Summer Marketing Ideas for Hot Sales

Summer is the time when people go on vacations, lay on the beach, hike in the mountains, visit distant relatives, and travel around the world. As a result, most businesses have a lower amount of sales.

It’s not the end of the world, though, as there are ways to boost user engagement and sales, despite the low season. Today, we’re going to review some cool summer marketing ideas that can help you keep your business relevant and interesting.

Benefits of Summer Marketing

First, let’s start with understanding what are the benefits of summer marketing, and why it’s worth investing in it.

In general, there are two big benefits of summer marketing: to compensate for the slow sales during the summer months and to prepare for a successful winter.

Basically, if you don’t have a plan on how to approach the summer, chances are, your business will suffer economically.

This will also leave you in a poor position leading up to the winter season. . It’s also important to plan ahead, instead of waiting for the last moment.

Ideally, the best time to start summer sale ideas brainstorming and preparation is during the first quarter of the year or the spring.

9 Summer Marketing Ideas For Hot Sales

1. Host summer competitions.
2. Create product bundles.
3. Launch limited-time summer sales.
4. Refresh your design.
5. Offer summer giveaways.
6. Use summer emojis.
7. Position yourself outside.
8. Collaborate with another business.
9. Start your own summer event.

1. Host Summer Competitions

A good way to engage with existing and new customers is to host a summer competition on social media. Who doesn’t love winning something?

If you’re a retailer, for example, you can easily start a contest about the best swimsuit or any other seasonal products that you offer.

The goal is to both encourage people to share user-generated content, and increase brand awareness, regarding specific products. UGC is proven to affect buying behavior among an impressive 93% of customers.

It’s an awesome way to earn “free” content and gamify your audience.

2. Create Product Bundles

Offering product bundles is a smart strategy to increase your sales, and leverage products that, perhaps, aren’t too popular on their own, and are just taking up space on your shelves.

Of course, in order for this strategy to work, you need to combine related products. A bundle that includes a beach umbrella with a winter scarf doesn’t make too much sense.

However, offering a product bundle of beach accessories like sand toys, an inflatable lounger, and two beach chairs, could allow you to sell more products simultaneously and earn more cash.

Throw in a free beach mat to seal the deal, then sit back and enjoy, as customers start ordering your product bundle.

3. Launch Limited Time Summer Sales

Launching summer sales is a summer marketing tactic used all around the world. It can be from the start of June to the end of August, or within a specified 4-week period.

Whenever you decide which period will work best for you, according to the preferences of your customers, don’t forget to create scarcity by putting emphasis on the timeframe of the sale, or alternatively, let customers know that products are limited.

What’s more, if you have missed all other opportunities during the hot season, you can use this as one of the good end-of-summer marketing ideas that can boost your sales, and clean up some in-store space.

Also, think about how you’re going to promote your summer sale. The channels that are proven to work are email marketing and social media.

4. Refresh Your Design

A lot of brands like to update their social media, website homepage, or landing page to reflect the season. There’s nothing wrong with that, on the contrary, as users are in a different buying mood during the summer, and refreshing your design to have a cool, summery look, stimulates your potential customers by resonating with how they’re feeling.

5. Offer Summer Giveaways

Who doesn’t want to win free things? Giveaways, while not a revolutionary concept, are still proven to be effective. In fact, giveaways have the highest conversion rate of all types of content – almost 34%.

Giveaways are a tactic a lot of major brands do, including Starbucks, Lego, and Lay’s. Just remember that the prize does matter, so don’t just offer anything. Instead, here are a few tips on how to choose the right giveaway prize:

• Stands out and makes people ask about it.
• Could be used a lot, and remind about your brand.
• Has a personal connection with users.

6. Use Summer Emojis

In our day and age, it’s completely normal to use emojis in marketing. And why not? They can increase user engagement by up to 25%, compared to a post without an emoji.

Which are the most appropriate emojis to use for the summer, though? It’s usually the sun, beach, sunflower, beach umbrella, waves, and so on. Adding an emoji can be particularly useful for the subject line of your emails.

Here are some examples:

• What’s hot this summer 🔥☀️🔥
• Oh, hey summer 😎
• Escape to Summer ☀️🌊
• This summer’s color: lilac! 🍦
• Summer’s in the Bag ☀️
• Say hello to the summer sale ⛱️

7. Position Yourself Outside

For a lot of people, summer is all about fun outdoor activities. Therefore, it makes sense to go outside and meet any existing and potential customers. However, don’t be too pushy or desperate trying to get their attention.

Think of small incentives that can bring people to your physical or online store. For example, you could hand out 10% or 20% discount coupons, or if your store is brand new, you could promote yourself by handing out free flyers with your name and products/services.

8. Collaborate With Another Business

Partnering with another business might sound counterintuitive, e.g., you might think it will hurt your own business. It’s quite the opposite, actually, and even the biggest companies in the world collaborate with other businesses. It’s one of the great summer marketing campaign ideas.

You see, it’s important to not just partner with any business that agrees, but to rather research and collaborate with a company that has a similar customer base. Basically, this is a way to ensure that both businesses generate more sales and increase brand awareness.

For example, if you’re a shoe retailer, you can combine efforts with a cosmetics company, and offer a bundle of summer shoes with matching nail polish so that you can target your female customers.

It’s a win-win if executed properly. Furthermore, if the collaboration is successful, it will open the door to future collaborations.

9. Start Your Own Summer Event

You needn’t imagine an event that will cost you tons of time and money. You can easily host your own summertime happening, using your creativity to make a fun and engaging event.

For example, during the hottest days, you could organize a free drink giveaway, or why not partner with an ice cream vendor, and offer free ice cream to your visitors?

Of course, these are great ideas, if you have a physical store. If you’re an online business, you could host a virtual event instead. It could be, for instance, an unboxing of the newest line of summer shoes, if you’re a shoe retailer, or you might demonstrate how to use a certain product.

You could even connect with an influencer and ask them to showcase your product, for instance.

Conclusion

Summer marketing ideas should be carefully thought out and planned. They can bring great benefits to your business, helping you to increase sales during the low season, and prepare for the winter season.

Research your audience, be creative, and be ready to execute your marketing plans once the summer comes.