AMiable Solution #66: The Hazards of Summer

Summer brings unique joys and opportunities, but it also brings season-specific hazards and dangers.  Heat stroke.  Heat exhaustion.  Ultraviolet radiation.  Pesticides.  Natural hazards like lightning and flooding.  Biological hazards like mosquito and tick bites. 

                              

Your members, donors, or customers--the runners, construction workers, farmers, office workers, first responders, professors, stay-at-home parents, and more--will spend more time outside than usual these next few months, facing potentially harmful summer situations. 

Show your concern for their health and welfare by integrating a summer-safety theme into your next campaign.  Even if your organization doesn’t offer applicable products or services, you can still offer industry- or situation-specific summer safety solutions as part of a customer safety announcement.

Integrating audience-focused--not sales-focused--copy adds value to your mailpiece, email, newsletter, etc., and helps create a connection between you and your audience.

And that’s something you’ll both appreciate year round.

AMiable Solution #65: The Funshine of Marketing

Summer marketing, like summer itself, tends to take itself less seriously than marketing in other months.  After all, the days are longer, the weather is warmer, and the action is happening outside.  Who doesn’t want to get through the daily requirements and enjoy all the perks of summer?

The good news: you have more opportunities to have fun with your marketing.  The bad news: you may have even less time than usual to capture your audience’s eye and get your mailpiece opened.

To keep your marketing light while also drawing attention to your offer, try incorporating a little play on words.  For example, you could

• Have a summer “pull” party, encouraging donors to band together for your cause
• Celebrate the stars in your catalog and detour customers around common problems with “roadblock busters”
• Invite members and clients to a feast on a “bookout” or “pick”nic, offering the season’s best books, journals, or other essentials

Some word play will require more visual backup than others, but all graphics should support your text and your offer.

Regardless of your approach, be sure to have fun.

AMiable Solution #64: Give Substance to “Hot” Offers

This time of year, marketers often turn to traditional summer terms in their marketing.  The advantage of this is familiarity: recipients know exactly what they’ll find in a mailer dressed with a “Hot Sale,” “Sizzling Savings,” or “Scorching Discounts” teaser.

                                   

Although there is instant recognition with such an approach, it sometimes falls flat when your summer reference is just that: a reference made on the envelope or mailing panel.  To really make the summer theme relevant in your campaign, and to make your campaign stand out among other summer-based mailers, turn your seasonal reference into an emotional hook.

How?  Think about your offer.  What benefits do your products or services provide?  Can your “hot” sale literally help someone beat the heat of summer or take the heat off someone at work?  Will your “cool” fundraiser make it possible for a family to pay its electric bill or find relief from the summer temperatures? Can your campaign “block party” benefit a community somewhere?

By giving your summer teaser substance, you’ll not only make a time-relevant reference, but you’ll also create a connection that generates the results you’re looking for.