Easter Sunday is fast-approaching, with this year’s spring holiday falling on April 17, 2022. Thinking of running an email marketing campaign to make this holiday “eggstra” special? Read our top tips for creating an awesome Easter email newsletter—or simply Spring-themed if that’s what you’re after.

Create my free Easter newsletter with Sendinblue >>

How to Make Your Easter Newsletter Relevant

From a commercial point of view, Easter sales aren’t on the level of Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or Black Friday – that’s for sure. Holiday email marketing strategies often focus on these fall and winter shopping occasions.

However, Easter email campaigns still offer lots of creative opportunities and untapped potential for ecommerce retailers.

Easter signals the coming of spring—warmer weather and more sunshine.

A spring newsletter is a great way to freshen your subscribers’ inboxes with spring collections and seasonal offerings.

It’s also a nice off-season occasion to remind people that you’re still open for business and give them ideas of things they can do with your products. Like in this Spring newsletter example from Whole Foods Market:

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The lead-up to the Easter holiday is a great time to promote sales (with special offers, discount codes, or opportunities to earn loyalty points). The long weekend offers plenty of time for online shopping.

A great time to promote seasonal goods

Many goods are in high season during Easter. After Halloween, Easter is the second best-selling candy holiday in America. Typical Easter goods, such as sweets and decorations, are guaranteed to sell.

In general, leisure and sporting activities/equipment are also very popular. Themes around DIY and spring-cleaning also do well. 

Newsletters that make a seasonal thematic connection to Easter can significantly increase your chances of success. 

Since the Easter season is associated with traditions, you’ve got plenty of opportunity to incorporate them into an Easter newsletter. 

Referencing these traditions increases relevance and fosters an emotional response within your recipients. Play on those heartwarming feelings.

Easter is a great time to get in touch with your clients and show off your latest offers. So let’s hop to it with Easter newsletter ideas and tips to make the holiday a revenue-driver for your business.

6 Ways to Make Your Easter Newsletter a Success

1. Bunnies, nests, eggs, flowers: The right ingredients for your Easter newsletter

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Creating an Easter newsletter is the perfect opportunity to unleash your creativity. The holiday offers plenty of inspiration for creative newsletter ideas.

The first step to any good newsletter is defining your goals and strategy. Ask yourself, “What am I looking to achieve with this campaign? What will my contacts get out of it?” Check out this article on how to create a newsletter for more details on how to fine tune your strategy.

Once you’ve defined the goal of your newsletter, you can start brainstorming ideas for the design.

Try to structure your newsletter according to your goals, then adapt the design to be on-theme.

For example, place your products in a spring context. Place offers inside an Easter basket or have the Easter Bunny give your clients a coupon voucher.

Beyond the religious significance, people associate the Easter holidays with family, food, spring, games (such as egg hunts), and new beginnings. Sales aside, be sure to wish your subscribers a happy Easter as well.

Typical Easter motifs—eggs, chicks, and flowers—can provide inspiration for your newsletter. Pastel hues are also a popular Easter color scheme.

2. Design tips for your Easter email template

Crafting your Easter newsletter is easy with an Easter-themed email template. 

Simply add your own content and images, and in a few easy steps, your Easter newsletter is ready to hop into your contacts’ inboxes.

Use graphics that draw on Easter motifs to suit your products, industry, or target audience. 

As well, there are loads of Easter and springtime emojis to include in your campaign.  

Whether you’re coding in HTML or using a drag-and-drop editor, the email design can be serious or playful, depending on your needs and target audience. That said, you should aim for it to be vibrant and eye-catching in any case.

For example, for the following industries, your Easter newsletter might look like this:

• Fashion: Floral design in the teaser, packaging products in Easter eggs or baskets, arranging the products in hatching eggs or among spring flowers.
• Home: Using floral and spring motifs and Easter decorations and interior designs.
• Food: Highlighting Easter menus, chocolate, and candy.

To capture your subscribers’ attention, experiment with animation in your newsletter. 

GIFs in email are a great way to engage your recipients and help your Easter newsletter stand out. Just be sure to compress your GIFs beforehand as the file sizes can be quite large. (GIFcompressor is a great tool for this).

Where to find free Easter newsletter templates?

Sendinblue has a free email template gallery with 40+ editable newsletter templates, all accessible on the free plan.
Or, you can also grab a template from one of the many free email template resources available online.

3. Instill curiosity with a catchy Easter subject line

For your Easter email subject line to be effective, it needs to be engaging and describe the content of the email as precisely as possible. 

At first glance, your reader should understand what your newsletter is about and why they should open it.

For marketers promoting a discount or special offer, be sure to include it in the subject line, but make it creative and not too in-your-face.

For example, Easter is often associated with prizes, games, and gifts; you might write something such as, “Easter Egg Hunt is Over: you found your 10% off.”

In general with subject lines: the shorter the subject line, the better. A newsletter subject line with about 40 to 50 characters usually achieves the best opening rates.

For more content like this, check out our other holiday articles including Christmas email subject lines, Black Friday email subject lines, Halloween email subject lines, St. Patrick’s Day emails, Valentine’s Day email subject lines.

4. Personalize for more success

Adding a personal touch increases your chances of success because it encourages recipients to look at the newsletter more closely. 

By adjusting the content of the newsletter to suit individuals, you increase its relevance. Addressing your recipients personally and catering to their personal preferences will lead to greater engagement than a generic mass email.

A personalized greeting (by name) should definitely be included in your newsletter. Take a look at this tutorial to see how it’s done on Sendinblue.

You can also personalize based on where your recipients live or for specific products. Think: “The Easter Bunny’s just hopped into Austin.” Or, “The fastest running shoes for Easter Bunnies.”
To learn more, check out this article about email personalization and get even more creative ideas!

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Inviting your recipients to play a game not only adds lightness and joy to your newsletter— it can significantly improve your conversion rate.

Almost everyone enjoys the thrill of playing games, and the promise of a reward makes it all the more appealing. It’s smart to align the game with your offer and products. The more your newsletter, game, and conversion goal match, the better your results will be.

Implementing a game or interactive element into your newsletter is easy. Why not try a virtual egg hunt?

You can hide a certain number of Easter eggs in the newsletter and then ask your recipients to count them; if they send you the correct response by email, they can receive a coupon code.

This type of engagement will be great for your future deliverability too.

You could also add a not-too-easy-to-find CTA link to a landing page where the recipients can find an Easter present from you.

6. Consider regional differences

There’s more to Easter than colored eggs, chicks, and bunnies: Some Easter motifs and traditions are region-specific.

In Bermuda, for example, people celebrate Good Friday by flying kites. New York hosts the famous Easter Parade along Fifth Avenue, and Lancashire, U.K., has its Nutter’s Dance.

In France, bells, not bunnies, bring Easter chocolate to children, whereas in Australia, the Easter Bilby (an endangered desert marsupial) brings treats. People in Scandinavia light bonfires to ward off witches over the Easter weekend, and Ghana celebrates with its annual Paragliding Festival.

Tailoring your newsletter to the unique traditions of your target audience can optimize your newsletter’s success. 

If appropriate, segment your recipients according to their place of residence. It’s up to you to determine your target audience’s specific Easter customs and respond to them accordingly.

Send your Easter newsletter with Sendinblue

As a recap, here are some key points for creating an Easter email newsletter your subscribers will love.

• Add some fun by trying out a game with your contacts
• Express your message clearly with a specific, relevant subject line
• Increase your open rate and click through rate with personalized content

For more content like this, download our 2022 marketing calendar! It’s full of important dates and helpful marketing tips for every month of the year

The post 6 Easter Newsletter Ideas for Higher Email Engagement appeared first on Sendinblue.

If you’re still figuring out what will actually go into your email campaign, check out our guide to Mother’s Day email marketing. 

By the way, many of these subject lines work really well as CTAs too. Consider mixing a few of them into banners or buttons in your email design to improve your conversion rate. 

Now let’s jump in!

Gift Giving Mother’s Day Subject Lines

Gifts are a Mother’s Day staple. Discount coupons and Mother’s Day specials are an absolute must for gift shops and online stores. Use these gift-themed subject lines to sell out fast. 

• The Perfect Mother’s Day Gift
• Free Shipping for Mother’s Day Gifts
• For you, Mom, and the whole family!
• Moms like surprises – and so do we!
• The Best Mother’s Day Treat
• Mother’s Day Exclusive – 30% Off
• A Magical Mother’s Day Deal
• She’ll Love This Gift – And You’ll Love the Price
• Mom’s Day Out
• The Big Momma Package
• Pre-order Now and Save 10% Off Your Mother’s Day Gift
• Awesome Gifts for Mom + Awesome Prices for You
• Free Shipping on Mother’s Day Orders
• We’ll Deliver in One Hour – Mom’s Honor
• Love Doesn’t Have to Cost so Much – Check out our Mother’s Day Offer
• Celebrate Mother’s Day | Limited Offers
• Mother’s Day Treasure Trove – There’s Something Here for Her!
• Mother’s Day Weekend Special
• Half Off – Mother’s Day Gift Pack
• 3 Day Mother’s Day Trip
• NEW: Mother’s Day Series
• Mother’s Day Giveaway
• Free Drinks for Moms
• Handpicked for Moms by Moms
• The Mama Special is Back
• Our Mother’s Day Sale Starts Today

Loving Mother’s Day Subject Lines

Love is a positive message that any brand can get behind. Let your customers know how fun it is to love and appreciate your mom this Mother’s Day. 

• Share Her Joy – Mother’s Day Gift Shop
• Mom Will Love This
• Happy Hour for Moms
• Our Gift to Moms Everywhere
• Moms Are Made to Be Loved
• Unforgettable Gifts for Her – Mother’s Day Gift Guide
• 99 Gifts that Say “I Love You Mom”
• Mother’s Day Treat – She Deserves It
• The Secret Art of Making Moms Happy
• What does mom love? (Besides you)
• Warm Her Heart | Special Gifts for Mother’s Day
• Where the Heart Is (with Mom)
• 101 Ways to Make Mom Smile
• Our Mom Promise: Buy With Us and She’ll Be Happy
• Mom Care Package
• Let Mum Know You Love Her With a Special Gift
• A Special Treat for Mom

Empowering Mother’s Day Subject Lines

A great idea if you’re trying to steer clear of stereotypes. You can use an empowering message if you just want to include a shoutout to moms while you promote a product with broader appeal. 

• Super Gifts for Super Moms
• Moms Run the World
• Gifts for the Neighborhood Rockstar | Mother’s Day Special
• Amazing Deals for Amazing Moms
• Heavy-duty Machinery – Made for Moms
• Moms Are Like Duct Tape – They Can Fix Anything
• Don’t Worry – Mom’s Got This
• Mom’s Fashion Guide
• Mom Boots – Built to Last
• Momma’s Way – Fine Dining for the Whole Family
• For Moms that Lift – 20% Off Annual Memberships
• Around the World in One Day → Cruises for Moms
• Forever Young – Makeup for Moms
• Mom’s Knockout Hot Sauce
• Momzilla Discounts
• Moms Are the Best – That’s Why They Deserve the Best Gifts
• The Beauty Kit for Lifetime Moms
• Once a Mom – Always Awesome
• Utility Knife for DIY Moms
• Extra Mom-strength Glue
• Mom-grown flowers – Perfect for your Mom
• The Mom Makeover – 20% Off Our Spa Trip
• Bring Your Own Mom Dinner Special
• They’ve Given Us Their All – It’s Only Right We Give Moms Their Day

Funny Mother’s Day Subject Lines

Humorous subject lines can be a hit or miss the mark entirely. Our list of funny Mother’s Day subject lines is unlikely to offend anyone, but it’s still a good idea to test out variations of your email to find the best fit.

• Was today Mother’s Day?
• Of course, you’d never forget Mother’s Day… right?
• Mom Knows Best – so why not let her choose?
• The Ultimate Mom Love Bomb
• Flowers Are Like Kryptonite for Moms
• You Don’t Need to Catch a Grenade for Mom – Just Buy This Instead
• What a Mom Wants → Sitewide Sale
• The Mom Breakfast Special (we’ll make it this time)
• Instant Mother’s Day Dinner (just add free shipping)
• The Mother of All Gifts (get it?)
• Order Now – Don’t Forget Mother’s Day Again
• Your Mom Called – She Said You’d Definitely Buy This for Her?
• Pick it up for Mom (just say you went to get the milk)
• Mother’s Day Special – Today Only (Duh)
• Viva la Mama!
• Buy Before You Try (Moms Have Standards You Know)
• Get your Mom-Approved Gear
• Eat, Buy, Love – Mother’s Day Books
• Bring a Kid, Get One (Meal) Free
• We have Mom Sizes (Don’t Ask)
• Mom Edition: Limited to Moms (Buy It for Her)
• We’ll Ship It to Your Mom’s Room (Upstairs)
• Mothercare Package for Moms Who Love too Much

Last-Minute Mother’s Day Subject Lines

Last-minute shoppers won’t have time to peruse your catalog. They may already know what mom wants but just don’t have the time to get it. This is where offers that include same-day or free shipping matter most.

• Last Chance to Get the Perfect Mother’s Day Gift!
• Save it for Mom – Order Now and We’ll Deliver Today
• We’re Never Out of Stock | Mother’s Day Gift Shop
• Mother’s Day Sale Countdown – 1 Hour to Go!!!
• Mom Can’t Wait! – Same Day Delivery on Mother’s Day
• Let Mom Know You Love Her – Buy Now While Stocks Last
• Get it Gift Wrapped Now | Mother’s Day Offers
• Call In Your Order – We Know What Mom Wants
• It’s Not Too Late to Order Your Mother’s Day Gift
• Don’t Wait Until the Last Minute → Buy Mom a Gift Now
• Today’s Mother’s Day Discount is Almost Gone
• Buy Now – Ships on Mother’s Day
• Early Bird Discount for Mother’s Day Preorders
• We’ve Got the Right Mother’s Day Gift for You
• We Ship Overnight – Your Mom Will Thank You
• It’s the Last Day to Get Free Shipping on Mother’s Day
• Time is Running Out – We’re Almost Out of Stock
• Don’t Forget Mom! Get Her a Special Gift Before It’s Too Late!

Mother’s Day Subject Lines with Emojis

Sprinkling in a few emojis can make your message more relatable and fun. Use emojis sparingly to ensure that your subject line is easy to read and understand.

• Mother’s Day is Here
• Happy Mother’s Day!
• Just for Moms
• One is Worth a Thousand
• The Mom Pack – For the Coolest Moms
• Give Mom a and show her with these amazing
• Remember to Send Mom Your Love
• Free Gift Cards with Every Purchase on Mother’s Day
• Half Price for Moms
• For Moms – With Love
• Here’s a Sneak Peek of our Mother’s Day Exclusive
• Surprise Mom with a Special Mother’s Day Gift

Conclusion

Mother’s Day is a seasonal boon for retailers and ecommerce sites.

Your marketing arsenal should include a holiday calendar so that you don’t miss out on the sales potential of Mother’s Day and other major holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Black Friday.

The post 120 Mother’s Day Email Subject Lines Guaranteed to Increase Open Rates appeared first on Sendinblue.

Mother’s Day email marketing campaigns are a great way to drive ecommerce sales by helping your email subscribers choose the perfect Mother’s Day gift. Read on to discover our top tips for boosting conversions this Mother’s Day.

With Mother’s Day just around the corner (March 27 for Ireland & the UK and May 8 in the US), it’s time to start preparing your Mother’s Day email marketing strategy. 

Your Mother’s Day email should provide subscribers with useful information to help find the best Mother’s Day gift. As with Father’s Day emails and any other holiday campaign, you have to find the balance between being helpful and being promotional. 

With that in mind, we’ve put together 5 Mother’s Day email marketing ideas to help you create an email campaign that’s sure to do the job. 

• 5 Ideas for successful Mother’s Day email marketing
• Designing your Mother’s Day email template
• Send your Mother’s Day email with Sendinblue

5 Ideas for Successful Mother’s Day Email Marketing

As we said, online retailers need to strike the right balance between helpful and promotional when it comes to Mother’s Day email marketing.

To achieve that, here are a few things you should consider including in your strategy.

1. Give readers gift ideas

One of the hardest things about Mother’s Day can be finding the right gift. There are so many options out there, and moms are always too nice to tell you what they want. 

Email is the perfect opportunity to help your customers with this problem. Present them with a gift guide of products in your store that would make a good Mother’s Day present.

The goal is to cut out the decision work and present gift ideas with a clear CTA.

You could either feature individual products or highlight the most suitable product categories, just like Mulligan’s Pharmacy did in their #MumLike Gift Guide campaign sent with Sendinblue.

Another great thing about this email is that the home delivery and gift wrapping options are clearly spelled out. Since the pandemic, this sort of information has become very important to shoppers.

The email example below from Forever 21 does a nice job of showing off specific products that would make great gifts. They also include the price, making the email content even more actionable to the consumer.

2. Focus on outcomes or benefits

While including gift ideas is great, you can do even more to help people make the right gift decisions.

When shopping for gifts, it can be hard to match a product with a person. To help with this, focus your email copy on how the product is used or what benefits it provides.

You can see how Apple highlights each of their products as a possible gift idea. But instead of including the price, they include text that highlights why the product would make a good gift for mom.

This is an effective psychological tactic for increasing ecommerce sales. By highlighting the benefits of the product, readers will match that benefit with the gift recipient (i.e. their mom). 

Of course, everyone wants their mom to stay “active, motivated, and in the know,” so they’re going to read that and want to purchase it for their mother.

You can do the same thing with your business by focusing on the most positive aspects of getting your product as a gift.

3. Use simplicity and personalization

If you offer a wide variety of products, it might not be the best idea to simply showcase everything as a gift idea. Instead, try to simplify the process as much as possible.

Anthropologie’s email is very simple, but they do a nice job of highlighting their free personal shopper service. This is an excellent example of focusing on helping customers rather than being promotional. 

There are two specific features you can use to deliver this type of Mother’s Day emails to your subscribers:

• Personalized emails: Provide personalized product recommendations based on existing subscriber data.
• Email list segmentation: Send different emails to different groups of customers based on their interests, behavior, or demographics.

While we’re on the topic of email lists and subscriber preferences, it can be a good idea to check in with your contacts every once in a while to confirm the type of content they’d like to receive.

Doing so is easy. Sendinblue allows you to create Update Profile forms for your email contacts. Using this form, you can create a segment of people who want to opt-out of certain content or campaigns and exclude them. This is good for subscribers, who get only the content they want, and senders, who can boost open rates with genuinely engaged contacts.

4. Use humor in your Mother’s Day email

Making people smile is one of the best ways to increase email engagement. Mother’s Day is no different.

Here you can see a very simple Mother’s Day email example with a clear call-to-action. The text is light-hearted and also a not-so-subtle reminder that the reader should buy a Mother’s Day gift.

Anytime you can inject a little humor and personality into your emails is great because it humanizes your brand, warms up the reader, and comes off as less promotional. This can go a long way in boosting your conversions.

5. Optimize your ‘inbox envelope’ to boost email open rates

Like with any email, if you want it to get noticed in the inbox, you need to optimize what we like to call your ‘inbox envelope‘. This envelope consists of three main elements: sender name, email subject line and email preview text (also known as a preheader).

Let’s look briefly at how you can use these elements to your advantage.

Check your sender name

It’s the first thing the recipient looks at when they receive an email. 

Your sender name needs to display a real name, whether it be the company’s name or an employee’s name — not just an email address. This enforces trust and reassures the recipient that the email is genuine. 

Craft an enticing Mother’s Day subject line

Some quick tips to achieve this:

• Address the reader’s pain points. Let’s say they’ve left their Mother’s Day shopping to the last minute. Prime opportunity to put forward a solution in your subject line. ‘Order today to deliver in time for Mother’s Day’ 
• Make it personalized. If you’re a Sendinblue user you can easily personalize your email subject lines with custom contact attributes.
• Keep it short (50 characters or less)
• Add an emoji to your email subject line — but be careful not to overdo it either!

Mother’s Day subject line examples

Boost your Mother’s Day email open rates with a short, punchy subject line that speaks to the value within the email.

• It’s not too late! Order now to deliver in time for Mother’s Day
• No idea what to get Mom? Check out these ideas!
• Last minute shopping for Mother’s Day? We’ve got you covered
• Don’t break the bank this Mother’s Day
• Check out our Mother’s Day sale
• Ready to get your Mother’s Day shopping on?
• Mother’s Day special: 10% sitewide discount
• Free shipping for Mother’s Day this weekend ONLY
• 7 gift ideas your Mom is gonna love
• The ultimate Mother’s Day gift guide
• Make it a Mother’s Day she’ll never forget
• Mother’s Day Special: Free Shipping on all orders over $25

For more examples, check out our article specifically on Mother’s Day Email Subject Lines! 

Customize the preview text to complement the subject line

Preview text is the short snippet of text that immediately follows the subject line when viewing an email in an inbox.

Your subject line and preview text should work together to tell your reader a story.

Note that not all email clients display preview text, so it’s best not to use it for essential information. 

Designing Your Mother’s Day Email Template

Email design tools and resources

If you’re just starting out as an email marketer, you might be wondering about your options for creating an email template. 

Most email marketing software comes with email design tools that beginners can easily play around with.

With Sendinblue, our email design suite includes Drag & Drop, HTML, and Rich Text editors, as well as a free gallery of over 40 newsletter templates.

A look at Sendinblue’s Drag & Drop editor

You can test-drive these tools anytime on Sendinblue’s forever free plan with up to 300 emails a day and unlimited email subscribers. 

Having a ready-made template will definitely speed things up. Either grab one from the many free email template resources online or splash out on a custom-made template by an email designer.

Here’s a beautiful custom Mother’s Day email template created by our inhouse email design team at Sendinblue (just look at those colors! )

Design tips for your Mother’s Day email template

Your Mother’s Day email design plays a huge role in making people click and engage with your email content. It’s well worth spending some time on getting it right. 

• If you customize your email template to the theme of Mother’s Day, make sure your branding is still easily recognized with a clearly visible logo. Brand recognition is important for email engagement. If a subscriber is in doubt about the sender, they’re more likely to mark the email as spam.
• Use plenty of blank space so your Mother’s day gift guide doesn’t look too cluttered or overwhelming. 
• Make sure that images for gift ideas are of high quality. Avoid images that are too large or too small, as these can cause deliverability issues.
• Experiment with animated GIFs in email. Just remember to compress your GIFs beforehand as the GIF file sizes can be quite large (GIFcompressor is a great tool for this).
• Send yourself a test to ensure the email content displays correctly on different device sizes, especially mobile. While you’re at it, check that any landing pages you’ve linked to are also optimized for mobile. 

Send Your Mother’s Day Email with Sendinblue

Hopefully, these ideas and examples gave you some inspiration on how to boost sales with Mother’s Day email marketing. 

Lastly, we at Sendinblue would like to wish a happy Mother’s Day to moms everywhere – none of us would be here without you!

For more content like this, download our 2022 holiday marketing calendar! It’s full of important dates and helpful marketing tips for every month of the year

The post 5 Mother’s Day Email Marketing Ideas to Drive More Sales appeared first on Sendinblue.

As an overview, the benefits of WhatsApp for Business can be grouped in three main categories: 

1. WhatsApp is already the most used messaging app and opens up markets for you; 
2. WhatsApp offers customer support and marketing opportunities that improve the customer experience; 
3. WhatsApp is a flexible and effective marketing channel to get up close and personal with your contacts. 

Before we go into details, here’s a quick refresher about what the WhatsApp Business API is and the difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business. 

15 Benefits of WhatsApp Business Account

1. Already the most popular messaging app

Over two billion people already use WhatsApp, which makes it a market leader in instant messaging apps.

Available in most countries (180), almost everyone in India, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Malaysia, Colombia, Turkey, Spain, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Kenya is a WhatsApp user. It’s also gaining traction in France, Germany, the United States, and Italy. 

WhatsApp’s popularity is in part due to it being completely free for consumers and substituting SMS and phone calls, both paid. That makes it great for keeping in touch with family and friends abroad. They only need a phone number to get started and the app is intuitive to use. 

In short, there are no barriers for end users and if you decide to use WhatsApp Business, your audience is already there.

Number of WhatsApp users as of June 2021 (source: Statista)

2. Reach people anytime, anywhere

WhatsApp for business is a real-time communication channel. While people often put off reading emails, they usually check incoming messages right away, even on the go. 80% of WhatsApp messages are read in the first five minutes. This gives you a much larger time window to send marketing messages. In fact, WhatsApp messages get an unbeatable 98% open rate and 45-60% click rate. 

3. Private and personalized

Direct messaging is great for tailored offers and individual customer service. You can send personal account credentials, order updates, and provide assistance in a safe, one-on-one chat.

You can ask questions to make precise product recommendations, unlike on-site upsell widgets. The WhatsApp Business API also connects to your CRM, enabling you to use customer insights to customize your communication. 

For more ideas, check out our guide to WhatsApp marketing.

4. Secure and trustworthy 

Users enjoy the fact that all WhatsApp chats are encrypted. From a business point of view, it’s secure enough to exchange sensitive information like password resets. 

Also, all WhatsApp business accounts go through obligatory authentication to give customers peace of mind. This applies to both companies using the WhatsApp Business app and the API.  Through the API, you can apply for a green tick as well, an official account symbol for extra reassurance. 

5. GRPR-compliant

WhatsApp is adamant that only opt-in contacts are messaged through the API, making it fully GDPR-compliant. The same list building best practices as with email marketing apply.

The customer also has the power to directly impact your quality score and sending quotas by blocking or reporting you. While it sounds harsh, it ensures the platform stays free of spammers and end users continue to enjoy the experience. If you send legitimate, relevant campaigns, it’s a win-win for both sides. 

6. Diverse and interactive content formats

One of the biggest benefits of the WhatsApp Business app is that it offers a wide range of formats and interactive content options for business messaging. There are lists, CTAs, links, images, video, attachments, and products so recipients can interact with the campaign, not just read it. 

In addition, messages can be far longer than SMS (1,000 characters). All this makes WhatsApp for business almost equal to traditional email marketing where you can show and tell as much as you want to. 

The WhatsApp business features also include autoresponders, shareable product catalogs, chatbots, and contact management.

source

7. Supports two-way communication

Another advantage of WhatsApp for business is the ability to receive incoming messages from customers. They can proactively reach out if they need customer service without going to your website. This accessibility raises your chances of getting and keeping their business. One study found that 53% of consumers would rather shop from a company if they can message it directly.

8. A way to scale your multichannel strategy

WhatsApp offers a practical and easy way to expand your multichannel strategy and increase customer engagement in new markets. 

WhatsApp doubles as both a support channel and a marketing one. You can answer inquiries, take orders, resolve issues, and send updates while running marketing campaigns via direct messages. 

The WhatsApp Business API allows you to use one business account with many phone numbers (including virtual), users, and devices. This way, you can grow your customer support and marketing teams as needed. That’s an advantage of WhatsApp Business over live chat where you usually pay per team member using the tool.

9. Automate responses to customer queries

WhatsApp offers automations and canned responses to speed up your customer support process and lessen your workload. You can set away messages or quick replies to FAQs. 

Taking a step further, you can automate an onboarding sequence to introduce your service to new customers or gather feedback.

10. Reach an international audience

Any app relying on phone numbers can be tricky, but WhatsApp makes it easy to reach people regardless of their country code. It’s true prices vary by country of recipient, but otherwise you’re free to message people across the globe from one and the same account. 

11. Send more relevant marketing messages

WhatsApp for business offers almost limitless possibilities for engagement. Outbound announcements (notifications), two-step authentication, reminders, status updates are just some of the messages you can send. Instead of sending too many emails, you can add WhatsApp to your mix so customers don’t feel flooded. And sometimes an instant message update is more timely and convenient.

12. Another opportunity to showcase your brand

One of the major benefits of a business account on WhatsApp is the additional brand exposure. 

Every WhatsApp business account has a branded business profile complete with logo or image, website URL, address, etc. 

You can also list some or all your products to give people an overview of what you offer right there in the app. This adds legitimacy to the communication and enhances your brand image.

An example of a WhatsApp business profile

13. Collect subscribers using QR codes

QR codes gained popularity during the pandemic and more people are familiar with how to use them now. They’re an easy way to take potential customers from offline to your digital assets. 

For example, at a trade show, you can print a QR code on a poster and encourage them to scan it and sign up for your WhatsApp messages to keep in touch. That’s a GDPR-proof list building tactic. Or you can have the QR code in shipping boxes so customers can start a direct chat with you if they need help after receiving the order.

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14. Improve your marketing campaigns

WhatsApp Business doesn’t just give you another medium, but also adds value to your marketing campaigns. 

• There are easy to use labels for managing your contacts in groups like Loyal customers, WhatsApp newsletter subscribers, Leads from trade shows, etc.
• Engagement metrics show if your messages are read, clicked, or reported.
• The WhatsApp Business API can be connected to a CRM and use the customer data from there for even more targeted campaigns. 

15. Fair pricing

Even small and local businesses will find value in the WhatsApp Business API because you’re only charged for the messages you send or receive, no other fees. The best part is all business features are accessible at any sending volume.

On top of that, sending quotas go up automatically if you send quality content and get good engagement. So your marketing efforts will be rewarded with even more opportunities. 

How to Get Started with the WhatsApp Business API?

First, you need to choose a business solution provider. Look for providers officially approved by Meta to access the full range of services. Through the provider, you connect your marketing platform with the WhatsApp Business API and WhatsApp business account (or create one, if you don’t have it yet). Then, you’ll go through a quick and streamlined verification and setup process, and be ready to start sending messages. 

As you can see, the benefits of WhatsApp Business Account are completely worth the integration. Check back soon for more news about WhatsApp from Sendinblue!

The post 15 Benefits of Using WhatsApp for Business appeared first on Sendinblue.

of up to 98%.

With stats like that, your business should without a doubt consider using WhatsApp for marketing purposes. Using the messaging app can help you reach a larger audience, improve customer experiences, and ultimately drive sales.

But how does it work?

Using WhatsApp as a marketing tool may be unfamiliar to many. After all, it’s fairly new to the digital marketing scene and is primarily known as a messenger service for individuals.

Lucky for you, this article breaks down all the moving parts of WhatsApp marketing for businesses, gives you some handy tips and tricks, and even showcases some example WhatsApp campaigns.

• What is WhatsApp?
• What is WhatsApp Marketing?
• Why Your Business Should Use WhatsApp
• How to Create a WhatsApp Business Profile
• WhatsApp Marketing Campaign Best Practices
• WhatsApp Marketing Examples

What is WhatsApp?

For starters, WhatsApp is a free mobile messaging service connecting people around the world. The application is available on both Android and iOS and allows users to message and call with friends and family, no matter the type of device they have.

WhatsApp has become extremely popular, with over 2 billion active users worldwide. Part of what makes it so attractive for individuals is that it sidesteps hefty SMS fees when communicating internationally, making it ideal for those with contacts overseas. As well, it keeps all your messages, group chats, voice calls, and video calls in one place.

To set up a personal account on WhatsApp, all you need to do is download the app in the App Store or from Google Play. 

In app prompts will ask you to enter a phone number (not already associated with an existing WhatsApp account) and choose a name. 

From there, you’re pretty much good to go! WhatsApp Messenger is extremely intuitive and can be set up in a matter of seconds.

To use WhatsApp on your computer, simply download the desktop application then use your mobile phone to scan the QR code it displays to link your account.

Source

Now that we’ve covered the original WhatsApp, let’s see how it can be used in a marketing context!

What is WhatsApp Marketing?

Broadly, the term “WhatsApp marketing” refers to any marketing or promotional activities that take place on WhatsApp. Typically, marketers use WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API — two interfaces separate from Whatsapp that allow you to manage conversations with your audience.

While you could technically send marketing campaigns using the traditional WhatsApp, it’s not recommended. You’ll likely run into issues with sending to large numbers of contacts.

Let’s take a look at what makes WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API better suited to marketing professionals:

WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp Business is a separate mobile app from the traditional WhatsApp. It’s designed for small businesses to be able to connect with their customers in real-time. Even better, it’s free!

Source

Small business owners can create an in-app store, complete with products, pricing, and practical information like opening hours, physical location, and links to your website and social media.

In addition to your business profile and product catalog, you can set up quick replies and broadcast messages (up to 256 at a time). These features make communicating with potential customers a breeze, as your most useful responses are just one click away.

For your audience, there’s very little difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business. They’ll receive your business messages in their regular WhatsApp just like any other message.

WhatsApp Business API

The second WhatsApp marketing tool we’ll be discussing offers many more features and is targeted toward larger businesses.

The WhatsApp Business API gives businesses access to the product’s full-suite of marketing tools. It connects your WhatsApp Business account to your CRM or email service provider so you can manage large numbers of conversations at the same time from the same place.

Something to be aware of is that WhatsApp Business API doesn’t have a front-end interface of its own. (An API connects two software programs so they can talk to each other and share data). In this way, WhatsApp Business API brings your WhatsApp Business account from your mobile device to a marketing software.

The WhatsApp Business API has more advanced features than the mobile app alone. It gives you an unlimited number of users, allows you to send mass marketing campaigns, and supports strategic customer service.

In terms of messenger capabilities, the API allows you to send as many automated and session messages as you like. This means you can send WhatsApp marketing campaigns, accept orders, answer customer questions, and more!

One thing to be aware of is that unlike the WhatsApp Business App, the API is not free and charges per message after the first 1,000 you send in a month. 

Another important difference between WhatsApp Business and the API is that you can’t just download or sign up to use the API. Instead, you need to go through an official WhatsApp partner to verify your business.

Stay tuned for exciting news about Sendinblue and WhatsApp Business API in the near future

In summary, the best way to explain the difference the WhatsApp Business app and the WhatsApp Business API is this:

• The mobile app WhatsApp Business is like messaging your target audience on WhatsApp.
• The WhatsApp Business API is very similar to email marketing, but your target audience will get your content in their WhatsApp inboxes instead of by email. 

Check out this article for a full breakdown of the difference between WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business, and WhatsApp Business API.

Why Your Business Should Use WhatsApp

Now that we know what WhatsApp marketing is, let’s take a look at why your business should use it! The benefits of WhatsApp Business are very tempting.

As we said, there are over 2 billion active WhatsApp users worldwide. This alone means the channel gives you access to an enormous audience. Compared to other messaging apps, WhatsApp wins the popularity contest, surpassing Facebook Messenger, Wechat, Snapchat, and Telegram.

Source

In particular, if you have large portions or your target audience in Brazil or India, WhatsApp can really pay off, as these two countries have the highest number of active users in the world.

Aside from the sheer number of people using WhatsApp, the platform has other benefits as a marketing channel too. 

More and more, consumers are looking for one-to-one interactions and personalized marketing content. WhatsApp marketing does just this. Talking on a platform like WhatsApp makes the customer experience feel like chatting with a friend.

While other marketing channels/tools like email and website chat also provide a one-on-one experience, they lack the intimacy and convenience of a WhatsApp interaction.

How does the intimacy and convenience of a marketing channel translate into hard numbers? 

The open rate: It’s not uncommon for WhatsApp marketing campaigns to have open rates surpassing 97%. 

More than any other digital marketing channel, WhatsApp campaigns bring as close as you can get to a guarantee that your target audience will at least see your content.

From there, click-through rates aren’t bad either, with an average of 60% of WhatsApp campaigns being clicked through.

Starting to see how WhatsApp marketing could be huge for your business? Let’s take a look at how to create your profile.

How to Create a WhatsApp Business Profile

Creating a WhatsApp Business Profile is easy and can be done in three steps:

Step 1: 

Download the WhatsApp Business App from Google Play or the App Store.

Step 2: 

Enter your professional phone number to set up your account. Note: this cannot be the same as your personal number. For this reason, many small business owners like to use a phone that can support two SIM cards at once.

At the same time, you’ll be prompted to enter your business name.

Step 3: 

Now you can start setting up your WhatsApp business account!  Tap on the “More options” button (the three vertical dots), then “Settings.” Then enter your business name.

 Next, you’ll find six elements of your business profile to complete:

• Profile: This is the information your audience will see about your business. Include things like a brief description, address, working hours, website, social media, etc.
• Short link: This feature generates a QR code to include on your website, social media, or emails, allowing people to immediately launch a conversion with you on Whatsapp.

• Greeting message: This is a welcome message automatically sent to people who contact your business.
• Away message: This is a message automatically sent to people who contact you outside of business hours.
• Quick replies: This feature allows you to create and save responses to send in just one click, helping to improve your response time and making conversations more efficient.
• Statistics: This section houses data on sent, delivered, read, and received messages.

As a reminder, with the WhatsApp Business App, your broadcast list is limited to 256 contacts. To send campaigns to a larger number of people, you’ll need to sign up to a WhatsApp API provider. (Sendinblue users, watch this space).

WhatsApp Marketing Campaign Best Practices

To set you up for success, we’ve put together some WhatsApp marketing campaign best practices. Let’s take a look:

1. Respect the user experience

You know what they say: “With great power comes great responsibility.”

The same goes for WhatsApp marketing. While it may be tempting to go full-speed ahead with promotional content given the enormous potential of WhatsApp, we’d advise you to tread with caution.

As we said before, WhatsApp offers a hyper personalized and direct marketing channel, but at its core, it’s a personal messaging app. 

This means your marketing content shouldn’t be overly promotional or too frequent. This won’t do any favors for building quality customer relations.

2. Obey the WhatsApp template guidelines

To guarantee that your WhatsApp campaigns are properly sent and delivered, you need to obey the template guidelines set out by Meta. They include specific parameters on formatting, how to link to websites, displaying featured products, and language. 

Again, these guidelines are intended to preserve the user experience. WhatsApp is primarily a messaging service for individuals. The opportunity to use it as a marketing channel means marketers need to respect this. 

3. Offer value and convenience

Instead of sending your contact list campaign after campaign, your goal should be to offer them value and convenience in your WhatsApp marketing.

As great as it may be, WhatsApp marketing isn’t meant to replace other marketing channels. It should be a compliment to your existing email marketing strategy and any other channels you use.

The advantages of marketing on WhatsApp include its accessibility and its convenience for users. This means it’s particularly well–suited for things like delivery updates, sending order confirmations, tickets, event reminders, and billing notifications.

Have you ever been at a front desk, ticket counter, or the entrance to an event frantically digging through your inbox looking for a confirmation number or e-ticket?

Wouldn’t it be nice to find what you’re looking for in a WhatsApp message sent to you just ahead of time? Instead of rummaging through a cluttered email inbox, find what you’re looking for in a timely WhatsApp message!

4. Create content specifically for WhatsApp marketing 

WhatsApp marketing is by no means overly challenging or difficult to learn. In fact, many email marketing best practices can be applied to WhatsApp marketing.

That said, you should treat WhatsApp as an independent marketing channel, working in conjunction with but not duplicating content from your other channels.

In practice, this means taking the time to format images, write copy, and adjust CTAs specifically for WhatsApp campaigns. Copy and pasting content directly from an email newsletter won’t lead to good results. It might even get rejected by WhatsApp! 

In the end, creating content specifically for WhatsApp helps ensure you bring together the first three best practices we discussed above. That’s why repurposed content is likely to fall short.

WhatsApp Marketing Examples

Now we’ll share some top-notch WhatsApp marketing examples to get your creative juices flowing:

KLM 

KLM – Royal Dutch Airlines is the Netherlands national airline. They use WhatsApp marketing in a few different ways:

In this example, the airline sends travelers a shortened version of their booking confirmation. Keeping in mind that most travelers no longer print their confirmation information, KLM makes it easy for them to access their booking details at the airport thanks to this WhatsApp message.

Source

In this example, KLM again hits the mark with convenient and helpful content. Sending travelers their gate number around the time they arrive at the airport saves them the hassle of waiting for it to be displayed on the monitors. Though it may seem like just a small gesture, this type of content can go a long way in the minds of stressed travelers.

Here, KLM is letting a traveler know their flight has been delayed — something no airline likes to do. But unlike your conventional public announcement at the airport, this notification gives customers the chance to speak with a customer support representative. 

Instead of waiting in line at the airport, travelers can manage changes to their itinerary with the help of customer support all from their fingertips.

Overall, these examples show how WhatsApp marketing can be convenient and practical for your audience. Nicely done, KLM!

Adidas

Our next example comes from Adidas and does a good job demonstrating the endless creative possibilities of WhatsApp marketing! The brand posted this to Twitter to kick off the campaign:

Basically, Adidas offered to send out substitute players for local soccer teams in London whose teammates canceled last-minute. All you had to do was ask them on WhatsApp.

This was part of their “Predator” campaign, which claimed Adidas soccer cleats were so well-designed they were “100% unfair” to the other team. That’s why the substitutes they sent were “100% unfair” too, including pros like retired pro Ricardo Kaká. Talk about brand persona!

Now, your average small business or ecommerce shop may not be able to hire professional soccer players to embody your brand. That’s not our point. Instead, take this as an example of how thinking outside the box can lead to high-impact WhatsApp marketing.

Obviously, Adidas has a high level of brand awareness. But for businesses that don’t, running interactive local campaigns like this one can do wonders for your own brand awareness and customer retention in the long-run.

This type of campaign can also help when launching a new product or service, partnering with influencers or industry to send personalized messages featuring the new item.

Nivea

Our final WhatsApp marketing example comes from personal care brand Nivea’s Mother’s Day campaign.

Nivea Switzerland created a WhatsApp chatbot to dish out Mother’s Day content to their audience. The brand created a heartfelt video, a loving quote, and a Mother’s Day saying for customers to send to their mothers.

All users had to do was to write to Nivea on WhatsApp, then follow the prompts. This type of campaign is an interesting take on gated content. 

Rather than requesting an email address to get access to professional content like ebooks, whitepages, or seminars, they’re offering a very personal form of gated content.

This type of WhatsApp content is particularly well suited for holiday marketing campaigns or event-based marketing. Your business could do the same for things like New Years, Valentine’s Day, or even March Madness and the Super Bowl.

Time to Build Your Own WhatsApp Marketing Strategy

Now that you’ve got an idea of the possibilities of WhatsApp marketing, it’s time to get creative with your own strategy!

Businesses of all sizes can benefit from using WhatsApp for marketing purposes. The channel can help build lasting customer relationships, improve retention, and ultimately drive sales.

Interested in trying out WhatsApp for business? Keep an eye out for updates from Sendinblue about new features coming soon!

The post WhatsApp Marketing: Definition, Tips, and Examples appeared first on Sendinblue.

If you’re looking into WhatsApp Business API, congrats on a sound business decision! WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app with a 98% open rate.

This makes it a must-have channel for customer engagement and support. There are numerous benefits of using WhatsApp Business. But which of the three WhatsApp solutions should you choose? There’s a big difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business. The WhatsApp Business API adds even more layers of functionality for marketing.

So,

What Exactly is the WhatsApp Business API?

An API connects two software tools together so they can talk to each other and share data.

The WhatsApp Business API connects a marketing platform or CRM with the WhatsApp business solution. Access is granted through official WhatsApp business partners, mainly marketing SaaS providers. 

In short, your software needs a WhatsApp integration to be able to use WhatsApp API to send messages (Sendinblue users, watch this space! ). 

This is because the WhatsApp Business API isn’t a stand-alone software program, but uses the interface of the partner for campaign creation, performance tracking, and list management.

Thus, the WhatsApp Business API adds a wide range of marketing capabilities to your marketing toolbox and opens up a lot of opportunities, including:

• Sending transactional messages (order confirmations) and alerts (e.g. appointment reminders, shipping updates)
• Providing real-time customer support 
• Answering FAQs via autoresponders 
• Sending WhatsApp marketing messages 
• Creating multi-channel automation workflows (in addition to email, SMS, and Facebook Messenger, for example)

The WhatsApp Business API is a robust integration, built for mid-sized and large businesses with bigger customer care teams and more complex customer engagement tactics. You’d be able to communicate directly with each customer as needed, providing better customer experience and saving time thanks to the automation capabilities. 

How can you start using the WhatsApp Business API?

The easiest way to get access to the WhatsApp Business API is through a business solution provider. This way, you get to use the more user-friendly interface of the platform and don’t have to integrate the API directly to your backend. No developer skills needed!

Without an Official Business Account, the display name is subtly shown next to the phone number, not instead of it.

Here’s a quick overview of the steps needed to get started with WhatsApp for business:

1. Find a WhatsApp business partner to provide you with API access. (Sendinblue users stay tuned for updates! ) 
2. Use the provided embedded signup to connect your WhatsApp business account (WABA) and phone number(s) to it. If you’ve been using the WhatsApp Business app before and want to switch to the API, you can migrate the phone number and associate it with the API instead.
3. If you don’t have a WhatsApp Business account, you can also create it in this step directly from the partner’s platform.
4. Go through business verification. This is a compulsory step for consumer protection. WhatsApp requires proof that you truly are authorized to represent the brand you’re claiming. All business accounts undergo this authenticity check to protect users from illegitimate business outreach. More info here.
5. Optional: Apply for an Official Business Account. It’s the next level of authentication, additional proof of credibility. It’s indicated with a green check mark next to your brand name in your WhatsApp account. Unfortunately, it’s hard to get and granted only to very well-known brands. 
6. Submit display name for review (to be shown instead of phone number in chats, see image above) following these guidelines. This option is available only for Official Business Accounts. Otherwise, the name will appear in smaller font next to the phone number in contact view. 
7. Create message templates and submit them for approval through the API. The approval is mostly handled by AI so it only takes minutes.
8. Build an opt-in WhatsApp contacts list. This can happen on your website, via a CTA button on Facebook, a QR code or through an ad. Here are WhatsApp’s opt-in requirements.

WhatsApp button on Facebook 

WhatsApp Business API Features

So what can you do with the WhatsApp Business API? 

Business profile

The business profile in WhatsApp is like a business card. You can add your logo, address, business hours and even products directly. So when people look you up on the app, they can see all this info without going to your website.

Types of WhatsApp messages you can send

Understanding the types of messages WhatsApp supports is important both for using it to its full potential and to budgeting the costs.

First, there are outbound and inbound messages. 

• Outbound (also called notifications or templated messages) means from business to consumer. These can only be sent to opt-in contacts and need to fit pre-approved templates.

• Inbound are messages from people contacting the business. No opt-in is needed for them, it’s assumed that they agree to receive your answer over WhatsApp if they contact you there. Inbound messages can be free form.  

One big advantage of WhatsApp messages over SMS is that it supports interactive messages, including images, video, attachments, reply buttons, products, and lists.

An inbound message and an answer with file attached

Another important aspect of WhatsApp Business API is the 24-hour sessions. They’re key to pricing and what’s allowed.

So if a user contacts you on WhatsApp, you have 24 hours to answer in a free form message or exchange as many messages as needed. If more than 24 hours have passed since the customer’s last message, you can reopen the conversation with a template message. This is to ensure end users only get high-quality messages as per WhatsApp guidelines. 

If you want to start a conversation, this is outbound messaging and needs to be done with a template. Templates can be created in the Facebook Business Manager or using the WhatsApp Business API partner’s interface. Below, you can see some of the templates available. For now, templates cannot be edited, only deleted. It’s best to use a test account to avoid the need for editing.

WhatsApp campaigns

Since the WhatsApp Business API taps directly into your CRM, you can use customer behavioral data to send timely and relevant WhatsApp messages. 

Just some use cases ideas for you: 

• Speed up login resets and two-step validations
• Promote your product catalog
• Set up quick replies to FAQs 
• Set up automated messages outside customer care team working hours
• Create onboarding flows
• Send appointment or reorder reminders
• Communicate shipping and status updates
• Push new products to loyal customers
• Proactively reach customers for feedback

WhatsApp Business API Pricing

You’ll be charged for the messages delivered and a markup for the WhatsApp Business API service provider. 

Meta calls it “conversation-based pricing”. This means one charge per 24-hour conversation, no matter how many messages are exchanged during this window. Rates depend on the country of the customer, and whether it was a business-initiated or user-initiated conversation. 

The first 1,000 conversations per month are free. You also won’t be charged for conversations that start when a user clicks on an ad or a Facebook CTA button (ads are paid separately however). There is progressive discount on volume. Find out more here. 

User contacts a business via a WhatsApp CTA on Facebook, source: techcrunch

WhatsApp Business API Limitations

WhatsApp has strict policies in place to keep the customer experience positive and to avoid becoming a spam channel. Here are what you should keep in mind.

Messages can be up to 1k characters. You can have up to 250 templates and up to 25 phone numbers per WABA, but unlimited WABAs in one Business Manager.

Quality rating is WhatsApp’s way of measuring the customer experience you provide. Similarly to sender reputation in email marketing, it’s measured by the recipients’ reaction to your messages — if they read and respond, or block and report them. Lower quality rating will impact your ability to send notifications when you need to. To avoid that, follow WhatsApp’s best practices. 

Messaging limits are imposed. They depend on the quality of your outbound messages and the volume you send. If your rating isn’t low and you increasingly reach more customers, you’ll get bumped up to a higher tier. Here’s a detailed explanation of the process. 

Sendinblue WhatsApp Campaigns Coming Soon!

If you already have a business account and use Sendinblue, contact us to join the waiting list for WhatsApp Campaigns Beta. Or keep an eye here and on social media when we announce the official launch. 

Want to learn more in the meantime? Check out our WhatsApp Marketing article for best practices, campaign examples, and more!

The post What is the WhatsApp Business API and How to Use It appeared first on Sendinblue.

With 2 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is the most popular messenger app in the world, according to 2021 data from Statista. So can businesses use WhatsApp? Yes — and not only can they use it, they should use it.

Why? Because WhatsApp is a great channel for customer service, transactional messages, and marketing campaigns. It lets you reach your audience directly on their mobile devices. People are much more likely to open a chat message as soon as it chimes in than an email. 

Plus, WhatsApp offers a wide range of messaging options to add to your marketing strategy: interactive messages with quick buttons, multimedia messages, product catalog, and QR codes for your multi-channel reach. 

However, it’s important to choose the right type of WhatsApp account for your business size and needs. Let’s go over the three options so you see for yourself which one is best for you.

1. WhatsApp Messenger
2. WhatsApp Business
3. WhatsApp Business API

At a Glance: The Main Differences

1. WhatsApp Messenger

The regular WhatsApp app is made for personal communication. It’s freely available for both Android and iOS, and like other messaging apps, offers one-to-one chats and groups. 

Give it access to your phone contacts and you can chat with the ones that also have a WhatsApp account. You can make voice and video calls via the app (not via the browser though). 

source

There’s not much business owners can do with regular WhatsApp messenger, however. There are no automation options and you can only contact the people whose phone numbers you have in your phone. 

Only very small businesses can get away with using personal WhatsApp to contact customers. But as the business starts to grow, they’ll need a more scalable option. 

2. WhatsApp Business

WhatsApp Business is a separate app aimed specifically at businesses. Even the logo is different: 

WhatsApp Business provides basic tools for communication for micro and small businesses.

It’s still free to use and there’s a browser version. It offers the same basic features as the one for personal use — both sides can start chats, and you can participate in group chats.

What’s the difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business?

A WhatsApp Business account is not the same as a standard one. While they can be on the same phone, they have to be tied to separate phone numbers. 

For the business account, you can use a landline number as well as a mobile one. It’s a good idea to use a dual SIM phone to manage both from one device while keeping contacts lists separate for compliance purposes.

Then, you can add an image, working hours, website, and physical address to your profile to present your business. Another great feature is the ability to create a product catalog within the WhatsApp Business app to showcase your products. It can include images, prices, and even links back to your site. The catalog can also be shared as one dedicated link. 

Source: newsfeed.org

Chats originating from a business account are indicated as such. 

Business tools offered by WhatsApp for Business

Label conversations. WhatsApp Business lets you manage contacts with labels (e.g. new customer, complaint, loyal customer, urgent). This is useful when trying to keep track of conversations and when creating lists for broadcasts (see below).

Short links and QR codes. These open a direct chat with your business account. They can be shared across your channels as a quick way of contacting you.

Source: ShopPop

Broadcasts. These are mass text message campaigns sent to a large number of contacts. It’s the WhatsApp equivalent of a newsletter or a promotional SMS notification. But with the Business app, you can only send a broadcast to 256 contacts at a time. 

Choosing the contacts is not easy either. You can select them manually from your phone contacts list or use labels within the app. The last catch is that recipients must have your phone number saved to receive the broadcast. Otherwise, you can send as many such messages as you want in chunks of 256 contacts. 

Automated messages. There are three kinds of automated WhatsApp messages available to speed up your communication on WhatsApp Business.

• Greeting messages can be set up to automatically respond to new chats. So when a user reaches out to you, they’re invited to keep chatting even if you personally cannot answer at the moment.
• Away messages serve as automated responses to inquiries outside of working hours or when your business is closed for vacation.
• Quick replies are saved answers like “Orders take 2 business days to prepare” or “Thank you for shopping with us!” so you can quickly input them from a menu in individual chats when you get a frequently asked question.

Source: WhatsApp

Key things to know about WhatsApp Business

• It’s free to use
• You need a phone number, separate from your personal one
• One device (max two if you use the web app too), one user only, chats are tied to this account
• It’s a business solution but the offered automation tools are limited
• It’s not scalable, you can only reach a limited number of contacts
• Best for micro and small business owners 

In short, the main difference between WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business is that the former is strictly for personal communication while the latter gives you some marketing tools. WhatsApp Business is a free option for small local businesses looking just for a way to answer questions and take orders via chat.

Source: Meta

3. WhatsApp Business API

WhatsApp Business API is a different service to the WhatsApp Business app. If you’re wondering, an API connects two different software programs so they can work together. 

The WhatsApp Business API gives access to the full range of WhatsApp marketing tools and is aimed at mid-sized and large businesses.  

The WhatsApp Business API doesn’t have its own interface, it uses the front-end of the platform it’s connected to. This can be your CRM or email marketing platform. Essentially, it makes WhatsApp usable in conjunction with other marketing tools. For example, using a live chat platform to manage communication from Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp in one place.

You also get many additional features on top of WhatsApp Business that open up huge opportunities for marketing communication.

WhatsApp Business API features

User access

Unlike WhatsApp Business, the API offers unlimited users and devices under one account. This makes customer support and messenger marketing a lot more effective.

Account creation

You can’t just sign up for WhatsApp and start using its API features. You need to apply for an account through a WhatsApp partner and provide information about your business to get verified. 

On top of that, you can submit another application for a green tick mark to appear next to your business name in chats. It adds legitimacy in the eyes of your recipients. 

Contact management 

A major difference between WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API is the way contacts are handled. With the API, they’re imported from the CRM or another marketing platform where your opt-in lists are stored. 

Consent to WhatsApp marketing is gathered in two ways: WhatsApp users message the business account first, or they tick an opt-in box for WhatsApp specifically in a signup form. Contacts that didn’t consent to be contacted via WhatsApp cannot be messaged through the API. This protects the customer experience on the app.

Types of messages you can send via WhatsApp API

First, it’s important to note that no voice or video calls are possible through the API. Also, you can present your brand in a business profile just like with the WhatsApp Business app. Overall, the API is a messaging alternative (or additional channel) to email marketing.

So what are the differences between WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API?

• Session messages

Someone (customer, lead, contact) starts a chat with your business account. You have 24 hours to answer or the chat expires. If the person messages you back, the 24 hours reset and so on. These are session messages in WhatsApp. The idea is to give the customer control over the communication — if they don’t want to chat with you any more, that’s that.

• Broadcast messages

Broadcast messages must follow the template guidelines and need to be approved by WhatsApp before sending to protect recipients from spam. The good news is, unlike WhatsApp Business, via the API you can broadcast to as many contacts as you want and they don’t have to have your number saved to receive the message. 

• WhatsApp groups

Via the WhatsApp Business API, you can create and manage group chats, but can’t participate in them. Also, contacts must be invited via a special message to join, you can’t just add them to a group. It’s all to protect people from spam and unsolicited messages.

For more details, check out the benefits of using WhatsApp Business.

WhatsApp Business API pricing

First 1,000 WhatsApp chats monthly are free. Then, each 24-hour-long session is charged as one unit. The rate depends on the recipient’s country code. Charges go through the WhatsApp partners, similar to SMS marketing plans. So expect a little markup on top of these rates for providing the service. 

All these differences position WhatsApp Business API as a tool for larger companies with bigger teams and more complex marketing needs. 

To use WhatsApp for customer support, order updates, and marketing campaigns, consider working with an official WhatsApp partner that will provide you with WhatsApp Business API. Stay tuned to Sendinblue for WhatsApp marketing opportunities in the near future!

The post Understanding the Difference Between WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business and WhatsApp Business API appeared first on Sendinblue.

And what does best live chat software mean anyway? What’s perfect for one business is overly complicated for another. Or not enough. The live chat landscape is competitive and the functionalities available are exciting for marketers. It’s definitely a big plus to add a live chat to your website, whatever the industry.

This comparison of the leading providers of live chat software will help you find the one service that best fits your business needs and budget.

The Benefits of Live Chat Software for Business

Among all digital marketing tools, you might be wondering why live chat is important. Above all, it’s a customer support and direct communication tool. Directly connecting with website visitors increases customer engagement, improves the customer experience, and directly or indirectly, increases your sales.

A live chat tool:

• streamlines customer support;
• can answer inquiries outside office hours thanks to automation;
• can offer self-help resources to decrease team members’ workload;
• lets you contact leads without an email signup form;
• enables you to initiate direct contact proactively;
• keeps a customer on the site for longer and even converts them;
• delivers better user experience thanks to real-time support, a targeted approach, and personalization;
• gathers customer insights for continuous improvement.

Who should use live chat?

Live chat can be used to help grow businesses of all shapes and sizes. Having a live chat software is an effective way for ecommerce shops, B2Bs, SaaS companies, and start-ups alike to connect with their customers and drive conversions. 

What makes live chat so helpful is the ability to communicate with website visitors in real time. It’s like having a dedicated customer support agent for each of your visitors. 

And thanks to automated chatbots, even the smallest of teams can deliver great chat experiences for customers. 

If you’re looking to get started with live chat, try Sendinblue. Our forever free plan includes everything you need to launch a chat window on your website and manage your support team.

Live Chat Software Comparison

Let’s take a look at the top live chat tools on the market and what businesses we think they’re most suitable for.

Chatra — best live chat software for websites

LiveChat — best live chat for big teams

LiveAgent — best customer service platform for large businesses

Zendesk — best live chat for tech scale-ups with knowledge management needs

Gorgias — best live chat software for ecommerce

Freshdesk — best customer support tools for big companies working both offline and online

Tidio — best live chat software for small business

Intercom — best live chat for SaaS

Olark — best live chat app for businesses dealing with people with disabilities

Hubspot Service Hub — best live chat for sales teams

Free Live Chat Apps

The 10 Best Live Chat Software Compared

1. Chatra

Chatra is a complete live chat software for websites and ecommerce stores. It streamlines conversations from the most used channels — email, messenger, and website, for better organized and faster customer service. 

Chatra lets you talk to website visitors in real time or automate engagement with triggered messages and answer at your own pace. This takes the pressure off you and your support team while still enhancing the customer experience.

Another great feature is the ability to target visitors on specific pages — like a product page, where you can help them choose in real time and boost your conversion rates. 

And on top of that, Chatra integrates with most major ecommerce platforms and lets you see what the visitor has added to their cart. This way, you can help them pick the right size, the best shipping option, and answer other checkout-related questions. This makes for happy customers and also opens opportunities for upsells!

Some of Chatra’s notable live chat features include:

• Over 1000+ integrations with web services like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Salesforce so you can manage all your leads and chats from one place
• Visitor details — location, what pages they’re on at the moment when you’re talking to them
• Shopping cart contents — if your ecommerce store is on Shopify, BigCommerce, Ecwid, or WooCommerce, you’ll be able to see what they’ve added to their cart on this visit
• Targeted messages and triggers — proactively contact visitors on certain pages or after they’ve been stuck on a page for some time
• Typing insights — you’ll see what the visitor is typing before they hit send so you have more time to prepare your answer while keeping response times to a minimum 

Price: Free plan available; starts from $21/ month per agent

2. LiveChat

LiveChat is positioned as a multichannel customer support service. It covers Facebook, SMS, email, WhatsApp, and Apple Business Chat on top of its website chat window. It also integrates with many tools and most ecommerce platforms. 

LiveChat offers a ticketing system, notifications, chat routing (assigning chats to support agents), team management tools, and sales goal tracker among many other features. This makes it suitable for bigger teams of reps, looking for a live chat software to service a large number of website visitors and customers.

What makes LiveChat stand out as a live chat solution is the ability to add clickable buttons, quick replies, and cards and carousels in the chat window. This is great for customer satisfaction, as it makes chat conversations even more engaging and helpful to visitors.

However, LiveChat’s automation features leave something to be desired. If you want to use chatbots, you need to add another app. ChatBot is made by the same company and works seamlessly with LiveChat, but it’s a separate thing to buy and set up.

LiveChat features worth mentioning:

• Product cards let you feature and recommend products directly in the chat
• Extensive reporting available
• The chat widget for websites is customizable by page — for example, the pricing page can benefit from more eye-catching colors, while a welcome message on the home page doesn’t need to be that intrusive
• You can add a “Chat now” button to pages instead of having the chat widget pop up. 
• Being able to save answers to FAQ and reuse them is quite a useful feature.

Price: 14-day free trial; plans start from $19/month per agent

3. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is another 360-degree live chat software. In addition to live chat, it boasts a ticketing system, built-in call center, knowledge base builder, and a customer access portal. These additional features provide self-service help options so visitors and customers can find the answers to FAQs and check the status of their support tickets without having to reach out to a team member.

LiveAgent’s website chat software offers customization options, video chat, and multilingual chat boxes. It also lets you set chat assignment rules so customer questions get answered by the most suitable agent. 

Proactive chat invitations are another interesting feature. They’re set up to reach out to visitors on a specific page with a follow-up from one of your chat agents in real time. LiveAgent uses AI to trigger those proactive invites once your agents are free to engage with another customer. 

LiveAgent integrates with multiple communication channels such as Slack, Twitter, Viber, forums, and Facebook to bring all help desk queries under one roof.

Price: 14-day free trial; ticketing + live chat app starts at $29/month

4. Zendesk

Zendesk is a live chat for customer service made by the same company as Zendesk Sell, a Sales CRM platform. With AI and automation focus, a ticketing system and reporting, Zendesk’s chat software is suitable for companies looking to scale up. 

It’s geared towards bigger teams, offering routing, collaboration tools, and knowledge management to allow for the shortest response times possible. 

Zendesk brings conversations from messaging platforms, social media, website, email, and voice over into one agent workspace. And chatbots, known as Answer Bot, are available on all of those channels too. You can also create various workflows for the bot to follow in different situations with customers.

It also has tools to reduce customer service load coming through the business chat software. You can create a help center, a knowledge base, or a community forum to allow customers to help themselves.

Price: free trial available; plans start from $19 per agent per month, billed annually

5. Gorgias

Gorgias is positioned as live chat software for ecommerce. It offers detailed customer reporting and sales tracking. Gorgias combines a ticket help desk software with live chat to provide support and increase sales. Through integrations with Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce, you can update customer orders and refunds in real time as you chat with them.

Gorgias pulls conversations from Facebook, Instagram, email, and SMS into one unified live chat app. It also lets you respond to comments on Instagram ads and social media posts to speed up the conversion process. 

Gorgias stands out because of its pricing. It’s not based on agent number — the plans include unlimited chat users. 

While automations like instant answers and self-service scenarios are available, they’re an add-on to the monthly plans, starting at $75 per month when coupled with the Basic plan.

Price: 7-day free trial; plans start from $60/month

Read more: What is Ecommerce Marketing? 10 Strategies to Get Started in 2022

6. Freshdesk

Freshdesk is a customer service solution, not just a live chat tool for websites. That’s why it’s geared more towards bigger teams and complex organizations working both offline and online. It includes a few separate products: Support Desk, Messaging, Contact Center, and Customer Success. You can get them separately or all combined in the Omnichannel Suite. 

A few features to mention are:

• a comprehensive big-team ticketing system, 
• a support platform unifying email, phone, chat, social media, website, and WhatsApp
• field workforce management tools,
• call center system,
• detailed reports.

As a live chat app, Freshdesk offers automation through a chatbot, powered by AI. It can understand the intent of a question and deliver ready answers, engaging website visitors for as long as possible before handing over to a live agent. 

There’s a help widget that can be triggered on pages of your choice to offer proactive assistance or deliver resources. Standard customization options and contextual support based on where the visitor is on your website are also available. 

Price: 21-day free trial; free plan available, Messaging plans start at $18/month per agent

7. Tidio

Tidio combines chatbots with live chat for customer service. It’s focused on sales and customer satisfaction, which makes it a suitable live chat software for small businesses. Plugins are available with popular platforms like Shopify, Wix, and WordPress.

Tidio connects email, Messenger, Instagram, and website chat. It also lets you collect emails for further communication. The quick reply feature lets support agents reuse answers to frequently asked questions and save time. There are also automation templates and a drag-and-drop editor for building chatbot workflows. 

Here are a few reasons why Tidio could work for your support team. The tool allows you to:

• send a welcome message and give a discount;
• reach out proactively to hesitant shoppers and prevent cart abandonment;
• catch people about to leave and keep them on page,
• welcome returning visitors,
• suggest products in the chat window.

Price: Free plan available for up to 3 chat operators; Chatbots plans start at $39/month

8. Intercom

Intercom is probably the most popular live chat software, especially among SaaS businesses. In addition to live chat, it offers chatbots, product tours, app integration (like scheduling a Google Meet meeting), and help desk tools. It keeps customer history handy, too, to be referenced when needed for future chats.

Intercom’s live chat makes automating customer engagement in real time easier than ever. You can set up promotional banners, proactively reach out on particular pages, and broadcast outbound messages. Announcing a new feature or drawing attention to a product is made easy with in-app messages.

The self-support functionality makes it possible to send help articles or automatic templated answers in response to certain questions. In addition, the resolution chatbot gives visitors a few options to choose from and guides them through an automated help service. Yet another great customer support feature to help you improve user experience.

Price: 14-day free trial; starts at $67/ month, billed annually

9. Olark

Olark is a live chat software with a friendly appeal. It provides team management tools like shared canned responses and chat distribution to help small teams manage the customer support load. 

For example, the automations by location and browsing behavior are handy for quickly answering inquiries and resolving issues. Custom chatbox forms are another good feature. They ask the visitor predefined questions so you have more information about their needs before you start chatting with them. 

Customization options for the Olark chat widget for websites include design and language. The reporting is also quite advanced, showing insights about activity to help you make staff schedules and sort conversations by topic. There are also transcripts where you can search through chat history for insights.

A notable feature of Olark is the accessibility of their live chat widget. It’s usable with a keyboard only and readable by screen readers. It also supports large text. This can be a competitive advantage if your website is frequented by people with disabilities.

Price: 14-day free trial; plans start at $29/month per agent

10. HubSpot Service Hub

Service Hub is the live chat support software, part of Hubspot. It includes a chat widget, help desk automation, ticketing, knowledge base, feedback surveys, and reporting. 

The live chat features include chat window customization options and the ability to reach certain audience segments. You can also build your chatbots inside Hubspot to answer questions, book meetings, or qualify leads.

Thanks to the CRM integration, services teams have all customer data in front of them when chatting, dealing with support tickets, making calls, and so on. It’s not just a live chat tool, it’s a sales management and customer satisfaction platform. Features like VoIP calling, self-service customer portal, video messaging, and team management add to it too. 

Price: free plan available; Starter plan from $45/month

How About a Free Live Chat App for Your Website?

For many small businesses, adding yet another digital tool to their website can be overwhelming. That’s why Sendinblue offers live chat together with all other digital marketing tools (email, email automation, landing pages, signup forms, CRM, SMS marketing).

Sendiblue’s live chat app takes just minutes to set up on your site and can be customized to match your branding. You can start talking to your site visitors right away and keep track of customer interactions in a single inbox. With the page tracking feature, you’ll know where exactly people are so you can answer their questions and needs as quickly as possible.

The best part? It’s free. Sendinblue’s free plan includes free live chat software for one user. It’s perfect for small businesses or ecommerce stores looking to grow on a budget. 

The post The 10 Best Live Chat Software Compared (2022) appeared first on Sendinblue.

. Here’s what you should know about the greenest holiday of the year.

Consumers on St. Patrick’s Day 2022 are expected to make a major comeback compared to turnout in 2021. The National Retail Federation reported that only 49% of Americans celebrated the holiday in 2021, down from 57% the year before.

To help you take your St. Patrick’s Day email marketing campaign to the next level, we’ve put together some marketing tips, subject lines, and email examples. Let’s take a look!

St. Patrick’s Day Email Marketing Campaign Tips

At its origins, this holiday celebrates the patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. That said, it’s grown beyond its Irish roots and is now celebrated across the globe. 

In the US, consumers typically spend over $51 billion on St. Patrick’s Day. While this number isn’t as high as other holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, St. Paddy’s Day is still a great opportunity for marketers. 

In particular, St. Patrick’s Day is a good time to try out new marketing strategies and techniques. Because the holiday is widely celebrated but less so than others, it’s a chance for you to test new types of promotions, different product features, or dabble in the latest social media trend.

While there’s no harm in sticking to your typical email campaign tactics, St. Patrick’s Day is a great time to try out any ideas or strategies you’ve been holding onto. 

Why?

Consumers are prepared to spend, but at the same time risks are low. In other words, if things don’t go the way you expect, it’s not like you’ll be hit with your biggest loss of the year.

To give you the best chances possible, we’ve got some subject lines and email campaign examples for inspiration. Think of it as a lucky four-leaf clover.

St. Patrick’s Day Email Subject Lines

Luck of the Irish subject lines

• This Might Be Your Lucky Day
• Lucky you! Our St Patricks Day Special is on… 
• You’re in Luck: St. Patrick’s Day Sweets Are Here 
• It’s Your Lucky Day, friend!
• You’re about to feel lucky
• Make your own luck

Subject lines green as shamrocks

• Celebrate St. Patrick ’s Day! Save some green with great deals! 
• At up to 67% off, save some green on…
• Being green? Not easy. Saving 30%? Super easy!
• Color forecast: serene greens ?
• We’re Seeing Green (In the Best Way Possible);
• St. Paddy’s Day Green Friday
• What does green mean to you? 
•  Going, going, green!

Leprechauns, rainbows, and lore

• We Found The Pot Of Gold!
• St. Patrick’s Day is just around the clover! 
• Don’t get pinched! ? St. Patty’s styles 10% off!
• No Shenanigans Here! 17% OFF for St. Patrick’s Day! 
• Have a Shamrocking St. Patrick’s Day!
• Look, a leprechaun! Jk, it’s a flash sale.
• Last chance to snag your pot of gold!
• Get Ready for St. Patrick’s Day, Find a Surprise Under the Rainbow!
• Cheers to St. Patrick
• Lucky Leprechaun Loot!

St. Paddy’s Day discounts and offers

• 20% off all St. Patty’s Day apparel
• New Irish Whiskey. Just in Time 
• Shop the St. Patrick’s Day Collection with a coupon
• Unearth your Irish roots this St Patrick’s Day
• We’re Dublin this 17.5% discount
• Enjoy a FREE Guinness with your roast to celebrate St Patrick
• Check out this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Sale

St. Patrick’s Day emojis

Like other holiday marketing events, St. Patrick’s Day is a great opportunity to throw some emojis into your email campaigns. Even if your brand doesn’t typically use emojis, St. Paddy’s Day is a playful, joyous celebration, so why not embrace the holiday spirit with emojis?

• The shamrock () represents freedom and independence. It’s a national symbol of Ireland and was worn as a pin during the country’s fight for independence.
• The four-leafed clover () represents good luck. It’s often confused with the shamrock.
• The Irish flag () speaks for itself. This is a good one to use if you’re trying to appeal to members of the Irish diaspora in particular.
• Rainbows () are where leprechauns hide their pot of gold according to Irish folklore.
• Top hats () are typical accessories of leprechauns.
• Beer ( ) is almost always involved in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. 
• Green emojis ( ) add a touch of holiday-themed color.
• Fingers crossed () in case you’re looking for some extra good luck.

St. Patrick’s Day Email Examples

Next, we’ll take a look at four St. Patrick’s Day email examples. The first two examples are typical St. Paddy’s Day email campaigns, jam-packed with pots of gold, leprechauns, and the color green. The next two are a bit more out of the box while still embracing the holiday spirit.

Uber Eats

Source

Our first St. Patrick’s Day email example comes from Uber Eats. Their campaign leans into the St. Paddy’s Day spirit but stays true to the brand’s image.

For companies like Uber Eats, St. Patrick’s Day may seem like an irrelevant holiday. Their service doesn’t have a natural connection to the holiday. 

Still, this email example incorporates the holiday spirit by creatively linking St. Patrick’s Day themes to Uber Eats’ service. Things like “a rainbow of flavors” are simple but effective ways to add a splash of holiday spirit to your email marketing campaigns.

Content like this, even if not entirely out of the box, goes a long way in the minds of subscribers. It sends a message that your brand is fun-loving and willing to celebrate.

All in all, this St. Patrick’s Day marketing campaign nicely compliments Uber’s typical simple, sleek email design and invites their customers to join in on the festivities.

Rugs.com

Source

Next up, we have a St. Patrick’s Day email campaign from Rugs.com. Instead of leaning into St. Paddy’s Day imagery, this email adds a tasteful dose of green to turn their content holiday-themed.

As well, having a St. Patrick’s Day sale is a great way to treat your audience. Most people aren’t expecting a sale or promotion for the holiday, so when your offer lands in their inboxes, your email list will likely be pleasantly surprised.

This email is also a good example of how to structure a promotional email. It starts by announcing the sale, then features different products and collections with well-placed CTAs. All this while saying, “happy St. Patrick’s Day!”

Harry’s

Source

This St. Patrick’s Day Email Example gets creative and really speaks to the brand’s audience. Harry’s, a men’s grooming and shaving supplies company, does an excellent job of relating St. Patrick’s Day celebrations to their product.

Getting the foam of an Irish stout stuck in your mustache may not be relatable to all of us, but it certainly is for much of Harry’s audience. What makes this content work so well in a marketing context is that it gives subscribers a reason to use their product and tells them to go out and celebrate. 

In terms of promotional content, this email has almost none. It’s minimalist, to the point, and on-brand. No flash sales, giveaways, or promo codes here.

Instead, Harry’s identifies a St. Patrick’s Day pain point among mustached beer-drinkers and offers a simple solution: shaving with their product. 

As far as St. Patrick’s Day-themed emails go, this one is out of the box, convincing, and tastefully tongue-in-cheek. A stroke of digital marketing genius!

Leesa

Source

Our final St. Patrick’s Day email example is from Leesa, a mattress company. Again, this email example doesn’t look like your typical St. Patrick’s Day-themed email. 

Front and center is a screenshot of a text message conversation. This in itself is a good way to grab readers’ attention, appealing to their sense of curiosity and even nosiness. The texts include a little St. Paddy’s Day play on words and even a cute dog.

The small amount of text in this email makes a few more St. Paddy’s Day references and then offers a discount.

Light-hearted, on-theme, and promotional all at once. This email is a great example for anyone in e-commerce looking for ways to shake up their holiday content. Well done, Leesa.

Get Started With Your Own St. Patrick’s Day Campaign!

Having gone through these St. Patrick’s Day subject lines and email examples, now you’re ready to design your own campaign!

Like we said, this holiday is a good time to try out new marketing tactics and ideas. St. Patrick’s Day is popular and widely-celebrated, but comes with fairly low expectations from consumers. A perfect combination for marketing experiments.

Finally, happy St. Patrick’s Day from all of us at Sendinblue! If you’re looking for more holiday marketing tips and tricks, check out our 2022 holiday marketing calendar for inspiration.

The post St. Patrick’s Day Emails: Subject Lines & Campaign Ideas appeared first on Sendinblue.

Love it or hate it – Valentine’s Day is a huge revenue driver. In 2021, US consumers spent $21.8 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts. That comes out to about $165 per person! 

What will 2022 hold? Well, over three-quarters of consumers say it’s important to celebrate Valentine’s Day given the state of the pandemic. Whatever sector you’re in – B2B, B2C or nonprofit – don’t miss out on an opportunity to grow revenue with Valentine’s day email marketing.

Maybe you’re sending a Valentine’s Day newsletter with themed content to drive donations for your nonprofit. Perhaps you’re planning a massive multichannel Valentine’s Day campaign to drive sales. Or you’re a B2B looking for opportunities to stay current with your audience.

If any of these describe your situation, then you’ve come to the right place. Anyone can make this holiday work for their target group. We’re here to tell you how.

Which Industries Should Send a Valentine’s Day Newsletter?

When you think of Valentine’s Day, you likely think of Hallmark cards, chocolates and candy, flowers and jewelry, etc. These industries definitely luck out when it comes to V-day. 

Other industries known to profit from Valentine’s Day are those offering romantic experiences. The food industry serves up romantic meals. The travel industry provides intimate getaways. In short, February 14th is a busy day for restaurant staff, travel agents, and hotels. 

However, these traditional Valentine’s Day sectors aren’t the only ones using the holiday to drive revenue.

With the right messaging, any retail brand and ecommerce store can benefit from this gift-giving holiday.

Can B2B businesses send Valentine’s email campaigns?

Yes! Even if you’re not a B2C offering products that fall under the gift-giving category, you too can leverage Valentine’s email marketing if you find a way to offer your customers added value.

Remember: Valentine’s Day can be framed as a way to celebrate love in general – with family, friends, pets — you name it.

Ask yourself how your Valentine’s Day newsletter will honor companionship, loyalty, or friendship. Or use the holiday as an opportunity to talk about what you as a company love.

The key is to adopt the right tone that matches your product. What’ll work best for your customers? Being light, serious, playful or, perhaps, ironic?

Dig deep into your marketing personas this year. Ask yourself how your customers want to feel this Valentine’s Day and how you can help them get there.

Alternative approaches to Valentine’s Day email campaigns

Maybe there’s no way you can make Valentine’s Day fit your brand or sector. Why not celebrate another holiday instead or perhaps try a different approach?

Anti-Valentine’s Day parties have become popular on both sides of the Atlantic. These less-romantic celebrations include party games such as battering Cupid-shaped piñatas and chowing down on broken heart cookies.

Galentines’ Day is promoted as a way for women to celebrate and spend time with their female friends.

How to Craft an Engaging Valentine’s Day Email Newsletter

Step 1: Planning your Valentine’s Day email

Whether you’re sending out a traditional newsletter, a series of email campaigns, or a hybrid of the two – planning your Valentine’s Day campaign is key to its success.

Once you’ve decided what your goal and approach will be this Valentine’s Day, start by coming up with a timeline for your Valentine’s Day emails.

Like with all holiday campaigns, one email is not enough. Use email automation to set up a series of email campaigns that includes special offers and coupons as well as last-minute reminders for late shoppers! Many Valentine’s Day shoppers struggle with procrastination. Your job is to make their lives easier.

But before you schedule your campaigns, don’t forget this critical step: segmenting your contacts.

Divide your contacts up by appropriate attributes. You can group them, for example, by gender, age, interests (and relationship status if you know it).

In general, when thinking about your target groups, don’t forget about “all the single ladies” (well, actually, about all the single people)! Even if you don’t have your contacts’ relationship status saved in your CRM, you can score points with singles by encouraging all customers to treat themselves.

5 questions to ask yourself when planning your Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign:

1. What’s the best way to segment your contacts for the most effective holiday emails possible? (Segment offers and content by interests? By gender? By age?)
2. Is your campaign approach inclusive? Is there anybody you’ve left out? If so, how can you fix that?
3. How far in advance do your customers start thinking about Valentine’s Day?
4. How will they be feeling as they shop? Inspired? Rushed? Overwhelmed? Determined?
5. How can you send Valentine’s emails that reach all types of shoppers – both the planners and procrastinators?

Plan content according to your sector of activity

Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and build the heart of your marketing campaign – the content. There are some key differences for B2B, nonprofits and B2C here, which you’ll want to take into account.

Valentine’s Day for B2B

For B2B campaigns, try building on the themes of love and gratitude to grow customer loyalty.

For example, you can plan a short series of emails thanking your customers for their loyalty and offering them a Valentine’s Day present. This present could be content exclusive to your email list, such as an e-book or an infographic.

If you don’t want to give away a freebie, your present can still add value for the customer. Can you give them resources or knowledge? Share personal recommendations with your subscribers in the context of “things you love.” For example, “Five Books We Love and Why.”

Valentine’s Day for Non-profits

Nonprofits can leverage Valentine’s Day, too! Build on the theme of gratitude and meaningful gift-giving in your Valentine’s newsletter. Share stories that highlight companionship, family and love in all its forms. Wrap up your newsletter with a strong CTA for donations.

Another nonprofit email marketing idea is drafting boilerplate wishlists for your subscribers. Prompt your contacts to ask their loved ones to donate in their name this Valentine’s Day, and give them the exact words to do so.

Valentine’s Day for B2C

In the B2C realm, this is your time to shine. Discounts or exclusive Valentine’s Day offers represent the bread and butter of your Valentine’s Day campaigns.

Something that works year after year on Valentine’s day is playing off the sense of urgency created by last minute shoppers scrambling to find gifts for their partners. While they may be cliché, “last day to order” or “last chance promos” do work well this time of year.

Or, what about doing something interactive this year? For example, you could grab their attention with a V-Day giveaway. Offer a gift card or a hot item as the prize. Encourage your recipients to enter the giveaway in your first campaign mailing and mention it in each subsequent one.

Announce the winner(s) on Valentine’s Day. You could even offer surprise consolation prizes, such as a post–Valentine’s Day discount code. Campaigns like this don’t require too much planning and can pay off when it comes to customer loyalty.

Step 2: Craft the best Valentine’s Day email subject lines

No matter how good your email campaign, if you don’t have a good email subject line and preview text, your contacts won’t read your email. Because they won’t open it. Remember – you’re not the only one sending a Valentine’s Day newsletter.

Put extra energy into your Valentine’s Day email subject line.

Before you craft an email campaign, ask yourself these questions:

• What do your recipients love?
• How can you deliver emotional impact into their inbox?
• How can you thank them?

Wrap it up in a compelling subject line with a maximum of 50–60 characters.

Steal these Valentine’s Day email subject line ideas

Tips to creating an exceptional Valentine’s Day subject line:

• Use emojis, e.g.,  
• Mention your incentive
• Use words like “sweet,” “kiss,” and “love” in humorous, unconventional, or even hokey ways.
  • Kiss your … goodbye this Valentine’s Day
  • Aren’t in love with your … ? Try … today!
  • Ready for these sweet deals?
  • You’ll fall head over heels for these …!

Take a look at this list of 100 Valentine’s Day Email Subject Lines for more ideas on how to improve your campaign’s open rates!

Step 3: Nail your Valentine’s Day email design

Try putting yourself in your subscribers’ shoes. It’s vital to look at your Valentine’s newsletter design from their point of view.

Which pictures would your audience like to see this Valentine’s Day? (Note: The question is not, which photos do you like?) Selecting newsletter images that appeal to your target audience is key! 

A perfume brand might have a lot of success with a photo of softly lit red roses. But in hipper-than-thou sectors, such as electronics or music tech, you’d be laughed out of town with that. You’d need something more cutting-edge.

Be inclusive in your use of images

When you’re choosing Valentine’s email images, remember you’ve got to do a balancing act. You want to visually speak to your specific target group but do so in as broad a way as possible. Basically, you don’t want anyone to feel excluded by your images.

A romantic picture of a man and woman embracing might exclude your nonheterosexual audience members, whereas a “LOVE” statue has a better chance of appealing to both your heterosexual and nonheterosexual audience members. (Unless you do marketing for a dating app and can segment by dating preferences!)

What to consider when choosing design elements

In addition to making sure you choose images tailored to your audience, you need to consider other design elements. What color scheme, email font and symbols will you use?

Ask yourself: How much will your Valentine’s Day email template differ from your usual email branding? Do you want to make big changes? Or just add accent notes to your corporate identity to give it holiday flair?

What about symbols? Which will appeal to your audience? Hearts, flowers, wrapping paper, balloons, heart-shaped piñatas? Would traditional symbols resonate with your target group? Or would that seem over-the-top?

If you’re unsure how your target group will respond, play it safe. Make subtle changes and use accent elements.

Designing emails is easy with Sendinblue’s email marketing software. A free account gives full access to our ready-to-go email templates as well as our intuitive drag & drop email builder. No graphic design skills required.

Design my free Valentine’s email with Sendinblue >>

Get Inspired by These Valentine’s Day Email Examples

To help get your ideas flowing, here’s our pick of three awesome Valentine’s day emails. They were all designed by Sendinblue users.

1. Free gift and express shipping from Migoals

Mi Goals does a great job here. For many, the perfect Valentine’s Day gift isn’t chocolate or roses, but free express shipping! Given how Valentine’s Day sneaks up on some people, anything you can do to make last-minute shopping easier is bound to pay off.

2. Couple’s wear from Ashanti Empress

Another smart Valentine’s Day tactic is featuring couple’s gift ideas, which is exactly what Ashanti Empress has done here. (And offering a sale for buying in pairs is even better!) Moreover, this newsletter template is eye-catching, direct, and perfectly balances the brand’s image with the Valentine’s theme. Well done, Ashanti Empress!

3. Covid-safe ways to enjoy V-day from Inscripture

This newsletter from Inscripture is not your typical “Happy Valentine’s Day” email. They’re providing their subscribers with real value in the form of advice. As we said before, the pandemic has changed the way people celebrate, so Inscripture has gotten creative to help their audience stay festive and safe.

In Sum …

When it comes to Valentine’s Day email marketing, the most important takeaway is knowing your audience. 

Some people love the holiday. Others hate it. Some respond to romantic imagery. Others to compassion. Some forget about it until the day of!

It’s up to you to figure out what your audience thinks. But don’t worry, we’ll always be here to help with all things digital marketing!

And while you’re here, why not get a headstart on upcoming holiday campaigns by checking out these articles:

• St. Patrick’s Day Emails: Subject Lines & Campaign Ideas
• 6 Ways to Make Your Easter Newsletter a Success
• 5 Ideas to Drive Sales with Mother’s Day Email Marketing
• Father’s Day Email Marketing Tips to Instantly Win More Customers
• 100 Halloween Email Subject Lines to Treat (Not Trick!) Your Readers

For more content like this, download our 2022 holiday marketing calendar! It’s full of important dates and helpful marketing tips for every month of the year

The post 3 Steps to Creating an Outstanding Valentine’s Day Newsletter appeared first on Sendinblue.

The problem is, it’s easy to think that marketing costs an arm and a leg thanks to the sheer amount of tools, tips, and advice circling the internet. But it doesn’t have to be expensive. 

In fact, there are plenty of free high-quality marketing tools that can help you plan, streamline, and execute your marketing and get really great results while you’re at it.

We’ve put together a list of some of the best free marketing tools to get you started. 

Free Email Marketing & List Building Tools 

Email is an essential channel for companies of any size so here are the top free marketing tools for small businesses to launch an email strategy.

1. Sendinblue 

Sendinblue’s free email marketing service lets you design beautiful emails with easy-to-use drag and drop templates. 

As well as making sure your emails look good, it also helps you track and measure your results. You can A/B test subject lines and email content, personalize messages to build deeper customer relationships, and segment your list so the right people get the right information. 

Sendinblue’s free plan offers 300 emails a day, unlimited subscribers, and access to core email features like our Drag & Drop email editor. Paid plans start at $25 for 20,000 emails a month.

2. HelloBar

Collecting email addresses is a crucial part of building an email list. After all, if you don’t have a list, you don’t have anyone to send your emails to. 

HelloBar is a really simple tool that lets you add a banner to the top of your website to capture email addresses. You can customize the bar to reflect your brand colors and add in your own enticing message. 

3. Sumo

Like HelloBar, Sumo is also a tool for capturing email addresses. You can integrate it with WordPress and Shopify to create popup signup forms and boxes to sprinkle around your site. 

Customize the forms to reflect your branding and position them in places that can’t be missed, like above the fold, in your site’s sidebar, and at the bottom of blog posts. 

4. Stripo 

If you suck at HTML, you’re not alone. Not every business owner is savvy with code, which is why Stripo is a really useful tool if you want to keep things simple. It lets you design professional-looking email templates using an intuitive drag and drop builder. 

Alternatively, here 9 sites for free email templates.

5. Beefree.io 

Like Stripo, Beefree.io helps you design eye-catching emails quickly with a drag and drop template editor that you can customize with your own brand colors and images. 

The simple interface means you can create emails that are recognizable in record time while ensuring your business maintains its professional feel. 

Check out more of the best free email sending services.

Free Graphic Design Tools for Marketing

You probably realize that digital marketing can’t do without some graphic design. If you’re just starting out or just can’t afford a professional to do it, you can use any of these free online marketing tools to create your designs and construct the customer experience.

6. HotJar

User experience is so important if you want to push website visitors through the sales funnel with as little friction as possible. 

HotJar shows you heatmaps of your site to determine which areas visitors spend the most time on. You can also access user testing videos to get impartial feedback on the usability of your site. 

7. Pikwizard

Run by DesignWizard, Pikwizard showcases millions of royalty-free images that you can use commercially without attribution. Browse visuals in every category you can possibly think of and avoid the costs of hiring a photographer or paying for a stock site subscription. 

8. Unsplash

Unsplash is renowned for providing website owners with access to millions of beautiful stock images. There is an emphasis on quality with Unsplash, and the easy search function lets you find relevant images for your website in a matter of seconds. 

9. Canva

Design your own branded graphics with Canva. With in-built templates for pretty much every occasion (from Facebook cover photos to Instagram posts and blog headers), Canva’s simple builder lets you choose from thousands of graphics, incorporate your brand’s colors, and create professional-looking images, graphs, posters, and everything in between from scratch. 

10. Pablo by Buffer

Join in with the quote-loving Instagram trend and overlay relevant quotes on high-quality stock photos to share on social media with Pablo by Buffer. Posts with quotes often get higher levels of engagement on social channels and are quick and easy pieces of content to share. 

11. Visme 

Visme helps you create beautiful presentations, professional-looking infographics, and other visuals using your brand colors on pre-made templates. Simply drag and drop different elements into your designs using the intuitive backend dashboard. 

Free Social Media Marketing Tools 

No list of free marketing tools for small business can be complete without social media tools. They help you reach your target audience, become discoverable, gain credibility.

12. ZohoSocial 

Managing your social accounts can feel like a full-time job, but it doesn’t have to be. With the help of a tool like ZohoSocial, you can schedule social media posts ahead of time and manage multiple accounts all from one place. 

13. Followerwonk

If Twitter is your social media channel of choice, Followerwonk is an excellent tool to tap into. It lets you find Twitter influencers to connect with and allows you to dig deep into your Twitter analytics to determine what posts work best for your brand. 

14. Hootsuite

Like ZohoSocial, Hootsuite lets you manage multiple social media accounts from a single dashboard and schedule posts from one place. The column layout means you can watch several different accounts and hashtags at the same time. Hootsuite offers a free 30-day trial to get you started. 

15. IFFT

IFTTT stands for “if this then that” and is a trigger tool that creates logic-based actions. For example, if you want to save time sharing content on your social channels, you can set up a rule that sends out a social post to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn every time you share a post on Instagram. 

Free Content Marketing Tools 

If you plan on taking up content marketing, you’ll need help. It’s a competitive field and your efforts will be more successful if you use (even free) small business marketing tools in the content creation process.

16. Article Title Generator

Create compelling headlines that encourage more clicks with Article Title Generator. All you have to do is type in a topic into the search bar and the tool automatically generates hundreds of title ideas. 

17. CoSchedule Headline Analyzer

Once you’ve chosen your headline, find out how effective it is by running it through CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer. The tool makes sure you’re using all the right words in your headlines to generate as many click throughs as possible. 

18. Hemingway App

Engaging content keeps readers sticking around and encourages more shares. Use the Hemingway App to write content that’s engaging by using the right words, the right kinds of sentences, and the right tone. 

19. AnswerThePublic

The hardest part of creating good content is figuring out what to write about. Use AnswerThePublic to research the questions your audience are searching for and use this inspiration to fuel your content ideas. 

20. Grammarly

Get your grammar on point with the help of Grammarly. Simply run your content through it and use the suggestions to make your posts shine. Not only does the tool pull you up on your bad grammar habits, but it offers suggestions so you can move forward quickly. 

21. Quora

Quora is a massive question and answer site that is full of content inspiration. Simply type your industry or topic idea into the search bar and browse the hundreds of questions being asked around it. You can use this to find ideas for topics to write about.

22. Google Trends

Writing about trends makes your website timely and relevant. Use Google Trends to tap into what’s hot right now and use this to get content inspiration. You can type in keywords that are relevant to your industry or simply search for what topics are trending right now. 

23. Feedly

Find content to share with your followers via Feedly. This reader tool lets you pick your favorite online publications and view the latest posts all from one place. Not only will it help you populate your social media channels in a split second, but it also helps provide relevant content inspiration. 

24. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a comprehensive content tool that allows you to do a number of things. 

Firstly, you can find influencers in your industry to connect with. You can also discover the most-shared posts for certain keywords and find out what content performs best on your competitors’ sites. You can run a limited number of searches each week with the free plan. 

25. SurveyMonkey 

Discover what your audience really wants from you by creating a survey with SurveyMonkey. Put together a quick set of questions to share with your audience, get the results in a graph format, and use the information gathered to fuel your future content efforts. You can create a limited number of surveys each month on the free plan. 

26. Medium

Reach a wider audience by re-sharing your content on Medium. The site lets you add your posts to relevant categories to ensure it gets seen by the right people. It can be a nice addition to your on-site blog and help direct new visitors to your website.

Free SEO Tools

27. Siteliner

Check your website for broken links and duplicate content using Siteliner. This will help improve your search rankings and ensure you show up higher on top search engines like Google and Bing. The higher up the results you are, the more visitors you’ll get. 

28. YoastSEO

If you run your site on WordPress.org, get yourself the YoastSEO plugin pronto. This will help you optimize your pages for search engines with the help of the tool’s handy checklist and traffic light system. 

29. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a tool by marketing celebrity Neil Patel. It helps you find relevant, well-searched keywords for your industry and recommends content ideas to accompany them. 

30. Google My Business

Local businesses should definitely sign up for Google My Business and fill out their company details. This will increase your visibility on Google Search and Maps and will help you show up in those much-coveted top spots for local searches. 

31. Google Analytics

Find out where your traffic is coming from and what keywords visitors are searching for with Google Analytics. The most popular free marketing platform helps you dig into the demographics of your audience, determine your most popular posts, and use past data to inspire future efforts. 

Make Use of the Best Free Marketing Tools 

These free marketing tools and free marketing software suggestions make marketing easy. If you’re busy or overwhelmed by the thought of creating and executing a full-blown marketing strategy, tap into these tools for a cost-effective way to drive more traffic to your site and turn more visitors into customers. 

The post 31 of the Best Free Marketing Tools for Small Businesses appeared first on Sendinblue.

Valentine’s Day is always a popular shopping event. But the pandemic has caused a shift in consumer behavior on the holiday.

US consumers spent $21.8 billion on Valentine’s Day 2021, down from a record high of $27.4 billion in 2020. While total spending decreased with the pandemic, consumers made considerably more ecommerce purchases in 2021 than in the past.

Whereas they used to prefer experiential purchases like at restaurants and movie theaters, consumers on Valentine’s today have shown a preference for online shopping.

To help you make the most of this changing consumer trend, we’ve put together a list of 100 Valentine’s Day email subject lines. In light of the shift toward ecommerce purchases on the holiday, email marketing will be more important than ever this year. Read on for everything you need to know to craft a Valentine’s Day email campaign that drives conversions and celebrations.

Valentine’s Day Email Marketing

Given that over half of all US adults plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day, you don’t want to miss out on this holiday sales opportunity. To make the most of it, your email marketing campaign should wish your audience a happy Valentine’s Day and showcase whatever promotion you’re running. 

But what’s the key to boosting open rates and getting your audience to actually read your email newsletter? An attention-grabbing, on-theme subject line! 

In this article, you find four sections of Valentine’s Day email subject lines. For ecommerce retailers, pay special attention to the subject lines related to shipping / delivery. Valentine’s Day shoppers tend to be last-minute, meaning this type of campaign can be highly effective. 

Another popular tactic for Valentine’s Day email subject lines is emojis. Given it’s the holiday of love and romance, there is no shortage of emojis to use on Valentine’s Day. 

Without further ado, let’s jump into the list of 100 Valentine’s Day email subject lines to inspire your holiday marketing campaign and drive conversions!

Subject Lines to Make Them Feel the Love

These subject lines will help your email campaign stand out in subscribers’ inboxes. Feel free to mix and match different ones and personalize the content to create your best Valentine’s Day email subject line yet! 

• Valentine’s Day Gift Ideas For Your Sweetheart!
• Will You Be Our Valentine?
• Up To 75% Off Valentine’s Gifts!
• Plenty of Gifts to Show Your Love
• Gifts They’ll Fall In Love With
• In Celebration of Love
• Be Mine! Valentine’s Day Gift Guide Is Out Now
• Your Valentine’s Day Gift Is Inside
• Why we love our customers:
• Happy Valentine’s Day! xoxo
• Better Than Roses and Chocolates
• Treat Your Sweetheart
• 1 for You, 1 for Your Valentine
• Show Your Love With These Gifts
• Happy Galentine’s Day 
• A Valentine’s Treat
• I Choo-Choo-Choose You – Valentine’s Day Sale
• Ditch the Chocolates and up your Valentine’s Game
• The Anti-Valentine’s Day List Is Here
• Savings have never been sweeter!
• Gifts That’ll Make Them Fall In Love
• Feel the love this Valentine’s
• Gift Ideas for your Sweetheart on Valentine’s Day
• In Celebration of All The Singles Out There
• Your One-Stop Valentine’s Shop
• Shopping for Valentine’s Day? Free Gift Included!
• You’re Our Valentine
• Where’s the love? In our Valentine’s Shop!
• Things are heating up… got a gift yet?
• Give them their heart’s desire…

Further reading: How to Write Email Subject Lines

Mentioning Shipping in Your Valentine’s Day Subject Line

Since Valentine’s ecommerce purchases have gained popularity, mentioning shipping in your email subject line is a good idea to drive up open rates. Offering free or discounted shipping is known to grab readers’ attention and can oftentimes seal the deal for customers’ on the fence about a purchase.

• Last chance for FREE delivery by Valentine’s Day
• Happy (early) Valentine’s Day! FREE SHIPPING!
• Valentine’s Day is even happier with free shipping
• Free Shipping Until February 14
• Guaranteed Delivery for Valentine’s Day
• Get Your Valentine’s Day Gifts Shipped Free
• A Charming Valentine’s Day | Two Days Left to Order
• Free Shipping! Happy Valentine’s Day!
• What’s better than chocolates and roses? Free shipping! 
• Cupid Made Us Do It: Free Shipping For Everyone! 
• Last Chance For Free Shipping In Time For Valentine’s Day
• Free Shipping for Valentine’s Day Ends Tonight
• You Haven’t Left Valentine’s Too Late: Free Express Shipping! 
• Get the perfect Valentine’s Gift with Free Shipping
• Last Chance to Get Your Valentine’s Day Gifts On Time

Further reading: Holiday Email Marketing Strategies to Boost Engagement

Valentine’s Day Subject Lines with Emojis

Emojis are a great way to add some color and excitement to your V-day subject line. They help your email newsletter stand out against the rest in subscribers’ inboxes. Feel free to mix and match different emojis with different subject line text. 

• Happy Valentine’s Day
• Get Ready for Valentine’s Day
• Valentine’s Day Is Right Around The Corner
• Cupid’s Calling
• Valentine’s Isn’t Complete Without Jewelry
• Valentine’s Day Is Almost Here
• New Clothing Just For Valentine’s Day
• Our Valentine’s Day Shop Is Open
• Make This Valentine’s Dinner Special
• Don’t Forget To Treat Your Furry Valentine
• Don’t Go Breaking Hearts
• Love Free Shipping? Order Before Valentine’s Day
• Sweets for your Sweetheart
• is buy one get one free
• Celebrate Valentine’s In Style
• Roses are red violets are blue, here’s a deal for you!
• Gifts that say “ U”
• Found the perfect gift for that special someone?
• Your Complete Valentine’s Day Gift Guide 2022
• The Heart Wants What the Heart Wants
• The Perfect Gifts for Cuddle Buddies
• 

Further reading: How to Use Emojis in Email to Boost Open Rates

Last-minute Valentine’s Day Subject Lines

Ironically, another aspect of Valentine’s Day to take into account is how easily people can forget about the holiday. While over 50% of Americans intend to celebrate V-day, it often sneaks up on people (even with marketing campaigns running left and right).

For this reason, last minute Valentine’s Day shoppers are definitely a sub-group to target in your campaigns!

• Only 2 Hours Left—Make this Valentine’s Day Memorable!
• You Forgot It Was Valentine’s Day. Now What?
• Don’t Mess It Up – Last Day To Ship Valentine’s Day Gifts
• Need a Last Minute Gift for Valentine’s Day?
• Cupid’s Last Call
• Do you know what today is?
• Final Day for Delivery by Valentine’s Day
• Last Minute Gift Ideas for your Valentine’s
• Hurry! Tomorrow Is Valentine’s Day
• Last Chance to Get Your Order by Valentine’s Day!
• You’re Running Out Of Valen-TIME
• Don’t Forget Another Valentine’s Day
• Valentine’s Day Is Sunday!
• Get These Valentine’s Day Deals Before Time Runs Out
• Valentine’s Day Is In 2 Days! Shop Now!
• 24 Hours Only! Save 20% On All Orders – Happy Valentine’s Day!
• You are still on time for your #SexyValentine!
• Don’t. Forget. Valentine’s Day!
• Did You Forget? Today is Valentine’s Day! 
• Hurry! Last Weekend For The Valentines Day Sale
• There’s Still Time To Get That Special Valentine’s Gift
• It’s Cupid’s Last Call – Don’t Forget Your Valentine!
• Need a Last-Minute Valentine’s Day Gift?
• Don’t Forget About Your Valentine
• Take 20% Off Last-Minute Valentine’s Gifts!
• Psst… Today Is Valentine’s Day
• Cupid won’t be around for much longer
• Need A Last Minute Valentine’s Gift?
• Final Day To Order for Valentine’s Day
• It’s not too late to get that perfect Valentine’s Day gift!
• 30% off last minute gifts for your Valentine
• There’s still time to find the perfect Valentine.
• Cupid’s Making His Last Round – Order Now!

Conclusion

Hopefully these examples have given you a good idea of the limitless possibilities when it comes to Valentine’s Day email subject lines. The holiday is a great opportunity to boost sales and change up your marketing content in the middle of winter. 

Looking for more advice on your Valentine’s Day marketing campaign? We’ve got you covered! Check out our article on Creating a Valentine’s Day Newsletter. Further, to get the best results out of your subject lines, we recommend using A/B testing to see what works best for your audience. 

For more content like this, be sure to download our 2022 holiday marketing calendar! It’s chock full of holiday email content inspiration, marketing strategy tips, and more:

The post 100 Valentine’s Day Email Subject Lines to Make Your Audience Fall Head Over Heels appeared first on Sendinblue.