The Perks and Potential of Seasonal Email Marketing

As time goes by, it’s not just our schedules and events that help us stay tethered to the moment. Cultural touchstones like major holidays and fluctuations in weather also help us clearly distinguish jolly and chilly December from sunny and sporty July.

The same rings true for your audience, who are not only looking for more sources of enjoyment throughout the year but also feeling inundated with digital marketing monotony that they rarely absorb before scrolling past it or swiping it into the trash.

As an antidote to readers’ drifting attention spans, consider giving your marketing a touch of seasonal excitement.

A refresher

If you want to plan effective seasonal email campaigns, first revisit the evergreen essentials of good email outreach. According to email marketing company MailerLite, some of the best general practices across industries include:

• To increase your open rates, send emails with subject lines of twenty to forty characters, craft segmented campaigns, and use emojis.
• For a higher click rate, add prominent buttons and links directing recipients to resources like blogs.
• Limit your unsubscribes by writing content that’s relevant to your target audience’s interests and needs, and make sure the subject line accurately reflects the content of the email.

As you build your campaigns accordingly, keep a close eye on essential metrics, especially if you test altering your content throughout the year. Data like open and click-through rates will provide feedback on how successful each promotion is and what may require fine-tuning.

The power of a seasonal touch

While emails that follow best practices are likely to hook some audience engagement, there are numerous reasons why you should imbue your marketing with a seasonal focus, whether it’s for a major holiday like Christmas or notable days like the spring equinox or Mother’s Day.

An excuse to reach out
Every month has something distinct about it, whether that’s a much-anticipated holiday, popular community event, or change of season. Consider these calendar highlights as opportunities to email your contacts more often, peppering in themed promotions so you can pique their interest in a certain product or service.

Moreover, you can take this opportunity to cross-sell or upsell during popular shopping occasions like back to school and Black Friday. And don’t forget the power of simply saying hello. Sending general greeting emails with themed content and imagery that wish your contacts a happy new year, for example, can paint your business in a more positive, endearing light and keep you top of mind with your contacts.

Avoid the trash bin
If your audience begins to find your messaging repetitive, they’ll quickly lose interest in it—and they may even opt to unsubscribe from your outreach if they perceive it as inbox clutter. Giving your emails seasonal variety helps keep your messaging from getting stale.

Alternatively, when you send your audience timely, themed emails with verbiage and graphics to match, they may feel more eager to read them. It’s crucial to any campaign that you maximize opens, click-throughs, and the time spent reading, and leveraging familiar holidays and events can help sustain your recipients’ interest.

Segment your audience
Moreover, seasonal emails offer another approach to segmentation. Use them to capture the excitement of certain targeted reader categories over anticipated holidays and events.

Timely content in action

Consider the following seasonal subject lines. How can they help you tailor your outreach to your organization’s industry and unique branding during warmer months?

“Dive into cool summer vibes! 😎”

“New ways to fund your end-of-summer fun ☀️”

Send a summer email that features one of these seasonal subject lines, and fill it with fun outdoor sports images. Then write brief yet engaging copy that orients your unique selling proposition (USP) toward prevailing interests at that time, including travel, children being home from school, and hot temperatures.

A financial service, for example, might craft topical text like, “Reach out for assistance saving up for your next big vacation. Because the most valuable thing you can make this summer is memories. Click here to schedule your consultation.” Such outreach could be far more appealing to readers than a generic evergreen pitch.

Investing accordingly

Naturally, adjusting your emails throughout the year may require a greater time investment from you or your marketing team. But you don’t need to handcraft a different email for each month. Email marketing companies like MailerLite and Mailchimp can help you create automated campaigns that vary throughout the year. Whether you invest more time or money into such a tactic, taking this approach could pay off in more recipients reading your emails with genuine engagement—and becoming converted or repeat customers.

TAKE ACTION:
Review your current email marketing strategies with your marketing team or outsourced service, and devise messages with more seasonal language.