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Why Summer Is the Best Time for Brands to Plan Ahead

By July 9, 2024No Comments

While many see summer as a time to slow down, savvy businesses and brands know it’s the perfect season to ramp up their strategic communications planning and gain market share. Summer is often associated with relaxation and leisure, but for brand managers, marketing and PR executives, and business owners, it’s the perfect time to take a pause and strategically examine the brand’s public relations and marketing efforts.

At Durée & Company, a Fort Lauderdale and Aspen-based public relations and marketing agency, we’ve determined that the often time slower pace of the season provides an excellent opportunity to assess a brand’s performance, add new content, refresh old content (it’s good for SEO!), and enhance the brand’s online presence.

Here’s why summer is the best time for strategic planning and how brands can make the most of it.

  1. Refresh the brand

The brand is the face of the business and keeping it contemporary and relevant is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge. Summer is the ideal time to:

      • Reevaluate the brand Identity:Assess current branding elements like logos, color schemes, and taglines. Are they still resonating with the target audience? Are they cohesive across all social platforms? If a stranger saw the brand’s logo, heard the name, or read the tagline would it be clear what type of business it is and what it stands for? Now is a great time to consult with an outside agency with expertise in branding for a detailed analysis and professional recommendations.
      • Update marketing materials.Refresh business cards, brochures, and other printed materials to reflect any changes in the company’s branding. Ensure all of the social handles are recent and still relevant to the brand’s positioning and marketing strategy. Proof copy and look for ways to make it stand out and sparkle.
      • Conduct brand audits. Appoint someone or a team to conduct a thorough brand audit and identify areas for improvement to ensure consistency across all platforms. Assess the brand’s position in the market and identify where there could be increases in brand awareness with new audiences.
      • Refresh social media: Summer is also a great time to refresh social media profiles. Update profile pictures, cover photos, and bios to ensure they align with the brand’s current image and goals. Engage with followers through summer-themed content and promotions to keep the audience active and engaged.
  1. Create and curate impactful blog content

Blogging is a powerful way to establish professionals at a company as thought leaders and keep audiences engaged. But if brands publish on a whim, aren’t strategic with topics, and don’t assess their content’s impact, this content generation initiative could be a big waste of time.

Use the summer to focus on:

      • Content Planning: Develop a content calendar for the rest of the year, outlining topics based on launches or keywords, identify who will write the content, create publication dates, and identify promotional strategies. There’s software that can help with this or, hire a full-service agency that can do the heavy lifting for the brand. This is one of the things you didn’t know a publicist could do for a brand.
      • Evergreen Content: In the content world, evergreen posts are topics that are relevant regardless of the season. These could be the bread and butter of a brand’s blog and improve search engine results page (SERPs) rankings if they are considered “cornerstone content.” Examples are general tips like, “How to maintain a boat” and “What to know before buying a boat,” instead of seasonal content examples like, “Winterizing your boat,” or “How to decorate a boat for the holidays.”
      • Guest Posts: Having guests post on a blog helps alleviate some of the content-generating lift and can drive new audiences to a website. Collaborate with industry experts to provide diverse perspectives and insights. Encourage them to share the published blogs on their social platforms and link to them from websites and newsletters.
  1. Update the company website

A website is often the first point of contact for potential clients. Use the summer months to ensure this important piece of digital real estate is up-to-date and user-friendly by doing the following:

      • A Website Audit: Conduct a comprehensive audit to identify broken links, outdated information, and areas that need improvement. At the very least, check the analytics setup and run page speed tests. Here’s how to make sense with metrics.
      • Comprehensive SEO Optimization: Review and update the company’s SEO strategies to improve search engine rankings. Focus on keywords relevant to the current market and the brand’s goals. Consider hiring an outside company to identify the best keywords and long-tail keyword search terms an ideal customer would use to find the brand. Update older blogs with new copy and additional keywords, and add links to improve their visibility in search engines.
      • User Experience (UX): There’s always something that can be done to enhance a user’s experience on a brand’s website or app. Take steps to ensure the brand’s website is mobile-friendly, easy to navigate, loads quickly, and that all pop-ups close, newsletter signups work, and contact emails are up to date.
  1. Jump on seasonal trends

Summer offers unique opportunities to leverage seasonal trends in a brand’s marketing efforts. Here are some to try:

      • Offer Seasonal Promotions: Offer summer-themed promotions or incentives to attract potential buyers and sellers. Run “Independence Day,” “Back-to-School,” or “Labor Day” deals to incentivize purchasing decisions.
      • Publish Summer Content: Create content that resonates with the season, such as a video reel with “tips for maximizing summer sales” or a blog post on “how to engage audiences during the summer months.” Now’s the time to launch that summer-themed marketing campaign that the industry will be talking about for months.
      • Ramp Up Community Involvement: Participate in or sponsor local summer events to increase brand visibility and connect with the community. Hosting or supporting events like charity challenges or community festivals can raise awareness and offer valuable recognition for event sponsors.
  1. Plan for the holiday season: Think Christmas in July and August!

Summer is not just about immediate gains; it’s also an ideal time to plan for the upcoming holiday season. Start strategizing for limited-time offerings (LTOs) and other holiday initiatives now. This early preparation can help ensure that the brand is ready to capitalize on the holiday rush, with well-planned promotions, strategic public relations and thoughtful marketing campaigns.

That summer season doesn’t look so quiet anymore, does it? While the list above gives marketing and communication executives, brand managers, and business owners a lot to do in the coming months, simply focusing on one or a few of these suggestions will make a big difference. Think about the improvements the brand can make now to build upon and reap the rewards in the fall and winter.

Need a hand? Durée & Company can help with branding, content calendar creation and execution, digital marketing, and analysis to help brands stand out. Get in contact today to learn more about how we can help a brand reach its incredible summer goals.

 

About Durée & Company, Inc.

Founded in 1999, Durée & Company is a full-service, well-respected and highly creative public relations and marketing agency serving a diverse client base of local, national and international consumer brands, landmark industries, business leaders and philanthropists from its offices in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Aspen, Colorado. Practice areas include nonprofit, hospitality, business, lifestyle, health and wellness, legal, real estate, yacht and marine as well as cannabis, psychedelics, and other emerging industries. Durée & Company is a member of some of the nation’s most elite professional organizations including PR Boutiques International™ (PRBI), The Cannabis Marketing Association and is a corporate partner of Cannabis LAB. To learn more, call 954-723-9350; go to dureeandcompany.com; cannabismarketingpr.com; or psychedelicpr.com. Join the social conversation and follow Durée & Company on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and LinkedIn at @DureeCoPR.

 

 

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Five Things That Need to be in Your Resume or Cover Letter

To paraphrase Jerry Maguire, help us help you. As we sift through the paperwork, here’s what we are looking for:

1. What you love to do and why.

In PR, you may love writing, editing, interviewing, pitching the media, researching, coordinating events, networking, posting to social media … whew! While we would love it if you had a passion for it all, we’d never believe you if you said as much.

What part of this zany, crazy, whirlwind, yet meticulous, tedious, detail-oriented, profession calls to you and why? Help us make the connection as to how PR is really for you, and call it your Professional Summary.

2. Something you did that changed something or someone else.

If you never showed up to your last job, what wouldn’t have happened? That’s right. Erase yourself. Now which clients disappeared with you? Which articles just fade away? What press releases cease to exist? How much social media did NOT get liked?

We are just meeting you. So take a moment to spell out your impact, and it will be easier for us to see what you can do for the clients of Durée & Company. Share this under your Job Responsibilities.

3. Anything you created.

Feeling humble? Well, stop it. This is the part where you brag. If you craft a delightful blog, master a mind-blowing website, shoot crazy video or direct wonderful events, show us.

Then tell us a bit of how you did it, so we trust that it was your brilliance and not the intern’s. Let’s dub this Your Portfolio.

4. An indication of why you belong here.

At PR firm Durée & Company, we have a culture. Really, all companies do. To learn about ours, do some legwork. At this point, if you’re on our blog, you are in the right spot to begin learning. Hate pink? Not good with women? Live in Kansas? Low energy? Then you might want to reconsider applying. However, if we resemble a group that you’d like to hang out with, share why. You can do that in the Cover Letter.

5. Correctly spelled words – all of them.

Do more than hit spell check. Know how to spell or ask someone to proofread. Correctly spelled words work everywhere, all the time. Consider them the Little Black Dresses of resumes.

So consider these five tips – we’ve just given you a “cheat sheet” about what we’re watching out for. Even if our position may not be for you, feel free to use our advice for another – it may just get you the job!