Are you beginning to feel the heat? Temperatures are climbing, kids are out of school, the pools are open, and summer is definitely here. As the temperatures begin to rise, are your customers shying away from buying your products, or is business heating up?
Whether you own a business that sells winter-specific items or an ice cream shop, summer is the time to stay on top of your marketing efforts and in front of your customers. The beginning of summer is a crucial moment because it’s when people are leaving their “typical” routines and picking up new habits for summer. As they establish new summer habits, stay in front of them by creating and executing a summer marketing plan.
Ready to ramp up your summer marketing strategy? Check out our easy tips below.
1. Develop a theme for your summer marketing strategy
While developing a summer-themed marketing strategy may sound daunting to many business owners, it’s actually not difficult. Think about all the emails you probably receive from retail businesses that use summer-themed wording in their subject line – e.g. “Stay COOL this summer with product X” or “Things are heating up…” While you don’t necessarily have to use these particular lines, incorporating summer-themed content into your marketing strategy can be extremely beneficial.
For many people, the season of summer brings about a feeling of positive, carefree fun. Creating encouraging, fun content that vibes well will resonate with audiences during this season and is more likely to generate higher rates of engagement in social media and email marketing. Choose a tagline to run with this summer. Use it consistently wherever you interact with your audience.
2. Heat up demand with special promotions
When you’re able to execute your summer marketing efforts and get your business or brand in front of your customers, how will you encourage them to buy?
Businesses can and should use a promotion or discount on products or services during the summer to bring more customers to their business. Even if your business operates within an industry that usually experiences a higher volume in sales during the summer – such as air conditioning installation or repair, you can still use a promotion in your summer marketing to gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. This is especially useful for these types of industries because people are likely already thinking about your product or service. Offering a discount or promotion can quickly move them through the rest of the buyer’s journey.
On the other hand, if your business typically experiences a drop in sales during summer (or a specific moment in the season), use promotions to stir up interest and demand before the lull hits. This way, you can anticipate and avoid the sales decline.
3. Participate in community events
A key way to put your brand in front of your audiences this summer is to find out what your audience likes to do in the summertime. Family-oriented events held within the community appear in abundance just before the summer begins. Weekend markets that host local vendors often reappear during the summer and occur as frequently as every week. Community events should be part of your summer marketing strategy because building a relationship with your audience is absolutely essential to attracting and retaining quality clients and establishing a personal connection often results in a more positive relationship between your business and your clients.
You don’t have to be selling at an event to engage with people. Your business can have a booth that gives away free water, food, or your own products. You could sponsor an event and speak about your industry and business. Get creative with how you show up at these events and people will remember your business.
4. Make your audiences remember your brand with summer swag
How will your audiences remember your business and brand when you’re not directly engaging with them or putting content in front of them? Take your summer marketing efforts to the next level by giving away summer swag (promotional merchandise). Many businesses choose to purchase pens with their brand logo or name to give away to customers because it’s inexpensive and simple. While this is still a tactic practiced today, you’re smarter than that. To really blow your audience’s minds, think even bigger.
Your swag will largely depend on who your audience is, but summer-themed items you could include that will set you apart and make audiences remember you for a long time to come include:
- Cooling towels
- Mini fan or a misting fan
- Sunglasses
- Sunshades for cars
- Lip balm with SPF
- Branded water bottles (yes, you can get those)
- Inflatable beach balls
- Frisbees
Whatever you choose to give away to your clients or audiences, make sure your brand name or logo is attached and that it’s something they are likely to end up using. Because who will remember a business if it’s attached to something they’ll never use, or worse, throw away?
5. Incorporate more visuals and video into your summer marketing strategy
If you haven’t already heard, video content is now highly favored by audiences and as a result, ranks more favorably on social media. Incorporating more visual-based content like pictures and video into your summer marketing efforts can prove fruitful if you’re doing it consistently and strategically. The type of content will highly depend on what your audience prefers to see, but GIFs, tutorial videos (cooking and baking videos are so darn addictive), and comical videos are a great place to start.
Curious about how to start using video in your marketing? Read more here.
Incorporating live video into your summer marketing strategy is also highly recommended. Livestreaming gives your audience the opportunity to connect with you by watching you talk about your business, ask you questions, or see some behind-the-scenes footage.
Summer is a great time to ramp up your marketing efforts and keep your brand in front of your audiences. By incorporating these strategies and tips into your summer marketing strategy, your business can build on the relationships with audiences and continue fostering growth. Feeling uncertain about your summer marketing strategy or simply don’t feel you have the time or resources?
Let’s chat! We’ll take care of the strategy while you take care of business.
Hot Dog Marketing helps expert service providers and tech companies build their brands at the same rate they’re growing their businesses. We have deep expertise in branding and online marketing for both business-to-business service companies and local consumer service businesses.