Back to School Email Marketing Tips and Examples — Stripo.email

August is the high season for parents who prepare their kids for school or college no matter if they study online or offline this year. 

How to make your Back to School email campaign effective and engaging — this is the question we will cover in this post.

With our fully responsive Back to School email templates, your eCommerce businesses will spend way less time on email production.

Top 12 tips for back to school email newsletters

As high achievers, we are about to let you copy the several principal tips for running the Fall 2022 back to school campaign from us. With them, you will run an effective email marketing campaign your target audience will certainly love and will draw their attention to your promo and back to school sales. 

1. Get started on Back to School campaigns today!

Today is the right time to start this type of marketing campaign, as there is not much time left before the beginning of a new academic year. You need to start your back to school email campaign early as the back to school shopping season is at its peak in July and August. For the maximum success of your email campaign and high conversion, you must fall into this gap.

(Source: Deloitte)

Create a sequence of promo back to school emails to send prior to the holiday.

On the day when a school year starts, send a simple back to school email with a checklist to let customers check whether they’ve got everything they need.

2. Mention the school theme in a subject line

It’s commonly known that first impression matters. Thus, you should pay close attention to the subject lines in back to school emails, because in most cases those latter determine whether a recipient is going to open the email or not. You may even reveal the sale’s conditions in the subject line to get the customers interested. Try to use fun school subject lines or preheaders for your school email campaigns.

Here are some examples of “Back to school” subject lines by famous brands:

• The Sharper Image: “Back to School Sale: $15 OFF $75!”

• Forever21: “Styled to School”.

• TJKIDS.com: “Last days for the Back to School Sale!”

• Ikea USA: “Hanna, affordable back to school solutions for your home”.

• Forzieri: “Final Hours | VIP Back to School Sale”.

• Hearst Magazine: “Your One Stop Back-to-School Shop”.

• Aldi: “Discover how Back to School is easy with ALDI”.

• Dickies: “School Uniforms Starting at $4.99”.

• BetterWorldBooks.com: “Back to School Sale: Still Time to Save 25% off 4+ Used Books”.

• Keurig: “Go Back to School with Big Savings on Our Slimmest Brewer Yet!”.

• Fat Brain Toys: “15% Off for Less Stress, More Learning!”.

• Dollar Tree: “Write This Down…”

• NHLShop.com: “Free Shipping On ALL Back to School Must-Haves >>> “.

• HP: “There are more ways than one to empower your student”.

• Office Depot: “Super Savings On Back To School Supplies”.

• Incase: “Up to 50% off sitewide to start the school year.” .

• Reebok: “Early Access: Get First Dibs on Our Back to School Sale”.

• Alibris: “LIFETIME WARRANTY on Back to School Gear”.

• H&M: “Back-to-school styles to opt for”.

• Gap: “Back-to-School Sale | Save up to $20”.

Use your imagination when creating a subject line for your back to school season email. However, try to keep it within 24-50 characters as long subject lines are cut by email clients and users may not see it full. That’s why you should better use short subject lines and add some preheader to them.

Please be advised that you can set the subject line and preheader at Stripo:

3. Let the stereotypes work for you

The vast majority of people associate school with lessons, desks, and blackboards with copies written all over them with chalk. Why not make it the main ingredient of the entire back to school email like the TOMS did? They used various inscriptions with the effect of text on a blackboard.

(Source: Email from TOMS)

As we can see, the marketers worked pretty hard on the Fall sales for a wide variety of prospects. The edge of the email was the company prepared a good value proposition not only for “schoolchildren” but for almost all members of the family. It goes without saying that at any age we love bragging about our new clothes.

The TOMS designers drew our attention to the email with the back to school email design — there is no info regarding prices or sale duration. The intrigue is kept, and there is a wish to go to the website to find out the details sooner. And the preheader’s copy “Free shipping” is also noticeable as written in a different color.

Schoolbuses have the same impact on people. Once we see it, we even without realizing it think about school.

(Source: Email from Dickies)

Get inspired by this example, then try to not describe the sale’s details but play with recipients’ curiosity. In this simple way, you will keep them in your back to school email long enough but will convince them to go to the website to make the final decision sooner.

Please be advised that with Stripo you can build banners of any complexity and any kind.

4. Email design first

Your back to school email newsletter effectiveness does depend on the email design. Try not to overload your emails with a high number of colors, structures, and animations. Accentuate really essential things. Investigate and analyze which items are really popular now and put them on the first screen of a back to school email.

This academic year TOPSHOP pleased all fashion people who want to look great. The chosen palette of two colors is mixed with the info on back to school products and perfectly fits the email general style. The zest of the email was the banner and game of words, which complemented the school theme.

(Source: Email from TOPSHOP)

Word of  advice:

We know that our containers on mobile devices go one under another — the left ones go below the right ones. So, if you plan on using a design similar to the chessboard, please activate the “Container inversion” on mobiles:

Enable this option only for the rows that start with the Image container.

There are many various methods to spice up newsletters with thematic elements. Try to use something similar in your emails:

• use a school bus as a fast delivery;
• offer a discount or a promo code as a formula on the blackboard.

Also, when designing a back to school email be sure to pay attention to the technical features — make sure email elements used in emails are legible and responsive. According to Deloitte investigations, 49% of parents plan to do back to school shopping online. This means images are not supposed to exceed normal weight. Pity if your customers close the email before the image is downloaded.

5. Stick to trends

Always remember whom the back to school email promo is oriented towards. Among the rising generation, stationery, gadgets for school, smartphones, and new clothes for the Fall-Winter season are of great need. Consider the interests of the rising generation, and analyze the latest trends, events, and “hype” themes, which can bring customers delight. When producing a new series of classroom supplies and lunch boxes, thoroughly research on the internet to find out who is cooler — Marvel or DC.

Yes, you can say that kids will not read back to school emails — and that is so true. But who told you that parents do not follow trends for their children?

Raising Little Superheroes playing on the love of trends prepared the entire manual. Its motto was: “We’ve got everything you need for the beginning of a school year: from bags to pencils for little Jedis”

(Source: Email from Raising Little Superheroes)

6. Add more engagement elements

We have already said that information should not only be relevant but beautifully wrapped. The main mission visual elements perform is grabbing the attention, while the engagement ones are there to keep it for a while. They include GIFs and interactive elements like buttons that change their colors when placing the mouse over them, a drop-down menu, image carousels, maps, and other elements that you can add to your email layout.

Marketers state that interactive elements increase back to school email effectiveness due to customer engagement. Consequently, sp do CTR and sales revenue.

Just look at how carefully Ban.do reminds parents, “Are you ready for an academic year? Have you forgotten to buy something? If yes, then welcome to our store!”

(Source: Email from Ban.do)

The entire email was painted in black and white, but you can notice some bright elements that grab our attention. Also, they enlivened a banner with GIF-animation. Looks pretty interesting!

Make your emails attractive and vivid by using bright colors, animations, and interactive elements. You may even build AMP emails with image carousels, etc.

It will evoke interest in your customers and will help you stand out among competitors.

8 min read

61883 views



3.4

How to Build AMP-carousel for Your Emails with Stripo

This March, Google released its AMP for emails. And as of July 2, it will be available even for the G-Suite users and will be “on” by default for all Gmail’s users.

We know this will enable recipients to add necessary items to carts, to apply the lightbox effect to images and so forth and so on. And of course, all these actions can now be taken right in emails.

This is the new era in email marketing that, in…

Read on

7. Make your CTA button noticeable

Always add a concise CTA to the beginning of the back to school email or its subject line. These simple assignments will help your subscribers take the right path and lead them to a logical ending of the school deal or a landing page. Use simple copy to get the subscriber to leave feedback or subscribe to your Instagram page. We know that the best way to get what you want is just to ask for it.

The simple icon and the short concise copy make this email button clear.

(Souce: Stripo template)

Please be advised that you can diverse icons in your CTA buttons with Stripo.

When working on a button design, just:

• activate the “Button with icon” option;
• upload a necessary photo;
• set the width for this icon.

8. Share some tips

Here’s one more successful back to school newsletter idea — include some tips and interesting recommendations in your emails. By doing this, you show your expertise in a given theme and increase customers’ loyalty. Remember to focus on the usefulness of the information you share, but not on your profit.

Aldi made a great back to school email digest where shared ideas and snacks recipes.

(Source: Email from AL&DI)

You can think of many similar ideas for your back to school emails. This means that there are many more reasons for Fall newsletters. E.g.:

• how to improve your productivity in class;

• 5 gift ideas for dear teachers;

• ideas on how to help your child make friends in a new school.

9. Promote via social networks

Email marketing campaigns are great. Yet we do need to remember to use your marketing efforts with other tools, back to school email campaign will work even better. In case subscribers like your pages on social media and know what the words “hype” and “vlog” mean, then you should collaborate with bloggers, who are famous among children and adults.

(Source: Email competitors)

Imagine, there are parents who buy kids’ stuff only after bloggers’ feedback. Please be advised that if you want this method to be effective, you need to make posts about current back to school sales on a regular basis. Add links to all active social networks’ profiles you have to let the prospects choose the preferable ones.

Did you know that you can add social media icons to your back to school emails with just one click?

• in your Stripo profile, choose the necessary social networks;

• enter URLs;

• when building a new Back to School email, just drag the Social basic into your template — it will contain all necessary links.

10. Build a sense of urgency in back to school email marketing campaigns

By building a sense of urgency, you make the items you are promoting desired. Show the prospects the time is running, and the sale duration period will end soon, just like summer break.

There are three common ways to implement this strategy in your back to school marketing pipeline: by means of copy, proper images, and by adding a countdown timer in your back to school emails. These methods show great results by convincing recipients make their decisions sooner.

(Source: Email Competitors)

Urgent emails work better during a pre-holiday period. The less time to the holiday left, the more active your users get.

Please, remember that you can build and design countdown timers for back to school email marketing directly in Stripo.

11. NOT only schoolchildren

College students, office workers… We do not need to forget about them.

Of course, it will be relevant for them if you’re selling gadgets, not school uniforms. 

(Source: Email Competitors)

It happens that irrelevant emails, which accidentally got into Inbox irritate recipients. Because for many people, the beginning of a school year is just another working day.

Still, you don’t have to lose your chances. Make this theme relevant for everyone. It may sound like this: “It’s never too late to learn something new. Choose a new hobby according to your taste: take Salsa or Tango classes. Do it today to get 20% off for the first class!”

12. Help everyone save

You’re running a restaurant? Selling cosmetics or coffee machines?

After having acquired back-to-school essentials, which cost us some money, we would love to buy our everyday stuff at lower prices. 

Provide your customers with a clear view of available discounts so that they can decide for themselves whether they will make a purchase or not. The School of Life educational company during the back to school sale in its email provided a description of discounts for various training books, indicating the old prices and a detailed description of each book.

(Source: Email Competitors)

Get inspired by the best examples

There are many sources to overcome a lack of ideas when it comes to a new back to school email campaign:

Stripo templates

In case you need a ready-to-use solution with a responsive layout — look further no more. On the Stripo templates page, select the one according to your needs and tastes, and certainly according to the type of email marketing campaign.

eSputnik

eSputnik shares more than 2 500 inspiring examples with detailed descriptions and explanations by experienced marketers.

Pinterest

It offers hundreds of back to school email design solutions from famous brands like Apple, Nike, Gap, and others.

Email-competitors

Email-competitors is a paid tool. It contains thousands of email newsletter examples, including promo emails dedicated to holidays.

ReallyGoodEmails

ReallyGoodEmails, one more great user-friendly website, shows desktop and mobile versions of emails simultaneously.

Final thoughts

Remember to praise your customers with bonuses and prove that getting back to school will bring only good emotions and impressions. Promote not only sales, but emotions your prospects are about to get. Take our advice and be a good achiever among competitors.

If you have other ideas or experiences you’d like to share with us, please comment below.