It’s summertime – What’s a B2B marketer to do?

Summer can be a difficult season for B2B marketers.  For start, everyone seems to be on holiday and even if they aren’t yet they are thinking about it.  Businesses usually delay making major purchasing or partnership decisions, waiting for the fall when their staff is back and functioning at full capacity.

So, what’s a B2B marketer, sadly not on holiday, to do? Well, there are more than  a few things: :)

• Firstly, concentrate on content. Remember, people are either already away on holiday or don’t have much time, as they are thinking about their holidays, so the content is really important.  One option is to write your content as entertaining as possible, to make it a leisurely read.  The other is to get straight to the point and keep it short.
• Another thing to keep in mind is that while people may be taking a break from their email accounts they are still probably keeping up with Facebook, Twitter and read blogs.  So keep active, be social and get your message out.  Be interesting enough and they will remember you once back in their offices.
• However, summer is not a reason enough to stop messaging people, but improvise.  Be more creative and relaxed with your message. Maybe even send some holiday best wishes.  Also, experiment with sending messages at different times, as a prospect waiting to go home in a summer afternoon may be more receptive to read a relaxed and interesting message.  And don’t forget to follow up once the summer is over.
• The most important thing is to be relaxed and patient.   It usually takes two weeks for a contact to respond, more so in the summer, but keep promoting your message.  And remember, summer won’t last forever, so if nothing else the smart B2B marketer can start preparing for the fall and stock up on blog posts, white papers, think of new products, or create new plans.

In short, the B2B marketer must persevere during the summer months, be interesting and keep raising brand awareness especially using Social Media. Prepare for the fall as it will come soon enough and it will bring business as usual.