My Favorite Promo Emails – April 2018

by Keri | May 19, 2018

13,886 notifications. It is no secret my phone gives other people anxiety. I sign up for every email list I can so I can research email trends… and get deals on pizza. I decided to make use of this resource I’ve built a little differently and share my favorite promotional emails I got over the course of a month.

Along the way, I learned a few things. Number one being, I have a real bias towards gifs in emails. When you are going over thousands of emails, the ones that tend to stand out are the ones that move. I also thought about the fact that getting an end user to open their “junk mail” can often come down to the subject line and the expectation of an offer, not how pretty the interior email may be. I also realized just how much companies will repeat the same email content. With enough changes, these repeats in messaging won’t trigger spam filters but will also save time for the email deployer and work for certain kinds of testing.

So check them out, maybe the can serve as inspiration for you like they do for me.

Blurb April 1

This is a fantastic use of gif in an email. The whole image was a link, so the offer was still accessible no matter what but it is just enough to cause momentary panic. The typography is so clean, perfect for a print on demand website.

So clever. And that offer is very tempting too.

Eatstreet

The animation in this one is what got me. Because it isn’t a large gif I opted to show you a screenshot of the full email and the gif separately. The thing I like most is that the structure and illustration styles are so clean. The friendly rounded shapes really work for me.

Julep Polish Packs

This is an example of roughly the same offer getting used multiple times in a month with slightly different creative. I liked how lively the photography is and how the product doesn’t lend itself to being a gif. It really brings out a personality in what is actually just a bag.

Barnes & Noble Toys

I just thought this was a great way to display a bunch of still images of toys with a sense of urgency and fun. Also check out that text bounce when the car crashes. So great.

Elizabeth Warren

I loved how personal this note was. It isn’t often you get something handwritten in 2018. The one front I was disappointed with in the email was that the image didn’t get any alt text added to it. So if someone opens this email with no images or tries using a screen reader, it is just blank.

Petsmart Celebrating All Pets

The email on this one is alright but honestly it was that subject line that earned this spot on this list. So many emojis!

Modcloth April Fools Day

There is just not an easy way to display this one. So while it is from April 1, I decided to put it at the end. That way you could see the other email examples without scrolling through this whole thing (especially on mobile). Seriously. This. Is. Long.