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How are you going to attract your customers when all that is on their minds is fun in the summer sunshine? With the beginning of summer right around the corner, you want to put up your sails and go with the current. 

For your customers, summer is different from other times during the year. When the temperatures rise, your customers do not want to be sitting in the house in front of a computer screen. Instead, they want to be out and enjoying all the season has to offer. In an article published by Internet Retailer, summertime is likely to bring approximately a 30% drop in gross sales from holiday highs.  

So, to keep up with this fast-paced, never-ending quest for fun in the sun and fulfill your desired sale’s goals, you need to go: mobile, social, simple, rewards, and creative – you need to just go for it!

1. Go Mobile

Everyone, from toddlers to seniors, seems to have a tablet or smartphone, so it makes sense to offer your customers an easy way to shop online while they are on the go. Be sure to follow this trend; don’t ignore it – it’s not a fad. Mobile is a smart platform to maximize sales over the summer months. 

Once you have a responsive design on your site, you can start to create landing pages with offers specifically for your mobile customers. Feature deals on your homepage, offer coupons for signing up for a newsletter, or offer a BOGO deal specifically for your mobile customers. Just make sure that whatever you do is easy for your customers to see and use while they’re browsing on the beach.

2. Go Social

With the limited sunshine of winter giving way to longer summer days, your customers are going to be spending their time with friends and family attending parties, barbeques, sporting events, and other outdoor events. You can bet that no matter how busy they are, they all still take a few minutes to document their activities on their preferred social media outlets. If you want your customers in the summertime to shop, you need to be where they are and, since stalking is illegal, you need to go social.

Creating accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter is easy and worth the few minutes it will take to bring you “face-to-face” with your customers. Constant contact and outreach on social media allows you to be with your customers when they are enjoying the summer months. It offers you the opportunity to grab their attention while they’re having fun and remind them that you are there when they need you.

Use social media to promote summer sales or to offer relevant tips and advice. Staying connected will almost certainly lead to increases in sales.

3. Go Simple

The key to any marketing plan is to attract new customers while maintaining a base of loyal customers. The plan is simple and the best way to approach and tackle it successfully is to keep everything simple.

• Know your customers & provide them with what they want and need
• Make the shopping experience quick, easy, and secure
• Be honest & upfront
• Be innovative, but do not make it complicated
• Be consistent & reliable.

4. Go Rewards

Face it, no one is going to say no to free stuff, so use the summertime to give your customers a reason to shop. Just about every retail, grocery, and convenience store out there has an incentive for loyal customers, usually offered via a rewards card. Rewards-based incentives have the potential to increase sales and promote repeat business. Doing so will not only increase your summertime sales, it will also promote customer interaction and encourage loyalty. According to Vangie Bea, a rewards program not only helps with sales, it also provides data to “help you identify, profile, and segment your customers.”

5. Go Creative

Don’t just run specials on Memorial Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day because that it what your competitors are doing. Step outside the box and try running specials for some of the lesser known and celebrated holidays too:

June:

• National Candy Month
• National Trails Day – June 1
• National Chocolate Ice Cream Day – June 7 
• Flag Day – June 14

July:

• Hot Dog Month
• Vehicle Theft Prevention Month
• National Ice Cream Month
• Family Reunion Month
• Geek Day – July 13
• Ice Cream Day – July 15
• Get out of the Doghouse Day – 3rd Monday

August:

• National Smile Month
• Simplify Your Life Week – 2nd week
• Watermelon Day – August 3
• Fresh Breath Day – August 6
• Happiness Happens Day – August 8
• International Day of the World’s Indigenous People – August 9
• International Youth Day – August 12
• International Left Handers Day – August 13
• Kiss and Make up Day – August 25

With these tips, there is nothing stopping you from turning this summer into your hottest one ever. All you have to do is go for it!