Warm weather is right around the corner. How will the calendar change impact your marketing? Your audience is affected by seasonal changes, so reflecting that in your marketing can help give you the edge. Don’t miss an opportunity to connect with your audience.
Here are nine ideas on how you can turn up the heat with your summer marketing.
Celebrate Silly Holidays
Everybody does the big holidays, so they tend to be a bit played out. Rather than running ads for the Fourth of July, Memorial Day or Labor Day, try highlighting some lesser-known holidays.
Did you know National Leave the Office Early Day is June 2? And National Ice Cream Day is July 17. National Poetry Day is August 18.
You can find all kinds of obscure holidays to spark ideas for your campaigns this summer. Also, pay attention to the awareness days for the causes that align with your company’s values.
Offer Weather-Based Deals
You can use the weather to help drive your deals. Try offering a percent off for every degree over 100 or having a “rainy day” sale. People love to look for deals. Tying your sales to their experiences helps align your brand with them as consumers.
A weather-based deal feels like a short-time offer, which can increase the scarcity aspect of your campaign. When people feel like a surprise deal could end at any time, they are more likely to be provoked into action.
Participate in Outdoor Events
Of course, jumping into summer events is a great way to build relationships with your local audience. Here are a few events that you could join within the cities or counties you typically target.
- Fairs: Typically, brands set up tables with promotional products to attract their target audience. Keep these tables light-hearted and interactive to get the most engagement—using attractions like carnival games or selfie stations to draw people to you.
- Festivals: Festivals are often themed, making it easy to choose a marketing approach. Food, art, culture, music and history are just a few examples of festival themes that may be happening within your area.
- Parades: Adding a float to a parade can get a lot of attention—especially if it is funny or impressive. Get people tagging you in their Lives, Snapchat and Stories by participating in a parade.
- Chalk Walks: Artistic events, like chalk walks or mural contests, can be a great place to increase awareness. Pay to sponsor a square or project in the name of your company, tying your brand to something beautiful and artistic.
- Farmer’s Markets: Many farmer’s markets have a host of other vendors on-site. You don’t have to sell vegetables to join in, though some aspect of your table should typically be hand-crafted if you want to win over this crowd.
- Trade Shows: Would your buyers, customers or clients be at a trade show? You may be able to target a very specific segment of your market by joining in at a show targeting a career or hobby.
Host an Event
You can plan your own summer-themed events as well! Host a fundraiser, community event or professional development day that embraces summer activities. Grilled or barbecued catering can help set the summer vibes. Ice cream, snow cones and juice trucks are treats many people love during the hot summer days.
Encourage User-Generated Content
Getting people to participate and post your brand will help you become more popular on social media. User-generated content (UGC) is a form of word-of-mouth advertising, and it is very effective. People following the content creator will be able to see how they feel about your brand in a real-world setting. Reposing the UGC also helps beef up your content calendar without adding to your workload.
Increase Outdoor Ad Spend
With people spending more time outdoors, think about where you can strategically place ads. Consider the natural flow of foot traffic and where your audience spends its free time. Billboards, bus stops, pools, parks and event ad placements are examples of where outdoor ad spend may be compelling during the summer months. To get the most out of the space, always design for the specific space and don’t just use generic ads.
Write a Summer Blog Post
Blog about topics that are specifically related to summer to increase your organic search volume or social sharing numbers. Are your customers going to face unique challenges or pain points during the summer? Are they interested in certain summertime events or activities? Write about summer topics to help your content feel timely and relevant.
Include summary images with text that are ideal for Pinterest. Seasonal Pins can help attract people with keywords that aren’t likely to be used during other parts of the year.
Create a Summer Email Campaign
Email campaigns that are seasonal help your messages resonate with your audience. If your messages don’t acknowledge the seasons, holidays or calendar in some ways, then your campaigns may start to seem generic.
Consider how seasonal needs or interests may change your marketing messages for email. Your images, colors and CTAs all may change based on the season as well. Segment your audience to further drive home your timely messages with variations that are most relevant to the recipient.
Change Your Lingo
Use some catchy summer words to help your messaging land. Here are some terms that you may want to include in summer campaigns:
- Sizzling
- Hot
- Sunkissed
- Cooldown
- Make a splash
- Under the sun
- Don’t sweat
- Melt
- Soak up
- Bask
- Blazing
- Make it rain
Don’t go overboard with the terms. Choose one or two that fit your imagery and add to your message.
With these tactics, you can turn up the heat on your marketing this summer. Use the seasons to refresh your marketing approach and stay on top of your game.
If you are looking for help with your campaigns, strategy or metrics, we can help. Since 2004, Vinci Digital has been helping brands like yours achieve sustainable growth. Contact us today to request your quote
