Heat Up Your Summer Season with Email Marketing
By: John W Hayes
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Email Marketing, Marketing, Business

Photo by Conner Murphy on Unsplash

The summer months are a funny old time for us marketers. Things tend to get a little quiet while everyone is distracted by the long, hot summer days. Even businesses that reach their peak during the summer months slow down on the marketing front when the mercury rises. You could argue that these seasonal businesses are already too busy being busy and there is little point in marketing to an audience that is already on vacation. But this doesn’t mean your marketing campaigns should take a break.

Could you imagine a retailer turning off its marketing during the busy holiday season? It wouldn’t happen. These retailers might be busy, but there is always an opportunity to be busier, and they understand all too well that it will be another year before any lost opportunity can be readdressed.

Similarly, the summer season offers an incredibly short window of opportunity for some businesses to make their entire year’s income. A well-planned summer marketing strategy can help turn a good summer season into a great summer season.

Remember: Targeted marketing can also act as insurance against unforeseen issues that impact the travel and tourism industry, such as the weather or (sadly) global security concerns.

Staying Out for the Summer

Thanks to mobile technology, your emails now travel with your subscribers. This means you can hit them with great offers in the park, on the beach or by the pool just as easily as you can in the office or at home the rest of the year. This means your email campaigns are more agile and (with a little careful segmentation) can be used to promote all manner of offers to help you maximize your summer revenues.

For example, hotels or resorts could use email marketing to:

Promote their restaurant services, spa facilities or entertainment opportunities to guests prior to arrival or even during their stay.

Advise on activities based on the next day’s weather forecast. A cooler day might be a good opportunity to rent a bike. A rainy day might be well spent visiting a gallery, a museum or the shops.

Provide detailed “what’s-on” information to help guests make the most of their time in their destination. In this respect, you can think of email marketing as your virtual concierge.

Sell last-minute upgrades and encourage repeat bookings, increasing guest revenue and guaranteeing future business.

Consider This: Most hotels and resorts take email data when guests make a booking and/or check-in. How many of them use this information while guests are still in the resort or take the opportunity to promote their offers while the vacation experience is still fresh in guests’ minds? Very few hotels and resorts get this right.

While the rest of the world takes it easy this summer, will you be getting a little lazy with your marketing, or will you put it to work and help make this year’s business a lot hotter? Share your comments below.

Note: The summer months might just be hitting — but we’re already thinking about the holidays. Watch this space for some awesome holiday marketing education resources coming your way soon.

This post first appeared on the iContact Email Marketing Blog.