Summer is finally upon us! It might have taken a while, but the sun is finally starting to show itself, and people are starting to embrace all the excitement that summer has to offer. In the UK, there are many things that are quintessential with summer: festivals, barbecues and unreliable weather, to name but three. It’s not surprising, then, that marketers take advantage of this when putting together their summer campaigns.
If you’re planning an email marketing campaign, summer can be a great source of inspiration. Here are just some of the ways that businesses have been using everything we associate with summer to influence their email marketing campaigns:
Festivals
Although our weather rarely falls in their favour, the UK has a huge number of world-renowned music festivals during the summer months. Despite the possibility of getting soaked through and covered with mud, the popularity of these festivals has grown year on year.
As the popularity of festivals has grown, so have the opportunities for sales. It’s not just tents and backpacks that companies are marketing for festivals. Nowadays, almost anything can be marketed as a ‘festival essential’, including beauty products and electrical goods. Many fashion retailers have even brought out festival ranges.
This email, from Aphrodite clothing, showcases typical outfits that people wear at some of the world’s biggest music festivals:
Even if your business doesn’t sell festival-related merchandise, you could still put together an email with a festival theme. Muller Light has run a festival-related email campaign this year. Although we wouldn’t usually associate yogurt with festivals, they have taken advantage of the excitement surrounding them by running competitions to win festival-related goodies:
Barbecues
Again, despite the fact that they get rained on more often than not, the Brits have become obsessed with barbecues. Regardless of the weather forecast, every weekend during the summer months, someone will light the coals to prepare a feast for their family and friends.
Obviously, food retailers and garden centres lend themselves well to barbecue-related email marketing campaigns. In this email, Waitrose has shared some barbecue recipes, along with showcasing their offers on BBQ food:
Argos also used email marketing to promote offers on their barbecue range:
However, even if you don’t sell barbecue-related items, you can still use it as an email marketing theme during the hot summer months. Online pet retailer Zooplus used a BBQ theme to promote their range of meaty cat and dog food:
Weather
If there’s one thing that’s impossible to predict, it’s what the weather will be like during the summertime in Britain. It’s become a national obsession. Studies have found that, for more than 60% of Brits, the talk turns to the weather once every six hours. Using weather in an email marketing campaign gives you a unique opportunity to tap into exactly what your customers are thinking. This is particularly the case if temperatures have been unusually hot or cold, or if there’s been an excessive amount of rain.
When hot weather was forecast, TDF fashion ran this email:
Earlier in the year, when the weather was a lot more changeable, Phase Eight ran this email:
This shows how brands are responding to current events in order to tap into the consciousness of their subscribers.
There are many ways you can inject a bit of summer into your email marketing campaigns. Look out for summer-related inspiration wherever you can find it, and you’ll soon be able to bring a touch of sunshine into your customers’ inboxes.
