Summer is here, believe it or not! The sun is shining (in most places anyway) and the iced tea and lemonade are flowing. While it can be a very busy time if you’re selling ice cream or pool cleaning services, it can be a slow season for many businesses. During the summer months, a lot of people go away on vacation or simply take time off to relax.

Just because it’s summer, doesn’t mean your business has to suffer. Get creative and try at least one new thing this summer, if not more. Below are some ideas for summer marketing you can use to heat up your business this season!

Fun Summer Marketing Ideas for Your Business:

• Promote summer offers such as 4th of July, School’s Out Special, Summer Sale, Back to School Sale or Labor Day specials.
• Develop summer discount campaigns. Consider reducing prices or offering package/bundle deals to generate a higher volume of sales activity.
• Launch a December holiday program in July and encourage customers to start their holiday shopping.
• Get the word out on your summer specials through Social Media. Post hosted versions of your summer email campaigns on Twitter or your Facebook business page.
• Break through to more people with direct mail postcards. There are a lot of sun and fun distractions this time of year that may keep people from reading all their email. Get the attention of the 70-80% of people who may not open your email by sending a postcard with your summer specials.
• Start a loyalty program. Reward your customers for repeat business and encourage them to come back.

What summer ideas have worked for your business? We want to hear them so share your ideas below!

Sarah Benner, Senior Marketing Manager, VerticalResponse

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A simple example of a way to add personalization into your email would be using your recipient’s name in your content.

“Hi Jill,

Welcome to this months edition of our newsletter.”

A more advanced option could be adding in company name or a product your customer has purchased.

“Hi Jill,

Thanks for visiting our site and purchasing the XXX Software. We hope that your company, Smith’s Lumbar Yard, enjoys the added administrative capabilities it offers. We also thought you might be interested in XXXV2 Software, to help you with accounting. We are offering a 10% discount if you purchase before June 30th.”

This is a great way to encourage your customers to buy additional products and to make them feel appreciated. Now don’t think about typing each of these emails out one by one, especially if you have hundreds of people on your list. Most Email Service Providers have the ability to add customization as long as you can identify the correct fields.

Anyone have a great example of how they are using personalization? How is it working for you?

Jenna Jantsch, Marketing Specialist, VerticalResponse

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Newsletters are the reason why people keep coming back from more. I know exactly where I am going the next time I need a chiropractor.  This is your chance to engage your audience, think about connecting with each person.

Fun Newsletter Topic Ideas:

A Message from the Expert: Pick a topic you know a lot about. This is a great way to insert some of your own personality in your newsletter while also providing a benefit to your readers as funny or practical as it maybe.

Customer Testimonials: Try a simple quote from a happy customer about how you helped them or a link to a video testimonial that you host on YouTube. Switch it up in each newsletter so your customers know they weren’t staged.

Event Schedule: Link to the event page on your website or directly to an industry event you plan to attend. What about carrying a bag of prizes with you and making it a Where’s Waldo game for people to come find you.

Quick Fact: What’s the most popular selling product last month? What do your customers view as the greatest challenge for them next year?  Who was the employee of the month?

Newsletters are a great way to get in front of your customers on a regular basis. Make sure to keep the information fresh and relevant to keep them coming back for more.

Jenna Jantsch, Marketing Specialist, VerticalResponse

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One of the most important parts of an email campaign is the subject line because it is the reason someone opens your email and continues to do so with your future emails.

I think it is very easy to do a simple search online to find inspiration for great subject lines. So I wanted to share a few examples of subject lines that you should never use in your campaigns, because I find it helpful to learn from the good and the bad.

Not only do these subject lines break best practices, but in some cases they break the law. The CAN SPAM ruling states that for any commercial email, you must have your subject line relate to the content of the email.

Subject Line #1 - Hi, My name is Paul
This is a game to trick the recipient into opening an email. It may raise curiosity, however, when the recipient opens the email they’re going to feel tricked and unsubscribe.

Subject Line #2 - I need your help, please?
There’s something about wanting to help another human being, however there is also something about lying to your recipient to get your email opened. Don’t do it.

Subject Line #3 - Bob, I haven’t received your shipping address yet.
This particular subject line is really scary because it seems like the sender is trying to get more information from the recipient. Also, it’s scary because it’s personalized to the recipient so they may actually give it.

Subject Line #4 - Bob, Please accept my sincerest apology.
Unless you’re actually apologizing for something sincere, don’t use this subject line.

All of these examples of subject lines are unscrupulous especially because they don’t relate at all to the copy. Not only will you be breaking the law and lying to your recipients, but you can pretty much guarantee they wont stick around to fall for another trick.

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1) Keep Your List Healthy

Be sure everyone on your list has specifically requested info from or about your company. If they opted in, just make sure you’re not mailing previously unsubscribed or bounced addresses.

And remember that permission is not forever.  If someone gave you their business card at a tradeshow two years ago, it’s not a good idea to send them their first email today.  Don’t wait more than a 2 weeks to mail a new contact, otherwise large segments of your list will begin to forget their interaction with your company.  This will lead to a lower open rate and cause some people to unwittingly report your email as spam.

2) Design With Delivery in Mind

Don’t just put a big image together in Illustrator and think you’re good to go. Make sure the email is easy to read (consider paragraph length and fonts), that images are being used only to enhance the HTML / text content (not as the sole content), and that the email is something that the subscriber would expect to receive based upon their sign-up.

If you use a template from an email marketing service provider like VerticalResponse - then you’re probably just fine here.  However, if you write your own HTML you’ll need to make sure it’s validated and that you’re using code that is supported by all the various email clients out there (email clients are not as capable as web browsers when it comes to rendering HTML). Need more tips on design, check out VerticalResponse’s tutorials and webinars.

3) Treat Subscribers with Respect

Don’t mail subscribers too often and clutter their inbox with mail they don’t want. Set expectations at the time of sign-up: “This is what we’re going to send you. And we’re going to send it to you this often.” Also try to maintain a relationship with the subscriber. Don’t mail them sporadically once or twice a year and expect them to take action with your emails. How often is too often? How sporadic is too sporadic? I would say once a week to once a months is a good range to keep in mind, depending on the type of messages you’re sending out.

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There is another option to challenge those big brands and the answer lies in the question – COMPETE! Find out if local media, analysts, industry magazines or bloggers have any scheduled product shoot-outs or competitions in the coming months. If not, maybe someone will consider doing a review of your product against a competitor and featuring the review on their site, show, or in editorial.

How do you make that happen? Make a few calls or send a few emails to the experts and ask what they have planned for competitions, reviews, etc that you can submit your solutions or products to compete head to head with the big guys and win. Hint: the summer months are a great time to submit any consumer products for features on holiday gift ideas, favorite things, and what-to-buy lists.

If you don’t come across any formal challenge or award in the short-term that will provide a stage, then try submitting your products to people that may be willing to feature a head to head comparison or editorial highlighting their findings. Recommend the two to three competitors you would like them to consider for a review and provide them with basic information on what you believe the differences to be. Now, you’ve created a story idea that can help them make a name for themselves and for you to shine.

Remember, you must surrender yourself to their final opinion, but even if you don’t get the top nod in the final edit you’ve earned the position of being mentioned in the same article and you’ve proven to be a real contender.

Follow VerticalResponse on twitter @VR4SmallBiz

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Here’s how you do it:

1. Identify prospects and clients on your list whose records do not include an email addresses. And/ or grab a purchased or rented postal list. It might be a good idea to segment these by industry, business size or location.
2. Create an offer in exchange for the person’s email address. Examples of a compelling offers include a free financial check up for a CPA or financial consultant, a discounted service for a service company, or maybe a free appetizer for a new restaurant announcing a grand opening or change in menu.
3. Design a postcard with your offer and direct the recipient to sign-up for your email communications. Landing pages are great for this or you can ask them to call and give you their email.
4. If you use a landing page, make it simple. State the offer and collect only Full Name and Email Address in exchange for what was offered. Use a free opt-in form with your email marketing service provider to do this!
5. Then add these email addresses to your email marketing list and expand your email campaigns and client lists in a big way!

Be smart, make the right offer, keep it simple and you’ll continue to build your marketing lists over time!  You can easily create and send postcards from your browser with companies like VerticalResponse.

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1)    Ask yourself, do your customers and the influencers in your industry (analysts, reporters, experts) generally have access to the Internet?  Are they between the ages of 24-65?  Then they’re probably talking about your business or industry online in various blogs, sites, and social applications.

2)    Before jumping into any activity of your own, launch an online listening campaign. This will allow you to see what people are saying about your company online and build an appropriate strategy to increase awareness and support your goals.  You can begin a listening campaign by:

• Setting Google Alerts, to see news and blog posts where you are mentioned.
• Creating a Twitter account and use programs like TweetDeck to find out what the micro-bloggers are saying. Hint: TweetDeck makes it easy to view different topics in search windows like your company name, industry terms, or competitor mentions.
• Watching what comes in for a few days or weeks. If the traffic and the content seem valuable, then marketing through social networking tools makes sense for your business.

3)    After you have a sense for the environment, start to reply to people and engage a bit by creating some of your own tweets/posts and sharing current company information and updates. For example, tell your followers you just launched your email newsletter and a link to the hosted version, or post offers that drive online traffic back to your company website, facebook page, or email marketing sign up form.

Still feeling overwhelmed? Consider hiring a college student as a summer intern now. Many of these tools were invented by college students for college students– before businesses began to take notice of the value for themselves. Students can teach you the ropes of the various social networking sites, start the listening campaign for your business and report back daily any reputation challenges that you need to start addressing. When you are ready to commit have the intern begin posting some approved messages from you or your company that you’d like to begin circulating.

Social media marketing is about marketing from within a community, not at a community. You need to belong, add value, and participate in order for it to pay off.

Follow me on Twitter @reillyjacobs Follow VerticalResponse on Twitter @VR4SmallBiz Follow StartupNation @startupnation

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Here are 3 easy, do-it-yourself marketing tools to help you put your toes in the water of entrepreneurship and brand you–the hottest new thing.

1) Start a Blog- Create an account on WordPress or TypePad and make yourself an expert in your field. You know all of those common questions new clients ask that you repeat over and over, start writing about them now. Offer the inside list of tips to evaluating services or guides on how to get started.  In my friend’s case, I suggested she write tips on when to buy life insurance and how much is enough coverage? Then, to make the most of this blog page, add an opt-in form on this page that integrates with an email marketing list. Ask friends and family to check out your blog, post a link on their Facebook page and help you spread the word about your new inside tips. All of this new traffic to your blog page will help you build a list of potential clients for the future.  A great opt-in email marketing list that includes social influencers will help you find your own clients when you are ready to quit that full-time job.

2) Start an Email Newsletter- create an email marketing account with a company like VerticalResponse (disclosure- I happen to work there). They offer tons of templates to help you create a professional look and feel, tons of online tutorials and demos to teach you how to create great looking email. Then use your new email tools to reach your list of subscribers and send them a weekly or monthly communication that drives return traffic back to your blog page. For example, after you’ve added a new post on 5 Common Mistakes People Make when Buying Insurance, send an email newsletter out and include the first 2 mistakes in your email and provide a link to view the complete list on your blog. But also include a few other helpful links, articles you like, or more information about how to get in touch with you about their insurance needs. Don’t forget to ask subscribers to leave comments on the blog post, it will give you more ideas for future topics, a sense of how your tips are being received, and future email campaign ideas.

3) Leverage your Social Networking sites- From LinkedIn, to Facebook, and don’t forget Twitter. Reconnect with old classmates, neighbors, and colleagues. Let them know when you complete a new blog post, ask for feedback and keep them in the loop when you decide to make the switch to full time start up. Again, you are warming up some relationships and when you are ready to go out on your own they will be right there to support your new business venture and consider you for their own needs!

The best thing about all of these options are they are low cost, trackable, and require minimal web skills to get started. They may take a little practice in the beginning, but with all of the tips here on StartupNation, you’ll be a pro in no time.

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So here’s the idea…
Wouldn’t it be great (that’s how most of my ideas start) if during game breaks fans could tweet and link twitpics from around the stadium to the team and then the show manager could choose which tweets to retweet and stream on the big screen?You get the idea. So could a product company leverage this idea?
Imagine for example for Snuggie blanket people, they could send out an email marketing campaign to ask their customers, twitter followers, and facebook fans to tweet pics of themselves, or their family and friends, wearing the Snuggie– say at a sporting event, at home, or maybe camping. Then Snuggie could retweet the appropriate messages and demonstrate the acceptance and fun of Snuggie ownership! It’s a great way to engage your influencers, build an online following, and have fun with your loyal customers!

Here are a few short steps to trying this out for your business:
1)    Ask customers to tweet a success or a pic using your product to a special twitter account.
2)    Have a social media or marketing manager review the tweets and choose to retweet the appropriate messages and pics
3)    Project on a monitor in your front lobby, at a tradeshow, or stream right onto your website!
4)    Track whether or not your site traffic increases, your email list grows or your twitter following becomes famous!

What do you think? How can you make this idea work for your business?

follow Erin on twitter: @reillyjacobs

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