Helen Cox Marketing and Business Development Consultant and AI trainer for Professional Services and B2B firms in the UK London and Kent

Summer slowdown or strategic opportunity? Marketing during the quieter months

When summer arrives, many professional services firms instinctively ease off on marketing and business development. Key decision makers are on holiday. Diaries start to thin out. Campaigns get pushed to September. But while everyone else is hitting pause, a quieter period could be the perfect opportunity to move your marketing forward.

July and August often create just enough breathing room to take a step back from the day to day grind and refocus. For time-pressed firms, this could be your chance to align your efforts, fix what’s not working, and prepare for a stronger finish to the year.

Use the quieter months to review and realign

Most firms charge into January with a clear set of marketing goals. By summer, those goals may have drifted or been overtaken by reactive work pressure. With fewer meetings and deadlines, the quieter weeks in July or August are ideal for conducting a thorough strategic review.

Start by revisiting your original marketing strategy. Pull out those January plans and ask yourself: is this still aligned to the firm’s current goals? Markets shift, client needs evolve, and what seemed like the right direction six months ago might need adjusting. Take time to speak with fee earners about what they’re seeing in client conversations. Are the pain points you’re addressing still the ones that matter most?

Next, conduct an honest review of results so far. What campaigns have generated genuine leads versus those that simply looked good on paper? Which content pieces are your prospects actually engaging with? Don’t just look at vanity metrics like website visits or social media likes. Dig into conversion rates, meeting requests, and actual business enquiries. Create a simple traffic light system: green for what’s working well, amber for inconsistent results, and red for clear failures.

Your content audit should be equally thorough. Are your messages still relevant to current market conditions? That thought leadership piece about economic uncertainty from February might need refreshing given changing market sentiment. Check your case studies too. Are you still showcasing work that reflects your current capabilities and target client profile?

Finally, assess your return on investment with clear, hard numbers. Can you clearly show what marketing has delivered this year in terms of pipeline value, new client wins, or cross selling opportunities? This exercise is particularly valuable for managing partners or marketing leads who need to report back to the board or justify next quarter’s investment. Having concrete data makes those conversations far more productive.

Stay visible while your competitors go quiet

It’s tempting to assume that no one is paying attention in July and August. But that’s not entirely true. Your clients may actually be more relaxed and receptive during this time, with less day to day firefighting to distract them. Plus, if your competitors have gone quiet, there’s significantly more space for your firm to stand out in a less crowded marketplace.

Here are several low effort, high impact ways to keep your brand front of mind during the summer months:

  • Repurpose your best performing content into digestible formats. Take that comprehensive sector report and break it into a series of quick LinkedIn posts or an infographic carousel. Your audience is more likely to engage with bite sized insights when they’re checking social media on the beach.
  • Send a summer themed email roundup of useful blogs, tools, or regulatory updates. Position this as a helpful resource rather than a sales pitch. Include links to relevant podcasts for holiday listening or brief summaries of key industry developments they might have missed while juggling summer holidays.
  • Share insights from recent client conversations or emerging sector trends in light touch posts. These don’t need to be formal thought leadership pieces. A simple observation about changing client priorities or an interesting question a prospect asked can spark valuable engagement.
  • Consider publishing something more personal from your leadership team. Holiday reading recommendations, reflections on the first half of the year, or Q3 goals can humanise your brand and show the personalities behind the expertise.

The key is consistency rather than intensity. You’re not launching major campaigns but maintaining a steady presence. That way, when decision makers return in September with renewed focus and budget to spend, your name is still fresh in their minds.

Use the time to get ahead on Q4 planning

September and October are often the busiest months for client work and business development as everyone returns from holidays with renewed energy. But if you wait until September to start planning your autumn campaigns, you’ll be playing catch up while trying to juggle increased client demands.

Use July and August to get strategically ahead. Map out content themes through to the end of the year, considering key industry events, regulatory deadlines, or seasonal client challenges. For example, if you’re targeting retail clients, they’ll be thinking about Christmas trading from September onwards. If you work with manufacturing firms, they’ll be focused on year end planning and next year’s budgets.

Build or refine your sector specific campaign plans now. What are the three key messages you want each target sector to hear from you in Q4? How will you deliver these across different channels? Which partners or senior fee earners need to be involved in content creation or client outreach?

Create reusable email and social media templates that can be quickly customised when things get busy again. Draft a series of LinkedIn post formats, email newsletter templates, and client update structures that junior team members can populate with fresh content without needing senior input every time.

This is also an excellent time to test out AI tools that could improve efficiency when momentum picks up later. Experiment with content creation assistants, social media scheduling tools, or CRM automation features while you have time to learn and refine the processes.

Even small strategic tweaks now can make a significant difference when client activity intensifies later in the year.

Bring in fractional or external support to keep things moving

If your marketing director or senior team is away, or if internal capacity is naturally low during summer, this can be a smart time to bring in fractional or consultancy support. A fractional CMO or experienced marketing consultant can lead a focused review project while your permanent team recharges.

Whether it’s a comprehensive performance audit, content refresh, or strategic campaign planning exercise, external support ensures marketing momentum doesn’t stall completely. Fresh eyes can often identify gaps and opportunities that internal teams miss through familiarity with existing approaches.

For firms relying on junior staff to keep marketing ticking over during the summer, this is also an ideal moment to provide them with structured input and strategic guidance. Rather than leaving them to muddle through, invest in some senior consultancy time to give clear direction and frameworks they can follow. This prevents your senior team from being stretched even further while ensuring quality standards are maintained.

Consider specific project focused engagements rather than ongoing retainers. A three week content audit and refresh project, a sector research and positioning exercise, or a competitor analysis and strategic recommendations report can all be completed efficiently during quieter periods.

Summer doesn’t have to be a write off

The quieter months can feel like a natural time to step back from marketing activity. But for firms willing to use this time wisely, it’s also a rare window to catch up, recalibrate, and prepare for a more focused and effective Q4.

Whether you’re conducting a thorough performance review, planning strategically ahead, or maintaining consistent market visibility, the summer slowdown can become a genuine strategic advantage with the right approach and support in place.

The firms that emerge strongest in September are often those that used July and August not as an excuse to coast, but as an opportunity to sharpen their competitive edge while others were looking the other way.

Need help?
If you would like help with your marketing, bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, the UK, and Europe, specialising as a legal marketing consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.


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