For most people, summertime is a season of fun and relaxation. But for marketers and folks like you who take care of marketing for your own small business, summer is a busy season. At Hibu, we want to make sure you have plenty of fun and relaxation time too.
Just like we provided a list of spring promotion ideas for your small business last season, we’re back with another fun list of summer promotion ideas for the upcoming sunny season. We’ve gathered together some popular summer promotion themes along with 19 fresh ideas centered around general summer fun and summer holidays. Use one or a handful to make your small business stand out this season.
Summer promotion themes
Feeling ambitious and want to come up with some summer promos on your own? Let us help you jumpstart your brainstorming session with some summer promotion themes you can draw inspiration from:
- Vacation – summertime = vacation season. Center your promos around everything your customers need for beach getaways, European treks, and tropical adventures.
- Traveling – whether for vacations or family visits, traveling is also another huge aspect of the summer season, with 82% of consumers planning to travel last summer. Creating promotions around travel needs like luggage, home and pet care while out of town, and tech gadgets are a sure-fire way to bring in customers.
- Get outdoors – the skies are sunny, the air is warm, the pools are open—summer is undoubtedly the best time of the year to be outside! Take advantage of all the time your customers are spending outdoors with promos around camping, BBQ, pool days, and other outdoor-centric fun.
- School’s out – for a lot of your customers, summer also means no school for the kiddos. Which also means a lot of extra needs and schedule changes. Help make things a little easier on parents by running sales and specials around this theme.
- Back to school – not only does summer mean school’s out, but it also means parents need to start gearing up for the next school year… exhausting, right? Again, you can help them out with reminders of what kids will need for next year along with deals and discounts on those items.
- Festival season – there’s nothing quite like hitting a music festival, craft fair, or renaissance faire during the summer months and your customers know it. Take full advantage of festival season when planning your sales, promotions, and summer marketing campaigns.
General summer promotion ideas
No matter what kind of business you run (retail, service, or professional), pull one—or a handful—of these summer promotion ideas into your seasonal marketing campaign to entice customers to spend money with you and kick the sunnier months off right.
1. Create summer shopping guides
A change in season also means a change in shopping habits to keep up with summer activities. For customers who may be at a loss for where to start with their summer shopping, eye-catching and informative guides will come in handy. The kinds you create all depend on what kind of business you run. A retailer may offer a guide for summer vacation outfits. A landscaper can create a summer planting guide. Or an HVAC business may offer detailed instructions for summer a/c maintenance. You can give out these guides via your website, newsletter, and even hide them behind a form fill to help add customers to your email pipeline.
2. Focus on summer vacations in email subject lines
As we already touched on briefly, vacations are a huge part of the summer season. We’re willing to bet your customers already have one planned or have intentions to travel in the next few months. Use this to your advantage when crafting your email subject lines. You can appeal to the anticipation around a fun time with something like, “You deserve a break. Gear up for summer vacation with XX% off.” Or help reduce some of the stress of being away with a deal like, “Relax knowing your lawn care is taken care of by scheduling a service while you’re away.”
3. Refresh your ad campaigns with summer verbiage and colors
A new season means it’s time to give your ads a fresh update! Use summer greetings, sayings, and a bright color palette to not only help draw attention back to your paid search and social ads, but to also help create a seamless buying experience for your new and returning customers.
4. Run a summer scheduling offer
Are you a service provider like a contractor, doggy daycare, or painter? Well, this promo idea is especially for you! Warm weather means people are whipping out their to-do lists. Which makes summer an especially busy time for you. So instead of offering a discount on your services, try running a scheduling special instead. This will encourage those who are thinking about booking to pull the trigger sooner rather than later. Your books will fill up and you can worry less about getting jobs as the months go on. Choose whatever special is best for your business, but think about ideas like, “Schedule your service before July 4th for a free gift!” or “Schedule any two services in the month of June and get your next one free!”
5. Emphasize outdoor activities
Sunny days means people are spending more time outside than ever. Use this to your advantage when planning your summer marketing campaigns. Are you a pest control business? Remind your customers via ads or email that they didn’t invite bugs to their summer BBQs (55% of Americans overall indicated that having a picnic/barbeque was a favorite activity, by the way). Run an optical goods clinic? Encourage people to get their annual exams so they can keep an eye out for fly balls at the ballpark.
6. Offer a sale on summer items
This one might be obvious, but running a sale on summer items is always a great way to entice customers to your business. 51% of respondents in a recent survey said an early sale could "sometimes and often" motivate them to buy. Anticipate what goods and services consumers might need around this time of year and center your sale around them.
7. Run a summer social media contest
You can expand brand awareness and drum up engagement on your social media accounts by running a summer-themed contest on your platforms. Try things like giving away a beach-themed gift basket to someone who likes your post and follows your account. Or create some UGC (user-generated content) for your business by asking customers to share their favorite purchases or a meaningful experience they had with your business for a chance to win a gift certificate for a summer activity (think put-put, an ice cream parlor, or local farmers market).
[Related: Social Media Management Tips for Small Businesses]
8. Offer early sale access to long-time customers
When customers are loyal to your small business it means everything. Summer is the perfect time to show them just how much you appreciate them! Create an email marketing list of your biggest supporters—those who have been with you since the beginning and those who purchase or book regularly—and offer them something special. Give them early access to a sale you’ll be running or even offer a special discount code just for them to use this summer.
Summer promotion ideas based on seasonal holidays
In addition to all the traveling, vacations, and other fun activities that happen during the summer season, the months of June, July, August, and even early September are full of both traditional and social media holidays to celebrate. Here are some ideas of how to incorporate those holidays into your summer marketing campaigns:
9. World Oceans Day (June 8th)
June starts off with World Oceans Day on the 8th. The holiday is all about celebrating and recognizing our oceans as an important sustainer of life on earth. You can help spread awareness by creating a promo to run on that day. Any business type can donate a portion of their sales for the day to an organization that supports ocean research or marine life. If you’re near the coast you can organize a beach cleanup day for your employees or any customers who would like to help. Cafes can go strawless for the day to lessen ocean pollution, and other types of retailers can go bagless for the day for the same reason.
10. Flag Day (June 14th)
Flag day is a US holiday that commemorates the adoption of the stars and stripes on June 14, 1777. Celebrate with your customers by offering a special discount like 14% or 17% off for this day only. Or give away a free mini flag with every purchase made throughout the day.
11. Father’s Day (June 15th)
75% of American adults said they intend to celebrate Father's Day and plan to spend more than $22 billion buying gifts this year. Want them to choose your small business when they’re out shopping for gifts? Run a Father’s Day promotion! Create a social media post telling your followers that a gift certificate for your lawn care services would make a great, effortless gift for Dad this year. Offer a sale on specific items that would appeal to dads like grills, golfing gear, or tech gadgets. Encourage customers to help Dad cross something off his to-do list by hiring your painting or garage door services.
12. Juneteenth (June 19th)
This year marks the 5th anniversary of Juneteenth’s official recognition as a federal holiday in the United States. When it comes to observing this day, it should be more about recognition than flashy sales. If your business will be celebrating by closing up shop and giving employees a paid holiday, let your customers know by creating a social media post recognizing the importance of the day. You might even send an email detailing community events taking place for the holiday and encouraging your customers to attend or shout out local Black businesses within your community.
13. World Social Media Day (June 30th)
June 30th is all about celebrating the great relationships you’ve built with your customers on your social media channels. This is fun holiday that can be incorporated into your summer marketing campaigns in all sorts of ways. How you promote the day can be as simple as creating a reel or post thanking your followers for being there, or offering a special incentive for following you like, “Show us you’re following on Instagram for free gift” or posting a discount code only on your social channels.
14. 4th of July
4th of July is a big deal for Americans and is probably the biggest holiday to prep for this summer. To hit you with some statistics, it’s America’s top beer-drinking holiday, about 9.4 billion dollars will be spent on July 4th food, and about 2.7 billion dollars will be spent on fireworks. Want to make sure some dollars are also getting spent on your business? Then it’s the perfect time to run a sale on 4th of July necessities like cookout food and patriotic apparel and décor. You might also consider running ads reminding consumers to spruce up their outdoor areas with lawn care, fresh paint, or pest control services to get ready for festivities.
15. World Chocolate Day (July 7th)
Sweeten up your summer marketing campaigns by celebrating World Chocolate Day on July 7th! Sell candies in your shop? It’s the perfect day to put them on sale. If you don’t, brighten up your customers’ shopping experience by offering them a free chocolate treat with every purchase.
16. National Ice Cream Day (July 20th)
The same goes for National Ice Cream Day later in July. Offer deep discounts on your frozen treats this day, create a fun ice-cream themed menu or apparel item, or give away coupons for free scoops at the local ice cream parlor to customers who make a purchase this day. If you’re feeling really fancy you can set up an ice cream bar in your storefront for both customers and employees!
17. National Relaxation Day (August 15th)
With all the excitement from the 4th of July and other major holidays in June and July, National Relaxation Day on August 15th is a much-needed reminder to slow down. Run a social media giveaway for a massage appointment this day, offer sales on items your customers can use for relaxation, or even plan spa treatments for your employees as a thank you for all the hard work they’ve put in during the busy summer months.
18. National dog day (August 26th)
In 2024, about 45.5% of US households owned a dog. From that data we can reasonably assume that probably about half of your customer base are dog owners (excluding those business that exclusively cater to pets like veterinarians and pet care services, then your percentage is going to be A LOT higher). So, celebrating National Dog Day on August 26th is a pretty solid way to bring in customers. Run promotions like sales on dog items, invite customers to shop with their pups for the day, donate a portion of proceeds to the local dog shelter, or hold a drive asking customers to bring in donations for local dog organizations into your store.
19. Labor Day (September 1st)
Rounding out the last of the major summer holidays is Labor Day at the beginning of September. Use this to your advantage to clear out some of your summer inventory by offering major discounts on those items or use it as an intro into the fall season with sales on sneak peeks at fall merchandise. Either can work to your advantage. If your service business, remind customers that it’s their last chance to get items on their summer to-do list accomplished and run one of those scheduling specials we mentioned further up in this post.
[Related: 2025 Social Media Holidays to Incorporate into Your Small Business Marketing]
Let Hibu help with all your digital marketing needs
Planning out your summer promotions might be something you enjoy doing as a business owner (we get it, getting people excited about your products and services is fun), but what about all those other parts of digital marketing that aren’t so fun? Setting up ad campaigns, making sure all your business listings are correct, and updating your website? Well, Hibu can handle all that and more for you, so you can put more time into planning out seasonal promos like these ones.
Want to learn more about all the ways Hibu can help your local business grow? Complete our short Get Started form or call us today at 877-237-6120 for a free consultation.
