In the summer months the mind wanders to the beaches and the mountains. There's nothing wrong with following its wanderings, and taking a well-deserved break in better climes.
But the summer months are also an excellent time to lay the foundations of a strong marketing program that will pay dividends for the rest of the year. To look for inspiration, one can look to the ant in Aesop's fable for inspiration. The ant, who worked hard during the summer to collect valuable food, was well fed in the winter, while a certain grasshopper didn't have such a good going.
Well, this is the twenty first century. We can nourish our marketing pipelines like the ant and at the same time, indulge ourselves like the grasshopper.
With the growth of performance marketing, and social sites like Facebook and Twitter, this is a simple three step process:
1. Acquire the names of consumers interested in your brand.
Timeframe: June, July, August.
Run performance driven Cost-per-Click and Cost-Per-Lead campaigns to acquire the names of people interested in your brand cost-effectively. With advanced campaign management systems in place, CPC and CPL campaigns run largely on auto-pilot, and don't require you to be in the office managing them all the time. (In the case of CPL campaigns you pay only for results, reducing the need for constant optimization.)
Collect basic information on your search landing pages and CPL ads: Email addresses, Name, Twitter Usernames, Zip code - information that you can use to engage them.
2. Engage, Engage, Engage
Timeframe: September, October
Now that you have the names, emails, and Twitter usernames of people that have opted in to hear from you, engage them through different channels.
Send them weekly emails with links to Youtube videos, your advertising assets, widgets they can add to their profile and relevant promotions. Get them talking about your brand in Twitter. Respond to their questions, comments and suggestions.
Use this period to build a relationship with your consumers.
3. Sell
Timeframe: November, December.
Now that you have established trust with the consumer, you are in a better position to sell to them as opposed to your competition. Send consumers links to holiday related promotions. Empower your brand advocates with referral offers to create demand.
All you have to do then is monitor results and fine-tune your campaigns, as your forward thinking approach that you began implementing five months ago pays off, and brings in even more holiday cheer.
