Right now, you don’t even have to wonder about where to connect with people. We’re all home and we’re all online. Your prospects and clients are looking for ways to be social, to connect with others, to learn new things, or even to distract themselves from everything that is going on. People are more engaged than ever, and that means that your messaging has a greater possibility of being heard than ever before.
Many companies are pulling back on their marketing budgets. But businesses who put more time and effort into marketing during this time are seeing a lot more connections, higher click-thru rates, and deeper engagement than their previous successful marketing campaigns. Marketing is working better than ever right now. If you put the effort into doing more marketing and doing it well, it will reach further than before, with less competition and more attention. We’re experiencing the perfect storm of getting your message out.
Your Audience Is On Social Media
Your clients and prospects are spending a lot of time trying to stay connected with friends and family during social distancing. All the data is showing that your audience is on social media. LinkedIn engagement is up 55% right now and Facebook use is up 70%. Those people are looking to connect, to communicate, and to learn, and they are more engaged than ever.
Engaging with your prospects and clients via email and social media is also working better than ever. For example, from a connection campaign on LinkedIn, we would traditionally see 6-8% of those new connections turn into a conversation. But right now on LinkedIn, we’re seeing rates of 15-18% of connections turning into conversations. It shows how much more engaged people are and how much opportunity there is.
Focus on Marketing
People are home and they’re online in new ways. Mobile use is down as people are using their desktops more. People are looking to connect and they’re looking to support and grow valuable relationships. Today, it’s more about marketing than it is about sales. People are seeking out more and better information and they’re turning to trusted resources for that help – not for a sales pitch. Pitching on LinkedIn doesn’t really work until you develop the relationship. It’s the last thing you should do and that’s even more true during this crisis. It’s so much more effective to share your expertise, help people, and keep building those relationships. That is what turns into sales opportunities down the road.
If you put your resources into marketing today that investment will pay off tremendously for the future of your company. You’ll see higher engagement rates right now, and will be building a bigger, more engaged audience to talk with on the other side of this crisis which will drive an increase in sales long-term.
Keep Following the Data
As always, keep following the data. And the data we’re seeing is compelling. With email marketing and social media, we’re seeing higher engagement, and greater open rates and click-through rates. If you have something to say, now is the time to put it out there and say it.
For example, one of our clients in real estate sent an email to their existing list when things were shutting down. They thought they were going to go out of business and sent an email offering their expertise. That email generated a 65% click-through rate. We often see that sort of rate with a nurturing campaign to follow up with brand new prospects when they’re very engaged at the beginning, but we rarely see it with just a general email to your overall audience.
People are sharing things more than ever before as well, further demonstrating that if you create unique insight-driven content, your audience will share it and help you continue to grow. We’re seeing that with another one of our clients in the education space. They help educators, and now is a great time to be communicating with educators and setting yourself up as a resource for them – which is what they’ve been doing. They’re seeing much higher open rates and click-through rates, and that’s translating into greater traffic on their website. People are sharing their content and it’s driving more visitors to the site and growing their email list. They’re seeing an increase in website traffic of 125%.
The story is always the same even though the source of the crisis may be different. Businesses that really focus during this period and take advantage of the recession in order to grab market share are always the strongest companies on the other side. If you’re in a position where you can take advantage of this, you have to. Right now, the best way to do that is to engage with your audience through marketing.
All the best,
Bill Bice
CEO
