Fight Off Summer Marketing Slumps with These 3 Strategies

One thing about summertime is that living is easy, but selling can be hard. Even prolific salespeople cannot be immune to the infamous summer slump.

Most people are on vacation, meaning calls will go unanswered, and LinkedIn Connections can remain pending for days or weeks. For these reasons, businesses always find it rough to connect with new people.

When everyone is going on vacation, your business may be facing a likelihood of returning to the burner without the right marketing strategies. Companies will see their numbers take a hit with slackened sales growth, deduced web traffic, or little inquiries and issues with essential metrics you may need to measure growth and success.

What the Summer Slump Looks Like By Numbers

The warm summer weather affects productivity in several ways. According to recent research by Grasshopper Group, about 25% of employees report feeling unmotivated to work during summer. In comparison, 63% admit leaving their workplaces early, lured out by the promises of beach parties and BBQs.

If this happens, the magnified effects are gigantic and not just limited to offices. Manufacturing can also slow down with the heat. Intuit's study on factory productivity during summer shows that they reduce by 4% for each degree when the temperature rises above 80 degrees F.

Adding vacation time and reduced productivity is a recipe for a slowdown. It is essential to develop effective business strategies to minimize the impact of the summer slump on your business.

So as the summer begins, here are some of the top three ways to hedge against the coming slump.

3 Ways to Avoid the Summer Slump

Technically, there is no panacea that businesses can use to reverse a broad social trend. The fact remains that your numbers will slow down this season, depending on the industry. Luckily, you can take some strategic actions to mitigate the effect.

Here are some tips to get you started.

1.      Adopt Effective Lead Generation Strategies

Summer is traditionally quieter for most businesses, but you can change this with effective lead generation. One way to do this is to develop visibility during the summer to strengthen advertisers' branding reputation and credibility. Here are some of the ways to maintain an effective lead flow:

• Manage your website: Business websites should be accessible and optimized for your summer visitors. Update your content regularly to highlight special offers and ensure the websites remain active. You can further optimize your website with A/B testing tools. This allows you to create two versions of your page to adjust which tools are more efficient and effective.
• Automate your lead generation strategy: Automating marketing campaigns is a powerful way to engage customers, and most marketers are taking notice. You can easily identify web visitors and turn unknown prospects into leads. With this, you can maintain your lead flow all summer. At Megan Moore Marketing, we can help your business find new leads and maintain the flow of digital marketing. Fill out the contact form below to get started.
• Don't overlook social media: People take their phones on holidays, and smartphones are synonymous with social media. You can easily maintain your reach to ensure a continuous presence on your social media. Our team can help you manage social media marketing campaigns effectively and maximize your lead generation. Reach out to our team for a proposal. 

2.      Boost Customer Engagement to Maximize Sales

Summertime presents a massive task to engage meaningfully with customers. Your prospective customers will be dealing with other issues like getting their children from school and unwinding their finishing plans for a great vacation. Achieve proper engagement by:

• Optimize your marketing strategies: Create a list of 20 businesses you can comment on, engage with and connect with each week. Also, ensure your marketing strategy ties with the summer season. During this time, most people tend to be casual and informal. Our team prepares plans for our clients by choosing a specific CITY and NICHE to engage with (using hashtags and location tags). Our effective marketing strategies have helped most of our clients increase their reach by 700% in just 30 days.  
• Follow-up with customers: While most people plan for vacations and most travelers prepare for a slump in business, use the period to notify people of your summer specials. Increase your deals and fun social media challenges, and then request feedback on the product they bought.
• Be active on social media: While people tend to be busy in summer, they will still check on their social media. You can encourage client engagement by increasing your social media activity. Post summer-themed content and catch up with your audience to promote engagement.

3.      Take a Break for a Week to Enjoy the Benefits of Digital Detox

Unless you are planning to go for a six-month break, it is unlikely that your business will follow to a halt after a week's pause. We are big advocates of taking a break as audience exhaustion is real, and if you're posting content JUST because -- you will lose your audience.

An effective break requires planning. Think of it as a way to avoid digital burnout. Studies prove that productivity reduces by 20% in the summer months. Try to be fair by including your team during the break.

You can make vacation plans to minimize disruptions with the whole team in mind. 

Communicate with your clients that you are going away if they deal with your personally. They will appreciate knowing about the period you will not be in service. Tell them the dates you will be out and what they can do to get your products and services during your absence.   

During the one-week break, you can decide to go for a full or basic digital detox. This helps to relieve all the business stress and allows you to relax. If you feel more stressed by not being able to access your contacts, limit your email checking to short periods during the day.

Equally important, be strategic during your business break to ensure you don't lose customers. Tell your customers (potential and current) that you are taking a PAUSE to come back even more energized and engaged next week. Check out what we do on our Instagram account, meganmooremarketing.

Back to You

Your business could potentially see a sales dip in the summer, but don't let it slump. This is the PERFECT time to continue "marathon marketing" - meaning slow and steady, be consistent. Come fall, you will thank me! Summer is an excellent time to onboard a marketing company because when you plant the seeds NOW -- you'll see the financial rewards in the fall.

Reach out to us today by filling out the contact form below.

Lots of success - 

Megan Moore Marketing Team