With the mercury rising to higher and higher levels in thermometers across the country and air conditioners running on full blast, there’s no denying that one thing is on everyone’s mind; summer is officially here. Unfortunately, plenty of brands out there fail to take note of this trending topic and continue along in the inbox with a “business as usual” mentality. To ensure your brand stands out this summer and doesn’t get lost in the flood of generic offerings coming from the competition, let’s talk about five of the best email marketing tips for your upcoming summer campaign.
Go Regional with Your Content
According to Practical Ecommerce’s Carolyn Nye, there’s no better place to start than with regionally relevant content. Naturally, this can be harder for the bigger brands to pull off, but if you’re able to integrate references and relevant information about local events, happenings, and other topics into your content, then you have an opportunity to really stand out and capture the attention of specific communities. Even if you don’t dig into highly specialized neighborhood happenings, simply covering citywide events and other outings in a particular area can help keep the goodwill flowing into your brand image.
Talk about Summer Behavior
Similarly, there’s also the concept of tailoring your overarching content tone toward a more “summer-oriented” style and direction. Discussing gardening, getting ready for the beach, or any other seasonal behavior might seem a little out of place at first, but this approach falls right in line with a sound email marketing strategy.It’s important to keep in mind that not everything you send out to your contact list members has to be related to a product or service. Sometimes, it’s okay to take a moment and talk about something – in this case, summer activities – that’s both relevant and interesting to your audience.
“Christmas in July”
Nye also suggests utilizing the “Christmas in July” tactic as part of your summer email marketing initiative. It might seem a little awkward at first, but creating a sense of urgency for the holiday season now is both effective and engaging; if you’re able to pull it off properly.Essentially, a Christmas in July email campaign or sale needs to hit on two key points – encouraging the consumer to start holiday shopping early and offering real value to incentivize the process. If you’re not able to hit on these aspects of the process, then don’t be surprised when even the most well-crafted summer email content falls flat on its face.
Offer up a Seasonal Giveaway
If you’re not looking to run a sale, but rather generate some excitement via a giveaway or contest, Jonha Revesencio of The Huffington Post points out that the summer season offers up the perfect timing for this tactic. A surefire way to win big on this front is by blending in practicality to the process.As Revesencio goes on to explain, people can really appreciate offerings that fill a practical need during these hot summer months. Even if your organization doesn’t offer up a product or service that fits in line with this mentality, that doesn’t mean that branded sandals, sunglasses, and other giveaways can’t fill this void.
Give Summer Tips and Health Advice
Finally, if you’re all out of other ideas, don’t be afraid to send out an email that’s a little more educational in orientation. The rising temperature comes with plenty of perils, so a simple and straightforward tips and advice edition of your weekly brand newsletter can go a long way toward keeping your audience informed and safe.Whether you cover information regarding sun safety and extreme weather warnings, or simply decide to focus on lawn-care advice and other relevant summer discussions, setting aside the promotional content for a day is a powerful and effective tool for bonding with your valued following. The best part is that this tactic extends to other seasons as well, so you’ll never have to worry about coming up with something to write about when the fall, winter, and spring months pop up on the calendar.At the end of the day, staying seasonally relevant – especially during these hot summer months – is all about finding new ways to transfer value to your audience. This basic premise is the guiding light behind email marketing, so finding creative ways to incorporate summer and other major yearly events into your campaign approach ensures that you’ll always be relevant and engaging.
