• by Ray Schultz , February 26, 2018

SendGrid noticed some trends that may not be surprising on Valentine’s Day.

The email delivery platform processed 96 million emails containing the word “valentine. In addition, subject lines using the terms “flowers,” “chocolate,” and “valentine” were three to five times more popular around the holiday than at other times in the year.

Finally emojis were also popular this season, the most prevalent kind being red heart emojis — they made up 67% of all those used. And there was a 30% increase in their overall volume.   

Given this level of repetition, however, timing was important. Firms that sent “flowers” emails faced 80% less competition in inboxes if they sent them two days before Valentine’s Day. Most marketers send them the day before.

“One of largest challenges of email is to stand out from others in the inbox,” says Carly Brantz, VP of revenue marketing at SendGrid. She adds: “One way to stand out is to get into a recipients inbox before other marketers have the chance to.”

Based on her firm’s observations, Brantz offers these tips for sending holiday emails: 

Holiday themed emails work. But don’t use the day as an excuse to send emails to inactive customers. “It is important to remember that even though it's tempting to send to more older addresses during the holidays sending to these longer-term unengaged addresses can cause lasting reputation/blacklist issues,” Brantz notes. 

Emojis work too. But make sure they are relevant to the holiday. Brantz adds, “Remember to test the content since emojis do not render the same on every device and with some clients may not render at all, inadvertently making the message look spammy.”

Understand your customers’ expectations. “When it comes to segmenting your list have confidence in what you know about your recipients and your content,”  Brantz says. “It's important to not overreach during Valentine's day or any other holiday or major event.”