Just another rainy day…?

We’re a little early for April showers, but never-the-less it was raining cats and dogs this morning – the walk to the office from the car park has never felt so long!

After depositing my umbrella in the lobby, and failing to persuade the boss that there was an imminent risk of flooding and that everyone should all go home, I settled down at my desk and logged on. Just another rainy day…

But how does the world of marketing react to bad weather?

Well, you might be surprised that it affects marketing quite a lot, particularly where email marketing is concerned. If you’ve read any more of my blogs, you’ll see I tend to relate everything back to human behaviour, and it’s really no surprise that the emails we choose to open reflect our mood at the time.  Everyone knows our mood can often be affected by the weather – particularly in Britain perhaps where we’re almost obsessed with the unpredictability of it.

Well, this got me thinking, and, with a focus on email marketing, the weather really can have an impact on your marketing campaign.

When the sun is out…

Good weather is typically successful for businesses promoting sat nav systems, and camping equipment – clearly we love the idea of an adventure when the sun comes out. Business networking-type events also do better when it’s good weather, it seems no one dreams of mingling with fellow businessmen on a rainy day.

You’ll also be twice as likely to open a festival-related email on a sunny day as on a rainy one, and you’re 5 times more likely to open a holiday-related email. Seems logical.

But what about today?

So, which clients should we be focusing on during a rainy spell? Property-related emails are shown to be slightly more successful on a rainy day, as are emails about winter holiday promotions. I guess, why be miserable in the cold at home when you can strap a pair of skis on and make the most of the cold spell instead? And what else do we crave in bad weather? Food! So it’s understandable that the restaurant industry tends to have more successful email marketing campaigns when it’s grim outside.

But what about the broader picture? And marketing in general? Well, typically, marketing campaigns tend to do better on a rainy day – with the optimum time being a rainy summer day. I guess this is when most people might turn to the internet for support, and here they will be subjected to social media, their emails and even your website and ads on Google. This makes sense, as during sunny spells you’re much less likely to spend time on your phone, tablet or desktop – not when there’s the chance to catch some of the rare UK sunshine.

So, how do we make the most of it? It’s simple, check the weather!

Assuming the weather forecast is reliable, there’s no reason why we can’t schedule an email to be sent to your subscribers on what’s expected to be a rainy day.

The good news is the email marketing program we use here at SilverDisc gives us the option to test different things on the same newsletter. This means we can check the weather next time we send an email marketing campaign for you and perhaps send it to a segment of your subscribers on a sunny day, and the same email to a different segment of your subscribers on a rainy day.

We’ll then be able to collect the data and see how the weather affects your business, and how people interact with you. So it seems, today isn’t just another rainy day, there’s potential in the weather to up my click-through rates and get more customer interaction. Best get back to work then!

Any questions? Get in touch!