Inside June's roundtable: Building a summer email strategy that works for your business and audience
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I keep thinking that each roundtable is better than the one before it - but June really was the best one in a long time. The level of conversation, the questions people came with, and the way everyone interacted with one another… we could’ve easily kept on talking for another hour!
ICYMI, here are the 3 main things we talked about:
Your audience is your audience, and so is your summer email success
A couple of participants came in knowing their summer was going to be their busiest season. Some were heading into quieter months. Some weren’t sure what their data was telling them just yet (the last one, btw, is the most common).
Summer engagement is not universal.
Last year, I had a client who brought me on as their Chief Email Officer in late Q1 - it was the first time they had a dedicated "email person”, and they saw traction quickly. When summer was around the corner, we thought that their new strategy would work regardless of season, even though their results during that time, historically, were lower than in other seasons. And we were wrong to follow that approach. In December, another low season for them, we pivoted our strategy and doubled down on what the data was showing - so those more “seasonally appropriate emails” we sent brought in more engagement and more leads than usual.
As another example, this summer, I have a client who’s launching a new product in August. Their product was designed with warmer months in mind (with research to back it up), so we’re gearing up for a busy busy busy summer for them on all fronts.
My two cents: The answer to your summer strategy is already in your historical data. The real question is knowing how to read it. Whether your business is slower or extremely busy, make calls based on what works well, and give yourself a little freedom to experiment with new hypotheses.
Your email program is due for a regular checkup
A big chunk of the conversation ended up being on what happens behind the scenes - the “invisible” parts of your email program that your subscribers don’t see with their own eyes, but “feel” them when certain emails land in their inboxes.
We’re talking tags, automations, segmentation, deliverability, and all the other unsexy email marketing jazz that’s absolutely necessary if you want your subscribers to get the most relevant emails to them, or actually see them in their inboxes in the first place.
One participant shared that every summer, they download their list as a backup, double-check that their tags work, and look into the results of their multiple lead magnet flows. Another attendee mentioned that they’ll dive deeper into what their ESP is considering “the unengaged contacts” segment of their list, and potentially also build a new welcome sequence.
My two cents: If your summer is a slower season for your business, this is exactly the right time to give your email ecosystem’s backend some TLC. It may not seem urgent, but you won’t get to it when you’re busy (and believe me, when those things don’t have usual maintenance, like anything else, they tend to break down). A simple way I like to think about it is in 3 tiers: your email program’s a “front end” (what people see to get them into the list), the “inside” (what your subscribers get from you), and the “backend” (what's running underneath and connecting it all). Usually, the “front” and “inside” tiers get a lot of attention, but the backend is just as important.
Your data is only as good as what you do with it
“How do we make sure our subscribers aren't bored or overwhelmed by what we’re sending this summer?” - that’s a question that one participant brought up, and it kicked off our main discussion.
It came from one of the participants who had busy summers, both email-wise and business-wise. Their subscribers are nothing but bored during the summer, and the data shows that. AND it makes a lot of sense for this business to be more strategic now, so their subscribers won’t get anywhere near the “overwhelm” territory.
Having plenty of data about your subscribers’ preferences is always better than wanting to have it. But the real challenge I see time and time again is when business leaders try to decipher the data and make informed decisions based on it. In most cases, they don't know how to maximize results with those engagement signals, because they simply don't specialize in email marketing - and no one expects them to.
My two cents: The question that separates an “okay” from “great” email programs is “How do you translate what your subscribers have been consistently telling you into better emails and a better inbox experience?” That means that you need to zoom in AND zoom out: yes, how an individual email is structured is important, but you must also understand the context in which this email was sent (was it sent to the right segment of your audience? Which other emails have they received from you? What makes this email relevant to them, and right now?).
Most of the companies I work with see their biggest pipeline and revenue lifts in Q4 - which means July is exactly when the planning needs to happen.
That’s why next month, we’re talking about what your Q4 email strategy needs to include, so you won’t play catch up come September.
It’s also our last roundtable for the summer, and the next one will only take place on the third Thursday of September.
So if you want to get inspired by fellow CEOs and CMOs of good-doing businesses and what they’re doing with their emails this Q4, or if these roundtables have been on your radar for the longest time but you couldn’t make it before - all are good reasons to join the July roundtable.
We’re meeting on July 16th (third Thursday of the month, as usual), at 4 pm UK time / 11 am EST, and the seats are limited to only 10.
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