Father’s Day in the UK is now less than a month away (21st June). Although it doesn’t seem to cause quite as much of a shopping frenzy as Mother’s Day, it still provides some excellent marketing opportunities. So, now is the time to start planning your email marketing campaign.
Father’s Day spending is on the rise, so it’s not a marketing opportunity to be ignored. But, people generally spend less time planning for it than Mother’s Day, and dads can be extremely difficult to buy gifts for. This means that you might have to get a little more creative with your email marketing campaigns. Here are a few ideas to help you get started:
Include the Date
According to research by Experian, 12% of all Father’s Day searches include the word ‘when’. That’s a significant number of people that don’t know what date it falls on! Your marketing emails can be used to remind your customers when Father’s Day is, so they don’t forget to make that all-important gift purchase.
In this example from Montezuma’s, they not only remind their customers of the date of Father’s Day, they also let them know when they need to place their orders by:
As well as not being too familiar with the date, people generally don’t have a huge sense of urgency when it comes to Father’s Day. Most people don’t finalise their plans until four to five days before the date. Your email marketing campaign can be used to give your customers a little push towards making a commitment. Rather than just sending out one Father’s Day mailing, send out a few to remind your customers that the date is approaching. This could be as simple as adding a little reminder to your subject line, like La Tasca did last year:
Don’t Just Aim Things At Dads
When designing and putting together a Father’s Day email campaign, it can be tempting to keep things very simple, practical and emotionless, like you (generally) would any campaign aimed at men. This, from Amazon, is the perfect example of a practical Father’s Day mailing:
However, it’s worth remembering that Father’s Day gifts are not, by and large, bought by men. Many Father’s Day purchases are made by women who, generally, respond more to marketing campaigns that resonate with their emotions. While you probably shouldn’t go over the top with it, injecting a little bit of emotion into your campaign can help you connect with a large proportion of the gift buying public.
Hipstamatic did this by including a picture of a father and child in their promotional email:
Get Creative
Not every business sells things, or offers services, that lends themselves to Father’s Day. If this is the case with your business, it don’t mean that you should forgo a Father’s Day campaign; it just means that you might have to get a little more creative with your emails. Think of ways you can relate your business to the day.
What arts and crafts retailer Hobbycraft sells probably wouldn’t make great gifts for dads. Instead, they shared some ideas for things people can make for Father’s Day:
As well as these ideas, there are many more ways you can celebrate dads with your email marketing. Try a few, test, and see which ones work for you.
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
