Warmer weather is finally here and that means summer is just around the corner. And while many people are planning a vacation and enjoying the great outdoors, business owners dread the summer slump in sales and productivity. But, even if you’ve noticed a trend of your business slowing down during the summer months, that doesn’t mean you have to wait until fall for things to pick back up again. In fact, summertime can be a great opportunity to work on growing your business.
9 strategies for growing your business this summer
Summertime is the perfect time to evaluate your business plan and prepare yourself for all the revenue-making opportunities during fall and winter. Here’s how:
- Evaluate your business plan and goals.
- Assess your staffing needs.
- Learn a new skill.
- Examine your lead generation strategy.
- Refresh or create landing pages.
- Organize a retreat.
- Update your website and marketing materials.
- Plan for the last two quarters.
- Create a special offer.
Let’s check out each strategy…
- Evaluate your business plan and goals
With the second quarter of the year drawing to a close, now is the perfect time to revisit your business plan and goals for the year and evaluate where you stand. How close are you to achieving those goals? Did anything change in your business that requires you to adjust your plan?
Write down and celebrate what you’ve accomplished so far and make sure you are still on track to meet the goals you set at the beginning of the year.
Don’t be afraid to eliminate goals if they aren’t relevant anymore and change your plan if what you’ve done so far isn’t bringing you closer to your main goal.
- Assess your staffing needs
Summer is also the perfect time to assess your need for extra employees. If you’re the only person working in your business, is it time to hire an assistant? Take a look at your current workload and plan accordingly.
If you already have employees, take this opportunity to talk to them about their workload and decide if it’s time to bring on new forces.
- Learn a new skill
As sales slow down, take the summer months as an opportunity to learn a new skill that will help you further your business growth.
It could be something simple as mastering a new social media platform or something more complex as building your first sales funnel.
Don’t forget to implement what you learn and put your unique spin on it to make sure it makes sense for your business and your goals.
- Examine your lead generation strategy
If you’ve ever wanted to experiment with new lead generation strategies, there is no better time than the summer months. Since most people will be preoccupied with making the most out of their summer vacation, you can use the slump to research new strategies and dip your toes in.
Strategies worth exploring include pay-per-click and social media ads, video marketing, Facebook live and Instagram stories. You can also start a blog if you haven’t already or research guest posting opportunities. As you’re experimenting with lead generation strategies, make sure to create a new lead magnet or update your old ones to encourage visitors to sign up for your email list.
Editor’s note: Looking to start a blog? Why not try the blog feature on GoDaddy's Website Builder?
- Refresh or create landing pages
While we’re on topic of lead generation, take some time to create new landing pages that will go with your new lead generation strategies.
A landing page is focused on getting people to sign up for your list, get in touch with you or book a call.
As such, it converts better than a regular page on your site simply because it eliminates all the distractions such as menus, sidebars, social media links and anything else that might cause visitors to leave your site.
If you use WordPress, there are several landing page plugins that will make it easy to build high-converting landing pages for your site and allow you to see which ones convert better.
- Organize a retreat
Don’t forget to take some time to unwind this summer yourself. If you have employees, organize a retreat for your company and work on building team spirit. You can also take this as an opportunity to discuss what’s working and what’s not and get everyone’s ideas on how to meet your business goals.
- Update your website and marketing materials
Take a look at your site and the last time you’ve updated the design. Take advantage of the summer lull to refresh the design as well as the copy.
You want to make sure your website is a perfect representation of your brand and that it’s responsive and loads fast.
This will not only help you attract more customers but it will also improve your SEO (search engine optimization). Use a few minutes of your summer downtime to make sure you aren't making any of these design mistakes.
As you’re updating your site, make sure you update any marketing materials to match the new look of your site. You should also update the bios and cover images on your social media profiles.
- Plan for the last two quarters
The last two quarters of the year are the busiest time, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas to prepare for.. Summer is a great time to pull out your analytics, analyze the numbers from previous year and evaluate your marketing and sales results.
Once you have the numbers in front of you, it’s time to create a plan for the fall and winter rush so you can finish the year strong.
- Create a special offer
Lastly, just because sales are slow during summer that doesn’t mean you can’t add a little boost to your revenue. Create a special offer or a summer discount on some of your most popular products or services and promote it on social media and to your email list.
Take advantage of the summer lull for growing your business
While the beach certainly is tempting, there is no reason to let your business stagnate during the summer. Use the tips in this article for growing your business. Evaluate your goals and business strategy, learn new skills and create a marketing plan for fall and winter sales.
