Easy Does It! Maybe.

It’s summer again. Children—young and old—are kicking back lemonades and heading to the beach to squish sand between their toes once again.

Colorful tattoos are appearing in places that weren’t even visible two months ago. Haircuts and skirts are shorter; nylons are history and neckties aren’t far behind.

Monday-to-Friday is now Monday to Friday-ish. People start wandering out the door at noon, only to reappear on Monday with a deep tan and a zen-like air of serene relaxation about them.

Nothing is hurried. It’s too hot to rush, anyway. Everybody has gone into “vacation mode.”

But maybe there’s too much of a good thing.

Studies show that students lose two and a half months of their hard-earned math skills over the summer break which is, conveniently, two and a half months. Hmmm. How about that. A one-to-one correlation between “time away” and “information lost.”

Now translate that to marketing. A lot of the effort of marketing is simply keeping your name, your brand, your message in front of your clients, donors or prospects.

Consider McDonald’s. Mickey D spends millions of dollars a week just to remind us that they are there. They just want to keep their name in our consciousness.

Focus group of one: when I get thirsty, I head to Mickey D’s for the unsweetened ice tea. So as I was driving through the line today to get my daily tea fix, I spotted a new menu item: Real Fruit Frosties. Sounds yummy. I passed it by today, but I can almost guarantee that lunch one day next week will be a Real Fruit Frostie. I’ll be fantasizing about that frostie for days until I can’t resist any more. Their ads won’t let me forget. That’s good marketing.

Why is your business any different? If your clients/donors don’t hear from you for two and a half months, that’s a lot of time lost. You’re out of sight, out of mind. You’re losing market share simply by wearing your summertime cloak of invisibility.

Taking it easy now is fun, but do you really want to have to rebuild your business again in the fall?

Use the summer to stay in touch with a newsletter, an email or a postcard. Use social media, text messaging and PURLs to let them know what you are doing and why it is important to them.

You’ll be top of the mind, and poised for business when the time is right.

And that’s even better than a long weekend at the beach.