/>iThe summertime is a gift for all of us. The pace of work is a bit less intense, which means there is an opportunity to focus on things on our would like-to-do lists.
I am personally looking forward to having more downtime to focus on my own marketing. I‘ll be spending more time on content creation and planning ahead for fall projects – a luxury in my normal busy work week.
If you generally have more time over the summer and are looking for some ways to jumpstart your marketing and business development efforts, I have a few ideas for you.
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Create a personal marketing plan with only three to five to-do’s so you can actually accomplish them (I have a template if you need one).
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Make plans to see your top referral sources. Stay top of mind with them.
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Research industry conferences and sponsorships for the fall and into next year to attend and submit proposals to speak at them.
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Write a client alert, a blog post or an article – co-author with a colleague, referral source or a client if it seems too daunting to do it alone.
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Set up Google Alerts for top clients and prospects – info is always power. Make sure to set one up for yourself too.
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Update your web site bio and practice area descriptions using keywords for SEO – if you don’t say you do it – people think you don’t.
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Create a LinkedIn strategic plan, which includes updating your LinkedIn profile with keywords and all of the sections, sending at least five connection requests per week, commenting on VIP connections’ posts, sharing posts and writing a post yourself, learning how the LinkedIn algorithm works and how to use hashtags.
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Research your competitors’ marketing activities – what inspiration can you get from them and what can you do better than them?
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Update your matter lists – you’ll need these for your bio, pitches and upcoming award submissions. Managing your experience is crucial.
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Look at the analytics of past blogs, podcasts, social media posts, email blasts and client alerts – this helps you create stronger content.
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Clean up and add new contacts to your email list and create a plan for gathering updated and new contacts from your lawyers. Without clean data, none of your emails matter.
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Plan the content for a client-centric email newsletter (look at your competitors for inspiration and gaps in the market).
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Research volunteer opportunities for an industry or bar association committee, social cause and alumni associations – this is a great way to network and meet potential clients.
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Request a download of your personal LinkedIn post archive. From it, you can create a content calendar and repurpose your past posts, which is just smarter marketing!
Remember, it’s great time to focus on your business development and branding efforts especially since many of your competitors and peers may not be – use that to your advantage!
But if you don’t feel like doing anything, don’t! You can always pick it back up next week, or the following week.
Which one of these ideas will you try?
