Summertime, and the Marketing’s Easy
[by Barry Schwartz]
Summertime. Lounging my days away with friends, talking about nothing, waiting for the barbecue to get hot, feeling the warmth of the sun as it sets…
Wait a minute.
O man, there’s my fantasy life kicking in. Self-employed people don’t take off day after day. That’s for our clients. The ones with regular paychecks.
The common wisdom is that marketing in the summer — why bother? Particularly July and August – when those regular paycheck-type-clients are away from the office. Really? For two months? I don’t think so.
And even if that were true, it’s a great time to do research; for instance checking up on what existing clients have been up to. What’s on their websites? What’s been announced in their press releases? Are they changing the design or photography or multimedia? Is your work still on there?
It’s a good moment to do the kind of research you’ve been promising yourself you’d do (well, that I’ve been promising myself I’d do): magazines, websites, the news, blogs – all good places to research potential clients, and to research what potential clients are thinking about.
Contrary to popular belief, not all clients take off weeks at a time, studying their barbecues and tan lines. Some people are in the office working. Summertime is like any other holiday period for them, too, maybe a little slow, so they might even be doing their own marketing research (which might include researching you).
They might even answer their own phone and have time for a chat.
Chatting. It will be good practice for those rare moments with friends waiting for the barbecue to warm up.
Barry Schwartz is a photographer, writer, and designer in Los Angeles who tries to remember to always place his barbecue downwind from his guests when overcooking steaks.
