How do you keep posting fresh content during the summer months on auto-pilot?
The school bell rings, and it’s the sweetest sound you’ve heard all year. That’s it! It’s done! The school year is over and it’s the summer holiday!!!!!
Remember that feeling? Absolutely glorious right? Knowing that you have almost 3 months of fun in the sun. No responsibilities. No homework. Just doing what you want to do.
And then you grew up. Became a responsible adult. Had a couple of kids, maybe even start your own business, and that all went out the window. Forget being able to take Tuesday afternoon off just because you want to head down to the beach and have ice cream all day. Heavens forbid if you wanted to take a 2-week vacation with your family and not have to bring your laptop with you.
Any of this sound familiar?
Wouldn’t it be great if you could put your business on autopilot? Or at the very least the client attraction element of your business? After all, you’re in the travel industry! Your job is to help other people with their holidays for a living…. you should be able to enjoy a getaway as well. And I’m not talking about a fam trip where you visit 20 hotels over the period of 3 days and then go back to your room and reply to emails until 2 AM. I’m talking about a bona fide holiday, and here’s how it can be done.
Let me preface by saying it’s not going to magically happen, and that it will take some prep work from your side. But I promise, come to the end of it you will be able to chill out this summer and still have a successful business you are not chained to.
“So, what’s going to happen?” I hear you ask. Quite simply, we’re going to relieve the stress and time you spend creating content for your social media and email marketing campaigns. Remember, you’re not the only one who wants downtime during the summer, your customers do as well. So they probably won’t be glued to their emails and phones as much as they would be the rest of the year (and neither should you).
But the content machine still needs to be fed. You haven’t been working your butt off for the last 6 months creating consistent posts on social media and sending out monthly newsletters to drop the ball now and then have to start all over from scratch in September.
That also doesn’t mean you need to re-invent the wheel and break your brain trying to come up with “new” ideas. You just need to keep it fresh and relevant. And here are my 4 tips on getting started:
Your greatest hits: Just think about it this way… summer is when we all love a banger of a song. And the same goes for your content. Check out your blog analytics, social media insights, email metrics, podcasts plays, youtube views. All of these can easily be repurposed.
Whether you are turning a podcast into an email sequence; Blog into IGTV; YouTube video into social media posts and carousels the possibilities are endless.
Your greatest hits or most popular content are clearly what your audience is interested in, so give them more of that - just in a different format that is easily digestible and memorable.
Stay ahead of the curve: Just like the fashion industry you need to be working on next season. Did you know most people book their next trip while they are currently on a trip? Start giving them food for thought and ideas of where they can go next, once the summer is over. What a great time to start planning for the fall break or even the holiday season.
Automation: This is key! And this is where the hard work comes in, but also pays off. For you to be able to just let this run on autopilot you’re going to need to do the work in advance. Yes, that means getting at least one month if not 2 months worth of content ready…. now! That’s where a content calendar comes in handy (and you can download one here if you don’t already have one). But you’ll also need publishing tools to make sure your blogs go live and then get dripped out to your social media networks.
For the past couple of months, I’ve been using a tool called Missing Lettr to turn my blog posts into social media campaigns for platforms I am not actively posting on (psst its Linkedin and Facebook). This means I don’t have to worry about creating posts to lead traffic to my blogs on these platforms. The best part is…. you can schedule out a year’s worth of posts! And you can also find relevant content to share alongside. For more information on how Missing Lettr can help you click here and start a 14-day free trial (or click here to try out their Pro plan and Curate for 30 days for just $5).*
You can also use Later.com to schedule out your social media posts or use the Canva scheduler - these are both great options.
Outsource: If you just don’t know where to start or don’t have the time to get it all set up now, you can always outsource this task to a content repurposing expert (like me 😉). The beauty of this service is that you provide me with your favorite pieces of content and I wave my magic wand and deliver to you ready to post content - so that all you have to do is uploading to your favorite scheduling tools.
Easy peasy, right? By setting up your online business in a way that runs on autopilot you will have that free time you’ve been filling up with busywork. Go on! What’s stopping you from having the best summer you’ve had since 2019? Get ready to chill out and still make money. And even better still be able to grow your business while you enjoy frozen margaritas.
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission.
