International Women’s Day is the longest-running awareness day and one of the most important in the world.
It is now held every year on March 8, but it was first held in 1911.
Although the inaugural event was well-supported by over a million people, it wasn’t until 1977 when IWD was adopted by the United Nations that IWD became a mainstream global holiday.
Its stature has grown steadily since then. Searches have increased sevenfold since 2004 when Google Trends data began.
It’s too important for most brands to ignore it.
Chances are a substantial proportion of your customer base–and your workforce–identifies as female. It’s not possible to remain silent.
According to research by The Corporate Social Mind, 57 percent of US customers want companies to stand up on issues like racial equality, social justice and anti-discrimination.
Knowing that you have to speak up is one thing, but finding the right words is another.
For inspiration, I looked into Sleeknote’s email marketing vault and found my top International Women’s Day emails.
Let’s get started.
9 International Women’s Day email examples
1. Sweaty Betty
2. The White Company
3. Fabletics
4. Sunski
5. Buffy
6. Vinomofo
7. Asics
8. Monki
9. Michael Kors
1. Sweaty Betty
Sweaty Betty couldn’t afford to ignore IWD as a women-focused activewear brand.
Instead of offering yoga pants at 10 percent, the Sweaty Betty Foundation, a registered charity, launched. It works to empower teenage girls in schools, their communities, and online.
The International Women’s Day email is so effective because it doesn’t try to sell anything. It is 100 percent focused upon introducing the charity. This helps Sweaty Betty to be a brand that truly cares about female empowerment.
This is vital because consumers are increasingly suspicious of brands’ efforts to socially responsible (CSR).
Havas conducted a survey with 395,000 consumers and found that only 47 percent believed that brands were trustworthy. 71 percent doubted that brands would live up to their CSR promises.
Faced with all the consumer cynicism, it’s not a good idea to proclaim your commitment to female empowerment and then turn International Women’s Day into an opportunity for marketing.
2. The White Company
The White Company, an interior brand, chose to emphasize its efforts to empower women while staying true to the CSR approach. It took a slightly different approach to Sweaty Betty, but it was more feasible.
Some brands don’t have the reach or awareness necessary to start their own charity. The White Company chose to promote an existing initiative, the #ChangeAGirlsLife campaign by The Prince’s Trust in the UK.
This approach has many benefits. It allows The White Company to support an important cause, such as International Women’s Day without having to be the central figure of the story.
Because it leverages an existing campaign, it’s a relatively “quick win”, meaning that The White Company doesn’t have to manage all the logistics of starting up a charity.
It also allows the brand to use IWD to increase sales, without appearing cynical. A portion of each purchase is donated to the Women Supporting Women organization.
3. Fabletics
Your ultimate goal in marketing is to sell more, even if you are not a non-profit organization.
There’s nothing wrong with using International Women’s Day as a platform to promote your product, so long as you have the right messaging.
The problem is that “right” or “wrong”, are often subjective issues. I am a man so I can’t say whether an IWM email is on the right track or not.
For what it’s value, however, I believe this Fabletics example is a good one:
It’s true that it is a hard sell, but it doesn’t try to hide the promotion behind superficial CSR messaging.
Fabletics takes real action to empower and support women.
It is a strong statement to put a value on the support it gives women’s welfare organisations. This makes it clear that the brand doesn’t use IWD only as a marketing opportunity.
4. Sunski
If your target audience is predominantly female, it’s relatively easy to create meaningful messaging around International Women’s Day. If this is not the case, things can get a bit more complicated.
You can support women’s charities and spread equality messages, hopefully no one will object. If a large portion of your audience is male, does it make sense for you to offer a discount or promotion?
Perhaps.
You still want to make the occasion memorable. What’s the solution? Sunski sunglasses is one solution.
It is a simple “parting thought” that reminds its recipients that International Women’s Day is coming up. The email also includes a call-to-action (CTA), which encourages people to learn more about the event.
It might not be the most groundbreaking International Women’s Day campaign that you’ve ever seen. It allows Sunski to be involved in a subtle, but not too obvious way.
5. Buffy
International Women’s Day provides a great opportunity to increase female voices. You can do this by giving your organization’s incredible women a platform to speak out.
This is what Buffy bedding brand does:
It is a genuine way to mark IWD. The added benefit of it being authentic is that your audience gets to know your team, which in turn encourages them to form a stronger bond with your brand.
The CTA is another interesting aspect of this International Women’s Day email. It’s not trying sell anything, as you’ll see. Instead, the call-to-action takes you to Buffy’s Instagram profile. It’s not about closing the deal.
This might seem counterintuitive, but it could cause your audience to be turned off by a salesy approach about “awareness days”.
6. Vinomofo
The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council reports that the US has seen a rise in female-owned businesses between 2007 and 2018, but an increase of just 12 percent in total businesses.
But, 50% of women-owned businesses fall under three industries.
Healthcare and social assistanceProfessional, scientific, and technical servicesThe ambiguously titled “other services”
This means that there are large areas of the business landscape that remain largely untapped by female ownership.
You might be involved or in an industry lacking female leadership. Why not use International Women’s Day to highlight businesses that are breaking the trend?
Vinomofo is a wine delivery company.
It is important to be clear that Vinomofo, an Australian brand, does not have exact numbers on female business owners. However, Vinomofo’s IWD email clearly shows that Australian female winemakers are very few.
This is a smart way to go if you have multiple brands selling products.
Consider this: Vinomofo highlights female-run winemakers and drives sales, while also supporting International Women’s Day organically. It is the perfect combination of advocacy and commercial acumen.
7. Asics
Numerous studies have shown that women are more stressed out than men. Your International Women’s Day email marketing should include mindfulness and stress relief.
Your audience will appreciate you if you give them a useful tip to make them feel less stressed. If you can offer advice from experts, that’s even better.
Asics joined forces with three inspiring women to offer practical advice on how to reduce your mental burden. They were Sarah Lahti (long-distance runner), Rabea Kiess (hormone coach and personal trainer) and Eboni Osoro-Brow (pro netballer and mom).
It’s important to create a campaign for International Women’s Day that is authentic to your brand.
Asics is a brand whose name is an acronym from the Latin Anima sana corpore sano (“You should pray to have a healthy mind and a healthy body”), this is certainly the case.
8. Monki
Monki is a womenswear company that caters to a younger audience. Monki is under great pressure to create a meaningful International Women’s Day campaign.
Why? Why? Because younger women are more concerned about equality issues than their older counterparts.
Pew Research Center revealed that 76% of Gen Z women think having more female candidates for public office is good for society, compared to 54% of women from the Silent Generation.
Monki launched more than a limited-time or multi-buy sale to coincide with IWD 2021. It also launched a new collection of clothing.
It makes sense to talk about International Women’s Day if it is important to your audience. A new product launch is one way to do this.
This is more than selling new sweaters. Monki teamed with Plan International, an international development and humanitarian organisation, to launch the product.
This means that 20 percent of the proceeds from its new range was donated to Plan International Sweden’s #GirlsGetEqual initiative.
9. Michael Kors
So far, I have focused on advocacy campaigns, product launches and mindfulness initiatives.
Michael Kors, one of the most prestigious fashion houses in the world, had to do something a little fancier.
It launched an Instagram filter to commemorate IWD 2021.
Custom filters are appealing to brands. An eMarketer forecast predicts that the adoption of social media augmented realities filters will increase from 29.9 to 48.3 million users in 2018 and 2022.
The campaign by Michael Kors asked consumers to use the Instagram filter and share their most beautiful moments. The brand was not just celebrating International Women’s Day, but also encouraging its customers to create user-generated material (UGC).
This is a smart strategy. Stackla research has shown that UGC is 2.4 times more popular than brand-created content.
Conclusion
International Women’s Day is something that can’t be overlooked, regardless of whether your audience favors women.
A growing number of consumers are becoming more aware that brands cannot remain silent about equality-related issues.
This doesn’t mean that you have to start your own social campaign to support women’s rights. You should at least be celebrating women in your business.
Sleeknote’s first article, 9 International Women’s Day email examples to inspire yours, appeared first on Sleeknote.
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By: Emil Kristensen
Title: 9 International Women’s Day Email Examples to Inspire Yours
Sourced From: sleeknote.com/blog/international-womens-day-email-examples
Published Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 12:06:51 +0000
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