Spring has finally sprung and that means it’s time to start planning ahead for your summer marketing activities. Every season presents unique ways to elevate your brand and bring attention to your fresh products, but late May to early September might be one of our favorites to brainstorm and develop creative for. Here are a few things to consider as you start building a plan to capitalize on the summer season for your brand.

Marketing Calendar

Organize your marketing calendar around notable holidays and events to give you a starting point for defining campaign themes and a campaign cadence. Generally speaking, we often plan for one large promotion in a single season and then sprinkle in additional seasonal content and a small promotion or two throughout the timeframe. Some of the big calendar dates we look at first are:

• Memorial Day
• Father’s Day
• 4th of July
• Back to School
• Labor Day

In addition, you might find a foodie holiday during the summer months that either directly correlates to your product focus or is a fun inspirational tie-in. A few that jump out to us are:

• June 14: National Strawberry Shortcake Day
• June 17: National Apple Strudel Day and National Cherry Tart Day
• June 27: National Orange Blossom Day
• July: National Picnic Month
• July 11: National Blueberry Muffin Day
• July 16: National Ice Cream Day
• August: National Peach Month
• August 3: National Watermelon Day
• August 10: National Banana Split Day

Themes

Be seasonally relevant by choosing messaging and themes based on activities shoppers wait all year to enjoy. Think about the most fun aspects of summer and design your campaign assets accordingly. Some ideas might include:

• Beach days
• Pool time
• Picnics
• Outdoor exercise
• Road trips
• Day trips
• Trips abroad

Alternately, summer themes can be food-centric based on shoppers’ desire for lighter, more refreshing meals during the hottest months of the year. Fresh produce is easily synonymous with:

• Smoothies
• Salads
• Travel snacks
• Picnic fare
• Grilling
• Summer cocktails
• Fresh desserts
• Frozen treats

Marketing Tools

Consider all the marketing tools at your disposal and what is feasible to deploy for each campaign. Odds are that both your budget and your manpower require you to be selective about what you can spend time and money on, so think strategically. From the suggested list below, what can you most effectively launch, manage, and report on:

• New recipes
• Blog content
• Themed homepage
• Themed social media photos and videos
• Website promotion
• Email marketing
• Social media promotion
• Influencer content
• Digital ad campaign
• Brand partnerships
• News segments

Goals

Identify goals for each campaign that reflect the net results you hope to achieve. Based on the marketing tools you’ve selected, refer to historical trends in your marketing data and set relevant goals to gauge the success of your additional efforts this summer. A few standard metrics you might consider are:

• Impressions
• Reach
• Engagement
• Database growth
• Social community growth
• Email performance
• Page views
• CTA clicks
• Ad clicks
• Sales conversions

Are you feeling inspired and motivated to get your summer marketing plans mapped out?!? Maybe you need some added support to strategize, design, implement, or report. We’re here for you! Let us take the load off and support your brand vision with our marketing know-how. Give us a call!