Summertime is quickly approaching which means barbecues, beaches, and flip flops. It also means plummeting website traffic, sales, and signups.
Your numbers might even be starting to slip.
It’s perfectly normal, especially if most your clients and customers are parents.
But when have you ever accepted “ just being normal” ? Exactly.
Which is why unlike those other bloggers + business owners who just throw in the towel for June -September you are still going to shine…. without sacrificing any beach time.
Thanks to the 4 steps (and tools) I’ll lay out here.
Rather listen then read?
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1. Slip “a best of series” into a sparkly red dress for the summer
Instead of cranking out piles of new content while your kids are begging to run through the sprinklers – Roundup 4 of your top/favorite blog posts, podcasts or videos in each category of your blog. Then send them as email series/challenge/mini-course.
For example, if you’re a fitness coach:
- June: 4-week Bikini Belly Challenge (4 posts about abs)
- July: 4-week Summer Time Smoothie Challenge
- August: 4-week Best Booty Bootcamp
Give yourself 2-3 days to find all the pieces of content and que them up in your email service provider as scheduled broadcast/campaign email.
Tools + Resources:
Your blog (I suggest Siteground for hosting + Divi Builder For Your Theme)
An Email Service Provider I love love love Active Campaign. It’s the best deal on the interwebs seriously. Get a credit-free, free two week trial here.
Don’t have enough content? Click here To check out the Weekly Email Newsletter Planner.
2. Batch and Automate Your Social Media:
Since you already know what content you’ll be re-running it’s super easy to create + schedule Tweets, Facebook Updates, Instagram posts promoting those articles.
Here are a couple of other ideas for your social media posts:
- Ask questions – like “What’s your favorite….?” or “How do you….”
- Share one quick tip from your post of the week
- Share a freebie that relates to your post
- Share a picture of one of your comments saying it was a great post
Tools:
A Social Media Scheduler – For Facebook, Twitter and Facebook Groups I love SmarterQueue. It’s like Meet Edgar but at a fraction of the price and it recycles posts! Buffer works too.
For Pinterest: Tailwind can’t be beat because you can actually schedule pins to go out on certain dates. And you can get a $30 credit if you click here before May 31, 2017 If you don’t really care when the pins go out as long as their consistently being shared Board Booser is your best bet.
For Instagram, I love Grum.co it actually posts directly to Insta for you.
For Graphics + Quote Cards – Canva.com + Picmonkey.com
Related Post: Why you should ditch Edgar for Smarterqueue + How to set it up in under 10 minutes
3. Make the Most of the Traffic You Do Have
Take peek at your Google Analytics. Do your 10 most popular pages and posts have content upgrades or sign up forms on them? If not add them ASAP. If you do have opt-in forms and people still aren’t signing up listen to this episode of Inbox Besties – Ep 09 4 Sneaky Reasons No One Is Signing Up for Your List.
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Add a popup! Yes I know, you think they’re annoying but if the gift your offering is so toe-curling, so on the nose with solving a mega problem your readers have they’ll be more than happy to slap your sign up button. My favorite is Popup Ally.
Create a welcome series for new subscribers. Before dropping them into your summertime series make sure they get the lay of the land. Show them your best stuff, paid offers, and social media shouts you have.
Tools:
- Google Analytics (It’s free)
- Your Email Service Provider: Still loving Active Campaign
- Popups – Popup Ally
Related Post: A Straightforward Method For Slashing Unsubscribes & Propelling Sales + Shout Outs
4. Run a 48-hour Flash Sale or Popup Service
For a Flash Sales – Take one of your most popular Evergreen digital products(Always available to purchase on your site) or one that sold really well when you first launched it but hasn’t really done much since.
Slice the price by a staggering 25 – 75%. Tell your list to come and get it. You could do this once every month if you have a product that relates to your free rerun email series running or you do one next week and that’s it for the rest of the summer.
If you’re not into discounting your gonna wanna check out my Cash Injection Bundle below but first…
Popup services are perfect for my freelancers, coaches, consulting, even my course creators.
Simply create a very specific 30- 60 minute coaching session with only 3-5 spots available. Price is at $47-$147
I take on 1:1 clients to help them set up their funnels…I know can’t do that in 30 minutes. But I can offer a “Freebie Fixer Session.” I look at your hook, format, landing page and offer you 3 actional tips to skyrocket your signups + sales (if it leads to a paid offer)
Tools to help you out:
Flash Sales Need Urgency + Scarcity – Get Countdown timers that work…
For Sales Pages I always recommend Countdown Monkey. Countdown Monkey timers work on any site (wp, Squarespace, wix, teachable etc…) as long as you can paste some code you’re good. Besides the fact that Countdown Monkey is hella cheap a one-time payment. The timers will “redirect” people to a new page when the sale is over. No more staying up until 11:59 pm EST or forgetting about it, no fake urgency.
For Emails – Motion Mail is a great free app that will add countdown timers to your emails. (Countdown Monkey won’t)
For Emails & Sales pages – Nothing is better than Deadline Funnel. Seriously this app is amazing. If you’re serious about running evergreen sales funnels and want to add real urgency like say special discounts only good for the first week someone is on your list. This is the tool for the job.
Don’t know what to say in your flash-sale emails or what to have for a popup service?
The Cash Injection Bundle Is For You. It’s 5 Mini-Courses in 1:
The Holiday Flash Mini-Course was originally created as a Black Friday Prep Course but honestly, nothing in it about the holidays expect the cute stocking cover photo. This 4 part gentle email sales series templates + video are perfect if you haven’t emailed your list in a while but still, want to run a sale without being a dirty rotten spammer face. (available now) ($47 Value)
Quick n’ Dirty 2 Email Flash Sale Templates – If you’ve been emailing your list on the regular this is for you. It’s a two-part short and sweet sales email sequence. Focusing on rewarding subscribers for hanging out with you. There are no capital letters or !!!! in these templates. (available now) ($37 Value)
Popup Service Maximizer Kit – (available May 26th) Learn how to craft + position a pop-up service offer that your subscribers are eager to buy causing a virtual stampede to punch your buy button even if you DONT HAVE AN EMAIL LIST. And what to say in every email. So you don’t sound desperate or annoying if you do. ($47 Value)
Virtual Bootcamp Bundle-Blueprint – (available May 26th) Learn how to map out & fill up a one-off blow their socks off free webinar where you pitch access to 2-3 paid webinars at the end. ($47 Value)
How to turn “oh that’s nice” into a “take my cash” offer mini training $47 Value
You get all 5 mini-courses for the stupid low pre-sale price of just $28 dollars but only until May 29, 2017, 11:59 pm then it’s shooting up to $77.
Thank you for sharing this. Great ideas and tools.
You’re welcome Carrie!
These are great tips! Last year July and August were actually my highest vies EVER, but that’s only because I had a company pay for ads of a couple of my posts on Facebook and Pinterest. Scheduling out social media is a big one, I don’t know what I would do without that as an option!
That’s a really great idea. Look for more sponsored type posts for the summer since those companies would be driving traffic.
I’m a new blogger (launched in February of this year) and hadn’t even considered the fact that my traffic would tank in the summer. Gahhhh! Thanks for bringing this to my attention, and the ideas on how to fix it!
Don’t worry Caitlin, it’s naturally for all of us especially if your blog is family focused. Becaused like you, they have kids begging to play outside. Don’t worry though will alittle bit of planning you’ll do great!
This is SO good and just what I needed to jumpstart my summer!!
Thank Tabitha! What do you blog about?
Thanks Tabitha! What do you blog about?
This is great, many of these tools I haven’t heard of. My blog is new and following many of your tips will help me stay motivated over the summer.
Thanks, Lisa. What do you blog about?