The 1st of April is a favorite holiday for many people of all ages. It is not a typical promotional day like Black Friday or Saint Valentine’s day, and that’s why it’s worth your attention. An overall atmosphere of fun and joy makes people feel relaxed and more open, so your campaigns sent on this day are likely to hit the target and engage the audience!
Humor is a good tool to improve connections with your audience and make your brand memorable. The research by scientists from International Islamic University in Malaysia says that messages imbued with humor are easier to remember.
Funny jokes can certainly add new dimensions to your campaign, and earn you better results, but only if used appropriately. So, let’s dive a bit deeper into the essence of April Fools’ emails and figure out the secrets of the most successful campaigns.
When it comes to April Fools’ jokes, it’s so easy to take it too far which usually results in the negative buzz around your company. Before making a prank, do a little research to avoid looking foolish.
Last year, on the 1st of April Dileveroo’s (food delivery service) users in France, received the following message with a fake bill saying thank you for ordering 38 pizzas and 50 portions of sauce:
It resulted in thousands of panicked customers who thought their accounts had been hacked. Later, Deliveroo confirmed via Twitter that it was a bad prank. But the customers had already got angry and some of them even wanted to boycott the service.
Here are the simple steps to avoid situations like the one mentioned above:
First of all, figure out what goals you pursue launching this campaign. Notify the customers about holiday promotions? Boost sales? Increase brand awareness? Simply entertain your subscribers and cheer them up? Find it out and build your campaign depending on this goal.
Make sure that your audience reacts to the prank properly. Do some research before you start sending out your campaigns: think about the customer profile your joke will be addressed to. What’s their age? Gender? Location? Interests? This data will guide you and give you a good idea of what types of jokes are welcomed and what might be frowned upon.
Surely, you won’t be 100% accurate. It’s impossible to match the joke perfectly to every subscriber. However, such an approach is helpful when it comes to determining how customers will react to the joke and how far you can go.
April Fools’ Day is a chance to mix things up. Don’t be afraid of experimenting with email subject lines: you can try several different strategies to see which one works best for your audience.
The subject line looks so absurd that it immediately grabs the attention and increases engagement, making the readers open the email to see what’s going on.
Here are some examples of the subject lines for your inspiration:
Joke
Prank
Fool
When you think about how to create a “good-looking” email, every detail matters. Stats says that mobile email accounts for approximately 44% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product, and email type. So, make sure your digital marketing campaign displays correctly on all types of devices, especially when it comes to the templates with GIFs, videos, and complex layouts.
The CTA should be clear and remarkable, and a bit festive, of course. Instead of boring “Shop now” and “Visit the website”, you can use more creative variants to boost engagement and increase sales. BarkShop did that in their campaign, jokingly offering your dog to get a job:
Surely, it is not necessary to squeeze out something extraordinary, if you don’t have any ideas. “Shop now”, “Buy today” may also be suitable for your April Fools’ Day email template, especially when the button looks prominent, and is conveniently located.
Fossil has divided CTA into two different buttons: for him & her. Such a trick shows that you care about subscribers’ time and want to make their user experience as comfortable as possible.
Here are the noteworthy ideas you can use for inspiration when creating your April Fools’ Day campaign.
April Fools’ Day is all about jokes and crazy pranks: everyone’s having a great time teasing each other. Show that you can joke with your subscribers too! Use puns, play on words, bright pictures, tell funny stories –– it depends on your taste and company’s tone of voice.
That’s an example of a soft self-deprecating joke. King Arthur Flour uses such an approach to show that even pros sometimes make mistakes when cooking –– “details the far-ranging ways we’ve baked and failed this year.” It encourages beginners to carry on baking no matter how many mistakes they make.
Traditionally, companies and brands initiate sales dedicated to the upcoming holiday. April Fools’ Day is no exception –– that’s a chance to be more creative and show your business in the most profitable way possible.
The illustration of Reuzel’s email makes you give a chuckle or two. The content is crisp and to the point: the company offers festive discount codes which last till midnight –– it’s a well-known strategy of so-called last chance emails. The CTA buttons contrast sharply against the background and are very prominent.
Do you believe a company that sells clothes can launch its own airline? It’s hard to believe…but who knows? Boohoo pranked its subscribers in a funny yet unconventional way –– such an email definitely awakens curiosity and grabs readers’ attention.
Mood-responsive email –– sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, right? Email Uplers don’t think so: they’re pretty sure it can become a part of our today’s reality –– with their help, of course! (By the way, it’s also a prank). The bright and funny visuals illustrate the moods and, surely, immediately get you interested and coax you to click the CTA button.
Here are some really creative examples of April Fools’ emails that prank the subscribers but do it in a funny and smart way.
Waves decided to prank its subscribers by telling them that their stores were closing. That’s a bit risky April Fools’ Day email, yet attention-grabbing. Surely, they’ve sent another email and told the subscribers it was a bluff, but we’re sure they gave some of the customers a good scare!
Very often April Fools’ emails prank the subscribers. But what if you offer subscribers to prank each other? It can be even more effective –– Kelty proves that, displaying the way you can prank a friend using their products. Such an intriguing approach!
I laughed so hard when I found this email 🤣 True & Co pretends to create the world’s first remote-controlled bra, where the level of push-up can be switched with your iPhone. A must-have for first dates and deep necklines! But, unfortunately, they’re pranking us too –– and it looks so true-to-life that I’m afraid lots of girls feel disappointed having found it out!
A touch of humor can add new dimensions to your campaign, and earn you better results, but only if it’s used appropriately. Here are the simple steps to follow when creating an April Fools’ Day email campaign:
Here are the noteworthy ideas you can use in your April Fools’ Day campaign:
A half-hearted attempt to capitalize on April Fools’ Day won’t get your emails noticed. So, try to add some personal approach to your campaign, and you’ll definitely get incredible results!
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