How To Keep Your Marketing Consistent And Working Over Summer…While You’re Not!
Put the out of office on safe in the knowledge your marketing will still be working for you!
Let’s not beat around the sunshine, when summer hits and school holiday’s start, people often down tools and put everything work-related on hold until September.
And why shouldn’t you? You’ve worked hard all year and now is time for family and fun! Life certainly shouldn’t be all work and no play. However, putting a few less-urgent jobs off until September is one thing, lapsing completely with your marketing is another!
One of the key elements of marketing is consistency, and taking a summer break from your marketing could have a pretty big impact on your audience reach. Even if summer is your busiest time of year, you want to keep drip-feeding your marketing to ensure your business remains busy later in the year.
As a destination marketing agency we see this a lot with our tourism clients. Business is at its peak and staff are taking their well-earned holidays, so marketing falls by the wayside.
So how do you keep your marketing consistent and working over summer while you’re not?
Keep your social media active
The power of social media can be underestimated. If you have an active social media presence and keep it up to date, it will keep your target audience informed about you and your business. During the summer it’s a great way to keep your brand in the public eye while the rest of your marketing takes a break.
If summer is your busy time, it’s perfect to use social media to ask for reviews, feedback and comments which can lead to more positive relationships with clients.
If you’re unsure how to get started or don’t have the time to manage all of your social media profiles, then it might be worth considering outsourcing to a team who will take care of your social media presence for you.
Schedule as much as possible
Nearly everything can be scheduled. Blog posts, marketing emails, and social media can all be pre-written and scheduled for a later date. Of course, it would be silly to walk away and rely on automation completely, but having the bulk of it ready to go will take lots of pressure off during those sunshine hours.
We recommend setting a few calendar reminders for when your schedule material is about to drop. Firstly, it means you can check it’s all gone out ok, and secondly, engagement on social media makes a huge difference to reach, try and be present for posts so you can engage with your audience.
Take a well-earned break and feel confident in your summer marketing!
Repurpose your content
You don’t need to spend hours in a hot office creating new content, repurpose what you have! Repurposing is something we cannot recommend enough all year round, but especially during the summer when time is tight.
Here’s a few things you can do to repurpose your content:
Re-share blog posts
Take snippets from blogs to turn into social posts
Take soundbites from videos to use on social posts
Take longer videos and pinch bits to create shorter ones
Share reviews from happy customers
Re-share posts from customers
Include your brand in events
Summer is usually the peak season for many events, especially outdoor festivals. These events offer a great opportunity for your business to get involved and connect with potential customers in a relaxed environment. Not only can these help build your brand, but they can also lead to reaching a new audience.
As a destination marketing agency we work closely with our clients to get them involved in the right events. We often recommend that our clients sign up as sponsors or exhibitors so that they can continue to stand out during the summer.
Share the workload
With people taking holiday during summer, quite often there are skill gaps missing from the team and this is one of the key reasons jobs such as marketing are neglected during this season.
Although not everyone is a marketing expert, some jobs such as checking scheduled material has gone out, or social media posts and being monitored and engaged with, these can be spread amongst the team.
By getting the wider team involve you can ensure your marketing continues to do it’s duty while you take a well deserved break!
Relax knowing your marketing is in good hands.
Outsource your marketing
If you’re still struggling to keep your marketing active over the summer, consider outsourcing it. Let someone else do the work while you take the family away, safe if the knowledge your marketing is still powering your brand to get in front of those wonderful customers all summer long!
If you’d like to talk about outsourcing or need help with your marketing, we’d be happy to help. Get in touch.
