Emerging from Covid-19 lockdown with strength

As lockdown measures in the UK have been further eased from this week, I thought I’d summarise some of the hot marketing agenda items currently being discussed and what to focus on now to put you in prime position when the economy picks up. 

As various economic updates have highlighted, including from Statista and PWC earlier this month, for those businesses suffering right now, there’s likely to be a spike in spending as lockdown restrictions are eased and this ‘pent-up’ spending could be released in Q3/4 before normal levels return. Therefore, this is the best time to get your house in order and review your marketing and the technology you employ to engage with prospective and existing clients.

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited to virtual webinars/workshops/conferences with credible thought leaders and Covid-19 was naturally referred to in every session, but as Adam Oldfield, from Force24 summed up well in the MarketingSHOWCASE Online conference, the best approaches you can take do not align with the pandemic, rather with the opportunities while you sympathise with the pandemic. Three key underlying themes can be summarised as:

1. Maintain marketing spend, to gain a greater share of voice when others have pulled back.
2. Keep engaged with clients to build those long-lasting relationships, while looking after your own people who in turn look after your clients.
3. Invest in technology, and not necessarily to get back to BAU but to capitalise on new opportunities arising from the pandemic.

1. Maintain marketing spend, to gain a greater share of voice when others are pulling back

At the minute advertising costs have plummeted e.g. Facebook Ads, which is already one of the cheapest form of advertising, would usually cost you on average ￡5 to reach 1,000 users, is now just under half that, according to Nick Boddington at Let's Run Social. Which, when you think about the increased use of social media over the past few months, may well be an opportunity not to miss.

Whether you decide to take advantage of this will very much depend on your own strategy, Andy Smith from Corpdata, highlighted that we are not in a normal recession and there may be unforeseen challenges as well as market opportunities unique to your business. You may decide to hibernate (saving cash now) or invest (potential lower ROI now, but longer-term gains).

If we are looking at a spike between July & December, then it is very likely people will be weighing up their options of where best to spend their money now. In saying that, don't get blinkered by the latest marketing fads or deviate from your core brand ethos in marketing, get back to basics with your core 4/7 Ps to ensure your strategy is right for your client base. Also, when it come to your brand – which is what you want people to remember when the economy picks up – Sean Masters, at Brand Clear has a key messaging tool that gets you to think about the following themes, especially when producing marketing content:

• What you do (your value proposition)
• Why you do (purpose of your business)
• What matters to people (outcomes desired by your audience)

Charlotte Nichols of Harvey & Hugo PR highlighted a few companies that have been getting it right, going back to the above point about sympathising with the pandemic and how our lives have been affected because of it. E.g. Brewdog launching their ‘Barnard Castle’ IPA; Pret A Manger: who had negative press relating to allergy food labelling, were praised for offering free drinks to NHS workers; and Barbour making PPE for local hospitals.

2. Client engagement, while looking after your own people

During a workshop, ‘What Legal and Tech Businesses Have in Common?’ Sucheet Amin at Lavatech wisely said not to be afraid to check in with all your clients as much as possible; they may well be suffering a lot of pain and be very busy right now, but that’s even more of a reason to share your experiences through the pandemic. Additionally, we have all heard that by looking after your own people they will, in turn, want to go that extra mile for clients.

Once businesses get through this current turmoil they will remember those suppliers/partners who took an interest and shared that pain.

Remote working during the lock-down restrictions has seen a change in how we communicate and an influx of subscriptions to online collaboration tools and other technologies to engage both with clients and staff. In addition to the video conference solutions (Zoom, Skype, Teams etc.)... many marketing teams have started, or increased, the frequency of recorded videos and e-newsletter updates; all of which are likely to continue to some degree – as many businesses are consulting with their people on their appetite for more flexible working practices post-pandemic.

The challenge with implementing new processes/procedures/technology is cultural change – whether to staff and/or clients; therefore, clearly communicate the benefits and impacts; provide training notes (even Zoom was a daunting prospect to my father… and after a few simple pointers he’s now hooked); and allocate a champion for the roll-out of new technology. There is a useful article on digitalisationworld.com with tips on taking people with you on a digital transformation journey.

From a data perspective, some clients may no longer be around or have changed in some way and contacts within some organisations may have been made redundant or changed roles. You need to think about cleansing your databases, especially if you undertake a lot of direct marketing. And if you do need to replace lost clients by acquiring new data to target, ensure you do so in compliance with the Data Protection Act, including evidencing how permission was sought to use the data in the way you intend. The ICO has an information hub to help businesses during Covid-19.

3. Invest in technology to capitalise on new opportunities arising from the pandemic

As touched on above, regarding remote working, the cloud and SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms, online collaboration tools and virtual teams have been considered and adopted by many businesses to get through the past few months. The pandemic has arguably accelerated the adoption of these technologies – giving us everything we need to work from home in 2020 and beyond, where the long-term benefits of this style of working far outweigh the negatives.

But what is less obvious? The answer, like with online collaboration tools, isn’t necessarily a brand new ‘shiny piece of tech’, there are plenty of marketing tools out there that can drive more marketing activity more efficiently, and when coming out of a slump you need to utilise what is already available to do more impactful marketing with less resource (whether that be budget or man-power).

The adoption of marketing automation software has been a strategy to increase the scale, accuracy and impact of your marketing and sales communications – freeing up staff time on repetitive tasks, while achieving personalisation on a mass scale and improved ROI. Due to these advantages, according to PR Newswire, the global marketing automation market size is expected to grow from an estimated value of USD 3.3 billion in 2019 to USD 6.4 billion by 2024. Some of the well-known brands in this space include HubSpot, Pardot and Marketo and come with a pricey subscription fee; however, weigh up the staff savings, improved acquisition & conversion of new leads and client retention rate against these costs. If difficult to predict, ask for client case studies, speak to their clients or any businesses you know who use automation tools to assess your potential ROI.

Most leading marketing automation providers will also provide free guidance and training. For example, Adam Oldfield, from Force24 has a step-by-step messaging framework for that ‘killer idea’:

• Introduce your marketing campaign (what it is and benefits)
• Social proof (client case studies)
• Gain (further encourage incl. outlining benefits again)
• Fear (of missing out)
• Logic (summary of the above)
• Loss/urgency (importance to act now)

One final consideration is the increasing desire to consume and buy digitally. Again, not a new trend, but think about the increased use of the likes of Netflix and Amazon over the past few months. People are even more comfortable engaging online and there is a growing expectation to communicate and buy online when and wherever they are 24/7.

Sucheet Amin at Lavatech, owner of a legal practice, saw an increase of clients seeking updates and information relating to their case (even when all was on track), so he decided to create mobile app, InCase for law firms that allows their clients to see exactly where their case is up to, receive instant notifications on milestones, have all correspondence at their fingertips and more.

Your business may have implemented numerous new systems & processes over recent years and at significant cost to improve your business behind the scenes, but how tangible and visible are they to your prospective and current clients; and what can you adopt/create to make it easier and more convenient for them to do and keep doing business with you?