1. Write some blogs
Case in point, I found myself with some downtime and decided to write this blog. Keeping your company’s blog page full of fresh content is good for SEO, good for content marketing and helps to keep your social channels active. It’s also a great way to share your experience and knowledge with your peers.
2. Analyse your email activity
Email marketing, newsletters, nurture programmes, onboarding programmes, campaign activity. While you may be collecting results regularly, when was the last time you really reviewed and analysed them more broadly (instead of just campaign to campaign). You might find that certain subject lines, topics, or send times result in better engagement rates, all of which can be applied to improve your future email activity. Winner!
3. Work on your personal development
Many companies talk about how they want you to focus on personal development, but it’s all too easy to focus on the demands of the day-to-day, leaving you with little time to do it. Capitalise on the quiet time, go search for some ‘how to’ videos and tick off those personal development goals.
4. Plan ahead for busy periods
People often complain about having no time for strategic thinking as they are too busy doing the doing. Now’s the time to consider what the rest of the year holds for you and your marketing strategy. Scope out what projects are on the horizon, do any of them clash or have foreseeable blockers that can be addressed now?
5. Offer to help others
Are you twiddling your thumbs while your colleagues are running around like headless chickens? Show you’re a team player by lending a hand. And it doesn’t even have to be helping someone with a similar role. Does the officer manager need help with filing? Testing websites for your development team? Anything you can do which will contribute to the overall productivity of the company can only be a good thing.
6. Freshen up competitor research
When was the last time your company conducted a bit of competitor research? Check with your manager or management team and no doubt they will be grateful for fresh insight. It also gives you an opportunity to better acquaint yourself with the industry, brush up on who the major players are and compare how your company differentiates.
7. Review your website
While there may be other people on your marketing team who look after your website, it may help to have an extra pair of eyes to review it and make recommendations. Are there enough CTAs? Do the CTAs you’ve used work well in the context they’re in? Are they well-placed? Is there old or outdated information lurking? Some things can be easily fixed, other things might require proper development work, but it’s worth flagging those things now, so they can be planned for later in the year.
There’s a whole host of other B2B marketing activity you can dive in to if you are experiencing that ’summer downtime’ but these seven steps will get you off to a good start. Think I missed something crucial? Let me know, you can reach me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
We find that many of our clients like to use the summer time to chat with us about how we can support their marketing plans for the remainder of the year, and looking into the new year.
