So it’s hot for most of us. People are on vacation, at the pool or staying inside where it’s cool. So what’s the best use of your time while you wait for school to begin again? Well it’s a great time to plan your Fall/Holiday marketing strategies. If you have a marketing/PR company handling this kind of work, then plan a detailed work session with them. Have them come in and spend the day creating your marketing agenda for the next six months. Otherwise, do it yourself with your staff.

Here are my top 10 things in no certain order:

1. If you haven’t updated your website in the last six months then now’s the time to do it. While you are updating it, make sure you include some the following things:

· Find a local blogger who does fashion and trends for your area. Contact them and ask if it’s okay to post their RSS feed on your website. If you don’t know what I am talking about, consult your web guru or google it. This way, as often as they update their website, your website will be updated too.

· Make sure to have a fashion/designer feature area. Change the picture each week. Go ahead and do it. Schedule it in your favorite piece of technology so you don’t forget.

· Add buttons for Twitter, Facebook and blog if it is separate from your website.

· Add events for the next several months.

· Update all that other stuff too, like pictures of employees, bios of key staff and designer lines, etc.

· Add some extra things from your favorite vendors like a link to a loose diamond search or ring builder.

2. If you haven’t found out about the joy of e-mail campaigns, then set-up an account now. Export all your customers from your database and import into an e-mail program. Constant Contact is my personal favorite, but there are plenty of options. Create a template and schedule six months of e-mails now. It’s actually easier if you do it on one fell swoop. Here’s some things to include:

· Some type of feature. It can be designer lines, jewelry repair, fashion trends or anything you want. Make it bold and make sure you have good images to back it up.

· An area for all the calendar events that are going to happen during that month. Open houses, promotion deals, trunk shows, special VIP nights. How about, pick a slow day and make that day repair day, where customers get a free gift or discount if they bring in repairs that day. Use David Geller’s pricing guide so he doesn’t complain on the InStore blog anymore. Love you David!

· A small employee spotlight is always nice and don’t forget some type of incentive in each newsletter.

3. When’s the last time you asked your customers about the job you are doing? You can create a free survey on Survey Monkey. Please note it only takes up to 100 responses for free and then you have to pay to oversee that. What to consider asking:

· What their favorite time to shop is: mornings, afternoons, evenings or weekends?

· What is their favorite section in the store?

· What is their favorite designer line in the store?

· Make sure there is a feedback section where they can just write what they want to.

· Include some type of incentive. It could be like, respond and get entered into a drawing to have lunch with the owner of the store or their favorite employee.

· What your customer is really like. Include all demographics: age, income range and frequency of visits.

4. Plan your media campaign for the fall and holiday season. This should include print, cable, TV, web and social media. Things to think about:

· TV and print are very hungry, especially now - so you can push on price points before it gets too busy.

· Make sure you ask for free banner ads on their website. They all have ads on websites and it’s an easy freebie for them.

· Make sure offers include driving people to your social media pages. If you are spending big bucks, maximize long term exposure by sending them to your Facebook page.

· Make sure you really understand your clientele (Hint, hint, wink, wink, conduct a survey first) and then tailor the campaign around it. Don’t worry, even if they are 55 and up, they are on Facebook.

5. Plan your sales goals into an internal marketing campaign for your sales staff. (So they are clear about what you want to happen this fall and holiday season) Suggestions?

· Have each staff member pick there favorite line and tell them that they are now the expert. They have to know all of the product specifications, ordering and return policies. Then when someone comes in and they have questions, they can invite the appointed staff to help them with the customer.

· Set individual goals, but team goals also. If you have several stores, create friendly, fair competition and then set a goal for the whole organization too. I have a friend in retail and she does this twice a year with Girls Night Out. The reward can be something as simple as a dress code exception. If the entire team makes their goal, then one day is set aside when they can all wear jeans. It’s amazing what motivates people.

· Reward staff for outstanding performance. It doesn’t necessarily have to be sales either. If someone writes a nice comment about a staff member, then share it with the staff. Do you have a public comment wall? Encourage people to do it on Facebook, but good old fashioned comment cards posted in the store is still a good idea.

6. There are 52 million (maybe a little exaggeration) of free or low cost webinars now online that can give you great training at the comfort of your own desk, coffee shop, sofa or wherever you tote your laptop. This includes everything from Twitter, Facebook, Constant Contact, to basic html to anything else. Take some time to do a little summer education program. Everyone has to watch 5 webinars over a two week period and then make reports. You can limit what, where and when they pick to watch it.

7. Get a marketing book and read it. Get a business book and read it. Or maybe it should be a personal branding book. Whatever you think you need, get it, read it and implement five of the concepts into your routine.

8. Okay, I am assuming you have done this but if not, create your Twitter and Facebook accounts and pages. Now’s a great time to ply around with Twitter and Facebook. Also spend some time networking on Facebook. Go to your friends pages and look at their friends. There may be that long lost high school pal, the one who you have no idea what happened to. It takes time to build this kind of stuff so do it now while you are slow, because everyone is hoping that you will be too busy during the fall to really build these networks.

9. Plan your events now. Include stuff you haven’t done before too. How about hosting a business club for a social networking gig? Or a business book club? Or a sorority alumni meeting? Why not add a night where you host your new favorite fashion blogger and 50 of her closest friends to an exclusive night of fashion fun at the store? Or a Tweet-Up? A Tweet-Up is when the invite happens on the fly through Twitter. Have a couple of folks help you tweet the event. Have some refreshments and ask folks to stop by. Who knows it could really be a great way to get young professionals into the store. How about an educational night about insurance replacement? Ask an insurance agent, appraiser and your repair person to talk about 30 minutes in total and then take questions.

10. Ask vendors for their thoughts about any new products that might be a good fit for your store, or ideas that some of their customers have had success with, or working out some type of co-promotional deal to support a certain line of products during the holiday. We have a diamond stud earring program that we promote during the holidays with certain customers. Who doesn’t want free goods in the store during that time of year? So ask your vendors for their input too. Trust me they have as much time as you do if not more since so many people take extended vacations during this time of year but not you! You are planning your future success.

There is no magic sequence or ingredients to create the perfect marketing plan. The good news is you can be creative! Create your own recipe/strategy but do something. Do something now! While it’s slower. While you can budget it correctly and save, because you are doing it now. While you can train your staff. While you can create a thoughtful plan and make sure all of it is covered. You don’t have to do it by yourself either. Ask your staff, customers and business colleagues for feedback. Make the July Staycation a Marketing Camp instead. Did I forget something? If so let me know…