(April Fools) Introducing: Seasonal DesignSmells™

It’s no secret. People love our limited-run Seasonal Design feels — those unique backgrounds that rotate in and out each season: Jack O’Lanterns in October, mistletoe in December, stars and stripes in July, and so on. But while Smore users absolutely adore the backgrounds, we’ve heard from a number of folks who want to “take their newsletter experience up to 11.” At Smore, it’s our mission to help people send better newsletters. And, well, we heard ya.

That’s why we’re especially excited to introduce Seasonal DesignSmells™. We’ve taken our incredibly popular Seasonal Design Feels — which include fonts, colors, and background images — and matched each visual theme to a collection of unique aromas that reflect the nature of our seasonal designs. So now, when you choose a Seasonal Design Feel, you’ll also be able to choose an accompanying, limited-time DesignSmell™ that matches the seasonal theme you’ve chosen. Pretty cool, right?

How’d we do it? First, we consulted with olfactory experts in France to determine the most unique smells associated with each season. We relentlessly shuttled back and forth between our office in Pittsburgh and our consultants’ offices in Aix en Provence — all to make sure we got “the perfect scents.” It was hard work, but it was worth it.

Once we decided upon the individual fragrances most-associated with each season, our engineering team worked non-stop for three weeks to perfect our patented “SmellCheck” technology. In a nutshell, SmellCheck impels a device’s speaker to vibrate at an inaudible pitch, and emit a faint fragrance that matches the Seasonal Theme that the sender has used.

Wondering what it’s like? Let’s say you send a Summertime-themed newsletter to your audience. Once you’ve selected your relevant background, chosen your email list, and hit send, SmellCheck automatically does its thing! When your recipients open your email, they’ll immediately experience our Summertime DesignSmell™, which will use their computer or device speaker to produce the smell of the beach, a barbecue, and a gently-settling heatwave. Talk about engaging your audience! Throw in the vaguely phosphorescent scent of firecrackers, and you’ve got a pretty great email fragrance that’ll surprise and delight your audience during the months of July and August.

It’s all automatic. All you’ve got to do is select one of our seasonal backgrounds, hit send, and a DesignSmell™ will seamlessly be applied to your outgoing newsletter! We’re gradually rolling this out to select users, so log into your Smore editor and see if you’ve got the new feature. If you don’t have it yet, check back a little later on! Best of all, SmellCheck works perfectly on all devices, so your newsletter’s seasonal smells will waft just as nicely on tablets and mobile devices as they do on desktop.

Want the full run-down? Here’s a list of our current Seasonal Design Feels, including the season in which we release them, as well as their accompanying smells.

🎃 Pumpkin (Fall) — The smell of roasted pumpkin mingles with a hint of sharpened pencils, to signify the beginning of the schoolyear.

❄️ Snowflake (Winter) — The aroma of chestnuts roasting on an open fire, with a small handful of pine needles, that might also be roasting on an open fire.

❤️ Heartfelt (February) — An even balance between the aroma of chocolate and the scent of roses, with just a hint of expensive greeting card paper.

💐 Blossom (Spring) — We’ve captured the gentle aroma of fresh air, and added just a slight note of midterm exam ink.

☀️ Summertime (Summer) — Beach, barbecue, and just a hint of heatwave. It’s a relaxing scent, but it’ll also probably make you hungry.

🇺🇸 Stars ‘n Stripes (July) — A faint aroma of firecracker phosphorous, underpinned by the maritime fragrance of both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It smells like…victory.

We’re gradually rolling out our Seasonal DesignSmells™ soon, so log into Smore to see if your account has been updated with this amazing new feature. We know it might seem a little unusual at first, but don’t turn up your nose — try it out!

🎉 Happy April Fools! As you may have noticed, something may have smelled a little off in our recent product update, Seasonal DesignSmells™. Namely, that they don’t exist (yet!).

But we do appreciate your playing along, and being good sports. Until the time that science does let us transmit smells over the internet, we encourage you to check out our existing Seasonal Design Feels — right now, it’s Blossom (Spring) season! Design Feels are an easy way to customize the look of your newsletter using seasonal backgrounds, colors, and fonts. For real. Check ‘em out!