A quick look at upcoming opportunities to reach all or portions of our audience with a targeted local publication (dates subject to change. Contact your Account Executive for further details):

Healthy Lifestyle Magazine:
Publishes: Week of July 16
Space Reservation Deadline: June 22

Official Woodbury Days Preview Section:
Publishes: Week of August 22
Space Reservation Deadline: August 10

Official St. Croix County Fair Section:
Publishes: Week of July 9
Space Reservation Deadline: June 29

Official Pierce County Fair Section:
Publishes: Week of July 16
Space Reservation Deadline: July 6

Official Dakota County Fair Section:
Publishes: Week of July 30
Space Reservation Deadline: July 20

Autumn Home & Garden tabloid:
Publishes: Week of September 10
Space Reservation Deadline: August 24

Senior Lifestyle Magazine:
Publishes: Week of September 17
Space Reservation Deadline: August 17

It’s warm and sunny, the beach calls. You ask yourself “Why shouldn’t I just give in and go? Marketing is a waste of time at this time of year.”

1. Summer with its delicious distractions tempts you to decide that nothing is going to happen in your business so why not just enjoy the season.
2. If you decide to make that choice you will be joining much of your competition in thinking summer time is play time.
3. With the competition out of the game, now is the time to get out and get serious about your business as they lie on the beach.
4. Give yourself a break from the everyday pressure of marketing and sales by working on future business NOW!
5. Going into the fall with business on the books before you start the season is not only a great feeling; it changes your perspective when a prospect that may not be a good fit comes along.
6. Having core business gives you time to explore and investigate other opportunities that come along. Those other opportunities sometimes form the basis for innovation in how you do business, the way you market and what the primary focus of your business is.Put the power and control of your future back in your own hands.

>> Implement these summer marketing tips starting today:

• Summer is a slower time of year for some media which means you can negotiate a better deal and extend the buy into the higher priced fall by planning and booking now.

• Send a Press Release while media staff is reduced by the holiday season and pressure to produce is on fewer numbers of media writers with less time to look for stories.

• Do take some additional time to read some new marketing books, write some new articles and learn a new marketing skill i.e. blogging or social marketing

• Hold an annual or semi-annual sale with clear parameters of what, when, and how to ensure it doesn’t creep into the busy fall.

• Offer a free seminar, put on a picnic, sponsor a high profile summer time event, and/or hire a student to distribute a coupon. Do something different to capitalize on the opportunity created by large gatherings at special events and more people out on the street in the summer.

• Make a special offer to your current customers to introduce them to another product or service they haven’t yet bought.

If you need to see the possibilities before you put an effort into summer marketing try the following exercise:

• Draw a circle on a piece of paper representing the market size of your industry. Mark your pie shaped share of the market, no matter how small.

• Draw a larger circle around the same central point and extend the sides of your piece of the pie to the new perimeter.

• See what happens to your piece of the pie when people return to their fall routines and the prospects you spoke to and those who decided to do business with you told their friends?

That increase is your customer base growing exponentially from the marketing work you did while others were relaxing in the sun.

“Some people forget to plant in the spring, idle away the summer hours and then expect to reap in the fall.”
-Grant M. Bright

There is still time to give attention to your summer marketing and reap the benefits this fall and into 2013.

Source:  www.notabenemarketing.com

PERCENTAGE OF READERS WHO:

• Intend on using a Car Wash   75.5%
• Plan of shopping for Women’s Clothing  67%
• Intend on an Oil Change  66.9%
• Plan on shopping at a Liquor Store  49.9%
• Exercised 12+ times at a Health Club last year 40.4%
• Ate at a restaurant 4+ times in the past 2 weeks  65%
• Plan on buying a vehicle in the next year  12.1%
• Intend on Buying or Renting a New Home  5.8%
• Plan on visiting a Butcher Shop  34%
• Plan on travelling to a lake in the region  46.8%
• Will shop at a Hardware Store  36.2%

Source:  Q2 Pulse of America regional survey of consumer shopping habits