5 Easy Brand Maintenance Strategies for the Summer

Sum­mer can be a tricky sea­son for some brands. Sales often slow, sched­ules and avail­abil­i­ty shift (espe­cial­ly for work­ing par­ents), and many busi­ness own­ers are look­ing for a way to embrace and enjoy the slow­er pace.

Believe it or not, there are ben­e­fits to slow­er sea­sons, espe­cial­ly when it comes to build­ing strate­gies. Our minds are less dis­tract­ed and more focused. Sum­mer is a great time to embrace a reduced pace and invest in your brand in a dif­fer­ent way.

Main­tain­ing your brand can often feel over­whelm­ing. And when you are cre­at­ing con­tent at the speed of a bul­let train, it doesn’t always hap­pen. Using the sum­mer to recal­i­brate your brand can be a huge help when things pick back up. 

Here are 5 brand main­te­nance strate­gies you can start imple­ment­ing this summer:

1. Review Your Brand Strategy

Sum­mer is a great time to step back and review your brand strat­e­gy and ensure it aligns with your core val­ues, mis­sion state­ment, and long-term objectives. 

If this process feels daunt­ing, try doing it as a brain dump. Jot your ideas down and then go back to refine. We rec­om­mend that you set aside at least an hour in a qui­et place and get to work.

Some areas you can start with:

• Begin by clear­ly iden­ti­fy­ing your tar­get audi­ence and under­stand­ing their needs. 
• Ana­lyze your com­peti­tors to pin­point your unique sell­ing proposition.
• Review or define your brand’s per­son­al­i­ty traits and tone of voice.
• Eval­u­ate how your cur­rent mar­ket­ing efforts are sup­port­ing your brand strategy.
• Review any brand­ing incon­sis­ten­cies that may shift from how you com­mu­ni­cate about your brand. For example: 
  • Do you keep chang­ing how you describe what you do and who it’s for?
  • Are your brand col­ors help­ing you build mean­ing toward your brand?

A thought­ful brand audit can be invalu­able. It can help you assess the con­sis­ten­cy of your mes­sag­ing across all plat­forms, from lan­guage to design ele­ments, to ensure they align with your goals. This align­ment rein­forces your brand iden­ti­ty and enhances trust and recog­ni­tion among your audience.

Want more guid­ance with this process? Check our our free Brand Build­ing Starter Guide. 

2. Update Branded templates 

The pres­sure to cre­ate new con­tent 24/7 is real. Brand­ed tem­plates help you stream­line your con­tent cre­ation process and work smarter. When you cre­ate brand­ed tem­plates that sup­port your strat­e­gy and mar­ket­ing efforts, you spend less time rein­vent­ing the design wheel and more time focused on your business.

Take a look at your cur­rent tem­plates and make sure that you:

• Estab­lish font con­sis­ten­cy and make sure it is large enough to read on dig­i­tal devices.
• Lever­age brand col­ors for spe­cif­ic call-to-action items to speed up recognition.
• Ensure you have enough con­trast between your text and backgrounds.
• Have diverse images or illus­tra­tions that reflect who your audi­ence iden­ti­fies with.

You can also ded­i­cate time to cre­at­ing more engag­ing con­tent, like an ani­mat­ed post. We always rec­om­mend Adobe Express for sim­ple tem­plate cre­ation and management. 

3. Write Your Content Ahead of Time

Do you find your­self hit­ting pub­lish because you feel like you have to? Con­sis­ten­cy is impor­tant, but half-thought-out social posts or emails rarely per­form well. Sum­mer offers us some breath­ing room and capac­i­ty to think cre­ative­ly about con­tent creation. 

Think about the year ahead, iden­ti­fy the types of con­tent you need, and get to work draft­ing! Now is a great time to think strate­gi­cal­ly about hol­i­day cam­paings. It’s even bet­ter if you sched­ule some posts ahead of time. Things can always be moved if need­ed, but you will feel much bet­ter know­ing you have con­tent ready to go when you get busy again. 

We rec­om­mend using an orga­nized project man­age­ment sys­tem and assign­ing cat­e­gories. Notes on your phones can be con­ve­nient but can quick­ly get dis­or­ga­nized. For exam­ple, we’ve cre­at­ed a con­tent buck­et list of over 200 types of posts we can use. We wrote this con­tent over time when we weren’t pres­sur­ing our­selves to write. 

4. Invest in Yourself 

As entre­pre­neurs, it’s easy to invest so much time into our busi­ness that we for­get to invest in our per­son­al growth.The truth is, you can’t afford to stay stag­nant. Your growth mat­ters. And the sum­mer is the per­fect moment to set aside time to learn some­thing new.

Our newest course is a great option. In Hue Intel­li­gence: A Strat­e­gy for Col­or Trends, we are pulling back the cur­tain on how major brands use col­or and teach­ing you how to do it for yourself.

5.Plan Time for Rest

Growth starts with clar­i­ty, but you need rest to think clear­ly. Sched­ule ded­i­cat­ed down­time to recharge your cre­ativ­i­ty and give your ideas the space to grow. If you burn out now, you won’t have the focus to fin­ish the year strong.

Sum­mer time can be an incred­i­bly use­ful sea­son for brands. Whether it’s tak­ing time to rest and recharge or invest­ing some time