Digital Marketing Survival Guide during Slow Summer Months
You want business to continue as usual during summer, but it’s bound to get a bit slower. All eyes are turned to enjoying the sun and snagging the best vacation destinations, your employees are taking their paid leaves, and your partners and major clients are going to be unavailable at some point. But don’t worry, because you can use the slow summer months to your advantage.
It’s the perfect time to focus on your digital marketing strategy and spruce it up without being in a rush. Not only will that help you maintain consistency in your business and capture your audience’s attention when their focus is shifted elsewhere, but it’s also a great opportunity to ensure your strategy is maximized once things go back to their usual pace. In order to help you do that, we’ll go over the key digital marketing strategies your business needs to focus on this summer.
Social media
If social media is not yet a part of your business’s marketing strategy, now is the perfect time to establish a social media presence. Don’t leave it for later when everything else is set to kick off – the sooner you establish a presence, the better. You can work on it patiently now and plan bigger steps, such as collaborating with influencers, for later on in the year.
You’re more likely to have a social media marketing strategy already, and in that case, keep this in mind: the summer months are a great opportunity to try new things and get creative with your social media marketing. You’ll need to go about it with a fresh approach, and here are some things to pay attention to:
- Take advantage of all the latest features social media platforms offer.
For example, Instagram’s new feature, IGTV, offers a great opportunity to reach a wider audience. Whichever social media network is the main focus of your marketing strategy, making use of any new feature will help you stay fresh and relevant in this time when things are a little slower.
- Get creative with your content.
Business might seem a little slower, but on social media, it can be the opposite. Give your content a punch so you can get more engagement from your audience. For example, you can offer a “summer giveaway” or encourage user-generated content with a fun new contest (video or image contests are some great ideas).
- Spread out.
You want to be selective with the social media networks you choose to market on – this especially stands for small businesses that have fewer resources to run effective social media marketing campaigns across multiple platforms. But once you have established a strong presence one or two social media outlets, summer is a great time to focus on a new one you haven’t tried yet. You can kick off a fresh campaign to put you in the limelight and reach a wider audience.
Website
Think of it this way: the slow summer months are a time of revival so you can emerge stronger in the fall. Focus on your website and add some adjustments that will benefit you right away and be a great investment for the future as well.
If there were some changes you were contemplating earlier, now is the best time to test them out, but make sure you’re getting professional advice. You can use platforms such as Designrush to find reliable digital marketing agencies whose expertise you can use to ramp up your website and overall strategy. Here are some suggestions that can be useful for freshening up your website and getting the most out of it this summer:
- Redesign your website for a mobile-first experience. This goes without saying, considering that a dominant portion of your website visits will be via smartphones.
- Do a new set of user experience (UX) testing and mark your website’s strengths and weaknesses. Ensure your site works smoothly and is optimized for an effortless user experience across all devices.
- Strengthen your SEO strategy. Work with experts and bring more focus to improving your website’s search engine rankings.
- Freshen up the visuals. Is your website ready for a complete makeover or would you like things to remain the way that they are? You can most definitely benefit from adjustments regarding your website design that will help you make a strong first impression to potential customers or bring an air of creativity and freshness that helps your brand identity.
Keep an eye out for customer reviews or inquiries
Things run a little slower in the summer, and this is where many small businesses make a major mistake, taking longer to reply to customer inquiries or pushing off customer reviews for when things get back to their normal speed. Impeccable customer service during these months will put you at an advantage among your competitors and help you establish a trusting relationship with your consumer base.
Make sure that there’s always someone to respond to inquiries on your website and social media, and keep track of the reviews on all relevant platforms. You now have even more space to focus on these things, considering that you might expect fewer inquiries during the slow months. It would also be great to ask for your audience’s opinions and suggestions on social media – you’ll get valuable engagement and input that you can use to further improve your digital marketing strategy.
All in all, although it might seem like everyone’s eyes are on the World Cup or summer holidays, you can use this time to your advantage. Focus on your social media presence, tweak your website to bring freshness and make it more effective, and stay a step ahead by diligently tracking customer reviews and inquiries. Not only will you avoid a slump in your marketing efforts, but your refreshed digital marketing strategy will bring you benefits you can rely on for months ahead.
Original Post by Bookmark can be found here: https://www.bookmark.com/blog/digital-marketing-survival-guide-during-slow-summer-months
