As the days get longer and the weather grows warmer, it can get harder and harder to stay focused on growing your business. It’s especially tough for small business owners who have flexibility in their schedules. It is so easy to let tasks like marketing your business slip away in the summer months. After all, who wouldn’t rather be outside enjoying the sun instead of creating a social media calendar or measuring website metrics?
It’s easy to lose momentum in the summertime, even for the most devoted among us. So what can you do to keep yourself motivated when the temperatures start rising? Here are five simple ways to stay focused on your business in the summer.
1. Remind Yourself that Consistency is Key to a Successful Marketing Plan
If you want your marketing to work for you, it’s important to stay consistent. In fact, one of the most common reasons marketing campaigns in small to medium-sized businesses fail is because of inconsistent effort. Well-planned marketing improves over time. In fact, it could take 6-9 months or more before you begin to realize results. So, stopping or decreasing effort in the summer could mean starting all over again in the fall and prolonging the time it takes to get the return on investment that you seek. Now that’s a reason to not give up in the summer!
2. Reset Your Intention
Remember back in January when you set your goals for the year? You were excited and clear about why you decided to create dedicated time to market your business. Revisit your intention. Review the goals you set for yourself. Chances are you will find they are as important to you in June as they were in January.
Thinking about why you started your marketing efforts in the first place might be all you need to keep motivated in the summer.
3. Measure your success
Seeing how far you’ve come may be just the thing you need. Take a look at your key performance indicators for the past six months. Has your social following grown? Have you increased your email list? Have you attracted new visitors to your website? If you’re unsure which metrics you should be looking at or where to find them, visit our blog on measuring your small business marketing efforts. When you see the results you are getting, chances are you will want to keep up the good work.
4. Review Your Organization Methods and Improve Them
Now is the perfect time to review how you’ve organized yourself. Is it working? Are you struggling with your social media content calendar? Or have you even created one? Does your editorial calendar flow from idea to execution? Sometimes making simple changes in how you manage and organize your marketing workflow can give you a new perspective and newfound energy. When something is difficult to use, it’s harder to keep using it. So, make your personal organization system as easy to use as possible. You might even find that you start to enjoy the tasks you used to find cumbersome – even in the summer.
5. Keep Yourself Accountable
You know how we feel about success partners. If you haven’t already identified a friend or business associate who can keep you accountable for success, now is the time! It’s especially important to have someone to help keep you on track during the summer months when it’s oh so easy to lose your way.
Some business owners find benefit in hiring a long-term professional to help them with their goals. But, sometimes, a short-term solution is all that is needed to energize, motivate and propel your business forward. If this sounds like you, consider a two-hour power session with Owner Amy DeLardi at Infinite Web Designs. You might be surprised at how much can be accomplished in two ultra-focused hours. Read more about a power session here.
Don’t let the temptations of summer fun keep you from working on your business. Try some of these five simple tips to keep yourself energized, encouraged and inspired.
Infinite Web Designs is an innovative CT website design and digital marketing company located in Fairfield, CT. Give us a shout. Let’s talk about how IWD can help your business this summer.
