• by Jess Nelson , May 13, 2016

There's no reason for marketers to be superstitious this Friday, according to newly released data from GoDaddy that correlates the incorporation of Friday the 13th in an email subject line with boosted engagement. 

Friday marks the only day in 2016 that the 13th day of the Gregorian calendar falls on the last day of the work week. Although there are varying stories of origin for the superstition, Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in popular culture and is the root cause of several phobias including triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13, and paraskevidekatriaphobia, the fear of Friday the 13th.

“While Friday the 13th might be seen as unlucky for some, email marketers should absolutely treat the day as business as usual,” says Steven Aldrich, chief product officer at GoDaddy. “Our data from the past five Friday the 13th’s demonstrate that even the superstitious continue to open up newsletters and engage with content on this day.”

GoDaddy reviewed the performance of past email campaigns to pinpoint how marketers incorporated the event in their email marketing campaigns.

Subject lines that have seen success incorporating Friday the 13th include “TGI Friday the 13th!,” “Friday the 13th Is Your Lucky Day!” and “Fabulous Friday the 13th,” according to GoDaddy’s analysis. 

Aldrich recommends that marketers create themed Friday the 13th content such as subject lines, promotional content or visuals to encourage customers to treat the day as a holiday promotional opportunity.

Another opportunity for email marketers would be to creatively incorporate the number 13 into their campaigns.

"Friday the 13th provides marketers with a lot of clever ways to play off the number 13 or themes that come with the day,” says Vivek Sharma, CEO at Movable Ink. “There's only one chance this year, so marketers should make emails as contextual as possible for each customer to maximize results. For example, a retail brand could feature 13 products the customer might like based on her previous purchases or browsing behavior -- with an incentive to purchase within 13 hours and receive a 13 percent discount."

Friday emails also offer email marketers an opportunity to end the work week in strong standing.

"Fridays can be a great time of the week to communicate with your customers and readership, well timed for the weekend, when recipients are catching up on their inboxes and reading through emails from the week,” says Aldrich. 

That being said, it's important for email marketers to be aware of their audience. An analysis by Return Path, an email marketing and data solutions provider, reveals that perhaps marketers should be superstitious after all.

With the exception of the Apparel industry, Return Path's data shows that open rates declined by an average of 2% to industry benchmarks across verticals when marketers incorporated the phrase 'Friday the 13th' into their email campaigns.