Maximize Back-to-School Sales with Effective Email Marketing

Back-to-school sales will be big business again in 2025, with sales forecast to reach $39.4 billion for K-12 shopping and $88.8 billion for college shopping. Shoppers are out in full force now, scouring big-box discount stores, websites, and other locations for bargains on essential items.

Concerns about inflation, tariffs, and general economic uncertainty are muting expectations for sales gains. Shoppers also shifted into back-to-school mode earlier than ever this year, with 67% of shoppers saying they’re already browsing and buying in stores and online.

Even though shopping started early, many consumers told the NRF they are holding out for even better deals. This gives brands the opportunity to check and recalibrate their back-to-school email marketing plans as the school year draws closer.

4 seasonal email marketing strategies for back-to-school

Back-to-school shopping is more than notebooks and backpacks. It’s historically second only to holiday shopping for total sales. The two seasons are a lot alike, too. Shoppers start early, watch for bargains, and shop with brands that deliver the best values, help them complete their shopping, and make the purchasing process as seamless as possible.

Many of the seasonal marketing strategies that drive successful holiday email marketing campaigns can also support back-to-school planning. Even though school shopping is in full swing for many families, you still have time to create a back-to-school email plan centered on these four key strategies:

1. Focus on acquisition strategies that encourage new customers to join your email marketing program.
2. Use tailored messaging through segmentation, targeting, and personalization to appeal to customers with common needs and goals.
3. Develop an editorial calendar with automated and broadcast messages timed to coincide with different needs throughout the shopping season.
4. Concentrate on helping shoppers purchase easily and successfully, with a mix of price-based and helpful content.

Keep reading for email marketing tips for back-to-school email campaigns that will help you put your strategies into action.

7 back-to-school email campaign ideas to break through inbox clutter and serve customers better

Email volume is ramping up now as brands with even a tenuous connection to back-to-school are trying to get in on the action. How can you help your email campaigns stand out? With these seven ideas for back-to-school email campaigns:

1. Follow good email practices.

Inbox providers like Apple, Gmail, and Yahoo! Mail have been cracking down on senders who don’t follow the rules or send vast quantities of email that their customers either ignore or don’t open. These tactics can make your emails more open- and click-worthy, two traits you need to make it to the inbox every time.

Your sender name and subject lines will have to bear an even larger share of the burden because some providers, like Apple’s native Mail client, might substitute the preheader you chose with content it pulls from your email. (Keep reading to discover some subject-line tactics to get your emails noticed!)

Create a back-to-school email template that carries out your theme, and use versions of it for promotional and triggered messaging. This unifies your back-to-school messaging and makes it stand out across all of your other campaign initiatives.

Watch your email’s length and data weight. Gmail and other inbox providers clip messages that exceed their weight limits. This forces the reader to click a link to view the whole email, and that can reduce conversions.

Don’t forget about email engagement! Watch your metrics – opens, clicks, landing-page activity – to detect both interest and fatigue.

2. Put customer acquisition front and center.

A strong back-to-school program can bring in crowds of new customers, who might also increase your audience for holiday shopping. Review all the locations where you invite shoppers to join your email program and make sure they function correctly, and focus on the benefits of joining.

Cross-pollinate with search and social media, too. Invite followers to sign up and use your posts to let them know what they’re missing by not subscribing. Set up PPC campaigns that send customers to landing pages that feature a prominent, benefit-focused opt-in invitation. If shoppers don’t find what they want, they might still sign up for your emails.

3. Create or update customer segments of likely buyers.

If you already offer products that would appeal to shoppers, put that data to work now. Demographics and purchase history are your obvious choices, but look for ways to create unexpected segments.

Another option is to let customers segment themselves with content that lets them indicate preferences without having to go to a preference center. These could be subtle suggestions, such as asking customers what their top shopping quests are (electronics versus clothing or sports gear, boys versus girls, etc.) Use that data to create and test segments to see if they make a difference in engagement or conversions.

If you can, query your database to find shoppers who purchase mainly at this time of year. They might be ripe for special reactivation/re-engagement offers that redirect them back to a journey with your brand.

4. Tailor message content to your segments.

One size does not fit all back-to-school shoppers! Don’t send a college student outfitting a dorm room the same message you send to parents shopping for primary-grade kids or high-school students.

If your back-to-school email campaigns rely on broadcast promotions that go out to everyone, you don’t have to abandon them. Mix in these general promotions with targeted messaging that reflects the different needs and goals of your segments.

5. Add value with help and advice.

Although shoppers are looking for bargains, smaller brands know that competing head-to-head with big-box discounters is a race to the bottom. School supplies are usually loss leaders for retailers, who make up for 10-cent boxes of crayons with sales on higher-ticket items like clothing, shoes, and electronics.

But what they can’t – or don’t – offer is value beyond the sale:

• Create a back-to-school guide to help parents buy the right backpack, shoes, or laptop.
• Give incoming freshmen a price-sensitive guide to dorm decoration or campus styles.
• Add a checklist of essentials that includes your products.
• Link to school district supply lists so parents don’t have to scramble for them.

6. Give shoppers more reasons to shop with your brand

These tactics can help you appeal to price-conscious shoppers without dropping another discount:

Payments: Do you accept PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, or other online cashless services? What buy-now-pay-later services like Klarna, Afterpay, or Affirm do you offer?

In-store services: Stores still make up over half of shopping locations. If you have physical locations, post store hours and locations, or add a link to your online location finder. Still offering curbside pickup or buy online/pick up in store? Add that info to your emails, too.

7. Include procrastinators in your editorial calendar.

An editorial calendar that matches shifting priorities or inventory levels will help you target messaging more accurately, both for your segments and for your general promotional campaigns. It can also help you time your messages to send them when they are most relevant.

Although two-thirds of shoppers are online or in stores now, 84% of them told the NRF in its annual survey that they still have items to check off on their lists. Some are holding out for last-minute deals, while others don’t know what they still need or are spreading their purchases out to manage spending.

As the shopping season progresses, you can subtly change your campaign messages to match these shifts. Early-season bargain-hunting can morph into don’t-miss-out messaging that reminds customers about overlooked items or offers ways to get over the usual last-minute stress.

Scan your inventory for products that people might overlook or that were out of stock earlier in the season, and promote these in a late-season email campaign.

4 strategies for back-to-school email subject lines

1. Put the offer up front: Don’t make subscribers guess what’s in your messages. Let them know exactly what they’ll find in your email. A little mystery can add a change of pace, but overall, use straightforward copy.

Bonus tip: Make sure your brand name appears in your sender line so your subscribers know who sent the message. You can customize it slightly, such as “Back to School with Brand X.” Just be sure the brand is prominent.

Also, don’t add special characters in the sender name. Gmail’s recently updated email sending guidelines warn against using emojis, graphics, or other devices in the sender name.

2. Have fun with the subject line: School and college shopping can be exciting, a hassle, a financial wallop, or a combination of all three, depending on your perspective. We love this subject line from Dormify because who can’t relate to what lies in wait under that skinny twin XL: “Don’t look under the bed 👀.”

3. Focus on the benefit: Discounts are important, but if every other brand is running a 20%-off campaign or buy-one-get-one, you need more to catch the eye and persuade the customer to open your email.

How does your product fit into your customer’s life? How does it make it better or solve a problem? IKEA gets it with this subject line for an email promoting dorm furniture and storage: “From IKEA: “Cramming. Not good for studying or for storage.”

4. Tap into customer or student emotions: Five that resonate year after year:

• Any parent who is dealing with a huge tab for school supplies and a nervous first-time student could relate to this subject line from KiwiCo: “Just for you! $15 to help with those back-to-school scaries.”
• Ditto, from TGI Friday’s: “Time for Cheers and Tears – It’s Back To School!”
• For the high school or college freshman trying not to look like a first-year, from NYX: “Create EPIC looks for Back to School”
• Ratings and reviews reassure: “The perfect backpack? Reviews say yes! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐”
• This subject line wins the brand empathy prize, too: “Back-to-school chaos? We’re right there with you.”

Wrapping up: Be the brand customers trust for back-to-school and beyond

Back-to-school shopping is a major revenue generator and can introduce your brand to new customers. But they can do much more, too.

Use these email marketing tips for back-to-school campaigns that build customer confidence and trust, not just for the summer but all year long, year after year.