Preparing for the Green Shoots of Recovery: How Marketing Must Prepare
I, for one, can see the green shoots of recovery. The economic market has been hit hard by the pandemic we wish to not speak of, with thousands of businesses struggling and relying on government support to stay afloat in uncertain times. But with a back to work strategy almost upon us, what opportunities can be grown out of the shortcomings of many who have suffered the most in the weeks gone by?
There is a strong case to use this time wisely. If ever a business, company, entrepreneur, product, service, or start-up needed to spend time considering and re-thinking a business plan and identity, then this is it. With a ridiculous amount of time on our hands, and with the news that Love Island is postponed for the summer, misuse and mismanagement of the time that has been bestowed upon us would be a heinous crime.
But what to do with this time?
Preparation, preparation, preparation. The UK, nay, the world economy will recover. Although we can expect struggle and strife along the way, the time for fussing and fighting on deciding what strategy path to take is over. This is the time to get the house in order and to prepare for the fight of your life.
A fight? You bet. With a return to work and a return to earning business and consumer money, your competitors will out for blood in their marketing and sales promotions, engaged and directed to win your hard-gained customers with a bold and fresh approach that offers hope and realism when the audience craves it the most. Without a doubt, this is the time to get things right.
Preparing for the Recovery rush
Change is coming. We are fully convinced that business transactions will never be the same and that the end buyer mindset will be judged and acted upon what influences and positive statements they read and see in the media markets. Online reputation and business feedback are now crucial. So, let’s look deeper into what we have:
- Data – the lifeblood of your business. Are preferences correct? Are contacts information updated? Is it GDPR Compliant? What are you waiting for – time to data mine and data cleanse?
- Website – What is your Website Domain Authority score? How do you rank on Google Search? If your site audit up to scratch? How do you measure up in SEO against the competition? So much you are not looking at that can be cleaned in a week.
- Social Media – Who follows your accounts? Have you seen little transaction from standard social posts? What is your social media strategy, and are you going to change it? With more people online and using social as a way of communication, you must be ready.
- Email – What a comeback emailing is now making. One of your must-go-to marketing strategies to help inform and keep your customers updated has been via the trusty medium of emarketing. What is your current open rate? Do you have a CTR target? What lists are you managing? Do you know what email is?!
- Product – One of the critical rules that any business must follow is now more critical than ever. What. Do. You. Sell? What product or service is most relevant now and is going to have the most productive high demand? Think you have something that will not budge? Think again, the economy will recover; your purpose will be renewed.
- Events – Even though you should have done this years ago, the lockdown has seen the surge in going Digital and making your events a truly VR affair. It is time to adapt and make sure you have the right tools and platforms to cope with the demand for showing your products and services.
- Staff – Are they happy? This is the perfect time to take stock of your internal communication strategy and understanding that your business is nothing without the team that bind it and make it work. Do not have an internal communications strategy? Time to release the actual benefits of having happy staff.
Seven key projects to work on right now. The cost? Time heavy, but cash poor – this is the standard in-house action operations that you need to handle and get a grip of.
The Future
Think you have all this covered? Great – time to prepare for the positive, passionate, informative and very, very niche targeted promotional messaging about how we are going to work together to keep business moving and get this economy back on track.
We can; we will; we must do this.