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TL;DR You’re going on vacation, and your marketing can go on vacation too. The world will not stop spinning because you didn’t post on LinkedIn for two weeks.
When you read this, I’ll be in the middle of a 10 day trip.
Trust me, this is not a vacation.
It’s most definitely a long trip to visit family, including my two elderly parents. And I’ll be spending far too much time on the Garden State Parkway, New Jersey Turnpike, I-95, and the tangled mess around New York and DC.
In any case, I won’t be working.
(But I’ll likely need a vacation when I get back.)
Before I left, I was very realistic about where to devote my time.
And I have an important message to share regarding:
What to do about marketing while you’re on vacation
I own a marketing agency, and I did not bend myself into a pretzel to make sure marketing continues perfectly.
And I don’t want you to get all pretzel-y either before you leave for own vacation.
The world will not screech to a halt because you didn’t send your monthly newsletter, publish your next blog post, or share witty advice on LinkedIn as usual.
As long as you are otherwise consistent with marketing, a few weeks of silence will not torpedo your reputation. (If you are not consistent, it means you need to outsource the marketing strategy creation and probably the execution. In which case, get in touch.)
This is also true when there’s a family emergency. Marketing can wait.
Here’s what I’m doing – and importantly, NOT doing - while I’m gone.
My email newsletter will go out as usual
Luckily, my monthly newsletter goes out this week, so I just checked it off my task list as usual.
It’s also really short, so it doesn’t take long to write the copy. I send the copy and some formatting direction over to my assistant, Stephanie. She pops it in an email template and sends me a preview. I usually make a couple of edits and schedule it.
(If you don’t have an assistant, get one.)
If your newsletter normally goes out while you’re on vacation and you don’t have time to get to it before you go, DO NOT SWEAT IT.
Take care of it when you get back. No one will notice your newsletter arrives two weeks later than usual.
And by the way, this is one aspect of marketing I wouldn’t skip. Aside from meeting people in person or calling them on the phone, this is the best way to stay top of mind with past clients, prospects, and referral sources.
My blog will take a pause
With a kajillion blog posts already published on my website, only writing one blog post in July (versus two) will not matter to my online visibility.
However, it will impact me in two ways:
I’ll lose out on that content for my weekly LinkedIn post. Not that big of a deal, since I can just write about something else. Maybe a question I was asked during my upcoming personal branding presentation? (Hmm, I like that idea. Gonna add it to my content calendar.)
I’ll have to skip a LinkedIn newsletter. I send these twice a month – a week after each new blog post goes live. Skipping one – especially in the middle of summer – won’t matter.
LinkedIn will not miss me
And frankly, I won’t miss LinkedIn either. So much AI schlock.
Sure, I could schedule the two posts I have in mind for the next two weeks, but then I’d be committing a cardinal LinkedIn sin: posting and ghosting. Nope.
If I really felt the need to maintain a consistent presence on LinkedIn while I was away, I’d work out a plan with my assistant. Not for simply posting. She can handle that.
I mean a plan for how to respond to comments. That’s a lot more nuanced. If I traveled a lot, I’d already have this in place. Again, not gonna sweat it.
I’ll review my website before I sign off
One thing I will absolutely carve out time for before my trip: my website.
Just yesterday, I found some funny code in two blog posts that should not have been there. I’ll be taking a spin around the rest of the pages to ensure there is no more monkey business happening.
And I would also advise you to do the same. Your content marketing may take a pause while you’re gone, but your website is still working hard on your behalf to make a very strong first impression.
Like most small business owners, you probably don’t spend a lot of time on your website. This is a great opportunity to click through the pages and make sure nothing is broken.
Here’s what I’ll be looking for:
· The site and every page loads quickly
· Images and text are not distorted in any way
· All call-to-action buttons work – and take me to the right place
· Forms work
· Error messages (I don’t want to see any!)
Related: Six-Figure Marketing Campaign Built on Just Three Simple Elements