Last time we checked, not too many profitable businesses take the summer off. But strangely, their potential suppliers and service providers often do when it comes to their marketing efforts and visibility.

If you sell B2B and scale down your marketing when the heat hits, you may be missing out on significant sales opportunities. Think about it: who will be top of mind when a customer is ready to buy — the vendor who kept in touch via a creative mix of channels, or the ones who fell completely off the radar until after Labor Day?

To maintain positive momentum during the summer season, consider these seven warm-weather marketing strategies:

Add some topical PR to the mix
Can you tie in your product or service to an annual seasonal event or offbeat holiday? The lazy days of summer are ideal for less serious creative approaches. For example, who knew that August boasts National Hypnosis Day (August 2), Mustard Day ( August 4), Bad Poetry Day (August 18) and even Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Night (August 8)?

Try resources such as Chase’s Calendar of Events for holidays you never knew existed.

Turn your tie-in into a tongue-in-cheek media release
For example, a healthy-foods company could write an op-ed piece to suggest changing “Rocky Road Day” to “Hit the Road Day” in an effort to fight childhood obesity. Or a mental health practice could tie into World Juggling Day with a tip sheet on stress-free juggling of work and kids when school is out.

Lock in fall business
Offer customers a discount on future projects or purchases if they book or buy now. Position your offer as a “budget extender” that lets buyers get the resources they need at terrific savings.

Or, consider mailing an elegant “save the date” card or exclusive invitation promoting a special offer that starts September 1st.

Ramp up your newsletter
The most difficult aspect of publishing a newsletter is creating useful content, so use your slow season to map out an editorial calendar for the next 12 months. Be sure to include upcoming product launches or enhancements, scheduled webinars or podcast appearances, industry trade shows (promote your attendance in advance or plan to write a post-show recap), and seasonal trends that may be of interest to your audience.

Do some preliminary research on high-performing content that covers topics of interest to your audience. Then improve on them using the skyscraper technique and slot them into your calendar. Use the most promising info to pen several “evergreen” pieces that will remain timely for at least six months. These will serve as the basis for your next few issues and put you ahead of the game come deadline time.

Having a tough time finding content? Try digging through recent customer service correspondence. If someone asks a great question, or certain issues crop up time and again, turn them into a regular newsletter feature.

Get the competitive juices flowing
Hold an internal contest to follow up on stagnant proposals and lapsed leads. Encourage your staff to meet with as many prospects as they can — perhaps over a leisurely summertime lunch — to network, gather information and try to re-ignite the relationship.

Coach your team to gently probe for details on why the project or proposal might have derailed. Maybe it was as simple as a personality issue with someone who no longer represents you. Even if no deals are closed as a result of these casual lunches, you’ll gain some useful intel on friction points in your sales process, pricing or other hurdles that are holding you back from closing deals.

Try some training
Maybe you’ve hesitated to add video to your mix because you’re not comfortable on camera. Or you haven’t upgraded your martech stack in fear of a too-large learning curve. There’s no time like the present to schedule that media training or AI prompt-writing workshop.

Everyone in an organization needs a regular dose of professional development. The right training not only brings necessary skills up to speed; it also can spark new ideas, invigorate jaded old-timers, and send a clear message that you value your staff’s input and think they’re worth investing in.

Personally, we love resources like MarketingProfs to stay on top of our own craft, Exploding Topics for trend-watching and Harvard Business Review for big-picture webinars on the state of business and economics.

Finally, test drive a new piece of the puzzle. Been itching to integrate newer technology like augmented reality, or maybe add digital surveys or quizzes to your marketing arsenal? Use the summer to read up on the latest resources, then map out a plan for selective testing with your audience. If it’s well received, you’ll feel comfortable rolling out the latest and greatest in the fall.

Summer not exactly your slow season? Don’t use that as an excuse to stagnate. Every industry has its down time, so pick yours and use it to ramp up and reinvigorate your marketing efforts. Then, you can take that much-needed vacation with a clear conscience — and come back refreshed and ready for more.