For some companies, business screeches to a halt during the summer months. Summer vacations can result in reduced sales staffs and the inability to reach prospects and customers. But on top of a normal summer slowdown, the effects COVID-19 have further compounded the issue. These slowdowns can mean fewer visitors to your website, less frequent filling out of contact forms, increased difficulty of connecting with people by phone and the even more common, “Let’s talk again toward the end of the year.” With this reality in mind, a summer lull is the perfect time to reevaluate your inbound marketing strategy. A revitalized program can help generate fresh leads to add to your sales funnel and reinvigorate your business. To enhance the effectiveness of your inbound marketing strategy, consider these tools:

Marketing content should be the number-one tool in your arsenal. Start by conducting a content audit to ensure your content is up to date and addresses every imaginable concern, obstacle and solution. When considering topics, think about what questions your sales team gets asked the most, the most common pain points for your customers and prospects, and your company’s unique selling proposition. Also, be sure to include short-form pieces such as blogs, and longer formats including published articles and white papers. Once you know what types of content need to be refreshed, retired, repurposed or developed, put together a plan to get your content into the hands of your target audiences.

Email still ranks as king for B2B communication. It’s a great way to touch base with inactive clients and prospects, nurture leads who’ve gone silent, and connect in today’s new virtual marketplace. Take this opportunity to revisit your emails and refresh them with updates on new offerings or innovative takes on how your products or services can help your customers and prospects reach their goals. If you are already sending a regular newsletter, reconsider, evaluate, and plan your topics for the rest of the year. If you don’t currently offer a newsletter, now is the perfect time to start.

Some simple tweaks to your website can help increase SEO and drive new visitors to your website. Take this time to review the keywords on every page on your website to ensure they are relevant in today’s marketplace. One way to do this is to check keywords at Google Trends to discover related terms that are trending. Be sure internal and external links are working properly and move site visitors through your site in a natural way. Use free tools such as Yoast to optimize your website’s content and maximize SEO.

Today’s virtual world is the perfect place to connect with customers, prospects and new audiences via a webinar. Webinars allow companies to share their expertise, position themselves as industry experts and demonstrate exactly how their products and services fill unmet needs. Webinars take time to plan and promote, so be sure to allocate adequate resources to ensure your program’s success. To see a webinar marketing in action, check out our recent webinar on content marketing.

Whether your business is suffering a seasonal slump or the effects more serious marketplace conditions, marketers need to take action to prevent long-term damage to the bottom line. By refreshing inbound strategy, marketers can drive new visitors to their website, engage prospects with relevant messaging and convert them into paying customers. To learn more about how you can use content marketing to achieve your business goals-and see where you might be missing opportunities-take our free content marketing strategy assessment.