Everyone is always talking about how summertime is the time of year when you get to kick back and relax, but not if you're in charge of marketing! Getting your marketing mojo together and keeping yourself out there is just as hot of a topic during the summer as it is at any other time of year. Just to help you out a bit, we put together a few ideas to keep your summer marketing as cool and delicious as an ice cream cone.

1) Giveaways: If your business lends itself to doing a summer giveaway, go for it. Own an ice cream truck? Get on social media and give away a free cone or two to a lucky follower who answers a trivia question correctly or is the first to reply to your post. Social media is a great way to reach out and get some attention. Side benefit: it's FUN!

2) Throw a party: Whether it's a chowder cook off or a 5K, hosting a fun summer event is a great way to get your name out there. Don't forget to really get the word out though because you don't want just 5 people to show up at your 5K. Radio ads, billboards, flyers, Internet and Facebook ads are all fantastic ways to reach all sorts of folks wherever they are.

3) Sponsor an event: This isn't the same thing as throwing a party. Sponsoring a popular event (like a music festival for example) means showing your support and getting your logo to appear on the collateral for the event. On the day of the event, you can send a representative there with some branded swag to hand out.

4) Branded Swag: beach balls with your name on and logo on them, towels, golf balls, tennis balls…you get the idea. Whatever type of item makes sense for you to give away, stick your logo on it and give it out to clients for a little free advertising. When they bring that branded towel to the beach, lots of eyes are going to see it and that's what you want! This branded swag is also great to use if you're throwing a party or sponsoring an event.

5) Summer email newsletter: People love hearing about your news and events via email. Do you own a wine shop and you're hosting a tasting this summer? Put that in your newsletter and just watch the people come rolling in for your event. Plan several throughout the summer and keep folks informed. Include some other fun stuff in that newsletter too like a behind the scenes story or a quick "how to." You know your customers, so give them what they like and lots of it!

6) Social media photo or caption contests: All you need to do to know that people love to share photos is log onto Facebook for 15 seconds. They are everywhere, so why not leverage that natural motivation to run a photo contest? The winner of the contest could get a coupon or a free service. You could even have a caption contest where people can compete to come up with the best caption for a photo you post yourself. There's a lot of potential to have a good time with this one. Imagination and engagement are key.

These are just a few things that you can do to keep your summer marketing heat cranked up high. What kinds of summer marketing strategies have you tried in the past that you've found to work well, GLAD WORKS friends?