The sun is shining, weather is sweet...that means: summer is around the corner, and for New Englander's in particular that means 16 weeks to enjoy the nice weather and break from routine. How do you engage with potential prospects when they are outside of normal behavior? Knowing these habits and having a strong definition for your target personas is the first step. Below are marketing campaign examples you can run to keep your brand top of mind.
1. Use Social Media: By creating business or consumer focused video campaigns it will encourage viral engagement, and social sharing within a verity of networks. Make the prize for the winner something brand unique (think things money cant buy-an experience) and then coupling that with a product or service you offer. Have the contest run the span of summer and get yourself 12-14 weeks of engagement during a typically tricky time to nail people down. This is also the place to use custom hashtags so everyone can track the campaign-and ensure their submissions are on par.
2. Explore the Outdoors: Warmer weather means outdoor events. If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, try looking for ways you can participate in things like street fairs, block parties, or festivals. Pop-ups are also a great idea this time of year, especially in places where people will be in the mood for your goods (think ice cream at the beach, green juices after a yoga-in-the-park event). To promote where you’ll be posting up, send an email campaign to your customers and prospects and be sure to promote your events via your social channels.
3. Take advantage of disrupted behavior patterns: Think: 1/2 day Friday's for offices, summer family vacations and weekend travel, etc. People are out of their normal routines, so you need to know your target customer, and plan ahead for what they might be doing instead. It will be a way to keep your brand top of mind, while creating consumer engagement opportunities you would've missed if you kept on the regular media buy path.
4. Use Weather Triggered Programs: I wrote about how to take advantage of the weather a few months back, it applies for sure to summer marketing as well. Leverage what’s going on locally to promote your business. Social media and sidewalk signage work particularly well for this. Doing a quick email campaign (“It’s going to be 85 today -— 2 for 1 ice cream cones!”) to lure people in is also a great way to drive sales in the short term.
5. Take Advantage of the Holidays: Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Back to School — these are all perfect occasions to promote your business. By creating custom email and social campaigns you can quickly and easily send customers themed email for any sale, promotion, or event you’re doing around these holidays. "Join us for America's Birthday" is a great subject to promote a special, sale, or service offering to play off the holiday approaching.
If you need help crafting your summer marketing campaigns, set up a time to talk to us today. Ensure your company engages as many new leads as possible during the next few months.
