Don’t wait for autumn! Here’s what to do during the summer to maintain your sales levels and prepare for a successful year-end.
Engage previous customers
Previous customers have already worked with you; they know and trust you. It makes sense that they would want to collaborate with you again in the future. Reconnect with previous customers by making a call or sending an email.
Email campaign at least once a week
Direct email marketing works. According to WARC research:
— The average engagement rate for emails is 95%, with households interacting with them at least four times.
— 65% of households making $100,000 or more have made a purchase in the last 30 days attracted by email advertising.
Therefore, clients not only pay attention to your emails, but are also more likely to purchase goods or services from you.
Invest in personal development
Enhance your skills, learn something new, engage in product development, generate new ideas, and test your hypotheses.
Double your efforts in customer communication
Make more calls. Send more emails.
If you previously lacked the time to manage your business’s social media pages, now, during the dip in consumer activity, is the perfect time to catch up:
— reach out to previous clients or partners to check in on them;
— reignite communication with personal contacts and discover what’s new in their lives (you never know how someone in your network might help you professionally);
— regularly and consistently post business and personal content in social media to stay visible.
It may seem that the time you’re investing now won’t pay off, but when fall comes, you’ll see the results of your efforts.
Host webinars
Webinars can be a great idea for expanding your client base over the summer, especially for teachers, accountants, attorneys, coaches, consultants, speakers, marketing agencies, social media experts, and anyone who uses webinars to share their expertise and knowledge for business gain.
How do webinars attract clients in the summer?
Summer webinars allow you to engage busy clients who have a problem your business can solve, but they lack the time or motivation for a traditional meeting with you. By hosting a webinar, you offer potential clients a chance to learn more about what you do and how you can help them.
For example:
You’re a management consultant. Instead of persistently trying to secure meetings with a few high-level decision-makers, you can record a short webinar lasting 10–30 minutes. In the video, showcase a few slides and discuss how you’ve assisted others in similar situations.
Then ask potential clients if they would like to join you for a live session or watch the recorded version of the webinar. Everything you need to do is:
— record your “presentation” using screen-sharing and recording software like Google Meet, Zoom, or any other option;
— upload the video to your YouTube channel;
— share the link with the audience in email campaign.
Set goals for the fourth quarter
Establish goals for the autumn and winter, and create a plan to achieve them.
Write down affirmations and goals that outlines how much you plan to earn, what goals you are going to accomplish, and how you will feel after you accomplish it all.
Fear holds you back, while dreams push you towards achievements. Start smiling every day, feeling satisfied that you are taking steps toward what you planned.
Use the summer to create a clear and positive vision for the remaining part of the year, and let it inspire you to achieve your goals.
Nourish your mind
Read books that inspire and motivate you, teaching you new things.
You likely have a list of uplifting reads that you’ve been meaning to tackle. Choose one book and commit to reading at least a page a day or more. This way, you’ll be making progress toward your goals.
Sum up
Summer is a time of declining sales in many businesses. Use this time to generate new ideas and test hypotheses, continue to attract an audience and warm it up, renew communication with previous customers so that in the fall customers will be in the mood to buy.
Apply the tips suggested above to keep summer sales at a good level and increase your customer flow.