Current events allow you to join the conversation and get your brand message out.
Email marketing. It’s something you’re already doing as part of your digital marketing strategy. But there is an opportunity in email marketing. That opportunity is to use current and trending events to show your customers what your brand is all about.
Whether it is to stand up and help people after a natural disaster, announcing your stance on a hot topic, or simply celebrating the season or holiday — email marketing around current events and trends is a great way to get your message out.
Here’s what you’ll learn from this article:
- Why you should use current events and trends in your email marketing strategy
- Examples of emails that use current events, topics, holidays, and more
- How to develop an email around a trending topic
- Some different events and trends that you can plan for
Make a Splash Using Current Events
Staying ahead of trends and events happening in the world and within your industry will help you tap into those events. Whether it is an upcoming holiday, world event, or even a silly national everyone is talking about, it’s an opportunity for your email marketing. By tapping into the noise about the current event, you have the potential to reach more people and use the event or trend to tell people more about your company.
The challenge that comes with current event marketing is that it’s not always something you can plan out six months in advance. For holidays or other set dates, yes, it is possible to plan for that. But for trending events that hit unexpectedly, you have to think fast and build out your plan as soon as the trend starts.
To do this, you need to know what is going on in the world around you. Paying attention to headlines, trending topics and hashtags on social media, and even set up email alerts will help you know when something new breaks.
One company that has done this well is Lush. The cosmetic company put their stance out on climate change and showed their email subscribers what the company is passionate about. They then link to a product that proceeds are donated to a humanitarian cause.
Once you’ve identified the current event that aligns with your company and brand, then it’s time to start creating the email strategy to get your name in the game.
Developing Current Event Emails
When you are ready to develop your email around the current event trending, you need to determine how it fits with your company and how you want to share the message. Keep in mind that you don’t want to waste your time creating something that will simply be deleted. You want this email to stand out and capture the attention of your subscribers.
So the first thing you’ll want to do is determine how you want to respond to the event. Can you use this as an educational opportunity for your subscribers? If that’s the case, then maybe sending emails with informational and educational content around the trend and how your company aligns with the trend.
Another option depending on the current event you’re getting involved with would be to take a stance. This one can be a little tricky because depending on the topic or events happening, there is a chance of offending or losing customers based on your stance and theirs. But it’s a great opportunity for you to get your company’s message out to the crowds.
The email example above from Lush cosmetics seems to have used a little bit of both education and taking a stance in the email example above. They let customers know their opinion on the topic while trying to help educate.
Once you have an idea of how you want to approach the email, now it’s time to start drafting it. Here are a few tips for the content creation and design of your current event emails:
- Make sure to include the event or trend in the subject line and include content that is catchy and eye-grabbing to encourage opens.
- Include the information about the trend throughout the article, but don’t forget to pull in your company’s brand and message.
- These emails should still be short and concise. Talk about the trend but get to the point sooner rather than later. You don’t want to lose your readers.
- Don’t forget to include a call to action for your company and make sure it is clear so everyone knows what the next step is.
- When designing these emails, don’t forget to use imagery that fits the trend and your brand. If needs to make sense and still have a sense of what your company is and stands for.
From there, you just need to put it all together and hit the send button. The great thing about these events is that it doesn’t have to stop at just email marketing. You can use these relevant events to beef up your social media reach and potentially bring in new customers.
Looking at this example promoting Halloween, you can see that Pet Supplies Plus did a great job at crafting this email. The subject line read: Creep it real this Halloween and the content throughout matches the brand and Halloween appeal.
They also use the email to provide customers with educational content around how to keep their pets safe during the holiday while also promoting some pretty adorable costumes.
Holidays are one of the easiest trends to plan and promote for. They provide you with a fun creative way to get your message out and join the conversation already happening. Image courtesy of Pet Supplies Plus.
It Doesn’t Have to be Breaking News
Although tapping into breaking news and trending events sounds like the sexier version of current event marketing, there are a number of events and holidays that you can plan for. You’re most likely already doing this for the big holidays that end the year, but there are many other opportunities you could be planning for.
Here are a few different examples of how you can plan to take advantage of the hype around events.
Use the silly national days everyone likes to post about on social media. There are hundreds of national days, so there has to be at least one opportunity for everyone. Plan ahead and create an email to go along with the social media craze.
Did you even know there was a National Pet Fire Safety Day? Well, the American Humane Association does and they send educational content out to their email subscribers so they know and can learn tips on how to keep their pets safe. Image courtesy of American Humane marketing.
If you’re a company selling products for pets send an email out on “National Love Your Pet Day.” Or if you own a restaurant you could be celebrating “National Mac and Cheese Day,” because who doesn’t love some delicious mac and cheese?
Use the seasons to your advantage. You know when the seasons change and know that there are many appealing things to consumers about each season. Use that to your advantage in your email marketing. An example of this could be letting your email subscribers know that winter is coming and now’s the time to buy a new trendy coat before the snow begins to fall.
Short and sweet. This email is a great example of how using the changing seasons and playing off of everything Fall has to offer can be appealing for email subscribers – the 40% off sales is sure to bring in some shoppers as well. Image courtesy of Pinterest.
Start Using Trends in Your Email Marketing
Although they are two very basic examples, it shows that there are so many different trends and events happening that you can plan for. You don’t have to sit around and wait for breaking news to happen to start the conversation with your email subscribers. By joining in on the trending events happening around you, your company can tap into the community already interested.
