Summer can mean a lot of different things but to an email marketer, it’s a goldmine of ideas waiting to be executed. The weather is hot, people are going on vacations or firing up their barbeques, and beach days seem endless. Whatever industry your brand falls under, you need to have a summer email campaign in your marketing strategy.
Not sure what kinds of campaigns to run at this time of the year? Need some fresh ideas? We have you covered with our list of 10 summer email marketing campaign ideas. Let’s get started.
Summary
1. Promote your summer products.
2. Summer Spotlight: Highlight your best products.
3. Give a hot take and explain why your products work across all seasons.
4. Help them prepare for summer.
A campaign around summer hero products is a great one to implement during the season. Take this time to highlight a product, outline its benefits, and show your readers why it’s a perfect addition to their summer arsenal. This works exceptionally well for beauty brands but can be applied to any industry or vertical.
The example here is from Function Of Beauty where they herald their custom styling primer as a summer styling hero. Function Of Beauty is a made-to-order haircare and styling brand that offers customizable shampoos, hair masks, serums, and conditioners.
The product in their summer email campaign, the custom styling primer, has SPF benefits, prevents hair color from fading, and protects against environmental pollution–all perfect for the summer season. The email is simple and catchy with a call to action that leads to the product page so interested subscribers can purchase in a few steps.
Hot summer days are troublesome and many people want to beat the heat and stay cool. This is another interesting angle to use for your summer campaigns. We’ll take the lawn care brand Sunday as an example.
In this email, they’re promoting their summer heat defense kit, which is a savings bundle that lawn owners can buy to sample Sunday products. The main problem they’re trying to solve with this kit is “heat-stressed lawns”. It’s clever but also relevant to homeowners who want to protect their lawns from damage during the hot months.
Try out this summer campaign idea if your customers have a pain point brought on by summer heat that your products can solve.
You can use your summer email campaign to solve an issue your audience might experience during summer’s hot days. A good example is this email by the skincare brand Versed. Their product Acne-Control Body Mist targets an issue people commonly have because of summer humidity: bacne.
Here, they have a how-to guide that explains how to use the mist alongside product images of the mist. They also point the reader to their blog at the end of the email, in case they have other “summer skin concerns”, positioning their products as the cure to any of these woes.
Consider using the founder’s faves template to push product recommendations to your audience. Hims, the men’s health and beauty brand, features their founder’s summer picks alongside direct quotes explaining why he chose that product. For each product, they have a “shop now” CTA button to encourage the purchase.
It’s a simple, straightforward campaign that nonetheless works because people like to hear recommendations from experts like a brand’s founder. It also speaks to the effectiveness of your products if the founder is using them. If you’re out of ideas for your next campaign, try out this strategy.
Another great way to integrate the summer season into your emails is to spotlight a product and offer a month-long discount, just as Caraway does here. Caraway is a cookware brand that prides itself on having non-toxic materials and stylish designs in its lines.
This summer spotlight on their products is simple but effective. It showcases some pots and pans in an array of colors. It informs the reader that they’re having a 10 percent sitewide sale until July. This piques curiosity because who doesn’t love a good discount? They also include a shop button at the end to guide their readers to their website and stoke their interest even more.
This campaign works for different kinds of products, not just cookware, and it’s great because you don’t need to think of a catchy copy to relate a product with summer. The summer spotlight theme speaks for itself. You just need to let your products do the talking.
Vessi uses the hook hot take in their email campaign which focuses on why their products work for both summer and rainy seasons. Focusing on a product line’s relevance across seasons works well as a summer campaign because it helps people see your product in a new light. They’ll realize that what used to seem like just a rainy-day shoe actually is great for summer, too.
In the email, Vessi also includes a testimonial attesting to the effectiveness of Vessi’s shoes for keeping cool and dry during the summer and rainy seasons. They conclude the email with a call-to-action button so readers can start browsing their shoes.
Here’s another good summer campaign idea, brought to you by Brightland, an olive oil and vinegar brand from California.
The email is timely because it’s sent on the first day of summer, welcoming the subscriber to the season. They feature a recipe that they say is perfect for beach days and picnics. In the copy, they also note that the pasta salad recipe uses their new product. At the end, there’s a button that leads to the recipe.
Interested home cooks will love content like this because it helps them plan for summer occasions like the aforementioned beach days and picnics. It also introduces a product in a subtle way that doesn’t sound salesy.
The idea is simple: welcome your subscribers once summer starts so you stay at the top of their minds as they plan their holidays and travel.
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Summer isn’t complete without outdoor adventures. Play this up by showing how your brand will help them get ready to face longer days and the challenges that come with being outdoor.
Hurley is a good example of a brand that does this kind of campaign well. It’s a beach and activewear brand that sells apparel like board shorts and wetsuits.
This email features Hurley’s summer-appropriate products like sun-protective t-shirts, inflatable paddleboards, and quick-dry shorts, all shown through pictures of the models on the water and on the trails. This engages outdoorsy viewers and helps them see how the brand’s products are a fit for their lifestyle.
A packing checklist is another great summer email campaign to include in your content calendar. People often go on vacations and trips during summer so a packing list will have lots of appeal.
Here we have an example from Outdoor Voices, an athletic apparel brand. Outdoor Voices uses this template to promote their clothing by framing them as packing essentials. They also include photos of the products in the list to make them more concrete for the reader.
We highly recommend this approach if you want to get a lot of bang for your buck and promote multiple products in one email while still connecting them to the summer season.
Wrapping Up
We hope this list gives you an idea or two of what content to push out during the summer. There are many more campaigns you can run and these are just some of the common ones we’ve found. Do you have something on this list you want to try? We wish you the best of luck!
