Summer Marketing Tips For Small Businesses
Kalin Kassabov is a Founder and CEO of ProTexting.com, a fast-growing enterprise-level text message suite of services.
Summer can be a slow season for businesses. On the other hand, it's also a time when people are often on the move and looking for fun, traveling, and attending events. As my company offers B2B services, I work with businesses of varying sizes in many industries and often exchange feedback with them about marketing strategies and trends. I thought it would be helpful to share some summer marketing guidelines for small and local businesses based on the latest marketing trends and data.
Don't Count on Brand Loyalty
As some businesses experience a summer slowdown, you need to be ready to provide your customers with great deals. Brand building is always a worthwhile goal. You want to cultivate loyal customers who return and recommend you. At the same time, you can no longer rely on customers being loyal if you don't continue to provide outstanding value. Research indicates that 77% of customers now prioritize price over loyalty.
Keep Your Marketing Consistent and Summer-Themed
To make sure you're prepared, you may want to create summer content ahead of time so you have a series of emails, social media posts, text messages, ads, videos, or other content that you can post on a schedule.
You can incorporate summer themes, including beaches, swimming pools, tropical drinks, and vacations into your marketing even if it doesn't directly relate to your business. Use summer sales, promo codes, and coupons can be sent via email or text or posted to your social media accounts. Create polls asking your followers about their vacation plans or favorite summer activities.
Stay Connected to Local Events
Summer is full of outdoor events such as festivals, fairs, block parties, concerts, holiday celebrations such as July 4th and Labor Day, and special events unique to a city, town, or region. Local businesses can often find ways to participate in such happenings. Check calendars in local newspapers (including free weeklies that cover entertainment) and websites.
You may be able to do this directly, such as by renting a table or booth at a fair or other event. Being a sponsor of events such as a race for charity is also good for raising your profile and connecting with your community. You can also profit indirectly if you know an event will bring traffic to your area. For example, you could create a coupon code with a relevant hashtag referring to the event. This works for higher profile events such as sports games, film festivals, and music festivals.
Remember That It's Wedding Season
Whether or not you or anyone in your family or social circle is getting married this year, the fact is that many couples tie the knot in summer. Weddings are a very broad niche that inspire many purchases, not only from the couple and their families but also guests.
Keep in mind that people attending weddings may find it challenging to think of an appropriate gift. Businesses of all kinds, including restaurants, salons, boutiques, and others can offer gift cards. Remind your customers that gift cards are great for many other occasions as well, including birthdays, graduations, baby showers, and so forth. Advertise these discounts on your social media pages, or perhaps with print ads in local publications.
Cater to Sports Fans
As people plan their summer vacations, businesses need to be aware of the latest travel and vacation trends. These are not only relevant if you're in the hospitality industry. Travel affects many sectors as people buy items online. If you have a brick and mortar business, you need to factor in customers who may be out of town or tourists visiting your area.
According to American Express Travel, many people will be basing their travel plans around sporting events. It's a good idea to keep track of any major games or other sporting events in your area and incorporate these into your marketing campaigns.
Tap Into the Gig Tripping Trend
"Gig tripping" is a new term, begun by Taylor Swift fans, to describe passionate fans following around their favorite acts. While this is especially popular with superstars such as Taylor Swift and Beyonce, people may also travel to see niche performers. This is the type of event you could leverage with hashtags. For example, for Taylor Swift's recent tour, hashtags such as #TaylorSwift, #ErasTour, #Swifties, and #GigTripping itself could be used. You can use a similar approach to music festivals. Don't overlook smaller niche festivals dedicated to country music or other genres popular in your area.
Make the Most of Summer
These are some guidelines that any type of small business can use to reach more customers and get the best possible results during the summer season. Get creative and find ways to tie your business into happenings in your area. Do whatever you can to tie summer themes into your products or services.
