Does this day feel a bit different to you? It should because it is the longest day of the year, a.k.a. the summer solstice. That means we have officially kicked off summer.

If I could boil marketing down to its basics, it is about a brand and its relationships with people. We are trying to get people to think good thoughts about a brand, to think so highly of it that they seek it out to buy it and to believe in it enough to tell others they should buy it too. How does summer impact marketing? If you have seasonal sales that sell better when people are outside or it is warm (think popsicles), summer is your perfect time to market to consumers. But what about the rest of us? How does summer help our sales? Summer impacts how people feel. There have been many studies on the positive impact of extended sunlight hours on the human psyche. Anytime you have a change of mood among consumers, it is a good time to start marketing, regardless of what you are selling.

Let’s also consider something else that changes in the marketplace during the summer: people take vacations more frequently. This can be very frustrating if you are trying to get people to buy your product or service. Decisions can be delayed until everyone is back to work. However, there is a marketing opportunity that presents itself in these kind of situations. Giving an incentive to buy your brand now rather than wait will cause some people to expedite an order rather than delay it until after vacation time is over. If you work it the right way, your marketing during the summer can actually help you land more work.

There is another aspect to summer vacation time that many people don’t think about. Typically, whenever someone goes on vacation, they designate a person to cover for them while they are gone. That may be a trusted underling who is making their way up the employment ladder or it may be a leader from another department. In either case, it is important that your marketing reaches out to these placeholders during the main contact’s vacation. Why? Because marketing is about a brand and its relationship with people. If you can spread your brand’s influence on other people within an organization, you’ve described a marketing win. During the summer, that will happen more frequently, so your marketing plan should strategically reach out to them.

The start of summer should be the start of something new in your marketing efforts. You have happy people to reach and, when they go on vacation, you have new people to connect with. Make the most of this season with your brand marketing.