Back-to-School Email Campaign Tips & Tricks
Did you know back-to-school season is the second largest shopping season of the year? According to research by theNational Retail Federation, total spending reached more than $24 billion last year. We’re already a week into July and summer will be over before we know it. It’s time start planning out your back-to-school email campaign.
Timing
Timing is everything when it comes to season specific email campaigns. If you send out your email too early, your customers will forget about them. However, if you send them out too late, your customers won’t enough time to act upon them. As a general rule of thumb, try sending out your back-to-school email campaign a month in advance. A lot of students go back to school at the end of August or beginning of September. Don’t forget to make sure that you include email testing time into your campaign.
Subject Line
According to research by Convince & Convert, 33% of email recipients open email based on subject line alone. This means your email subject line is just as important as the content of your email campaign. Mention “Back-to-School” in your subject line. People are shopping for back-to-school deals, let them know up front that’s what you have. Hint at what’s inside the email. The subject line should give the reader an idea of what’s inside the email without giving everything away. It should tempt the reader to click the email, but the reader would have to open the email to see what the offer is.
Content
As important as the email subject line is, the content of your email needs to stand out from your competitor’s. The goal of your back-to-school email campaign should be to meet the needs of your customers. Give people what they need. Back-to-school clothes, school supplies, college dorm supplies, and more. People need good deals on useful products and services.
Don’t forget to personalize the message. Segment your customers and send different emails to each group. Not everyone on your email list has the same wants and needs. If you’re a sporting goods store, you may have customers ranging from local soccer moms shopping for their first-time player, or varsity tennis player looking for the latest gear. The key is knowing these variations and using them to send the right content.
