10 Awesome Valentine’s Day Emails

We’re not sure if you noticed, but Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. That means stores are gearing up for one of the busiest shopping days of the season – flowers, chocolates, jewelry, and more are going to be flying off the physical and digital shelves.For the past month, Valentine’s Day email marketing campaigns have been filling inboxes. But what helps retailers stand out? How can you get someone’s attention when your competitors are reaching out with similar messages?Well, we pored through our own inboxes to see what kinds of emails managed to grab our attention. As always, we’re looking for [contextual marketing](https://movableink.com) campaigns.Each great Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign we found had one thing in common above all: the context and content of Valentine’s Day was front and center, in a big way.Here are ten awesome Valentine’s Day emails from brands:**1\. Dell** **** [Dell](http://www.dell.com) went all out this year, with a bold, Valentine’s Day-themed image and a compelling offer as well. As soon as a recipient opened the email, there was no doubt that this was a big deal – literally and figuratively.The email also plays on the common wisdom during this time of year – when you’re buying a person a present, you don’t mind getting one for yourself, either.**2\. Afar** **** [Afar](http://www.afar.com/), a travel guide and magazine, doesn’t necessarily have much to offer in the way of Valentine’s Day deals. But, as a way of building contextual content around the upcoming holiday, Afar decided to highlight beautiful, romantic places.That way, the brand can still enter the conversation without irritating recipients by sending an irrelevant email.**3\. Alex and Ani** **** Jewelry store [Alex and Ani](http://www.alexandani.com/) created a Valentine’s Day email that was themed with unique creative and design, offering deals for significant others, family members, and friends.**4\. Beats** **** [Beats](http://www.beatsbydre.com) sent an image-heavy email that was clean and simple, with a Valentine’s Day theme.**5\. Cafe Press** **** While [Cafe Press](http://www.cafepress.com) customizes everything from clothes to jewelry, the company decided to make a big push with customized greeting cards. This is a good example of a company carefully thinking about which products and offers will resonate most with subscribers in the context of Valentine’s Day.**6\. Elizabeth Arden**Cosmetics company [Elizabeth Arden](http://www.elizabetharden.com) positioned an eye-catching GIF of skin care products right at the top of the email. That way, if people were just opening and deleting emails, the image would catch their attention and encourage people to check out the rest of the content.**7\. Gucci** **** [Gucci](http://www.gucci.com), like many other cosmetics and apparel retailers, favored a dramatic, product-first approach with Valentine’s Day colors. The modeled photo allows the subscribers to visualize what the item will look like and, below, there’s an offer for people who are shopping for significant others.**8\. Kate Spade** **** [Kate Spade](http://www.katespade.com) is a luxury retailer that isn’t known for fine chocolates – but that was what recipients found when they opened up the Kate Spade Valentine’s Day email.However, nothing says Valentine’s Day like a box of chocolates. This is a clean, creative approach that inspires action and gets people thinking about the holiday without even mentioning it.**9\. Shari’s Berries**A business that deals with a lot of chocolates is [Shari’s Berries](http://www.berries.com), which allows customers to ship chocolates and chocolate-dipped fruits to loved ones. With great Valentine’s Day creative, the business immediately gets across the product, the offer, and the holiday in one image.**10\. Delivery.com**Delivery.com lets users search nearby delivery services – whether they want a hamburger, beer, or their laundry delivered to their doorstep. For Valentine’s Day, the company partnered with a chocolate company to help deliver a candy gift basket.To help promote social media engagement around the campaign, Delivery.com also invited users to fill in the fields within the creative. **Right Content, Right Channel, Right Time**By creating specific emails and content around Valentine’s, brands ensure that subscribers will open and engage. Seems simple, right? The right content sent at the right time is going to get more engagement.But what about other times of the year? Every day, your customers are doing something new. Do your email campaigns usually help or hinder them? Are you sending personalized, relevant content or mass-emailing the same message to everyone?Digital marketing is largely broken – one [Forrester report](https://www.forrester.com/The+Power+Of+Customer+Context/fulltext/-/E-RES114961) found that 80% of consumers don’t trust emails from brands.Nowadays, marketers have to treat every email campaign as if it’s Valentine’s Day, ensuring that each email can adapt to the customer’s context, in real-time. Contextually relevant content won’t just help engagement and conversion, it will help rekindle the passion that subscribers can have for emails in the first place.**_[](http://bit.ly/1z79pn2)Want to learn more about making your emails contextually relevant? Watch our recorded webcast,_** **_“The Definitive Guide to Contextual Marketing.”_** [_**Watch it today!**_](http://bit.ly/1z79pn2)