5 Summer Email Marketing Tips for Retailers

Summer, at last! It’s great for your customers, but summer is often a slow time for retailers. Consumers are either out and about or saving for the holiday season. 

But that doesn’t mean you have to stop marketing. On the contrary, you should lean into it. Running a few well-timed and strategic summer campaigns can help attract new buyers and reengage old customers. 

Interested? We thought you’d never ask. So here are some summer promotions to consider to help boost engagement.

Get a few targets in mind

Not every holiday works for every brand. While most companies in the U.S. can find some tie-in to the 4th of July, other holidays may be a stretch. However, that doesn’t mean you’re down and out; even sending one ‘start of summer’ promotion can help boost revenue.  

If you’d like to focus on more than just a start of summer sale, you can. Pick a few key holidays spread out over the summer and prepare ahead of time. You don’t need a massive lead time for smaller flash sales or one-off special events as long as your inventory is lined up. Send these emails a few days before. 

Reward your most loyal customers

Do you have a loyalty program? The summer is a great time to check back in with them and let them know they aren’t forgotten. One way to connect with them is by offering special summer loyalty points promotions when they buy within a certain period. 

For example, have your customers get 2x the points when they shop during your summer sale or special event. Or highlight a few key products related to a summer holiday or sale and give them extra points for buying.

Expand your holiday list

The ‘big’ summer holidays that come to mind are the 4th of July, Labor Day, and Memorial Day. But there are all sorts of equally important holidays that are great ways to connect with your customer base. 

Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Juneteenth are holidays that may appeal to your customers. Or, pull up a calendar with a few lesser-known holidays that align perfectly with your products, like National Bikini Day (July 5th) or National Dog Day (August 26th), and create personalized promotions around those. 

Highlight in-store promotions

Want to build up foot traffic? Send an email letting your customers know you’re having a special in-store event or promotion. When you use your customer’s location data, it’s easy to personalize their emails with events at the nearest store. 

Or, using the same location data send out emails when the weather gets hot offering a discount if they come in and buy something. This is a great one for food retailers and restaurants to get more people in their shops.

Create themed sales around customer personas

Today’s retailers and eCommerce brands have a lot of good customer data. So use it to your advantage. Create segments of your customers based on the items they buy or what they love, and then pitch summer promotions to each of them. 

For example, say you have a camping store. With your welcome email, use a live poll to ask customers about their favorite activities. Then, use that, combined with the other data you have to send them personalized summer sales with recommended products. 

Smart Banners™ can help

One thing customers don’t like is outdated information. You don’t want to run a summer sale and have nothing to show for it because you didn’t have enough inventory. 

That’s where Smart Banners™ can make a difference, especially during your summer sale events. With these banners, you can send your customers the most up-to-date information on your sale or event. All you need to do is hook up your data sources, set your parameters, and add a snippet of code to your email templates. The Campaign Decision Engine does the rest.

So, when you’re sending your summer sale information, you don’t need to worry they’re going to miss the message. That’s because the customers that meet your parameters will open their email and see a Smart Banner™ giving them the most recent and updated information about your events.

Want to try it for yourself? Click here to schedule a demo.