Summertime means long, sunny days, lots of vacation time, and clients seeming to be MIA for months on end. But before you know it, fall will be here. The Tuesday after Labor Day always seems to kick everyone back into high gear, and before you know it, all those MIA clients will be emailing and calling with long to-do lists and ideas. It’s why you need to have a plan, and why summer is the perfect time for a communications reset.
Doing some strategic realignment in the summer months, experimenting with new messaging and ideas, and doing a solid audit of what’s working and what’s not means your communications plans will be in a solid place heading into the end of the year. Whether it’s shifting campaign priorities, reevaluating your social media channels’ performance, or taking a look at your core messaging, doing the work now means you can be ahead of the game when everyone kicks back into high gear come September.
Start with the Audit & Revisit Your Comms Plan
You probably kicked off January with a full blown comms plan with top priorities, tactics, and goals. Seven months later – where did that all land? Are the goals you set out at the beginning still applicable, or did they shift? Did you find some of your original tactics didn’t land quite how you wanted, so now is the time to pivot?
Doing a deep dive and refamiliarizing yourself with all you planned at the start of 2026 means you can make adjustments to keep you gaining wins for the rest of the year.
Experiment
Fewer eyeballs on your message over the summer does have some benefits. It can mean less pressure, and provides a great time to experiment.
Are there some ways you’re hoping to expand your audience on a new social media platform? Shift from SEO strategies to improving your AI search results algorithms? Maybe you want to target new audiences or do some message testing.
Whatever it is, refreshing some tactics and trying some new things now could pay big dividends in Q3 and Q4.
But remember – now is also a great time to double down on the tactics and messaging that have shown strong results in the first half of the year too!
Put Together a Fall Editorial Calendar
Mapping out your editorial priorities and list of hooks heading into the second half of the year can put you ahead of the curve.
Working with parents or educators? Make sure you’re ready with back to school messaging that’s ready to pitch in August and early September.
Have agricultural clients? How is their work or products contributing to a Thanksgiving meal? That would be a great feature on morning shows or an opinion editorial.
Think about and map out what is coming up this fall so you have ideas to bring to the client month by month. Preparing early means you can beat your competition to the punch.
Now is the Time to Get Ahead
Slower summers are fantastic for getting out and enjoying sunshine. Especially in the Midwest, we have to take advantage of such a short season! But it’s also a time to be strategic.
While media stories fly under the radar, while your clients take extended vacations, and while so much slows down this time of year, being savvy about a summer communications reset will put you in a great position to win at comms this fall.
-Chelsea Thompson, Vice President of Public Affairs