How to supercharge your PR in summer
Although summer is a season when we might feel a tad lazier due to the summer heat, we believe it's the best time to pump up your PR efforts. The trick to a good PR strategy is to stay active and consistent. If you let your PR and comms efforts stagnate for even a month, you risk losing the valuable leads and awareness you worked so hard to build in the first half of the year.
To ensure that your business not only stays in the game during this time but also continues to generate new contacts, increase brand awareness, attract visitors, and position itself for success in the fall, it may be time to rethink your communications strategy.
Here are four ways to avoid the summer slump and prepare for the rest of the year.
Think content!
The advantage of summer is that you may have more time for your business. If that's the case, you should use this newfound time to create more content for your marketing strategy.
Whether it's increasing the number of your company blog posts, working on white papers or manuals, or even creating engaging infographics, there are many forms of content that can attract potential customers. You can also try to get media coverage for your business by leveraging these engaging infographics, making your efforts doubly worthwhile. Take advantage of slower news cycles to release news or make announcements without getting lost in the shuffle of competing stories. The work you do now will more than pay for itself later when you acquire new clients based on what you worked on a few months ago.
Collaborate with a partner in crime
Partner with other businesses to create joint PR initiatives, such as co-branded summer promotions, that can help drive exposure and reach new audiences. Creating joint PR initiatives with other companies can be a powerful strategy to increase brand awareness, reach a wider audience and strengthen partnerships.
Find companies that have similar goals and values, target audiences or complementary products or services. Consider industries that match your brand and offer opportunities for collaboration, and define the goals and objectives of your joint PR initiative before approaching potential partners. You have to know which goals you hope to accomplish together, such as building brand awareness, launching a new product or supporting community activities. Conducting thorough research will help you in identifying companies that will be the best match.
Of course, it is worth looking for companies with a positive brand image and a track record of successful collaborations. Find them and draft a proposal describing the joint PR initiative, including goals, activities and benefits for all parties involved. Remember that successful joint PR initiatives require open communication, trust and a shared vision. Collaborating with other companies allows you to expand your brand's reach, gain credibility through association, and create mutually beneficial relationships. Utilizing the summer to form these bonds will pay off in the long-run.
Find your PR guide in the comms cosmos
Fewer people watching your initiatives is not inherently a bad thing. In fact, you can use this opportunity to experiment with marketing channels that you haven't tried before or that you wouldn’t normally have time for during the busy season.
For example, if you haven't tried working with a PR agency for your business, summer is a great time to think about how outsourcing earned media efforts can strengthen your overall marketing strategy. Not only does media coverage help increase brand awareness and reach, but earned media can strengthen your brand's overall digital strategy by increasing traffic and engagement with paid and owned content. This slow period is the perfect time to establish a relationship with an agency to better build a solid foundation for your PR efforts before business picks up in the fall.
Slow down
Take your time and encourage employees to take a break and recharge, possibly leading to increased creativity and productivity when they return. This can also be leveraged into employee-generated content or social media posts that showcase the company's commitment to work-life balance.
Summer may be a slow season for business, but if founders look at this time as an opportunity to develop new content, find a partner to collaborate with, acquire additional PR support, and let the team have a good rest—all of these efforts will get you ahead of your fall efforts, so you can finish the year on a strong note.