Keep Your Marketing Performing This Summer

Many people equate summer with longer days, for me it’s shorter travel time to work. As soon as the schools break up, I get an extra 15 minutes in bed and still arrive at the office on time. In my world, that’s when British summer time officially starts!

But while the summer holidays may mean quieter roads (at least at school run time), with parents taking time off to occupy their offspring it also means a quieter time for many businesses.

As a nation, we Brits collectively spend £40 billion a year on holidays. More than half (53%) of us Brits travelled abroad in 2014, and the average British family spend a whopping two months’ salary on a summer holiday.

With so many people, and so much money, tied up with summer holidays it’s hardly surprising businesses experience a summer slump. But don’t be disheartened – not everyone is on holiday, people are still prone to buy, eager to shop and ready to convert.

We’re here to help you get to them. In this article we’ll look at how the summer holidays can be a great opportunity to market your business, no matter what it is.

How to Keep Your Marketing Performing During the Long Summer Holiday

Plan Your Marketing Calendar

If you already have a marketing plan, awesome! This will help you stay focused and act as a reminder of what needs doing, when and by whom – perfect for making sure things don’t slip when you, or your staff, are on holiday.

If you don’t have a marketing plan, don’t worry it’s never too late. When you’re creating it remember to include things such as school holidays, sporting events and national days, as well the more obvious dates such as Christmas, Valentines, Mother’s Day etc.

Having a plan in place helps ensure your content is regular, rather than rushing to get something out when you realise the person who usually writes your blog articles is about to head off for a two week holiday.

Get Out of the Office

Out of the office doesn’t just have to be something you see on people’s email autoresponder. People get out and about in the summer (even with our unreliable weather!) and your summer holiday marketing should reflect this.

See if there are opportunities to have a stall at an outside event or go back to basics and hand out flyers or branded water bottles on the street. Getting out gives your company a human face, letting your customers see and interact with your brand.

Watch the Weather

Weather targeting is when you create ads or deliver promotions which correspond to the viewer’s weather conditions (e.g. promoting hay fever medicine to local audiences when there’s a high pollen count).

This simple summer marketing trick has seen some astounding results, such as this impressive effect on the sales of Stella Artois Cidre:

• Stella Cidre reported 65.6% increase in YOY sales during the period they ran their weather-responsive campaign. (source: Nielsen Sales data 2013)
• Because ads were only shown during optimum conditions, there were no wasted impressions, meaning cost efficiencies of up to 50% were achieved vs a standard digital OOH buy
• The weather-responsive advertising campaign created a lot of buzz and online virality, generating over £15,000 in earned media value.
  (Source: Weather Unlocked)

It doesn’t need to be a big advertising campaign; a simple email or social media post relating to the weather in your area can boost engagement.

Evergreen Content

Summer is a great time to revisit your evergreen content. Evergreen content is that which is still interesting and relevant weeks, months or even years after it was first published, not dating like news can.

Examples of evergreen content include:

• How-to Guides
• Beginner’s Guides
• FAQ’s Articles
• Case Studies
• Best Practise
• Lists / Top #
• Checklists

They provide you with plenty of original content to promote on social media, in your newsletter or on on your webpage without needing to create new articles (perfect for when you, or your staff, are on holiday).

Market What the Summer Customer Wants

We know this one sounds obvious, but we’re mentioning it anyway as it works wonders.

Find out which of your services, or products, your customers want most during the summer months and promote them.

You only need to walk round your local supermarket to see this in full swing. BBQ’s, picnic accessories, patio furniture, strawberries, Pimm’s – all geared to appeal to what people are hoping they’ll be enjoying this summer.

If you’re a landscaping company show how you can make someone’s garden perfect for entertaining. If you make candles and have a range that keeps the bugs away promote that. If your product, or service, has anything to do with water (playing in it, drinking it, storing it) get sharing pictures of people enjoying it.

Quick Wins: Top 3 Summer Marketing Ideas

We all know time is scarce in the summer, so here are three quick wins to help with your holiday marketing.

Sports Events and Festivals

The Euros and Wimbledon may have been and gone, but there are still plenty of events throughout the summer – not least the Rio Olympics. As well as other various sporting events, there are also festivals, exhibitions and the August bank holiday, to name just a few.

A topical marketing tie-in can work wonders for your click-through rate, retweets and shares.

Child Friendly

As every parent knows, the summer holidays are long and the kids need to be kept entertained.

If you organise activity camps or sell outdoor toys then your summer marketing is obvious. But even without those links, your company can still capitalise on these themes.

This could take the form of an email with a guide to local children’s activities, free activity packs to download, or even a child friendly competition that requires them to write a short story or create some art.

Keep Cool

Generally people are happier and more active during the summer (must be all that lovely vitamin D).

It’s important to make social media posts, blog articles and email campaigns reflect this.

Use summery, outdoors images, keep content light-hearted and creative, and ensure designs are clean and fresh.

Not around during the summer? Don’t panic, here are some tips on how to automate your business marketing:

• Make the most of your evergreen content (Buffer has an excellent post on creating and sharing evergreen content).
• Write your newsletters and blog articles in advance and schedule them to go out automatically (software such as Mailchimp, Aweber or Constant Contact can help with this). Or just use your friendly local Marketing Agency!
• Use a social media scheduling tool (such as Buffer or Hootsuite) to write all your posts in before you leave. Include links to blogs, products and other items you want to share.
• Having an ‘Out of office’ email autoresponder means your clients aren’t left wondering why you haven’t replied. If you’re going to be checking email on holiday you can always include something along the lines of ‘Thank you for your email, I will get back to you within 24 hours’ to give yourself a little more breathing space.
• You can also set up autoresponders on social media, giving you extra time to respond without leaving people feeling ignored.

What Next

C4B Media can help you keep marketing through the summer!

Whether you’re in need of a one-off summer marketing campaign and simply don’t have the time to put it into action, or you’re looking for a highly experienced marketing team to look after your marketing schedule, our complete digital marketing services packages could be the answer.

Our on-brand email template designs, outstanding website design and development, sharp copywriting and intelligent analysis means your online presence can be both attractive and effective – working to generate brand awareness, visibility and leads for you, even while you’re away on holiday.

Enjoy your holidays knowing your marketing is in safe hands this summer. Simply give us a call at C4B Media on 01763 877110 or drop us a message today.