There can be no doubt that the recent and sudden freeze has caused massive disruptionsnow to the lives and work of people across the UK, and especially in Scotland, the North and East of England. I am reminded of my ill fated comment of a couple of weeks ago that ‘we don’t get snow on the coast in Lincolnshire, last year was just a fluke’ when the next day about 15 inches fell and we have been snowed in for about a week!

So what about the impact on businesses, more specifically on marketing your business?

This is where media such as email and social media come into their own.

For retailers, especially it is an opportunity to increase frequency of email and entice people to shop online. Or notify them that you are open and maybe put on a simple blitz sale. If you are using facebook, why not push people to specific services or products that are very pertinent?

Here are a few examples I have seen that have been cleverly reacting to the bad weather - some for large brands, others from small local businesses:

  • A hardware business that sent an email out a few days before the snow hit promoting their sledges and snow shovels saying ‘It’s coming …’
  • A thermal underwear business promoting their range via facebook with direct links to their website
  • A payroll company sending out an email newsletter with advice about paying staff who cannot make it in because of the snow
  • A retailer offering a 3 day sale online sale when the store had to be closed due to the snow
  • A portrait photographer promoting vouchers that can be bought via email for Xmas presents

Now we can’t predict such extremes as we are currently experiencing, but we can all be planning some tactical activity and when it does hit be ready with some quick thinking and highly targeted activity.

It’s not just the bad weather you need to consider

This got me thinking and researching what impact the weather has on media such as email. A recent research report by Pure360 into the weather effects on email marketing results had some interesting findings –

  • Recipients were more as likely to open emails in hot sunny weather for summer related products such as festivals, UK holidays and sporting events such as tennis and cricket (open rates were up to 5 times higher on hot days).
  • But it is not just the obvious sunny related products – the report also showed that products such as SatNavs also got better click through results in sunshine (the good weather encouraging more car trips no doubt)
  • Maybe not so obvious is the positive effect that good weather can have on B2B email marketing with response rates dramatically increasing in good weather.
  • Campaigns promoting restaurants are twice as effective in bad weather

The lesson to be learnt from all this?

It all goes back to anticipating the ‘state of mind’ your consumer will be in when they receive that piece of marketing, whether that is an ad, email or even direct mail pack. The weather, especially extremes of weather, have a significant effect on our state of mind, so as marketers, we need to be empathetic to this.

If you would like to discuss email marketing or social media marketing opportunities for your business., contact Alison Clynes on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it