Summer is a notoriously slow time for business: customers and employees alike go on vacation, and it can be too hot for the remaining consumers to venture out for long—or find motivation to do much of anything, including making purchases. However, you can still make lemonade (literally and figuratively) by implementing some creative marketing strategies. Here are some summer marketing tips to heat up your sales this season.
- Highlight products with seasonal or otherwise timely uses. Whatever products or services you sell, try to find ways to connect them with a current seasonal customer demand or an upcoming one. Alternatively, consider offering one-of-a-kind products and promos centered around fun summer accessories like pool floats, drink koozies, sunglasses, travel-sized items, and more.
- Advertise where customers are. Summers are for road trips and vacations, so plan to advertise where your customers are: in their cars and on their phones and tablets. Consider marketing through social media, radio commercials, mobile ads, and influencers on platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
- Offer special promos and deals. Summer clearance sales are a great way to attract bargain hunters, as are flash sales (like Amazon’s Prime Day), BOGO deals, and other promotions. Consider offering temporary bonuses like free shipping or a free product with purchase as well as long-term rewards, like loyalty programs.
- Try out a “summer journey” campaign. Consider holding a contest for a month or for the whole summer and award prizes to the winners. Design the contest so that you can collect contact info and other data from participants that you can use to build your customer base and relationships. Decide how it will tie in to your brand and be seen by as many people as possible: consider photo contests on Instagram and the like, keeping current trends in mind.
- Catch up on projects. Because summer is a naturally slow time for non-seasonal businesses, don’t despair if sales are a little sluggish despite your best marketing efforts. In fact, you can make the most of it by catching up on projects and to-do lists you’ve had to table during busier seasons. Capitalizing on an off-season can boost your sales and reduce your stress when business is more hectic.
Get Solid Marketing Strategies With Next Level Northwest
Enrolling in a business accelerator program and working one-on-one with a business coach is an excellent way for entrepreneurs to learn about effective marketing strategies. If you own a small business in the Northwest Chicagoland area and are ready to accelerate your business growth with coaching, consider applying for admission to our business accelerator program with Next Level Northwest.
Next Level Northwest is a business acceleration public-private partnership serving the Northwest Chicagoland region. We support regional and local businesses through collaborative and innovative initiatives to help grow the economy. Download our Program Overview PDF here.
Ready to take your business success to the next level and become a Next Level Northwest graduate? Download and prepare your application following this process today!
