Memorial Day Emails That Boost Sales

The most important time of the year is upon us once again. Memorial Day is a time to remember those that have made sacrifices for our freedom and it signals the start of summertime. Naturally, marketing departments are gearing up to send Memorial Day emails that won’t ruffle any feathers but help their bottom lines.

Acciording to a study, shoppers planned to spend an average of $486 on Memorial Day weekend last year. While Memorial Day presents an opportunity to make a boatload of cash, it’s also a very special holiday. Memorial Day is a time of remembrance first and foremost before anything else.

Memorial Day email templates

Evidently, your marketing tactics matter a lot during this holiday. You must think everything through before execution. Things like your overall Memorial Day email message or Memorial Day email templates have to be duly considered.

Pro tip: Email marketing software with pre-built templates can decrease your expense by streamlining holiday promotions.

For example, Constant Contact has seasonal email templates that can be modified accordingly to suit your brand. That means you won’t have to pay for a custom design and it makes putting your promotions together more efficient.

Now, time for some Memorial Day email marketing ideas you can try.

1. Aim for the heart

A lot of emails focus on the fun and happy side of Memorial Day weekend, which isn’t a bad thing. However, you might fare better by focusing on the true meaning of Memorial Day: honoring the people that lost their lives so we all can enjoy everything we have today.

Of course, your Memorial Day email message has to fit the nature of your brand. However, you can still connect your messaging to Memorial Day’s true meaning.

A subtle but visible message above the fold of your email will suffice. The following email by Postmates, an on-demand delivery and pickup platform, is a fine example of aiming for the heart with good intentions.

The email

Subject line: What Memorial Day Means to Postmates

They did a great job ensuring that the main focus was Memorial Day itself, not Postmates. Reading it conveys a warm feeling even though the ultimate goal of Memorial Day emails is to sell or increase revenues.

2. Use scarcity

Imagine you’ve been thinking about getting that 85 inch Samsung TV you’ve wanted for months. One day you receive an email from the store manager stating that they’ll no longer carry that television model after 24hrs. Plus they added a sweet 20 percent discount for good measure. Suddenly, you want it bad.

What would you do? Well, most people will pull out their wallets without giving it much thought. This is the principle of scarcity in action. It is the limited or perceived finite availability of something.

Generally, human beings are more motivated by the fear of losing rather than gaining something. You can use this in your Memorial Day emails and that’s exactly what Home Depot did with the following.

The email

Subject line: Coupon Inside + Light Up Your Memorial Day

They were sure to evoke the feeling of limited availability in the following way. Writing “Today Only. Online Exclusive” at the top of their email in highly visible text tapped into the scarcity principle. Now that’s how you get consumers to shop online!

3. Emphasize Memorial Day festivities

People are already making plans and a lot of that is going to involve barbecues, shopping, and drinking among others. You can play on this fact by sending out Memorial Day emails that remind folks of festivities. Remind consumers what it feels like to have fun and eat delicious food with family, including friends.

But also remind them that your store is a go-to for all things needed to make their festivities grand. Preferably, this should be done in the leading up to and on Memorial Day. In this case, you’ll need a series of emails.

The following from Steven Alan, an online retail store, is a great example of playing on festivities.

The email

Subject line: Memorial Day sale

That email creatively reminds people of what’s to come and gets the Memorial Day message across extremely well.

4. Go for a summer theme

Things start to heat up in the month of Memorial Day, which means summer is just around the corner. Consumers generally have a need to replace and/or purchase stuff during this time. Things like buying new summer clothes, getting a new grill, opting for some patio shades, etc.

That’s right, summer “tis the season”. At least, for spending money and you can capitalize on this trend by conveying excitement for the summer. Use summertime pictures and colors in your Memorial Day emails such as bright red or anything with the right tone.

The following is a great example from Terrain, an outdoor products retailer. They cleverly offered a discount and reminded people of the upcoming summer.

The email

Subject line: A Memorial Day Sale in stores

Everything about that Memorial Day email reminds you of the outdoors.

5. Segment and attack

Email segmentation is the process of dividing your subscribers into smaller groups or segments. This allows you to deliver more personalized Memorial Day emails. You can accomplish this using a very good email marketing software.

For instance, Drip lets you assign tags to subscribers (e.g. flash sale, PDF download, etc.). Then you can segment your list using those tags to send more personalized emails. Sending completely or slightly different emails to multiple groups can increase your conversion rates because you’ll be more focussed on their needs.

Here are some ways you can segment your list.

• Use geography-based segmentation so that you can appeal to each city or location differently.
• Group your loyal customers into one segment and offer them a different deal.
• Add everyone who hasn’t purchased from your company before into a segment and tailor emails accordingly.
• Place previous Memorial Day weekend shoppers into a different segment.

Memorial Day subject lines that work

Here’s the thing. One or more of the following three things must be present for any title regardless of intention. These are a) curiosity, b) promise and c) implied instant gratification.

Curiosity is the “I have to know” thing you feel whenever there’s an information gap. A promise is the “what’s in it for me” factor. Implied instant gravitation is taking advantage of our general habit of wanting things quickly or “magic bullet” thinking.

All of the aforementioned are powerful motivators with the most used for Memorial Day emails being Promise. Let’s look at some real examples of Memorial Day subject lines used in the past by some major brands.

Brand: Ralph Lauren
Subject line: Ends Today: Up To 55% Off At Our Memorial Day Weekend Sale Event

Brand: Madewell
Subject line: Extra 30% off sale ends tonight

Brand: LOFT
Subject line: Next stop… summer (& EVERYTHING on sale)

You may have probably noticed that scarcity is present in the first two examples, which we discussed earlier. However, every subject line uses the “what’s in it for me” factor (aka Promise). A promise will perform significantly better when it comes to promotional holiday emails.

Getting noticed is key

These Memorial Day email marketing ideas will serve you well but remember that it’s a very busy time. Your customers will be receiving a lot of offers from companies competing for their attention. That means you have to get creative or think a bit outside the box when designing your email campaigns to get noticed.

Ensure your Memorial Day subject lines and the first 100 characters of your copy gives consumers a reason to pay attention. Incorporate the holiday spirit into your marketing campaigns and use segmentation to boost sales.