Get your marketing ready for fall

Tips for updating your audience lists before the end of summer

August can feel like the slowest time of year (unless it’s your busiest time, that is), and it’s sometimes hard to be productive when it seems like almost everyone is on vacation but you.

But this is actually the absolute best time to focus on your own agency’s marketing and to prepare for the post-Labor Day blast of energy most people and companies have.

So, here’s the marketing project that will prepare you for your own marketing blast. It’s the perfect way to spend the last days of August, while it’s still quiet.

Clean up your lists – all of them. You’ve been meeting people all year – online and off, at networking events, trade shows and online, too – but I’ll bet some of them haven’t made it onto your mailing lists.

Which lists? Indeed, there are so many different types of lists these days that “cleaning up” your list isn’t as straightforward as it used to be. Between the various social media, you’ve probably got contacts scattered everywhere, which is good and bad. Whether they follow you on Twitter or have friended you on Facebook, you still need a reliable and easy way to get your message to everyone in your network. And you need them all in one place so you can reach out to them proactively with your targeted messages.

This week, do any and/or all of the following:

1. Get everyone into Emma. Take all those scattered business cards and miscellaneous email messages piled in your inbox and import those valuable email addresses into your Emma mailing list.
2. Find those same people on LinkedIn and invite them into your network. This way, they’ll see your updates too. Be sure to personalize the invitation message, reminding them where you met, especially if it’s been a few months. Make it short and sweet, but personal.
3. See what LinkedIn groups those people belong to, especially if they’re your prospects. Join those online groups to see what issues are on their minds and in their discussion threads. Could be fodder for content strategy (which I’ll be writing about later this fall right here on the Emma blog).
4. Check out their Twitter feeds. Follow them so you can learn about their needs and be there in their “moment of need.”
5. Update snail mail addresses, especially for your best clients and prospects so that when the holiday season rolls around, your list will be complete, and you’ll be ready to send them something real in the mail.
6. Pick up the phone and call, especially selected prospects and past clients to remind them you’re here to help. Now may be the best time to ask if they have any projects coming up. Some people are more available to talk during August when things are quiet.

Devote an hour (or more) each day to this activity between now and when things start to heat up again. You’ll be surprised how much you’ll get done … and how good you’ll feel about it. And don’t hesitate to have your favorite poolside drink nearby. That can make the phone calls a little smoother.

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Ilise Benun is an author, consultant and national speaker, the founder of Marketing-Mentor.com and the co-producer of the Creative Freelancer Conference. Her books include “The Designer’s Guide to Marketing and Pricing” (HOW Books), “Stop Pushing Me Around: A Workplace Guide for the Timid, Shy and Less Assertive” (Career Press) and her latest, The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money (HOW Books 2011). She also developed the Start Anytime Marketing Plan + Calendar for the Marketing Mentor Toolbox. Sign up for her Quick Tips, a bi-weekly dose of marketing tips, advice and resources, here.