April Fools’ Day Emails: Wise or Foolish?

Posted by Chad S. White on April 2, 2015

Retailers are pros at leveraging seasonal hooks to promote products and sales. But April Fools’ Day is one of those holidays where retailers should tread carefully—or that they should just avoid altogether as most do.

Nowadays, if a retailer mentions April Fools’ Day it’s to half pun/half reassure subscribers that their email is “No Joke.” That’s because finding the right gag that does no harm and is on-brand for your company is tough.

This year, ThinkGeek showed us how to do an April Fools’ Day email right, and West Elm provided us with a cautionary tale. I spoke about this and more with Internet Retailer’s Matt Lindner.