Some top summer marketing ideas

Are you struggling to think of a way to engage with your audience this summer? If so, I’ve put together some summer marketing ideas which will hopefully provide a little inspiration for you.

Whether it’s a social media marketing campaign, a Google Ad shopping campaign, a new hook for your email, or some relevant content for your business blog, I think you’ll find your muse right here.

Father’s Day

It was created by retailers, for retailers, but who am I to say that dads don’t deserve a day of recognition too. Think about ways your brand can promote itself in the run-up to Father’s Day, and how you can grab your market share of consumer spending for the weekend.

Sellers of products can certainly produce ‘top gift’ lists with great success, but don’t let that be the entire focus of your campaign. Think about ways to promote family time, things that might help Dad be more efficient, or other ways their kids can help make their dads feel special on this day.

Remember though, Father’s Day can be tricky for some people. It’s best practice to put out an email to your database asking if people would like to opt out of any Father’s Day promos in advance.

Summer Solstice

The longest day falls every year on the 21^st June. The solstice is a day to mark and could be an interesting one to combine in your marketing campaigns for this month.

It’s a pagan celebration, so without causing offense you could incorporate something along these lines into your messages. Skoda once pulled of an incredible marketing stunt for summer solstice, involving 18 cars doing a plausible recreation of Stonehenge. I’m not saying you need to go this big, but maybe the longest day will give you some ideas for a short and sweet boost to your website.

The 4^th of July

Okay, so it’s an American celebration, but that doesn’t mean British businesses can’t get in on the action too. Plenty of your customers will have friends and family across the pond, and many of them may even be Americans who have settled in the UK.

If you’re in the business of pretzels, fireworks or peanut butter, you’re quids in already! If not, you could consider running US-themed promotions, using the red, white and blue or the stars and stripes in your products and content, or hosting a giveaway relating to Independence Day.

Wimbledon

Possibly the greatest and most eagerly anticipated sporting event of the year…. and even more so since we missed it last year!

Wimbledon attracts the attention of enthusiasts from all walks of life. If you think it’s an event that will strike an ace with your customers, be creative in your approach to net yourself a match point or two (sorry).

Recent (not including 2020…. let’s all just forget 2020 happened shall we?!) Wimbledon marketing winners included:

• Rolex, who invested in a full-page ad with the text, “Rolex and Wimbledon. United by the pinnacle of excellence”
• Jacobs Creek, who ran a ticket competition and a Facebook promotion, gathering hundreds of new follows over the week
• Unilever promoted Elmlea with the pun “Singles or Doubles”
• Nescafe transformed steam from a coffee pot into a tennis ball with the line “The perfect first serve”
• Robinsons with a find-the-balls campaign on their website, which they named “The Great Robinsons Ball Hunt”

Schools Out

With the kids heading home for six long weeks (how is this possible, I feel like they’ve only been back two minutes!), there will be hoards of mums, dads, and grandparents looking for ways to fill their time.

This presents an awesome summer marketing opportunity for businesses of all kinds, from those selling toys and games to those specialising in holidays, days out, or home education.

Even if your products and services don’t directly relate, you can still tap into this rewarding market by releasing ‘ideas for…’, ‘top tips…’ and other information-related pieces which panicky parents will find useful.

Work the school summer break into your content marketing strategy, as you’ll pick up more follows and shares at this time of year when you capitalise on this calendar marking event.

Summer

With our positive hats on, we can also see the summer months as a marketing opportunity in themselves. If the weather goes our way, there are many chances to boost sales on the back of outdoor living, barbecues, camping, and beach products. If not, then you might be better off running promotions around umbrellas, DVDs and windscreen wipers!

There will be a lot of people staycationing this year, so try and incorporate some good old-fashioned British summer vibes into your marketing.

Coming up with summer marketing ideas is not just about seeing the opportunities when they present themselves. It’s about knowing your audience and what makes them tick. As long as you are continually testing, analysing, and discovering what the preferences and trends for your particular audience are, you’ll be able to hit upon high profit-making strategies more often than not.

Hopefully, these ideas will serve to inspire your creative mind, but remember that not everything will work for everyone in the same manner.

How Google Ads can help with these summer marketing ideas?

One of the best features of Google Ads is the ability to switch your campaigns on and off instantly. This means you can prepare campaigns ready for the summer (such as your BBQ ads), and then when the weather forecast is predicting sunshine all weekend, you can turn those campaigns on, and instantly get high-quality visitors to your website.

Google Shopping Ads (learn more about those here: https://www.smeketing.com/what-are-google-shopping-ads/) are extremely effective at driving potential customers straight to your product pages. If you plan your campaigns in advance, you can have these all set up and ready to go. Turn them on in the summer, turn them off in the winter, and wait until next year to activate them again.

The speed at which you can create a campaign and get it live is also fantastic for small businesses that are able to be more reactive than their more sluggish multinational corporate competitors. If something happens in the news and you think you can jump on the back of that with some well-placed ads, then you can get that campaign up and running before your competitors’ CEO has even had their morning coffee!

If you want to use Google Ads to help promote your business this summer, but you’re not sure where to start, then get in touch. My Google Ads Management service will be perfect for you!