For many of us, May means longer days and nicer weather. Some of us may even be in the process of planning summer getaways.
While May is a wonderful time of year with several seasonal activities to plan for, businesses should use this time as an opportunity to fine-tune their marketing efforts by developing or tailoring a strategy focused on the summer months.
Slow Business in the Summer
Summer is the season for play and escape. Typical customer bases may be unavailable for many establishments because business may be slower than usual.
As part of their summer marketing strategy, businesses can make good use of downtime by performing a digital audit.
Digital Audit
Websites and other digital resources are often the first introductions customers have to a service or product, so businesses should make sure that users have a good user experience.
As part of their summer marketing strategy, businesses can start by taking a good look at their website.
- Is the website responsive?
- Is the design appealing?
- Are all links active with proper navigation?
- Is the website and blog search engine optimized?
- Has the website’s content been reviewed recently?
Businesses should review all existing content and be sure to ditch any content that is outdated, irrelevant, or non-industry specific.
In addition, all social media and paid media channels should be reviewed and audited as well. Some questions companies should ask themselves include:
- Which channels are driving the most conversions?
- Is there a return on investment (ROI) regarding ad spending?
Businesses can use this time to cut out the channels with poor conversions and double down on more effective ones.
Email Lists
Coinciding with a digital audit, it’s also important to take a look at all existing email lists by the time summer hits.
Businesses should take the steps necessary to ensure all email lists are updated and segmented so that they are engaging appropriately with customers, prospects, and influencers within their respective demographics.
Summer is for Boosting Engagement
While business may be slow in the summer months, it’s a great time to build and nurture social connections since it promotes professional intimacy among potential customers, business partners, colleagues, and supporters.
There are many impactful ways to go about boosting summer engagement for business. These can include:
- Attending local business networking events
- Attending local social events
- Utilizing mobile platforms and social media
Networking and Social Events
Networking and social events are great for boosting summer engagement. These types of events often have large groups of people, which can turn into leads and later convert into sales for many businesses.
While these events can be particularly fun in the summer, businesses must approach these events with the intention following up with people in a way that forces them to remember the exchange long after summer has ended.
Go Social
While tools such as emails and blogs are always useful in marketing efforts, there’s a strong chance that the content will not get read during the summer months.
Summer is the time of year when people are outdoors and on the move. In most cases, people are taking and sharing photos, live streaming at events, and uploading videos about their activities.
Businesses need to build a summer marketing strategy around these tools. One of the best ways to do this is to create short consumable visual content using platforms that emphasize photo and video sharing.
Prepare for Fall
While the late spring and early summer months should focus on engagement, the remainder of the summer could be spent evaluating if the business is on course for the rest of the year.
Businesses can start by evaluating the effectiveness of their current marketing efforts. Questions to ask in this evaluation can be:
- Are the businesses goals the same as they were in the beginning of the year?
- Is the business reaching the right people?
- Are the target lists accurate?
- Are all marketing materials current?
- Is the branding speaking to the product or service?
- Are fall and winter campaigns ready to launch?
This evaluation, along with an effective summer marketing strategy, will not only help streamline some processes in the overall strategy but also help build momentum for the fall and winter seasons to come.
Is your business in need of marketing expertise? If so, call Compulse Integrated Marketing today at 844-821-2154 to learn more about how we can help!