Starbucks "Red Cup" Email Newsletters

Pretend you're Starbucks. You want to gently remind people that throughout the holidays, while they're running around shopping for gifts at the mall, they should stop off and have a warm cup of Starbucks coffee. Mmmm. You want people to dream about those little Red Starbucks cups while they're freezing their buns off out in the cold weather. And you want people to smile and think warm, happy thoughts when they see a Red Starbucks cup in someone's hand (Pavlov's dog: "Hmm, I want a Red Cup too!").

How do you do this? With email, of course...

Starbucks just launched, "The Red Cup." It's sort of a "countdown to the holidays" website, where they post simple, useful tips (like how to build a fire) and cheerful holiday ideas (like, "Bake some cookies for the office. Let someone cut in line. Leave candy canes in your neighbor's mailbox. Bring a bunch of tennis balls to your local dog park").

What's really nice is that you can sign up for their email newsletter, and they'll send you a list of those handy tips every week.

It's nicely designed, has a lot of personality, it's not too sales-y (c'mon, it's the holidays, Scrooge!), and it's actually kinda helpful and fun.

Keep 'em Simple

Email marketing doesn't have to be big, giant, monthly newsletters. They can be simple, fun, tidbits of useful stuff that remind people about your company every now and then.

Example of the email: