August changes your neighbourhood: how to plan a summer campaign

There is something almost no marketing handbook accounts for and that anyone running a neighbourhood business knows perfectly well: in summer your area does not have the same people in it.

In some neighbourhoods half the regulars disappear. In others, people arrive who have never heard of you. In some, both happen at once, in different weeks. Planning a July campaign the same way you plan a March one throws away half the effort.

First decide who you are talking to

Wanting your usual regulars not to forget you while they are away is not the same as wanting to be discovered by people who are here for a few weeks. Those are two different campaigns, with different people and different content. Picking one beats a lukewarm blend of both.

If your neighbourhood empties out

It makes sense to turn the volume down and save it for September, or to use the time for content that does not expire: how what you make gets made, who is behind it, why the place is the way it is. Things that still work when everyone comes back.

If people arrive in your neighbourhood

Then summer is your best stretch of the year, and what you need is for people passing through to find you. That is where locals are worth their weight in gold: someone who lives here all year round showing where they actually go is far more credible than any generic recommendation aimed at visitors.

And plan around the pace of summer

Replies take longer, people disappear for a few days, deadlines stretch. If you are putting something together for August, close it before August starts.