclined to interact with content that resonates with the themes of love and appreciation.
These statistics ultimately underscore the importance of targeted and well-designed campaigns that leverage not only seasonality but also emotion and personal connection.
With the Dartagnan Email Builder and drawing inspiration from our clients’ campaigns, discover how to orchestrate Valentine’s Day email sequences that not only attract but also engage, foster loyalty, and convert. Let’s embark together on this adventure where each email is an ode to love, crafted with expertise and innovation
Design your emails in Valentine’s Day colors
Valentine’s Day is not just an unavoidable commercial event; it’s also a genuine tradition with recognized themes. The key is to figure out how to integrate them into your Email Design and give them a modern touch.
1. Adapt your patterns and email color palette to Valentine’s Day
To embody the passion and warmth of Valentine’s Day, red, pink, and motifs like ‘roses’ or ‘hearts’ have become essential.
Clichés? A bit, it must be said! But you can turn them to your advantage if you’re clever and creative in designing your Valentine’s Day email templates:
❤ By playfully subverting them
❤ By combining them with other colors like purple or gold that can bring an even more eventful and, dare we say, sexy touch
❤ On the contrary, by fully embracing them and playing up the ‘Too much’ aspect to the fullest!
2. Use more human-like fonts
According to a study published by the Psychology of Fonts, handwritten fonts tend to increase empathy, which can enhance the emotional connection with the recipient and take the email beyond its digital dimension. In a way, these fonts allow you to design your Valentine’s Day emails as if you were writing a love letter:
❤ Keep in mind that special fonts are generally not supported by most webmail services and email clients. Therefore, you can treat them as visuals (save in PNG format, embed them in an image, or place them on a background).
3. Pay attention to the staging of your product visuals
What visuals will best capture the spirit of Valentine’s Day? Is it an image evoking timeless romance, or a modern representation of love? Finding the right balance without falling into clichés is not an easy task.
To avoid this pitfall, consider the following:
❤ Vary your symbolic elements (a sunset, a natural landscape, etc.)
❤ Play with textures as much as with colors (a subdued atmosphere creates an intimate setting)
❤ Use humor to satirize clichés
4. Call-to-Action : Turn on sexy mode
How to design email CTAs that not only evoke Valentine’s Day but also prompt action? One thing is for sure; this occasion is more than ever an opportunity to be original!
And because we adore you madly, here’s a list of CTAs gathered from our clients’ campaigns: Inspired for Love ❤ Sexy is the new Black ❤ Turn on sexy mode ❤ Turn on cute mode ❤ I love ❤ I’m in love ❤ It’s a match ❤ A little ❤ A lot ❤ Madly ❤ Passionately ❤ Let yourself be charmed ❤ Say yes for life ❤
You can use the same copywriting for your section headings, as seen in this email from Sezane:
5. Melt Hearts with Your Valentine’s Email Subject Lines
The subject of your email is the first gateway into the world of Valentine’s Day. But how do you craft a subject that captures its essence while sparking curiosity?
If you’re only half as creative as our clients, you still have every chance of achieving a very high open rate. Here are some inspirations for you:
❤ Exclusive Subject: “For Valentine’s Day: Give her a precious jewel”
❤ Emotional Subject: “Delight your better half” “Gifts full of love ❤”
❤ Promotional Subject: “Valentine’s Day: Win 4 weekends to celebrate the occasion” “Appy’s Lover: -15% on your favorite gift ❤❤”
❤ Storytelling Subject: “Once upon a time, your love story” “Let’s talk about love” “❤️Write Your Love Story at Club Med All-Inclusive Resorts” “Buy yourself flowers”
❤ Fomo Subject: “21 last-minute addresses”
❤Fun Subject: “-20% on your XL menu* if you’ve just been dumped: 💔!” “Love speaks. And chat GPT.”
❤ Intriguing Subject: “Did you forget Valentine’s Day?” “Did you forget Valentine’s Day?”
❤Copywritten Subject: “Love is declared” “Fall in love with Dior: gift love like a bouquet” “For Valentine’s Day, offer sweet words and good vibes” “❤ All you need is love (and chocolate)”
Play the Emotion Card in Your Valentine’s Day Emails
Approaching Valentine’s Day, the ability to reach the hearts of your customers becomes crucial. How, then, can you infuse this emotional magic into your campaigns?
6. Touch Your Customers’ Hearts with Copywriting in Your Valentine’s Day Emails
According to a Nielsen study, emotionally charged content has a 30% higher retention rate than purely informative content. And what better occasion than Valentine’s Day to sharpen your style and deploy captivating copywriting?
❤ Craft Your Storytelling: Tell stories, perhaps of a love that defies time or a shared moment of happiness etched in memory.
❤ Incorporate Traditions: Include traditions that evoke warmth and conviviality.
❤ Offer Gift Ideas Beyond Material Items: Suggest experiences and memories to create.
❤ Contrast with Romantic Style: Humor works well too! Take a different approach to the romantic style.
7. Don’t overlook your single customers
The mistake to avoid in your Valentine’s Day emails would be to forget about singles or, more generally, all individuals who are not in a relationship. While love is timeless, it is experienced today in all its forms.
Instead of relying on traditional couple imagery, also consider celebrating self-love and friendship. You can:
❤ Focus your messages on “Self-Care”, “Taking time for oneself”
❤ Offer products, services, and promotions on self-care
❤ Suggest ideas for “Friendship”
❤ Play the “Single and Proud” card
8. Speak to Me About Love… Tell Me Tender Things
Engagement goes beyond a click or an email open; it’s about building a community. Take advantage of Valentine’s Day to let your audience speak and engage in a close dialogue:
❤ Encourage the sharing of love stories or self-love stories, and perhaps even rejections or awkward situations to play the humor card.
❤ Ask your subscribers to freely express what Valentine’s Day means to them.
❤ Diversify content with photos, videos, and testimonials.
❤ Create a dedicated hashtag to amplify the message and foster a sense of belonging.
❤ Let all opinions be heard.
9. Use User-Generated Content (UGC) to strengthen your community
By incorporating all these testimonials into your email campaigns, you can:
❤ Add a more human touch to your campaigns and brand
❤ Refresh the discourse around this event
❤ Boost your click-through rates and engagement with authentic, dynamic, fun content that resonates with your subscribers
Build an enticing Valentine’s Day offer and promote it in your emails
Before thinking about your email campaigns, consider building offers perfectly aligned with the expectations of this significant marketing event, Valentine’s Day. The email will then be the perfect platform to push them to your audience.
10. Let your customers know you love them
It’s the perfect opportunity to offer personalized promotions or thoughtful gifts that can transform a casual buyer into a loyal ambassador.
You can:
❤ Build dedicated campaigns to showcase these customer gifts
❤ Integrate your offers into your campaigns via dedicated blocks
❤ Large fonts, attractive design, top placement in the email: don’t forget to draw attention to them.
11. Organisez des concours
Contests and giveaways are powerful engagement tools. They invite your subscribers to interact playfully with your brand. Organize contests to encourage participation and offer products/services to promote your brand. Need ideas?
❤ The most beautiful love story
❤ Your best dates
❤ Your worst dates
❤ The prettiest Valentine’s Day photo
12. Schedule your themed product launches
Limited editions create a sense of urgency and exclusivity. They enhance the eventful nature of your product launch and give it a rare character.
Consider launching products specifically designed for Valentine’s Day and use your emails to highlight them.
“It’s going to be great getting dumped via text on Valentine’s Day.”
13. Prepare your shortlists
Make it easy for Valentine’s Day enthusiasts and lovers by creating a pre-selection of gift ideas. This simplifies the shopping experience and guides the customer in their quest for the perfect gift. It’s a great way to increase your conversion rate.
❤ Create blocks in your emails that directly link to specific sections on your e-commerce site.
❤ Align the design of your campaigns with your landing pages
❤ Focus your wording on the gift rather than the product selection
14. Segment your offers
Segmenting offers for “Her” and “Him” further simplifies the buying process and gift selection for your customers.
❤ Use 2-column blocks
❤ Align them in terms of design
If you don’t want to gender your suggestions, prepare a more neutral gift pre-selection.
15. Plan last-minute offers
Save the day for the less attentive lovers: prepare last-minute offers! A friendly reminder with an enticing offer can rescue the situation for procrastinators and turn urgency into gratitude.
❤ Pay attention to the timing of your campaigns: gifts should be easily accessible quickly.
❤ Use location data to push stores near your audience.
❤ Embrace humor; it works well.
❤ Offer a simple and quick-to-browse deal.
For Valentine’s Day, place email at the heart of your omnichannel strategy
Certainly, Valentine’s Day is a somewhat ancient tradition, but not your marketing strategy! So, how do you orchestrate an email strategy that resonates across all customer touchpoints?
16. Send valentine’s day teaser emails with cross-channel revelations
The curiosity is a powerful psychological lever. The teaser emails exploit this force. The anticipation of exclusive launches on your cross-media channels can keep customers invested and attentive. Your teaser emails can focus on:
❤ A product launch
❤ Exclusive offers
❤ Participation in contests
❤ The announcement of contest results and associated prizes
17. Invite your clients to exclusive events
According to Eventbrite, exclusive events can increase brand perception by 28%. What better way to make Valentine’s Day an event than through exclusive invitations to dedicated events?
Use email to invite your clients to product launches:
Use email to invite your clients to product launches:
❤ Consider variety: online or in-store events
❤ Prepare an email sequence: invitation – follow-up – reminder – thank you
❤ Prepare a dedicated and VIP charter for your events
❤ Collect written testimonials/photos and share them in your post-event emails
18. Launch multichannel storytelling campaigns
Initiate the beginning of a love story with your brand or a discovery in an email, then invite your clients to discover the conclusion on your blog, social media, YouTube channel, or even in-store.
In short, take advantage of this captivating narrative to introduce your various communication channels to your clients.
19. Include exclusive email-only promo codes
According to Shopify’s research, exclusive in-store experiences can increase conversion rates by 29%. Therefore, your omnichannel strategy must continue to emphasize the importance of the in-store experience.
❤ Use email to offer promotions exclusively valid in-store.
❤ Reserve these promo codes for the email channel exclusively to encourage your audience to subscribe to your newsletter.
20. Deploy your cross-Sell and upsell strategies in your valentine’s day emails
Use email to deploy your cross-sell and upsell strategies during Valentine’s Day.
Take advantage of Valentine’s Day to increase the average order value through personalized strategies.
Precisely segment your database to provide personalized recommendations and suggest complementary or premium products.
BONUS: Design retargeting campaigns
Well-designed retargeting campaigns, initiated through email, can remind customers of Valentine’s Day products they viewed but didn’t purchase.
Moreover, if your Valentine’s Day campaigns don’t convert, they will likely, at the very least, help enrich your database with a better understanding of your audience’s preferences.