Don’t Let Your Marketing Take a Vacation
Why Consistent Visibility Matters—Even When Your Audience is Mentally Checked Out
It’s August. The inbox is quieter. Out-of-office replies are peaking. Even your top customers are squeezing in one last beach trip before fall routines begin.
It’s tempting to hit pause on your marketing and ride out the summer slump. But here’s the reality:
If your marketing takes a vacation, your visibility does too.
And in today’s ultra-competitive digital landscape, disappearing—even temporarily—can cost you traction, leads, and relevance. The good news? Staying visible doesn’t have to mean burning out your team or reinventing your strategy. It’s about working smarter with automation, evergreen content, and strategic presence that keeps your brand top of mind, even while your audience is poolside.
Let’s dive in.
The Summer Slump Is Real—But It’s Not the Same for Everyone
While some industries slow down in late summer—especially B2B—others, like travel and e-commerce, often see seasonal spikes. But across the board, audience behavior shifts as vacations, distractions, and lighter routines take over.
- In July 2023, email marketing volume dropped by 5.61%, and nearly every industry experienced a month-over-month decline in open rates, according to HubSpot’s industry benchmarks.
- During the same month, website traffic fell by 5.2%, and inbound leads declined by 1.68%, further showing how engagement temporarily softens as people unplug.
The takeaway? Your audience may be quieter in August, but they haven’t disappeared. Smart brands don’t go dark. Instead, they lean into automation, evergreen content, and brand-building stories to stay present so they’re remembered when buying cycles pick back up in the fall.
Evergreen Content = Your Off-Season MVP
When your audience is distracted, the worst thing you can do is go silent. That’s why evergreen content is essential: it works whether your team is active or not and whether your audience is in full-focus mode or just browsing.
Evergreen content includes blog posts, videos, infographics, and lead magnets that stay relevant year-round. Think how-to guides, checklists, or resource roundups—anything that adds value without being tied to a specific date.
Example in action:
Asana’s Anatomy of Work Index (2023) revealed that 58% of our time is spent in unproductive work activity—like status updates or shifting priorities—rather than on meaningful tasks. Insights like this drive Asana’s evergreen content, helping them remain relevant and useful year-round—especially when teams are shrinking, working remotely, or balancing summer vacation schedules.
Automate Where It Matters
Summer isn’t the time to disappear, but it is the time to work more efficiently. Marketing automation tools can help you stay consistent while your team takes PTO or shifts focus.
Consider automating:
- Email nurture sequences for leads and new subscribers
- Scheduled social media posts with tools like Buffer, Later, or Sprout Social
- Chatbots for initial customer service responses
- Drip campaigns promoting a summer sale or service push
Example in action:
Sephora uses automated product recommendation emails that continue firing throughout the summer, personalized by browsing history. They keep conversions flowing even when promotional activity slows.
In B2B marketing, automated workflows help nurture leads even during quieter periods, delivering timely, behavior-based content that keeps prospects engaged without manual effort.
Pre-Plan & Batch Your Content Like a Pro
If summer is slow for your business, use it to get ahead. August is a great time to batch content for the fall, test creative variations, or experiment with formats you’ve been putting off.
Plan ahead by:
- Pre-writing blog posts that will go live in Q4
- Producing a batch of reels or short videos for your social platforms
- Scheduling early fall email campaigns and promotions
- Lining up interviews or case studies you can roll out during busier months
Use the Season to Tell Stories, Not Just Sell
Your audience might not be in full buying mode, but that doesn’t mean they’re not listening. Summer is the perfect time to build brand affinity through softer, story-driven content that resonates without the hard sell.
What that looks like:
- A behind-the-scenes look at your team (vacation vibes included)
- Founder stories or reflections on mid-year growth
- Highlighting customer wins or creative product use cases
- A light-hearted campaign tied to seasonal fun or travel
- A spotlight on your brand’s philanthropic or community-focused efforts
Example in action:
Warby Parker’s Pupils Project is a back-to-school initiative that tells a values-driven story without selling a single product. Each year, the brand provides free vision screenings and eyeglasses to students in need, distributing more than 227,000 pairs of glasses to date. The initiative drives community impact without a direct product push, while boosting visibility and trust during a traditionally slower retail period.
Visibility Now = Momentum Later
It’s easy to think August doesn’t matter. But what you do during slow seasons sets the stage for performance when traffic rebounds.
Here’s why staying visible in August pays off:
- SEO: Google rewards consistent publishing. Keeping a regular cadence now improves rankings later.
- Retargeting: Ads seen in August create warm audiences for bigger fall campaigns.
- Brand Recall: Staying present now makes you a familiar name when Q4 decision-making picks up.
Example in action:
Canva doesn’t throttle back in August. Instead, they tease templates for fall campaigns, back-to-school content, and business refreshes. Their consistency ensures they’re the go-to tool when people are ready to dive back into projects.
Don’t Mistake Quiet for Irrelevance
The inbox might be slower. Your engagement might dip. But remember: your audience still scrolls, still consumes, and still notices. Just differently.
Marketing isn’t just about when people are ready to buy; it’s about staying relevant before they are. A well-timed blog post or Instagram reel in August might be the reason they think of you in September.
TL;DR—Keep Your Brand On the Map While Everyone Else is Off It
When your competitors unplug, that’s your chance to show up—strategically, consistently, and smartly.
Don’t let your marketing take a vacation. Let it look effortless, while automation, evergreen content, and planning work quietly in the background.
Because when the inbox fills up again and the focus returns, your audience will remember the brand that stayed top of mind, even when their toes were in the sand.
Need help building a smarter, more sustainable marketing plan?
At Liquid Creative, we help brands stay visible year-round with strategies built for consistency, automation, and creative agility.
Let’s talk—so your marketing can stay on even when the out-of-office is.
