Summer is here! 

It’s the time of year for taking time off from work and setting up much-needed vacations. Taking advantage of the warmer weather (or traveling to climates with warmer weather) is what summer is all about. And while it all may seem like fun and games, summertime is also synonymous with declining sales. After all, fewer people in the office means fewer people available to be sold to. 

If this sounds all-too-familiar, don’t lose hope. Tackling the summer sales slump just requires a creative approach and smart email campaigns.

Before we take a look at them, these are some of the basics that you need:

• Have a subject line that hooks your reader and is relevant to their experience of summer.
• Use visuals that are on-brand but also capture the season’s fresh and fun vibes.
• Keep your messaging light and bright!

These brands have checked off all the boxes and have added some extra oomph into their summer emails. Here are some of our favorites and why we think they work.  

1. BaubleBar – Take Advantage of the Summer Holidays

Holidays that fall during summer are always celebrated with a little more enthusiasm – people get together outdoors, splurge on new outfits, and freshen up their homes. And with the pandemic hopefully on its way out, all of this is going to be embraced with even more enthusiasm than before.

BaubleBar got it right with this Memorial Day email. Check out the summer vibes and the product showcase – it screams beach day – tying in perfectly with the most common summer holiday trip.

They nailed the subject line too: “Dive into the Memorial Day weekend sale.” Doesn’t this email make you want to buy one of those fashionable pieces of beach-chic jewelry and cool off in the water?

2. Casper – Make an Offer that Says “Summer”

When the days are longer and most of your time is spent outdoors, how can a brand get you to buy their mattresses? Casper found a way with an ingenious offer. With every regular mattress purchase, customers would get a free inflatable pool mattress.

The lesson here is obvious – make your offer and product relevant to the summer. It may seem impossible, but with a little creative out-of-the-box thinking, it can be done. And Casper proved that there’s a right way to do it.

Bonus points for the adorable animation and cute CTA that are so typical of summer’s laidback vibes.

3. Sweetgreen – Show off the Right Products

Health and fitness brands capitalize on the beginning of summer as a time to promote their products and memberships. Sweetgreen, a salad company, took it a step further by introducing a refreshing seasonal range of salads that uses summer produce. Their email design is clean and ties into their clean green food philosophy well. And the copy is filled with expressions that entice taste buds. 

Notice the seasonal references throughout the email, including the call to action. It really is tempting to “taste the summer.”

4. J.Crew – Add Intrigue

They say no one wants long emails anymore, but this one from J.Crew is such a treat, we couldn’t stop scrolling. The subliminal messaging of a fashion brand putting out a cool image of ice cream in bright summery colors isn’t lost on us. Even if you’re not planning on buying something, this email puts you in such a good state of mind that you’re more likely to click the call to action at the end of the scrumptious scroll.

Sure, not everyone loves a lengthy scroll. However, the email is upfront about the
long scroll ahead and cleverly includes a CTA just above the first scoop. There’s a good lesson here about finding creative ways to cater to all your subscribers and reduce drop-off rates.

5. Madewell – Sell the Benefit, Not the Product

How many times have we heard this? And yet, it seems that brands get this basic rule right only a handful of times. We love this email from Madewell because it’s empathetic. It foresees customers’ summer needs and positions its products as complementary to those, like “pedi-friendly footwear,” which is way more appealing than just “summer sandals” – simply because it spells out an insightful benefit. The messaging makes the customer feel like this is a brand that “gets” them.

Neatly categorizing their accessories is also a great idea. Sometimes you don’t know whether a store will carry something you need, and an email like this saves you the trouble of searching and scrolling. The easier your email makes the discovery and purchase process, the higher chance it has of converting a subscriber.

Oh, and we love the subject line: “+ a bikini.” Quirky, interesting, and gets you hooked. Enough said!

All these emails and examples feature unique and distinct brand personalities, but they also capture the common themes and elements that we’ve come to associate with summer. With a bit of planning, research and creativity, your email campaigns can help make the summer season as successful as any other.