Jessica Lorenz

Newsletter Engagement: 3 tactics Calendars.com used to improve its monthly sends

November 11th, 2014

When Marcia Oakes, Senior Online Marketing Manager at Calendars.com, was challenged with the task of defining the company’s email campaign, she dove at the chance of evolving the campaign from promotions to engagement.

Marcia and her team hoped to develop a newsletter that people wanted to read and a way to “engage with subscribers without asking them to open up their wallets.”

The result was a newsletter with refreshing and relevant content that resonated with the customer.

 

Find your voice

The team at Calendars.com used a calendar format as a template for the newsletter send. Not only was this visually different than other emails in the inbox, but it was very fitting for the brand.

They also used a previously shelved trademark phrase, “Flip Day,” to describe the newsletter send. (Flip Day, if you’re wondering, is the ceremonial and satisfying day that you flip your calendar from one month to another.)

By using this resource they already had, it empowered the team to communicate with their audience in a purposeful way, without promoting products.

 

Deliver value to the customer

Company newsletters should deliver value to your audience with customer-centric messaging.

Finding content that resonates with your customers is key. Calendars.com used celebrity birthdays, important historic events and fun dinner ideas to keep their audience intrigued. It also gave recipients reasons to celebrate throughout the month, whether the holiday of choice is Thanksgiving or Talk Like a Pirate Day.

 

Integrate content across channels

Email shouldn’t be a one-way conversation. The Calendars.com team kept its audience engaged by including engaging content across mediums that could be pinned on Pinterest, or shared on social media.

Marcia and her team linked to Pinterest boards and company blog posts to keep the conversation going with recipients and offering many places to click throughout the email.

Watch the clip to learn more about how Marcia developed this newsletter, and check out her entire presentation for more insights.

 

 

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