With a UK-wide enforced lockdown, pretty much overnight, everything had to change; For business leaders, this meant having to be more agile than ever before, as they reshaped their business strategies and operations, employee communications, technology capabilities, and business crisis and continuity plans. Transformation plans set to take years took place over a matter of a few days. No business has been left untouched by the effects of COVID-19. Like in any crisis, there are lessons to be learnt. Here, I consider what these should be and shares guidance on what leaders can do to succeed.
With the future still uncertain, it’s time for businesses to truly reflect on the lessons they have the learnt over the last few months (more than 100 days!), to strive to fix the holes they’ve discovered in their strategies, and navigate the changes in buyer behaviour. Things are not the same, and so plans and tactics from before lockdown are likely to be relevant and outdates, and so should not stay the same.
There are two main areas where businesses need to focus and invest, and they go hand in hand:
- Improving and investing in your marketing strategy and communication
- Rebuilding and generating new business.
Improve and invest in your marketing strategy and communication
1. Keep it human
Despite companies spending millions of pounds on customer relationship management (CRM) tools, in an age of social media, Zoom calls and AI, we can often be further away from our clients than ever. Now is the time to share the human element of your brand , as well as your story. Engage people and keep your content honest and real; from case studies demonstrating the work you do, through to client interviews and video content. If there was ever a time to reassess how your brand relates to customers, it’s now.
2. Be creative
It is estimated that individuals are hit with 10,000 marketing messages every day – but probably don’t remember even 1%. With so much content out there, brands need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. You need to cut through a saturated environment and make sure that your brand is seen and heard. This is where creative marketing comes in, but for it to work, you must engage your audience with informative, useful, and memorable content, which is relevant to your audience. Putting out content for the sake of it will not work when there are so many other businesses out there that are competing for attention. The idea of imaginative marketing is to communicate with your target market using innovative methods that will make you the ‘go-to business’ in your sector, so apply this in order to remain creative
3. Maximising a multi-channel approach
The more your brand is ‘out there’, the more likely people are to find you and remember you when they see you again. This is key for those businesses that don’t need you right now (such as law firms) – when they hit a problem and need a solution, then you’ll spring to mind straight away! In order to maximise your approach though, you have to be consistent in your message across all the channels, from infographics, videos, blogs, and newsletters, to social media and emails. Using a multi-channel approach will give you the breadth you need to reach a wide audience - according to Lead Forensics (descriptor?), businesses using four or more digital channels will outperform those using single or dual channels by a whopping 300%. However, it’s the consistency and frequency of your message that will aid your conversion.
Rebuilding and generating new business
1. Reassess your strategy and customer needs
Organisations will need to ensure their new strategic plan is flexible, as it is likely that in the post-COVID environment, there may be less stability so having a plan that can quickly adapt to and embrace change will enable a business to flourish. A good plan is a great way of achieving a long-term goal based on the facts presenting today; a great plan recognises that the future is unclear and builds flexibility in as a result. By re-evaluating your customers’ needs and desires post-COVID, businesses can adapt their strategy to tweak services and products to address these critical elements.
2. Focus on retention
Did you know it’s five times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it is to retain an existing one? Retention is the new acquisition, so loyal customers will be key. Whilst it may be natural to push all your efforts into acquiring new customers, it’s extremely important to make sure you are servicing existing customers. Think about cross-selling opportunities when identifying customers’ needs and ways in which you can support them in a post-pandemic world.
3. Invest and increase market-share
Many companies competing for your customers’ attention will reduce their marketing spend during an economic downturn, in order to save money. That objective of doing certainly makes sense, but stopping marketing at a time you need to maintain visibility and customer engagement really does have the potential to damage the bottom line more. Now is the time to double down on your own marketing efforts and take advantage of a ‘quieter’ marketplace.
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