6 Ways to Make Your Summer Email Campaigns Shine

With the weather warming up (finally!), it’s now time to ditch the jackets, boots and umbrellas, and break out the shorts, t-shirts, flip flops and sunscreen on the weekends. Now’s also a good time to think ahead to summer – and turn up the heat on your email campaigns.

 

Here are six ideas we recommend for making summer email campaigns shine:

 

1. Create a summer-themed promotion: Whether you’re a B2C or a B2B organization, the easiest way to tie your email campaigns to summer is to create a seasonal promotion, event or sale. Think in terms of the warm weather or tie your campaign to a holiday or special occasion, such as the summer solstice (June 21). Everyone looks forward to summer, so getting your audience thinking of warm days ahead may be enough to put some sizzle on your open and click-through rates – and some heat on your competition.

 

2. Craft a sunny subject line: Intriguing subject lines are crucial in generating email opens, so get creative and use language that evokes the warm days of summer to warm up your audience to your message. From barbecues, to beach attire, surf music, vacation destinations, summer safety, preparing your yard, ice cream and more, there are an abundance of themes to draw upon.

 

3. Use emojis: While we’re letting our hair down and having some fun, consider using emojis in your email subject line or body copy. As I wrote previously, simply adding an emoji to your subject line can increase your open rate 4%. Summer presents a great opportunity to show anything related to the sun or beach. Just make sure it makes sense to your brand, supports your message and renders correctly through testing.

 

4. Communicate summer events: For those in your audience who have not yet thought ahead or finalized their summer plans, a calendar of upcoming events can get your prospects excited about the upcoming season, and your company’s place in it. Depending on your business, you can include a list of local events, fireworks displays, concerts, business trade shows, online events or webinars, and of course special events or sales that you may be offering.

 

5. Use warm graphics: Reinforce your promotion with images, colors and graphics that convey summer: the beach, baseball, fun or relaxation, food or refreshments, or any other sunny imagery that will help spark interest from your audience.

 

6. Offer a cool respite? Of course, once the summer heat is in full swing, it can get too hot for some of your audience and they may be looking to escape the intense heat. Perhaps later in the summer, consider using messaging that will help them cool off, beat the heat, chill with your product or not sweat their business challenge.

 

Lastly, as we head into summer, understand that your customers and prospects are coming and going a lot. This may impact your email campaign results. Stay the course and consider re-sending your emails when it makes sense. Because this can be tricky, take a look at the tips in our previous post,  “The Art of the Email Resend.”

 

 

Outward Media’s accurate, targeted email data can help you achieve better email marketing ROI by targeting your best prospects – including millennials and other generations -- and, ultimately, converting more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.