As summer revs its engines, visions of pristine beaches, inviting pools, and sizzling barbecues now occupy the thoughts of all but the most stalwart of employees. Even the non-working adults on your subscriber list will be occupied ferrying kids back and forth to the pool or hitting the golf green rather than clicking through email. During summer, email marketing often hits a slump because there may be days or weeks at a time when subscribers aren’t checking their email, and when they do check it, marketing emails take low priority. The good news is that by changing up your strategy, you can still capture the attention of your audience, even as they prepare to hit the beach.
- Make the most of subject lines.
People will be more hurried as they scan through their inboxes during the summer, so capture attention with snappy, engaging subject lines emphasizing summer fun or special deals and giveaways.
- Use visual imagery to create positive associations.
Visual images such as your product featured in front of a pristine beach or another favorite summer pastime can create “feel-good” associations with your product, encouraging better customer engagement with your message.
- Associate your products with favorite summer activities.
Demonstrate how your products or services can make a summer vacation more relaxing or a backyard barbecue more inviting.
- Encourage link sharing with contests and giveaways.
If your products don’t lend themselves to summer associations, you can still vamp up the excitement by running a contest. This will not only entice subscribers to open your email, but will also encourage them to share your link with friends.
- Track user behavior and change send times if necessary.
As vacation season begins, peak open times may change. Track the behavior of your subscribers to find out whether your emails have a better chance of being viewed on a day or time other than your normal send time.
- Accommodate mobile users.
Because many people will be away from their computers for a portion of the summer months, it’s vital that you make your emails mobile friendly. Messages that can’t be viewed easily on a smartphone will be more likely to be discarded.
- Keep it short
No one has time to read lengthy emails in the summer. Get your message across with as few words as possible and keep content light and fun.
Summer months can present a challenge to marketers as their open rates and click throughs fluctuate. Let eConnect Email help you create the perfect summer campaign by designing custom summer templates, testing campaign effectiveness, and ensuring superior deliverability.