Although they might like to think of themselves as stoically pursuing a goal of success, small business entrepreneurs are just as human as everyone else. When the summer rolls around, their overstressed minds can easily turn to dreams of beaches, fun and sun, instead of focusing on boring old marketing and sales strategies.
Beware of the dreaded summer marketing slump. If you think it won’t hurt to slack off a little, you might be shocked to find out just how hard it is to reignite the business spark in the fall. While corporate executives have teams they can count on to keep the summer fires burning, here are a few smart marketing strategies that can keep small business entrepreneurs one step ahead of their competition:
• Do some advance planning: You can get ahead of the curve by just sitting down right now and carefully mapping out a summer business marketing strategy. Plan out blog topics, Facebook posts, tweets, and emails. It might take some time, but you will be surprised at how quickly everything flows once you get your mind going on a specific topic. Automate the process as much as possible so you won’t have to get yourself worked up every day wondering what you are going to do next to generate leads and sales.
• Change your communication strategy: Prospects and customers are more willing to spend time connecting and gathering information during the cooler months, but they want things done more quickly over the summer. They might not read the local newspaper or listen to local radio stations, but they are still involved with their social media. Make sure you use short, informative info to keep them engaged, and keep all your messages mobile-accessible for customers on the go.
• Keep networking: You don’t have to stop talking to people just because the sun is shining brightly. Keep attending local business and charitable events to keep your name in front of potential customers. Let them know about your business, gather email addresses, and ask for reviews or referrals to keep things circulating.
• Get in the summer spirit: You can’t ignore the fact that it’s summer, so figure out strategies to take advantage of it. Think about ways your product or service makes summer life easier, more fun, or less costly, and then let people know about it. Use active words and happy themes to show that your business has a sense of fun. Perhaps there is some type of summer concert you can sponsor or a contest you can promote to help everyone have a more enjoyable summer.
If you plan your work and work your plan, you will definitely still have time left to enjoy your own summer activities. And you’ll enjoy them a lot more if you know that your business will still be humming along nicely when you take off your shades and get back to work.