Does your business slow down in the summer? Grab the opportunity to plan and create content that rocks the rest of the year. 

“Should I pause my content creation for the summer?” a client asked me. 

“Many of my clients are on holiday anyway, and it seems like the business slows down, no matter what I do”, he continued. 

Can you guess what my answer was?

“Absolutely not.”

Why should you keep creating content in the summer?

Summer months can slow the sales down, especially in service-based fields. It’s understandable that crystallizing a communication strategy or fine-tuning presentation skills aren’t the first priorities during the holiday season. 

However, that doesn’t mean the audience wouldn’t still crave for value-adding content to consume. Exactly the opposite: quieter holiday months are a great time to keep serving your audience through free content and keep yourself on top of their minds.

This step-by-step plan explains exactly what to do to leverage this summer to plan and create content that amplifies your business for the rest of the year.

1 – Review

Start your summer content creation by looking back to the first half of the year. Which channels perform the best? Which content does your audience devour – and which ones fall flat?

I know many entrepreneurs don’t like to look at the figures because they feel confused or they’re afraid that their numbers aren’t as good as they would like them to be. But this information tells you where to focus your efforts.

Think about it this way: if figures are really bad on one channel, you’ll get a good reason to pause that one altogether and save that time and effort for other, more productive things. 

If metrics bore or scare you, check out this analytics guide which shows you where to focus.

2 – Strategize

Now that you know what has worked and what hasn’t, it’s time to look forward. What are your main business goals for the year and how can content support them?

I often recommend entrepreneurs to start with a brainstorming session and to list all the launches, webinars, blog series and podcast guests they would like to involve in their communication plan. Then filter all the ideas through your business priorities to create a focused, actionable plan. 

If you’re wondering what a content plan should look like, check out this step-by-step guide to updating your strategy.

3 – Plan & Schedule

Next step: grab your calendar and start scheduling things. It’s not necessary to plan and schedule every Tweet and social media visual at this point, but write down at least the big launches, communication campaigns building up to them and regular content releases, such as weekly blogs, newsletters, podcasts and videos. 

Schedule also time for content creation. If you’ve followed me for a while now, you know I’m a huge fan of monthly batching days, when I create all social content for blogs and newsletters at once. For others, a monthly rhythm doesn’t work at all, so you need to find a routine that works for your business. 

If you haven’t already, start using an editorial calendar and download my new, improved template to organise your ideas.

4 – Repurpose

If you’ve completed the first three steps of the process, congratulations! The last two steps are bonus points, but you’ve already done a huge part of the work and can reward yourself with an ice cream or an afternoon at the beach. (If you want to multitask, you can also complete the last two steps at the beach.)

Create evergreen content by repurposing some of your previously published content. Create soundbites of podcast episodes, beautiful quotes of your blog posts, update an evergreen blog post or share the same content on video. 

After an intensive half-day, you’ll have plenty of content ready for busy autumn months. 

For more ideas, check out this blog post on repurposing blog content. 

5 – Create

Do you still have time, energy and daylight hours left? Create more fresh content for the rest of the year. 

Write evergreen blog posts, create new lead magnet or organise podcast interviews. 

If your head is completely emptied of all creative ideas after the hard strategy work you’ve been doing, download my complimentary content guide below.

Uplevel your social media game and never lose another follower to competition again.

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