8 ways to beat the summer slow down for your small biz

The summer for some businesses can mean slower times and less traffic on and off line.

Lots of people take vacations with the kids out of school and for some cities, like Miami, where it can get too hot, people find ways to escape by leaving. However, your business doesn’t take a vacation, so you need to keep customers interested with a reason to come in on or offline.

With years of experience creating promotions for brands, like Fiji, Red Bull, Kellogg’s and many more I’ve found they work. They are a great way to engage with customers, build brand visibility and in turn sales.

Here are 8 fun low budget ideas to do just that.

1. Selfie Saturday – create an over sized frame, and encourage customers to try on an outfit or an accessory, take a selfie and post it to theirs and your page. If you can afford to do so, offer a discount for any purchases made.
   
   
2. Who wore it better – we see this in celebrity magazines all the time, why not create your own version. Have your staff try on the same outfit and accessories styled their own style, post it on your social media page for a "Who wore it better vote".
   
   
3. Hug your pet day – invite customers to hug their pet, or better yet, if it is conducive to your business invite them to bring their pets in for a hug. This is can work well pet stores.
   
   
4. Drink and food specials – as a restaurant and bar, summer time is an opportunity to improve your business as everyone wants to enjoy a refreshing summer drink on a patio. Make sure you capitalize on this by offering great prices on select items along with an inviting patio atmosphere. A drink and food special menu is a must.
   
   
5. Think positive week – why not put a little positivity and inspiration in someone’s life, Create a positivity wall in your store or on your social media page and ask people to write a positive message on the wall or better yet, make it easy, go online and print off a bunch and let your customer pick their favorite to place on your wall in store. For social media pages, you can post a series of messages each day and ask your customers to vote for their favorite.
   
   
6. Flip coin day – why not make getting a discount a fun game. Invite your customers into your store, ask them to flip a coin – starting with a nickel, if they get heads they get 5% off, they can keep this discount or trade it in for a chance to win 10% off by flipping a dime, and so forth all the way to 25%.
   
   
7. Sunglasses day – anyone wearing sunglasses can come in for a 10% discount and a free outfit makeover for my retail friends.
   
   
8. Free air conditioning day – a little tongue and cheek but the idea is to have fun with your customer, after all it is summer. You can also offer a free sample of your product if you sell a food item to go with the free AC.
   
   

I hope you find these ideas fun and easy to implement, keep in mind, not all promotions have to be focused on price discounts, as those are usually short lived.

The idea is to create fun interactive promotions that entertain your customers, keeps your brand top of mind, and most of all builds loyalty.