Summer is in full swing, and the heat brings about an exhilarating lineup of festivals and family get-togethers. It is a time to enjoy the beautiful weather, take vacations, and refresh.
With all the added activities and distractions, it can be easy to forget about the pulse of your business. Marketing should continue to be an integral part of your business throughout the year. This season represents an opportunity to check in on your marketing activities and perhaps, based on your business model, reduce or increase them.
Every business goes through sales cycles. Usually, when businesses are the busiest with clients, they stop selling, and when they are not as busy, they ramp up their marketing and sales efforts. The idea of having an ongoing marketing program that is not seasonal means that we are able to create consistency and, of course, help those up and down cycles be less drastic.
So, the question you should ask is….What can I do during the summer season when all the additional activities threaten to keep me from focusing on my marketing efforts?
Here are five simple ideas and suggestions to make sure your business engine keeps running while you are having a blast!
- Before the season is in full swing, schedule a couple of hours to review the first half of the year in relation to your marketing activities and success. Review your website analytics, social media platform engagement, email blast open rates, and the other activities you have done to get new clients.
- Define your business goals and think of the top three key performance indicators (KPIs) for your business. Be realistic in your expectations as you map your “Summer Strategy,” knowing that you will probably not do as much as you do during other seasons.
- Create a list of activities and create a “checklist” of items that you will do or assign to your team. Keep those items focused on your KPIs with simpler activities that fuel them during the summer season.
- Develop a delegation plan. Then delegate and add check-in reminders to ensure nothing is being missed. Ask your team to send you quick reports with bullet points on their weekly accomplishments relative to the KPIs.
- Reconvene with your team and assign a post-season meeting to review what was accomplished and whether or not you hit the targets. Remember–there is always another season!
- F is for fun! Remember to have fun! Schedule an outing or activity with your team to thank them for their hard work.
Remember to always create space and time to “zoom in” to do the work and “zoom out” of your business to see the progress of your efforts. That is the key to keeping a business funnel going through integrated marketing and sales.
You’ve got this! Now, enjoy the season!
-JJR Marketing, Inc