Where did the summer go? I could have sworn it was just June and now all of a sudden its mid-August.

And, we all know the dreaded season that creeps up on us in August… the back to school season!

Starting last week ‘back to school’ themed emails were flying. The first wave started almost two weeks ago as many retailers were eager to start spreading the news about their back-to-school savings, but last week the number spiked dramatically.

Everyone gets on the back-to-school bandwagon trying to vie for those lucrative dollars (especially in a struggling economy). The most dominant business type that send out back-to-school related emails are clothing stores. From casual to upscale to school uniforms, these retailers were pumping out emails to their targeted audience as fast as possible. Many retailers adopted a ‘daily back-to-school email special’ that they would send out each and every day in order to entice customers to make a purchase.

Email marketing is proving to be very effective for these retailers since their target market is actively engaged on the Internet and checks their email regularly. Also, since retailers are generally contacting ‘past customers’, they already have a bond or relationship with that customer, which helps further drive future repeat purchases.

This year many of the email marketing campaigns are tied to social marketing components with outlets having a MySpace or Facebook page that they are urging people to become ‘friends’ with. This twp prong approach is gaining in popularity since sites like Facebook and MySpace have exploded in popularity.