Summer is the season of slower inboxes, last-minute vacations, and, let’s be honest… a little collective brain fog. While everyone else is coasting, you can steadily make progress that sets your brand up for a stronger second half of the year. This doesn’t mean working harder. It just means working smarter. Small, strategic moves now will stack up when it matters. Here are five of our favorites to tackle this summer.

1. Give Your Website a Summer Tune-Up

Think maintenance, not an overhaul. Your website is like your storefront window. You might not repaint the whole thing in the middle of summer, but you do want it looking fresh, functional, and inviting, especially when spontaneous summer browsers stumble across it. In other words, no big redesign required, but a tune-up goes a long way. Here’s what we recommend.

• Scrub outdated seasonal content. Is your “Spring Sale” still live? Are blog posts referencing months that have long passed?

• Swap in lighter, summer-friendly imagery. Photos and visuals that match the season can subtly make your brand feel more current and welcoming.

• Test your site. Many visitors browse on mobile, on the go. Pull up your site on your phone while sitting at the pool or in line at the airport. Is the experience seamless? If not, we recommend fixing it!

• Check your speed and performance. Use online tools like GTmetrix to make sure your site is loading fast. Summer attention spans are seriously shorter than ever.

The goal is to implement small, intentional adjustments that keep your site feeling polished (and prevent a dated first impression).

2. Get a Jumpstart on Fall Marketing

We see it every year: brands hit September and suddenly panic. “We need fall content! We need holiday promos! We need a plan!” Ahead-of-the-game brands are working on that plan now, when they have breathing room. Here’s how to use summer downtime strategically.

• Sketch out your Q3 and Q4 content calendar. Even a rough outline will give you a huge head start.

• Brainstorm fall promotions early. What worked last year? What can you test this year?

• Prep creative assets. Design your graphics, write draft copy, and line up product photos before you’re in crunch time.

• Audit your holiday campaigns from last year. What performed well? What flopped? Build on what works.

Trust us: when others are scrambling, you’ll be executing.

3. Experiment with Lighter, More Playful Content

Audiences are in a different mindset during summer. They’re mentally on vacation, even if they’re still scrolling. That means the heavy sales pitch might not land but casual, playful content? Perfect timing. Here are some ideas to try.

• Behind-the-scenes content. Snap casual team photos or quick “day in the life” videos.

• Branded playlists or summer reading lists. Share what your team is loving this season.

• User-generated content. Encourage your community to share photos or stories featuring your product/service this summer.

• Quizzes and polls. Keep engagement light and interactive.

You’re not just filling space but you’re strengthening relationships. When fall arrives and attention sharpens, those connections will pay off tenfold.

4. Clean Up Your Email List 

Summer is a perfect window for a little email list maintenance. Why? Engagement naturally dips this time of year. You want your fall campaigns going to highly engaged subscribers. A cleaner list = better deliverability = stronger results. Here’s a simple summer email checklist.

• Run a re-engagement campaign. Invite sleepy subscribers back with a fun summer offer or survey.

• Remove inactive contacts. If someone hasn’t opened an email in 6+ months, consider suppressing or segmenting them.

• Segment your list. Now’s the time to tag contacts by behavior, interest, or past purchase. Targeted fall emails will convert better.

• Check your compliance. Are you meeting GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and other data regulations? Summer is a good time to audit and update.

Your fall open and click rates will thank you for this!

5. Give Your SEO a Mid-Year Refresh

SEO isn’t always pretty. We get it. However, most businesses ignore it this time of year. That makes it a perfect window to boost your visibility before peak search traffic returns in Q4. Focus your attention on a few easy SEO updates.

• Update older blog posts. Add new information, refresh links, update dates. Google loves fresh content.

• Strengthen internal linking. Guide visitors through more of your site and keep them engaged longer.

• Optimize your Google Business Profile. Add new photos, update your description, respond to reviews. It matters for local search.

• Tweak your top-performing pages. See what’s ranking well and look for small optimizations (meta titles, image alt text, call-to-actions).

Small SEO tweaks now can deliver big organic traffic boosts later.

Small Shifts Now, Big Payoff Later

You don’t need to launch a massive campaign this summer, but these 5 moves will quietly stack up, so when fall hits and customers come flooding back, your brand is ready.

👉 Your site feels fresh.

👉 Your email list is primed.

👉 Your content is working.

👉 Your SEO is stronger.

👉 Your fall marketing is planned.

Want help making it happen? Just fill out the form below. We’d love to help you sharpen your marketing this summer and set you up for success this fall!