Forget summer ready, it’s all about getting September ready

By Lynsey Barry:

The summer holidays may still be a few weeks away but now is exactly the right time to start thinking about September.

In my 25-year career in PR, I've never known a quiet September. Every year brings a flurry of launches, funding announcements, events, awards deadlines and that familiar rush towards year-end.

For B2B tech companies in particular, September marks the start of a busy run up to Christmas. Journalists return from leave, events season ramps up, budgets come under scrutiny and everyone wants to finish the year strongly.

The good news? There's still time to get ahead.

Rather than waiting until everyone's out of office, use the next few weeks to take stock, pressure-test your plans and make sure you're set up for a strong second half of the year.

Here are five tips (plus a bonus one) for getting your comms ready:

1. Take a step back

If experience has taught me one valuable thing, it's this: once you're in the thick of delivering campaigns, securing approvals and chasing spokespeople, it becomes much harder to see the bigger picture.

Use the summer months to think about what you're trying to achieve before the end of the year and, importantly, why.

Are your planned announcements aligned to business goals? Are you targeting the right audiences? Is there a stronger story to tell?

September gets busy quickly, so use the time now to make sure you're focusing on the things that will have the greatest impact.

2. Be selective

Is everything in your comms and marketing plan newsworthy? Does it all need to be pitched to the media?

The answer is probably not.

With journalists receiving hundreds of pitches every week and AI-generated content flooding inboxes, competition for attention is tougher than ever.

What genuinely deserves media outreach? What would be better suited to your website, LinkedIn channel or customer communications?

A smaller number of well-executed stories will almost always outperform a packed calendar of average ones.

3. Review and refresh

Once you've taken that step back, review your plans for the remainder of the year.

With your new perspective, does everything still make sense? Have priorities shifted? Are there industry events, customer announcements or product milestones that should take precedence?

Identify the activities that absolutely cannot move and build everything else around them.

Future you will be grateful when Q4 starts throwing unexpected opportunities and challenges your way.

4. Save the dates

Autumn events season shows no sign of slowing down.

Whether you're planning customer events, executive roundtables, analyst briefings or media gatherings, diaries will fill up quickly once September arrives.

If you're planning events for the autumn, now is the time to get those save-the-dates drafted and ready to go before calendars start filling up.

Securing a slot in people's diaries now can make all the difference when competing invitations start landing later in the year.

5. October isn’t just for Halloween

Just a reminder that not everything has to happen in September.

In fact, some of the best campaigns launch in October and November when the initial post-summer rush has subsided. Journalists have settled back into their routines, audiences are paying attention again and you may find more space to tell your story.

So, if September is looking crowded, don't be afraid to spread activity across the autumn months.

A well-timed campaign will always outperform a rushed one.

5. Bonus tip: Get your spokespeople ready

The strongest stories in the world won't land if your spokespeople aren't ready to support them.

Use the summer to think about who you'll need front and centre in the second half of the year.

Are they media trained? Do they have clear points of view on the topics that matter to your industry? Are they building visibility on LinkedIn and contributing to the conversations your customers care about?

With AI making content easier to produce than ever, authentic expert insight is becoming even more valuable. Journalists, analysts and buyers are all looking for perspectives they can't get from a chatbot.

A little preparation now can make a huge difference when opportunities start landing in September.

It might only be June, but the end of the summer will be here before we know it. The teams that use the next few months to plan, prioritise and prepare are usually the ones that have the strongest finish to the year.

After all, getting summer ready is easy. Getting September ready is where the real value lies.