I have it in my calendar Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's!

Planning is key to a successful marketing program.  Having a marketing plan is a way for marketers to understand the marketing needs for your company whether they are big or small.  I would argue if you are a small company it is even more important as you might not have the resources to throw at all marketing efforts.  It also helps you decide what your strategies and tactics are for your plan.

So for the my first email evaluation I spotted a message that grabbed me based on the fact that it was well thought out with an upcoming initiative   Each year Ben & Jerry's gives away a free cone to drive foot traffic and get the word out about the brand.  Plus it gets us thinking about the summer.  I love the idea "food in mouth marketing"  Here are some of my thoughts on the message below.

• Social share - My friends might want to join me.  Great placement in the pre-header makes a ton of sense.  It is not buried at the bottom and in the right place based on what the core message is within the mailing. (Infographic on social sharing and email)
• Big, Bold, and Fun font - With a brand like Ben & Jerry's you would not expect anything less than a fun call to action with a whimsical font.
• Clear Message - date, times and you don't need to bring anything with you, why wouldn't you as a consumer share this event with your friends and make a party of it or a after lunch event.
• Add it to my calendar - Heck yeah! free cone of course I am going to add to my calendar so I can plan around a free cone.  Here is a previous how to post on calendar insertion.

I would say that this message hits it out of the park, it is on brand has good call to actions and is very well planned out.  I am interested to see if they send a reminder a few days before to customers who have clicked on any link or have opened the message.  I am sure they will have a great turnout for this celebration of the customer that they started back in 1979.