Riding the roller coaster with some brand love

This was originally shared on the Time Well Wasted newsletter - basically where I idea dump on sales and marketing.

So… I’ve been trying to write this email all week. But, like every other business on the planet at the moment, there’s fires to be putting out and marketing plans to be redrawn. So, unfortunately, this went to the back of the pile.

As terrifying as what’s going on across the globe is - I think, as a marketer, there’s also an element of liberation to it.

Hear me out.

All those marketing plans we spent months creating - all burnt to a crisp in a big COVID-19 shaped fire. Markets have slowed. Governments are shaking cash out of those fabled money trees. The world has turned into an immersive black mirror episode. Frankly, it’s bat shit crazy.

But, because all of the playbooks are out of the window, it’s our chance to play with the things we’ve always wanted to. You’ve essentially got a free pass to shoot from the hip.

CEOs and MDs across the planet are going to be all ears when it comes to ideas on bringing in new revenue (this goes for sales and marketing by the way). While there’s likely to be less budgets floating about, bootstrapped and ‘pilot project’ marketing should be coming into its own.

Now is your chance to be trying those new ideas and proposing those ideas the may have been previously been laughed out of the board room.

It’s also the time to be looking at those disruptive projects you shelved because you didn’t want to upset ‘business as usual’. Check out this article on why changing your tech stack in the middle of a crisis is a good idea.

So, here’s where my thinking is.

We’re in for a bumpy, wild ride, economically speaking. The fall out will be huge and long lasting. Things that were unimaginable, may very well happen. It’s going to be a sharp decline, but we should see a bounce at the other end.

For those companies that can tough it out for the next 8 months, we should start to see the markets coming back, albeit in a very changed landscape.

And there’s opportunity in that. The competition will thin, companies may have to lean down, but the end clients will still need your products and services.

But, over the next 8 months, our normal demand generation plays are pretty much shot. Some of it is still ticking over and there’s a huge influx in webinar attendance and people wanting tech stack help - but there is a significant drop in leads coming in.

My plan is to switch to focussing on ‘brand’.

Over the next 6 months, we’ll continue with our inbound activity (if you’re considering backing out of that now, it’s a mistake) but we’ll also be putting far more effort into brand awareness, creating & nurturing relationships and being as helpful as we can in a fluctuating market.

We’ve spent the last two weeks helping with time, knowledge and experience to clients, prospects and other struggling businesses. We’ve helped them explore quick win strategies and discussed how tech can help them now they’re remote.

I’m seeing is an almost karmic like approach to modern marketing.

The plan is, over the next 6 months we’ll strengthen the brand and then when demand gen comes back to the forefront, we’ll be in a much stronger position.

So, what do you think - a bit of brand love the right strategy now?

Rich