Gone are the days of blasting customers with sales emails. Now, email marketing for outdoor brands must ignite lasting, meaningful connections for success. Companies can’t be afraid to blaze ahead with targeted campaigns that showcase gear guides and product videos, delivering content to subscribers’ inboxes that’s worth paying attention to. When your email marketing strategy hits these marks, you’ll build a community that leads to long-term success.
Too many companies use email only to highlight new products and deals and let their email marketing strategies fall short the rest of the year. Outdoor brands should use email marketing to foster customer relationships by consistently delivering relevant content, trail guides, and gear reviews that keep people engaged long-term. To do this, be prepared to roll up your sleeves and segment subscribers, offer value-driven content, and harness data and insights to turn leads into loyal customers. Most outdoor brands understand why these tactics are solid ideas but not all understand how to pull this off—until now:
Perfect Your Subscriber List
Batch-and-blast email marketing strategies are dead. This has as much to do with consent and anti-spam regulations as people’s preferences. Asking subscribers to opt into your marketing builds trust between your brand and the recipients and increases engagement. People sign up for newsletters to hear more about a brand or product, and when they opt-in to join the list, you know they are truly interested. Contacting those who actively want to hear from you builds an audience that’s more likely to engage, purchase, and stick around for the long haul.
Use the consent form to your advantage while you’re at it. Include the necessities in your opt-in message—the purpose, a consent checkbox, and privacy policy link—but push it further to set the tone for what your brand offers. Tease gear guides, videos, and your rewards program, and craft a compelling call to action, so customers not only agree to opt-in, they’re excited for it.
Cue the Cutting-Edge Content
There’s no reason an outdoor brand’s email marketing should be boring when its products are so closely tied to adventure and exploring. When you think of your emails as a channel to share high-impact video content, lifestyle stories, trail guides, and destination handbooks (and less as a place to push your product catalog), you’ll create value-driven emails that get results. When recipients find value in your communications, your brand becomes a go-to for advice and gear.
Email marketing differs for outdoor brands because these hobbies create endless opportunities for stunning videos and imagery that can throttle traditional email campaigns. Share your latest off-grid adventure by linking to your blog and embedding videos or podcasts so they never miss an article or episode. Take advantage of subscriber data and website analytics to shape content for your email marketing strategy toward what customers are looking for. If you aren’t sure, send surveys or include a more comprehensive email signup form to gather intel on what gets these enthusiasts’ hearts racing.
Understand What Makes Your Audience Tick…and Deliver
Not everyone in your subscriber list is interested in the same hobbies or products, so why would you send them all the same email? Segmenting audiences in your email marketing strategy can steer relevant communications to the right subscribers. When on target, email marketers see an improved return on investment due to increased engagement from long-time subscribers.
To create audience clusters, use customer data or website engagement metrics to determine people’s interests, preferences, or browsing and spending habits. AI tools and email platforms can automate segments, which can be fine-tuned in countless ways, from a person’s physical location to actions they took on your website.
Harness the Power of Personalization
Personalized emails create an emotional bond with customers and help them feel like valued individuals, not sales prospects. Outdoor brands can personalize their email marketing by using the subscriber’s name in subject lines and calls to action, offering abandoned cart reminders, sending product recommendations related to browsing habits, and providing custom VIP or rewards emails based on purchase history. Even transactional emails to thank someone by name for booking guide services or purchasing can create a positive experience that keeps customers coming back. Customized emails yield higher open rates, which lead to increased engagement and more opportunities to build customer relationships.
Nurture Leads Into Loyal Customers
A brand’s email marketing strategy should address touchpoints along the entire sales funnel, from the subscriber’s welcome email to post-purchase engagements and beyond. Outdoor marketers can include series and drip campaigns in their email strategies to usher people from prospects to brand advocates.
Automating some of these emails prevents customers and opportunities from falling through the cracks, but that doesn’t mean these campaigns are on autopilot. There’s no rule (and if there is, break it) saying nurture emails need to be generic. Use these to make a statement and communicate your brand’s mission. Personalize nurture emails when you can and frequently update messaging, graphics, and visuals to showcase your latest products and services based on customer or seasonal demand.
Performance companies can nurture leads with many types of emails, including:
- Educational or Informational Content: Offer gear guides, onboarding articles, product explainers, intro videos, and other content based on the person’s buying journey.
- Milestones: Create a series of emails based on the subscriber’s birthday, customer anniversary, rewards tiers, or other achievements.
- Automated Drip Campaigns: These trigger based on a user’s actions on your website, like clicking links, viewing videos, or adding items to a cart.
- Re-Engagement Campaigns: Invite inactive customers to reconnect and verify they still want to be a part of your community.
Email marketing strategies for the outdoor industry should be just as interesting and exciting as the activities your customers love. Delivering the content they crave directly to their inboxes can hook customers on your brand and lead to long-term success. If you want a hand in creating an integrated email marketing strategy that uses your creatives, content, and analytics to the fullest, contact us today.