Ep 56. Your Summer marketing plan (without the guilt)

The summer months are here, and the sun has definitely been shining here in the UK, so let’s talk about summer marketing today because I want you to enjoy it without feeling like you need to be working all the time.

Even if you’re not taking proper time off, I’m guessing you’ll still be working a bit more differently, i.e. less, because you want to enjoy the sunshine.

If you’re listening live, I’m recording this on the second week of July. The summer holidays have just started here in the UK. I’m not a mum, but to all the mums who are listening -you’ve got this.

Things are already starting to feel a bit quieter online because people are on holiday, taking time off work around the kids and all that stuff. So it might make you feel like, “Oh, it’s quiet online. What’s the point in posting no one’s watching anyway.” 

But don’t forget people are still scrolling. They’re just going to be doing it from a sun lounger or in between meeting friends instead of during a lunch break.

Your content’s going to be seen by someone with a slightly different head space, which means the worst thing you can do is disappear without thinking what you’re going to do, or go to the other extreme, which is keep pushing yourself at exactly the same pace that you have been all year because you feel like you should.

[00:01:03] Let’s make a summer plan of action together, so you can go into this period feeling calm and happy with the decision that you’ve made, and don’t have the, “Oh, I need to create a post,” or, “I need to do my marketing,” in the back of your head while you’re supposed to be chilling.

Obviously, first you need to decide how much time you’re taking off, or if you’re working through summer (like I will be) how many hours do you want to work?

Even if you’re not going on holiday or having a full break, I’m guessing you still want to be able to say yes to spontaneous trips to the beach without thinking, “Oh my God, I haven’t done my marketing this week.”

So decide how many hours a week you’ll spend working.

Once you know that, what you put in place will look different depending on what you’ve decided.

[00:01:35] If you’re properly switching off, the most low-lift thing you can do is to make sure your profiles are up to date on Instagram and LinkedIn and make sure that every single link actually works.

You’ll be surprised how many people have a dead link sitting in their bio for months and don’t even realise.

So go through your bio. Make sure it’s relevant and check all your links are still working.

Even better, if you’ve got something passive to sell over summer or a waitlist people can join, point your links there instead of anything that needs you to be present or responding in real time.

I also set up an auto reply the same way that you’d set up an out of office on email. You can set this up in Facebook Messenger for Instagram and Facebook. So if someone DMs you while you’re away, you can set a message to say, “Hey, I’m on holiday at the moment, but you can check this out.”

If you’ve got a freebie or you want them to join a waitlist, you can pop links to them in there so that way you’re still growing your list and you’re still serving them even though you’re not physically replying to them.

Honestly, it doesn’t really take that long to set up, maybe 10 minutes if that. It just means that the weeks that you’re away, someone can still find you, get value from you, and end up in your list without you having to do anything.

[00:02:37] If you want to stay visible and schedule content, then the main thing you need to know is how many posts you want to get out during the time that you’re away, and then take yourself out on a content day and then batch them all out, so you’re not thinking about content for the rest of the summer.

If batching really isn’t your thing, then maybe every time you create a post for the next few weeks, write another one with it, so that you’re building up a content bank for when you are off.

I talk about creating in your high energy moments all the time, so this is exactly where it pays off. Pick a day when you’re feeling really good, the ideas are flowing, and just get it all out. Get it all out of your head and schedule it.

Because this is what will help you relax instead of trying to stay on when you’re supposed to be off, and then you’re scrambling for a caption, and then the content doesn’t really land, and then it makes you feel like, what was the point?

So we don’t wanna be in that spiral. Create in your high energy moment. Make sure your content is actually good, high value. We’re not just creating for the sake of it. It actually makes you feel good, so it’s gonna make your audience feel good and schedule it out.

[00:03:29] And then there’s a third option too, which is to do absolutely nothing at all.

Yeah, you’re allowed to stop and just trust that your business will still be there when you get back.

I know that can feel scary for some people, especially if you’ve built things up over the last year, and then you’re worried about losing momentum.

But the truth is a few weeks won’t undo months of consistent work. Your past content is still going to be out there working for you, and people who are going to get in touch will probably still get in touch, maybe just a bit later than they would have.

If anything, a proper break might be exactly what you need right now, So any of these work.

Some of you will choose to have a detox and do nothing at all. Some of you might want to do the batching. Some of you might wanna post in the morning and then take the day off. There’s no right answer.

The main thing is that you made an actual decision from what you want to do in the summer season, not from what you think you’re supposed to do.

So you’re not thinking about it every day for the next few weeks. And this decision is gonna help you switch off, even if it’s a little bit.

If part of the reason summer feels hard to plan is because you’re not quite sure what to post or who you’re speaking to in the first place, then that’s exactly the kind of groundwork we do inside Silent Storm.

If I’m being honest, I spend a lot of my summer months helping people get these foundations in place so that when September comes and everyone’s back, you’re crystal clear on your messaging, who you’re talking to and what content you need to create so that you can make sales within the golden quarter, as it’s called, when people get back.

So I will be working over the summer, even though it’s shorter hours. If you will be too, and you think you’ll have some headspace to work on your marketing foundations, then I would love to invite you to join Silent Storm. Have a read and apply here.

Until then, enjoy your summer, whatever you’re doing, come and find me on Instagram and let me know what you’ve planned to do. I would love to know.

As always, keep showing up with quiet confidence so you can make that loud impact, and I shall speak to you soon.