The Biggest Marketing Mistake We See During the Summer

July 8, 2026

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The Biggest Marketing Mistake We See During the Summer

It’s that sweet time of year when the sunny days stretch longer, and lounging by the pool, lake, or beach is a top priority activity to beat the heat.

It’s also a time when inboxes fill more slowly, customers take longer to reply, and meetings get pushed. When you’re running your own business though, the initial appeal of slow summer days can quickly stretch into slow summer weeks and months – a slippery slope into a super stressful season for you.

Especially when more often than not, you’re getting this response:

Let’s revisit this after Labor Day.

Every summer, we watch business owners see the slow down and immediately jump to

“My marketing isn’t working anymore, we need to make a change.” That’s usually not what’s happening at all though.

Harsh truth time:

Most business owners fail to factor in the change in customer behavior during summer months. THAT is what needs to change.

Summer Changes Customer Behavior (And That’s Normal)

For most, summer means:

A. entertaining kiddos without the built-in school schedule while still balancing work

B. attempting to take PTO for vacations

C. checking email less frequently (due to reasons A & B)

Clients don’t stop buying in summer, but simply change when and how they’re making decisions and it’s your responsibility to adjust your approach accordingly. Here’s how:

Keep showing up

This one is just solid business (and life) advice all year long. The best way to find success in marketing your business is to keep showing up day after day, week after week, however you can.

If it’s only feasible for you to post once a week during the summer months, then do that.

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Watch trends, not single weeks

Trends can only be identified by watching data over time. If you’re about to change your entire marketing strategy based on a single dip or spike of data, sit on your hands and give things another quarter for patterns to emerge.

Adjust send times before overhauling everything

If your usual send day and time aren’t giving you the same results that you normally see, don’t stop sending altogether. Think about who your audience is and what their summer days may look like.

If your audience is comprised of a lot of parents, they may be more inclined to see an email later in the evening. Likewise, if you have a lot of corporate folks on your list, they may be doing Summer Fridays and dipping out earlier, so perhaps an early week send will catch their attention more.

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Keep investing in the channels that already work

If you know your content gets seen (and engaged with!) most consistently on Instagram, don’t try to go all in on a brand new platform in slower months. Spend your more limited summer minutes and hours on what you already know is working.

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Use slower periods to strengthen your marketing assets

When things are super busy, it can feel next to impossible to update the marketing assets you already have. In the middle of a summer slow down, take advantage and update your existing marketing assets, starting with the three that actually drive revenue.

Think in Seasons, Not Days

If you have the expectation that customer behavior to stay exactly the same all year long, it’s time to kiss that notion goodbye.

Between summer vacations, back-to-school, the holiday rush, election years, and economic shifts, every single business has seasons.

Customer attention, buying habits, and timelines naturally ebb and flow, and great marketing learns to work with them.

The businesses that see the strongest results in the fall are usually the ones that kept showing up while everyone else disappeared.

Marketing Strategy

The Biggest Marketing Mistake We See During the Summer

The Biggest Marketing Mistake We See During the Summer