Almost everyone throttles down in summer and then skips weekends on top of it. That is voluntarily giving up a chunk of your pipeline. Here is what the data actually says, and how to keep sending when everyone else stops.

SUMMER. Summer is the season. You cannot use it as an excuse, you have to send. It will be slower, so mine the out-of-office replies. Scrape the OOO signatures for phone numbers and alternate contacts. That is valuable data most people delete. The rule is simple: if you are getting more OOO replies, send more emails to hit the same number of results. Do the expectation-setting with clients up front and compensate with volume when it is slow.

HOLIDAYS. Cold email still works over holidays, and every single year we get leads through them. The trick to avoid spam marks is to make the email sound human. Greet them and acknowledge the day ("working on a Christmas weekend"). People reply and book during holidays, so send through them.

WEEKENDS. Send business as usual, because nothing about the weekend changes how you run. We ran the data analysis over a 16-week test: Saturday and Sunday combined were the 2nd-highest positive-reply period, beating four other weekdays combined. Most agencies skip weekends because "no work gets done on the weekend." We keep weekend-only backup staff plus a core team, and the weekends print.

FILLED EXAMPLE (a human holiday opener):

"Happy to be working through the holiday weekend, so figured I'd reach out while it's quiet. Quick one for you..." and then you go straight into the normal relevant angle for that segment.

YOUR TURN (10 minutes): Build your counter-seasonal plan.

• OOO mining: where will you capture phone numbers and alternate contacts from bounce/OOO replies? ______________________ • Summer volume adjustment: if OOO replies double, how much do you increase sends? ______________________ • Holiday opener: write one human greeting line you can drop in: ______________________ • Weekend coverage: who monitors positive replies on Saturday and Sunday? ______________________

KEY TAKEAWAY: Over a 16-week test, Saturday and Sunday combined were the 2nd-highest positive-reply window, beating four weekdays combined. Skipping weekends is skipping your second-best days.

You now have the full system: how to slice the TAM, how to decide what to keep, how to nurture a small market, and how to keep sending when everyone else quits.