First of all, we owe you a complete list of day-to-day events in February. Below, we will only cover the main ones, but who knows when inspiration hits you and you decide to go off the beaten track of winter emails?
We’ve all seen the movie, right? But in case you are not familiar with this holiday, the little furry creature signals the end of winter. If it wakes up and sees its shadow, it means the winter is over. If it doesn’t see the shadow, 6 more weeks of winter await. And yes, people wake up the poor groundhog in February to do this one thing.
Can you use Groundhog Day in your email newsletter campaign? Of course, you can. Look at how Bonobos, a men’s clothing brand, used this opportunity to nudge their customers to reach for their wallets:
We have to say we absolutely dig this email marketing campaign. The light-hearted approach to content’s tone of voice, few lines of text — and of course, Bonobos are well-positioned to tie into the holiday given their product line.
And of course, you can use the time loop principle (thank you, Bill Murray!) to entertain your subscribers and break up their routine. Encouraging your subscribers to do something different on the day is one way to go.
Naturally, we couldn’t pass this one by. Wear Red Day is all about raising awareness about potential heart issues women suffer from and is celebrated annually on the first Friday of February. February is American Heart Month, by the way.
There are many ways you can tie the topic into your email marketing efforts. Here are some of them:
Eugenia Kim, a women’s clothes and accessories brand, tied their promotional campaign to both Wear Red Day and the American Heart Association month.
Although not a holiday per se, the Super Bowl is probably the biggest annual sporting occasion in the US. Held traditionally on a Sunday, it determines the year’s NFL champion, as conference winners slug it out. In 2025, the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, will host the event.
As it’s a friends/family occasion for many, you can tap into that. Fast food deliveries will thrive on the day, but that doesn’t mean they have a monopoly over the big event. Look into how you can foster your customers’ relationships with their loved ones, or focus your marketing efforts on the sporting streak football fans possess.
The elephant in the room. Valentine’s Day is probably the best-known February event worldwide: we are not sure things like Groundhog Day and Super Bowl Sunday even come close. The National Retail Federation tells us Americans alone planned to spend almost $26 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts in 2024 — to the tune of an average of $186 per person.
Naturally, there are tons of Valentine’s Day email marketing ideas to fall back on. There are your standard discounts and gifts for making a purchase, and then there are more nuanced approaches. You can set the mood by sending a customer appreciation email at the beginning of the month or help them create a wishlist.
You can even remember that a large portion of your audience might not be big fans of Valentine’s Day — and cater to them. Show your appreciation, remind them that Valentine’s is not only about couples but about singles too.
You can even celebrate Valentine’s Day with a fun twist — like Land O’Lakes, a dairy company, did. Who says your love has to be for someone? It can be a love for chocolate as well. Not too shabby.
As of 2023, 66% of Americans owned at least one pet. Just let that sink for a moment: 2/3 of all people living on US soil have a creature they care about!
You can tap into pet care emails. While some brands (those that make dog food, for example) are better-positioned than others to capitalize on pets’ love-in, it doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with your content. As an example, just look at what Copper Cow Coffee, a company that creates and sells coffee blends, did ahead for Love Your Pet Day:
Much as you can dedicate an entire month of February to heart issues awareness, there’s a narrower take as well: Women’s Heart Week. It’s organized by the Women’s Heart Foundation on an annual basis. Educating your subscribers on potential heart issues and promoting a healthier way of living is the way to go here. You can also pledge support to the Foundation itself and donate part of your business’ profits to the cause.
There’s a Random Acts of Kindness Day — but there’s also a weekly observance.
There’s room for maneuver here for your brand: from organizing giveaways and donating part of profits to worthy causes to curating kind stories from your readers. That’s exactly what BetterBrand, whose mission is to promote healthier food, did:
Although National Pancake Day is celebrated in the US on March 4 in 2025, Pancake Week is in February.
It’s tough to directly relate to — unless your brand has something to do with dairy products or sells food — but you can get creative nonetheless. Pancakes are a beloved American breakfast as they’re heavily featured in movies and TV series.
So you can ask your employees to share their pancake-linked stories and offer your subscribers a chance to tell theirs. Maybe even share recipes along the way.
Various eating disorders have the second-highest mortality rate among mental health conditions. Every 52 minutes someone dies because they have an eating disorder of some sort. The American National Eating Disorders Association is the leading body promoting awareness stateside.
You can do your bit as well, educating your subscribers on the dangers of eating poorly and offering healthier ways to eat. You can gently remind your audience to pass tests to check whether they might be suffering from an eating disorder, curate stories about (un)healthy eating habits, and post recipes of homemade alternatives to junk food.
Black History Month was first recognized way back in 1926 when Dr. Carter J. Woodson introduced Negro History Week in February as a concept. However, it wasn’t until 50 years later, in 1976, when Black History Month became an annual celebration of the African-American population’s accomplishments. President Gerald Ford acknowledged and kickstarted the tradition in his speech.
Some of the most notable events in Black history are:
How can you use that in your month-long marketing campaign? Here are a few ideas and tips:
Here’s what Epic — a service that curates books for kids — did in their email campaign for Black History Month:
Each year, almost 700,000 people in the US die because of heart problems. More than 800,000 suffer from a heart attack. This has been the case since at least since the mid-1960s, when Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation on the matter, urging fellow Americans to exercise caution.
Raising health awareness is the road to take in your February email newsletter. Withings, a company that sells products helping people track their health, did this in their email newsletter.
As you can see, the brand gives general advice and tips on how to track your health condition. We think an educational and caring approach is the best option for your marketing efforts. Warn your subscribers about the dangers of heart diseases, enlighten them on how potential issues can be tracked and avoided. Find a way to tie this into your brand’s values as well.
In 2025, Children’s National Dental Month will be brought by ADA — American Dental Association. It aims to promote dental hygiene for children, their parents, and caretakers. ADA has even designed posters for the occasion to educate kids in a fun manner.
This is certainly a brighter occasion than American Heart Month, so you can experiment with content formats and tone-of-voice of your email marketing campaign. ADA themselves create brushing guides, flyers, posters, and coloring sheets. You can use some of these ideas, throw in contests and giveaways, create educational tests for parents — there’s definitely room for creativity here.
Here’s what Package Free — a brand not directly related to dental care — did in their campaign:
The event started in 1994, and it aims to encourage citizens to help birds survive in February. It’s a traditionally hard month for wild birds, so people are urged to put out food and water, as well as shelter birds from the cold.
It’s an opportunity to educate your customers on how much of a threat February poses for surviving in the wild and appeal to their good nature to help out the feathery beings. You can explain the reasons behind high death rates among birds, curate stories from people helping them, and advise on how others can pitch in.
You also can — and probably should — carry the torch yourself, explaining what your brand does to help birds and maybe even focusing on how a portion of profits from your sales will go towards helping birds survive.
Although February is a short month, it’s chock-full of events you can use to create captivating email marketing newsletters for your audience. There are monthly events to take into account (such as Black History Month and American Heart Month), week-long observations (such as Random Acts of Kindness week), and your daily picks (e.g. Valentine’s, Groundhog, etc.)
Even if you are not directly into this or that theme, you can still get creative in your emails and reap the rewards. Should you need ideas for catchy subject lines, not just email copy, we’ve got you covered. We hope we’ve given enough to go on come February.
