Refine marketing with the season
It is very important to make a few changes to your advertising that make your content more appealing to a summer audience.
During the warmer months of the year, people like to relax and de-stress. Make sure that your content and covers reflect this. Emphasize aspects such as relaxation, convenience, savings and of course, fun. This is what summer is all about after all! Marry your brand with the season.
Adjust posting times
What time of day you target your audience is just as important as what you target them with. The timing may differ in the summer from other seasons. In the colder months it becomes dark between 4 and 6 pm so more people stay indoors and conduct searches online.
During summer, it’s typically light out until 8 or 9 pm. People stay outdoors much longer. In general, they are online less during the day, especially if the weather is prime. Keep this in mind when you schedule your posts.
Snap summer “Selfies”
Most businesses focus their marketing strategy on sharing business-related content, but giving your followers a peak behind-the-scenes can give them a better idea of your company’s personality and foster engagement for your other content. Use your business social media page to post photos from the company BBQ or pool party. Post some fun pictures of your loyal customers enjoying the hot weather at a picnic! Share your summer recipes or link to videos of summer office activities. Giving your audience a look on the inside helps strengthen relationships, and makes your business more real and approachable. Show your business personality and increase engagement.
Summer Sweepstakes
Follower engagement is crucial to the success of your social media campaign and the best way to get your followers involved is to ask them! Invite them to share their own summer photos featuring your brand. This strategy increases your network engagement and you benefit by automatically getting great user-generated content.
Be Daring
Try something new. Post more than you usually would, and not all of it should be about your product and brand. Go for the natural marketing feel by discussing things at a more human level! Talk about summer community events with your audience.
Try A New Tool
Take advantage of the potentially slower summer business pace and use that free time to try out a hot new social media tool. Try a visual platform such as Instagram, Vine or Pinterest. Set a reasonable goal such as posting 2 new photos per week. The summer months may not be enough time to gauge the effectiveness, but it could also be a hidden gem in your social media marketing efforts! The only way to find out is to try and when September comes around, decide if you want to continue to grow your presence on that platform.
You could also take a stab at a new type of social media post. Consider trying a Facebook quiz or trivia question, a caption contest, a question for the audience or featuring a customer story.
Grow your Network
This is the hottest time of the year to find new people and potential customers to connect with online using LinkedIn and Twitter. Aiming to grow your Facebook likes is not a bad idea either. Keep in mind that if engagement is down during the summer because users are outdoors, it is not unlikely that it is down for your competitors. Still, find that personal connection to people that can help grow your business even during the slow days of summer!
If it happens to be busy for your business through the summer season, grow your email list! Something as simple as a paper sign-up sheet can go a long way in helping you stay in touch with customers after they visit your boutique, eat at your restaurant, or come into your office.