5 Summer Marketing Tips for Small Businesses
The warmer weather of summer means more consumers are out and about. But being out of the house doesn’t guarantee they’re in the mood to buy. Because so much travel occurs during this season, plenty of businesses struggle with slower summer sales.
If you want to avoid a summer slump and keep your sales strong, here are the five best summer marketing tips for small businesses:
1. Celebrate Travel
Instead of viewing people’s travel as a detriment to your sales, you can use this trend in your online marketing. Creating social media content related to travel is a great way to boost engagement. And if your business sells a consumer product, encourage your customers to show off that product in the travel photos they post.
2. Hold an Event
As soon as summer break begins, parents are always looking for activities to do with their kids. You can put your business in front of all those potential customers by holding a fun event. This type of event doesn’t have to cost a lot of money. As long as you plan it around an activity that’s enjoyable for families and do plenty of promotion, you can count on lots of people showing up.
3. Launch a New Special
Many businesses get stuck in a cycle of running the same specials all the time. While there’s something to be said for sticking with what works, this type of repetition is unlikely to keep people’s attention. If you want to grab the attention of potential and existing customers, come up with a very compelling summer special that’s impossible to refuse. A significant advantage of a seasonal special is you can maximize demand by making it a limited-time offer.
4. Reward Loyal Customers
One of the basic tenets of marketing is it costs far less to generate additional sales from existing customers than it does to acquire new customers. Launching a rewards program is a great way to reactivate your existing customer base. That can be as simple as a loyalty card or as complex as an app. As long as you provide value and make it fun, customers will participate.
5. Get Involved
Holding a summer event of your own isn’t the only way to put your business in front of potential customers. You can also look around your local community and find other events that are likely to attract the demographic you want to reach. Then you can get your business involved with the event through sponsorship, having a booth or other activity. It only takes one or two summer events to reach a whole new segment of people in your community.
Celebrating travel, holding an event, launching a new special, offering rewards to loyal customers and getting involved are all proven ways to boost summer sales. By putting one or more of these marketing tips into action for your small business, you’ll be able to keep sales strong through the summer and into Q4.