[Posted by Kristin Hambelton
Senior Director of Marketing, Neolane, Inc.]

When George Gershwin wrote, “Summertime,” maybe the living truly was easy during July and August (or if your Daddy was rich, and your Mama was good looking).

Clearly, the seasonal slowdown isn’t nearly as great as it was in the past. In fact, we’ve heard from many of our customers that this is one of the busiest Julys they’ve had in years (Harbinger for a continued recovery? I’m knocking wood right now.).

So, marketers, try and use the slowdown (however minute) of the hazy, hot and humid months for a “summer reset.”  As I see it, it’s a handful of strategic and tactical exercises to help you get to better know your top prospects while figuring out how to better reach all of your targets.

As you look ahead to Q4, here are a few questions to help guide your “summer reset”:

Who are your Top 5 prospects?

Maybe they’re on vacation. But now is the time to bolster your knowledge of each of them—go beyond name and title. Find them on LinkedIn people search, look at their latest status updates, and find out what their pain points are. Then, do a full social search on that person or company to learn latest happenings so you can approach them with familiarity. Finally, look at the organizations and associations to which your prospects belong to see if there are any upcoming events at which you can plan to exhibit or attend.

What do your top prospects want to hear?

If summer is quieter for you, it’s likely quieter for your prospects, too. It’s a great time to conduct some primary research—ask them the key questions that can help you with your Q4 and 2011 planning. Some suggestions:

• What would they like to learn about on upcoming Webinars?
• What events are they attending?
• What are their favorite trade publications?

These answers will provide you with key ideas that provide the building blocks for positioning your company and offerings in Q4 and beyond.

Where did these prospects come from?

Let’s look beyond the Top 5 – from where exactly did these prospects come? This is the first step toward figuring out what exactly has worked and what can be improved.

Are there duplicates? Are there duplicates?

This is perhaps my least glamorous suggestion. The “summer reset” is a great time to catch those things you may have missed during “spring cleaning,” like data de-duplication. Do what you can to improve your data quality and give your lists a good scrubbing.

Do you have any “summer reset suggestions”, tips, or tricks? Share them with us we would like to know them.