Lead Generation on a Summer Budget: 5 Creative Tactics

 

As a business owner, you experience a lot of highs and lows. When things are going well, it’s something to shout about. But, when things slow down, doubts and stress creep in. For many business owners, that’s exactly what summer brings. Summer can be a difficult season, with people going on holiday, decision-makers being harder to reach and customers focusing their spending elsewhere, it’s not uncommon for businesses to find themselves with a smaller budget than usual.

But, your budget being smaller in summer doesn’t mean your lead generation efforts have to come to a complete stop. Summer presents a unique opportunity to get creative, experiment with affordable marketing tactics and reach your audience in new ways.

The 3 Reasons Behind Lower Summer Marketing Budgets

1. Mid-Year Budget Reallocation – By the time summer rolls around, businesses are halfway through the financial year. Leadership teams are often looking at budgets and how money is being spent, and reallocating funds to more immediate priorities if Q1 or Q2 didn’t go as planned. Marketing budgets are often among the first to be cut.
2. Reduced Customer Activity – Whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, your customers probably take time off in the summer. WIth people jetting off on holiday, deals, decisions and engagement tend to take a backseat. For many businesses, this means a dip in revenue, leading to a hesitancy to spend more on marketing.
3. Thinking No One is Paying Attention – Some teams reduce marketing spend simply because they assume customers aren’t paying attention during the summer. While engagement may dip in some industries, thinking people aren’t paying attention can lead to an unnecessary pullback in lead generation efforts. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of reduced leads, simply because the marketing isn’t being done.

5 Lead Generation Tactics That Work Well on a Smaller Summer Budget

You might have a limited marketing budget in the summer, but that doesn’t mean you have to say goodbye to lead generation altogether. As long as you’re smart, creative and organised with your spending, you can keep your brand visible and leads flowing in, even during the summer slowdown.

Here are five lead generation tactics that work especially well in the summer:

1. Host a Virtual Summer Event
   
   It might be summer, but that doesn’t mean your audience isn’t wanting to learn something new. If you have something to teach – and it’s short, easy and seasonal – consider hosting virtual events to showcase what you have to offer. These are affordable to set up, scalable and convenient, as your audience can log in from wherever they are, even if they’re on holiday.
   For example, you could do a quick demonstration of how to use your latest product, give a tutorial of how one of your more complex services works, or share your industry expertise in a ‘TED Talk’ inspired presentation. Virtual events allow you to showcase yourself as an expert, at the same time as giving prospects an idea of what you have to offer.
2. Run a Summer Competition or Giveaway Giveaways are a simple, budget-friendly way to encourage engagement, get people talking about your brand and collect leads. Plus, when they’re themed around the summer season, they can feel fresh, fun and shareable. For example, you could do a giveaway of your summer products, or give customers a free trial of a service that’s ideal for the warmer months. You could even run a competition and have a gift card for your business as the prize.
   People are naturally drawn to free stuff, especially in the summer when leisure activities and holidays are expensive. When you pair that interest with a lead capture tactic – for example, signing up to a newsletter or filling in a form – giveaways become an effective way of generating leads and boosting brand exposure.
3. Publish a Summer-Themed Lead Magnet One of the simplest ways to generate leads is to publish a lead magnet, such as downloadable ‘how to’ guides, templates or tools. These are a way to collect contact information, whilst also showing people what you have to offer and positioning yourself as an industry expert. By tailoring your lead magnet to summer needs, you can make it a lot more relevant, timely, clickable and shareable. For example, if you’re in the personal finance industry, you could publish a guide helping readers to get their budgets in order after a big holiday splurge. If you’re in the animal industry, you could publish a guide on how to keep pets safe during a heatwave.
   Distribute your lead magnet through social media posts and groups, on your website and with affordable ads that target your ideal audience. When your lead magnet addresses a summer pain point, people are more likely to pay attention as the relevance creates a sense of urgency.
4. Encourage User-Generated Content (UGC) Summer is a time when people want to be out and about, experiencing new things, seeing friends and family, and travelling – and they tend to post about it online. This is a fantastic marketing opportunity if you can encourage customers to post about your products and services. UGC is a cost-effective way of marketing, whilst also building trust and creating authentic brand exposure. It also provides social proof that resonates with new leads; if other customers are happy to post about your brand, it’s likely new leads will be happy with what you have to offer too.
   You can encourage UGC by running contests, with winners being chosen based on the most creative photo, or by creating a dedicated summer hashtag. If you have permission, repost UGC on your own social media channels to help it reach an even wider audience.
5. Target Cold Leads with a Summer Email Campaign Before spending all of your limited summer budget on generating new leads, revisit the leads you already have. Summer is a great time to revisit relationships with old or cold leads, and it can be as simple as sending a series of emails reminding them of who you are, what you do and what’s new for summer. Re-engagement campaigns don’t cost a lot and they tap into existing leads who simply needed a reminder.

 

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