How to Create an Email for International Women’s Day

March is the first month of spring. For the Northern Hemisphere, spring brings warmth, sunshine and so-expected long days. It brings a new circle of life and awakening after a long period of standstill. This may be the reason why March is chosen to celebrate women.

International Women’s Day falls on March 8 worldwide. But different countries also have their own days dedicated to honoring women. To name a few:

• March 1 – Women of Color Day (USA);
• March 3 – Mother’s Day (Georgia);
• March 7 – Grandmothers' Day (first Sunday of March), (France);
• March 8 – Mother's Day (Albania, Laos);
• March 10 – National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (USA);
• March 10 – Harriet Tubman Day (USA);
• March 14 – Mothering Sunday (fourth Sunday of Lent), (UK);
• March 21 – Mother's Day (Arab countries);
• March 25 – Mother's Day (Slovenia).

The list may not be full but you’ve got the idea. March is officially Women’s Month and you need to start getting ready with your Happy Women's Day emails in advance.

Content Ideas for International Women's Day Emails

As any other email, International Women’s Day email should deliver useful content and fix customer pain points.

And with the holiday approaching, most people are likely to have quite similar problems:

• How to choose the right and preferably original presents?
• How to deliver them in time, especially to international addresses?
• How to celebrate on a budget?
• How to spend the holiday with fun?
• What clothes/makeup to wear at the party?
• How to host a party at home? What to cook? How to decorate?
• How to keep kids busy?

Your emails should answer one of these questions, offer relevant solutions and provide details necessary for the purchase completion. To do this, consider including to your campaigns the following:

Gifts

• Gift guides by different categories: price, recipient, hobby, etc;
• Promo codes with discounts;
• Extra incentives like free shipping, delivery, wrapping;
• Free downloads and patterns;
• Access to gated content;
• Access to limited editions;
• Referral offers;
• VIP loyalty cards;
• Partner deals and collaborations.

Help and Entertainment

• Holiday survival guides;
• To-do lists;
• DIY ideas;
• Last-minute reminders;
• Lists of movies to watch, artists to listen to, books to read;
• Contests and challenges;
• Events (webinar, online brunch, Q&A with an expert, etc.);
• Gamification.

Storytelling

• Honest greetings;
• User-generated content;
• Educational content on the holiday history;
• Stories about equality fight activists;
• Traditions of celebrating International Women’s Day around the world;
• How your team is getting ready for it;
• Related social projects, volunteering or charities you’re involved in.

Of course, you can combine several strategies within one campaign or choose one topic and cover it piece by piece. For example, tell one story about a women pioneer in each of your women’s day emails.

How to Write a Good Women’s Day Email

1. Come up with the strategy.

Before getting down to design, finalize your Women’s Day email marketing strategy: pick up content ideas, write the necessary copies, prepare translations (if you send multilingual emails), make and edit photos, get permission to use user-generated content if needed.

You don’t have to squeeze all your ideas within one campaign because it will be too heavy to digest. Instead, send a series of drip emails with a single focus in each.

For example, your series may include the following emails:

• Email 1. Gift guide for Women’s Day.
• Email 2: Special sale with an early access promo code.
• Email 3. How to celebrate Women’s Day the digital way.
• Email 4. Promo code reminder with an extra incentive.
• Email 5. Happy International Women’s Day.
• Email 6. Sale extended.

In our system, the basic workflow with the above series would look as follows.

You can make it less complex by reducing the number of emails or more complex by adding conditions, specifying send day and time, etc. You can send them to your whole contact base or to certain segments. You can make it an omnichannel workflow by adding there other messages like SMS, web push notification or mobile push.

Whatever strategy you choose, my advice is to start sending in advance. People need time to consider your offer. Newcomers or old subscribers who haven’t bought from you yet need time to explore your brand, read reviews and customer feedback, check the response on social media.

If you offer international shipping, keep in mind that people would be willing to order presents, having enough time for it to be shipped.

Also, if the geography of your marketing makes it more relevant to send Mother’s Day emails rather than International Women’s Day emails, consider offering your subscribers to opt out of receiving them. For some, this holiday may be too sensitive due to the parent loss or traumatic relationship. Show empathy and allow people to unsubscribe from possibly disturbing content.

2. Pick up the right templates.

After you’ve decided on what campaigns you send and when, start creating emails. If you don’t have your own design, choose ready HTML templates. They’re made of blocks and sections that can be added or deleted in a click without code knowledge. You can easily fill them with your content.

For example, in the drag-and-drop email editor, you can choose out of 450+ ready templates and edit as needed.

• Crop and edit images straight in the editor;
• Create a banner;
• Add dynamic content;
• Add personalized promo codes;
• Add video;
• Add AMP blocks;
• Add custom fonts;
• Create multilingual versions within one template;
• Paste your template.

3. Write a good subject line.

A subject line can be that crucial element that makes people want to open your email. The advice on how to write a Women's Day email subject is the same as for the rest of your emails. Make it short, clear and relevant to what’s inside.

Here are some examples from the Women's Day campaigns I found in my Inbox:

• Coming to U: The month of the Woman!
• Intrepid Women Wanted.
• What does a real Wonder Woman look like?
• Women on the Rise ?
• ?40% off ENDS TODAY? in celebration of Women!
• Who run the world? Girls! Who run the world? Girls! ????
• Today we’re celebrating you.
• ?I just wanna do somethin' special, for all the ladies in the wooorrrlllldd?
• Sale STILL on! We Need More Than 1 Day To Celebrate…
• 5 Female Powered Brands We Love.
• This will give you superpowers.

For more ideas, see our article 100+ Email Subject Lines for International Women’s Day.

4. Don’t focus on gender.

I don’t know why but many marketers believe that Women’s Day emails target only men looking for presents for females of their circle. That’s why many emails are written as guides that help “him” pick presents for “her.” It isn’t a clever strategy. Women buy presents for other women as well. They buy presents for their female relatives, colleagues, friends and partners. They buy gifts for themselves.

So avoid double standards that make your emails exclusive of the female audience. Instead of drawing a line between two categories, they need to help all your customers – both men and women – find the best way to celebrate the great event.

5. Segment your base.

Yet, if you decide to send campaigns specifically targeting male and female contacts, segment your contact base first. Send your male audiences more gift ideas, survival guides, and send your female audiences more holiday preparation routine, inspiring stories and congratulations.

By the way, gender isn’t the only parameter for segmentation. For example, in our system, you can build segments based on any conditions from age to geography. But what’s more important, you can segment by shopping activity and preferences. For example, a reactivation holiday campaign to subscribers who have been inactive for a while. Or send a promo with discounts on the brand or product category the user has been buying from you the most. Or offer free delivery for those whose order was over $500. Options are numerous and depend on the data you have on your subscribers.

6. Send personalized product recommendations.

Product recommendations for email are a great tool to send automated personalized campaigns based on subscribers’ preferences. Many marketers believe that personalization starts and ends with adding your customer’s name to the email. But in fact, personalization is about responding to the customer’s needs, predicting their next demand and answering it.

In our system, you can select out of different algorithms for different types of recommendations. It can be similar products, most viewed products, recommendations for abandoned carts or out-of-stock products, etc. Use them to drive subscribers to the product they’re currently looking for and make their shopping experience with your brand as satisfying and effective.

To learn more about how to use this tool, see our article How to Set Up Product Recommendations for Email.

International Women's Day Email Examples

And now let’s see how major brands managed to incorporate Women’s Day email marketing best practices into their campaigns.

Rent The Runway

Why: Bold typography, balanced color palette, simple yet clear message. Sometimes the less is the better.

Eddie Bauer

Why: Inspiring storytelling supported by great visuals is always a win.

Women’s Best

Why: 100% inclusivity.

The Odells

Why: A relevant animated quote instead of a banner.

NARS

Why: A background image instead of a simply red color gives it more volume.

Dannijo

Why: Writing a thank you email to your community is always a good idea.

In The Style

Why: Even in 2021, it’s still a good piece of advice for many.

Bruno Magli

Why: An elegant artistic alternative to a product photo.

Jill Stuart Beauty

Why: Simple text-based emails are one of 2021 design trends.