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Slowdown. For anyone who works in marketing this term almost comes automatically with a rather negative connotation. In marketing, slowing down makes you think of less. Less activity, less engagement, less traffic, less revenue… we could make a long list of KPIs that theoretically are not supposed to slow down or become less.
That’s why for companies summer seems almost like a threat. People go on holidays, which is great for the tourism industry, but for other sectors it means less purchases. Why? Because people disconnect from their routine as well as day to day tasks and habits. Instead they’re busy doing other things, activities and enjoying free time with friends and family. Doesn’t that sound like an idyllic time? So how can it be a threat for business? In fact, it’s not really. Let’s have a closer look at how you can profit from the opportunities summer slowdown offers for your marketing strategy!
How to optimize your marketing strategy for summer slowdown
Probably the most important aspect during summer is to stay in people’s minds. Because yes, maybe your target group is not as eager to buy as during more active times of the year, but it’s still important to be present. What does that mean? To prioritize awareness campaigns for example.
Depending on your product or your service, maybe it just doesn’t make sense to put your efforts into campaigns that aim to persuade people to buy. Let’s take a very basic example: office utensilities. No offense, but people are probably happy to not even see those for a good few weeks. Instead of perceiving that as an issue or a factor that decreases your number or sales, take it as a chance. Focus on increasing your brand’s visibility. For instance, you can share your brand’s values, inform about any actions you’ve taken to show corporate responsibility or demonstrate insides about how your company’s summer looks like. This way you engage on a more personal level with your target which strengthens the community around your brand.
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Now, which are the best ways to spread these kind of messages? Summer slowdown in fact means people take things more relaxed and won’t spend as much time in front of their computers. What they probably do take with them, even on their holidays, are their mobile phones. Especially since Instagram Tourism has become more than just a trend that some hop on and others don’t. So that’s your channel: mobile!
Active social media strategy
As we said, people spend more time on their phone than on their laptop, which means your brand should definitely be present on social networks. Make sure you adapt your social media strategy to factors that might vary during summer slowdown. For example double check the best times to post on each channel your brand is present on. As we said, many people change their routines during summer which also might affect their timings. Also make sure you define which message you want to communicate during summer. You might need to adapt it to grab people’s attention this time of the year. A more light and entertaining way to address your target might work better.
E-mail marketing
Generally, as people have more time during summer, they are more open to receive information. While during the rest of the year they might not even open your newsletter and move it straight into the bin, summer slowdown might be the moment to improve your opening rates.
Usually people make reservations for their holidays with their personal email accounts. So why they probably won’t open their work mail, they do still need to access their personal ones to receive updates about their holidays. So that’s exactly the right moment to send interesting content, as people actually do have time to read it. Again, focus on awareness campaigns to stay in their mind.
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Paid mobile marketing
You probably could have already guessed this point. As marketing during summer slowdown evolves much more around the mobile experience, also your paid advertising campaigns should shift from desktop to mobile. Depending on your target audience, you could probably even consider to pause your paid campaigns or lower the investment to then push a bit more after the summer. In this article by Semrush you can read more about the differences between paid and organic marketing. Either one, as we have probably made clear by now, during summer slow down should take place in mobile format.
Other tasks to take advantage of less busy times during summer slowdown
The aforementioned actions focus on the actual summer period. If you have that under control you can also benefit from summer slowdown to hold on for a moment. Analyze your marketing efforts and results so far as well as what’s coming ahead.
Analyze your first half term
The good thing about slowing down for an instance is that you can use that time to recap. Which in marketing is essential. Analyze how you’ve done so far with your overall marketing strategy: where you could do better, what worked and what needs a change. By analyzing your company’s pain points you can make sure to improve your performance during the second half of the year.
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Keep your SEO strategy uptodate
This goes in line with the first point. Part of our overall marketing strategy is probably also search engine optimization. Take the chance to analyze how your website texts rank for the keywords relevant in your sector and make a plan, if necessary, to improve your texts in order to achieve better results for the second half. And of course, if you did not already hop on that train, dive into Social Media SEO. It’s definitely worth it and summer slowdown is the perfect chance to dedicate some time to optimize your social media postings. Which brings us to the next point.
Optimize your social strategy
Use summer to analyze your social media performance. If necessary, as explained in the beginning of the article, adapt your message for the summer months. Apart from that, take notes about how your content worked so far. What seemed to resonate with your audience and what didn’t? What creates engagement and what was supposed to, but did not bring any results?
Plan ahead for the second half
If you dedicate time to the first three points of our list, you’ll inevitably also do this one. After analyzing all the channels you use to spread your brand’s message and reach your target audience, you can take those insights to plan ahead. What are your goals for the second half of the year? And how do you plan to reach your objectives? Based on your conclusions of the first term, you can adapt your marketing strategy. Prepare your actions to shift back to the more busy time after summer slowdown. Remember, when people get back to work, you already need to be ready.
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Do trainings and workshops
Of course summer slowdown is also a great opportunity to invest in your own learnings. Take the time to do trainings that are relevant for your activity and participate in workshops and other ways to learn more and acquire new skills. Nowadays it’s more important than ever to stay updated as things are developing and changing with an impressive speed. Sometimes it can seem hard to keep track of everything so slower times are the best to study and invest into your knowledge.
Last but not least:
The most important opportunity summer slowdown brings you: Take a break yourself! It’s just as important to slow down, disconnect, rest and recharge batteries than it is to keep all your marketing efforts under control.
