• by Wacarra Yeomans , June 6, 2012

As the season turns, most B2C brands introduce brighter color palettes, outdoor aspirational photography and upbeat seasonal messaging to their email campaigns. Beyond those essential creative touches, summer also offers distinctive opportunities to make email campaigns useful to subscribers’ daily lives.

It’s not necessary to change the primary messaging; these tactics can be used to support existing campaign plans or put a new spin on a regularly featured product.

Here are a few ways to infuse your emails with content that actually adds value:

• Stay attuned to travelers. A recent Travel Advisor report from comScore shows that more than half of smartphone owners engage with travel content on their mobile device, and they expect brands to reach out to them that way. Mobile email has stepped in to meet an array of needs for travelers coordinating their logistics on the go. There’s also opportunity promote products and services that benefit travelers, like these wrinkle-resistant outfits from Lucy.

• Promote standard products and services that might get more play this season. Beyond the obvious seasonal clothing collections, there are items and services that your brand might always offer but that subscribers might be especially interested in come summer.  A little thought to how subscribers spend their warm-weather days and nights can help your brand offer items that can add real value. For example, this recent Williams-Sonoma email shows off an ice cream maker.

• Build product collections around summer activities. In addition to pulling out particular products and offering to brighten subscribers’ summers, help them out by pulling together collections around summer activities (weekend trips, picnics at the park, days at the beach, etc.).  Showing some thoughtfulness about what your target demographic is up to can go a long way. This giggle email shows consideration for parents who are packing up their little ones for a getaway, adding value by suggesting items that parents might forget.
• Offer useful content -- like info and tips -- along with products. Add real value to subscribers’ summers by becoming a resource for info they might need, beyond data on your products For example, The Container Store offers packing tips along with promoting its suitcases. Similarly, REI offers handy tips about planning a day hike here, which serves as a way to alert subscribers to other resources that REI offers.

• Use email to get the word out about events -- your own and any that your brand has some affiliation with. Event calendars fill during the spring and summer, and email can be the best way to let subscribers know what’s going on, whether it’s a special class at your store or a fundraiser for a cause your brand supports. This segmented Patagonia email let Seattle-area subscribers know about an event the company hosted concerning a local issue.

Sometimes finding inspiration for summer means taking some time to consider what you already know about your subscribers and anticipating the type of summer plans they’ll have. When you begin to deliver content that extends beyond your products and services into truly useful, relevant information, customers will see the value in the relationship they have with your brand -- and when they do make their next purchase, it’ll be with you instead of your competitor.