Memorial Day is almost here. The unofficial kickoff to summer, it’s a time when many B2B marketers pull back on directly promoting their businesses, especially email campaigns. After all, many of your best prospects and customers are out of the office and email inboxes are crammed with consumer deals.
That’s why this time of year is often considered a blackout period for marketing calendars. But “blackout”doesn’t have to mean radio silence. In fact, some of the smartest small businesses and startups use this time as an opportunity to build their brand presence, strengthen relationships, build momentum for Q3 and Q4, and position themselves as thoughtful industry voices.
So, how about it?Why not consider some of these ideas when making your Memorial Day plans?
1. Start planning for the second half of the year. Instead of drafting Memorial Day discount email promotions, use this time to audit your year-to-date content marketing performance and refresh your content calendar with fresh and timely new blog topics. Or maybe draft some case studies that showcase some of your best customer success stories. And brainstorm and plan webinars on topics that will be important later in the year and invite good customers or influencers to help you present.
2. Brainstorm ideas for integrating direct mail into your marketing mix. If you’re relying on email and other digital marketing channels for getting the word out about your business, think about how direct mail could expand your coverage. (HINT: We have a playbook that can help. More on that later.)
3. Plan a company retreat. Whether you get together in person or on video, it’s a great time to bring your team together for a “think tank” session, where you can encourage everyone to share their experiences, talk about what’s working and what’s not, brainstorm ideas about new messaging and channels to get your message out.
4. Review your marketing budget. Midyear is a good time to take a fresh look at how you’re spending your marketing dollars. Any unspent funds? Maybe consider reallocating them to the best and most high-impact ideas that came out of your retreat.
5. Shift to value-driven content. With promotional pitches on pause, this is a good time to offer evergreen content like “how to” guides and checklists that you can offer as free downloads (a “Summer Audit” checklist for supply chain readiness, for example).Or an industry insights roundup—a list of recent articles, podcasts, or datapoints that are relevant to your niche and offer it as a resource.
6. Engage on social media. Join or trigger conversations with thought leaders in your space. Comment on their latest posts, ask follow-up questions, share your perspective. And tag them when you repurpose that insight.
7. Showcase your team. Encourage them to post about their favorite industry books or podcasts and ask followers for their recommendations.
8. Build excitement about your upcoming plans. Tease any events you’re planning for late summer or early fall. Send early “save the dates” to help you get on your prospects’ calendars.
9. And be sure to honor the holiday. Reflect the importance of what Memorial Day is all about, service and remembrance, in all your communications. Spread the word about any company volunteer plans or give-back programs your business will be running over the summer and beyond.
This isn’t the time to take a vacation from building your business. Instead of pausing all activity, use Memorial Day to recalibrate, educate, and engage.
And, if your business, like many, is challenged with shrinking budgets, we have a Playbook that can give you some great ideas to get the most for your marketing dollar. It’s free and it’s available here.
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