COVID-19 has massively disrupted just about every aspect of our lives – both at home and in our businesses. Home is now the place for both work and leisure. We’re all glued to our phones and the internet – we’re working, learning, meeting with colleagues, friends, and family, reading the news, seeking entertainment, and shopping online – and business has started to spill over into personal hours. As we start to come out of this crisis and get to leave our homes again, that will continue to shift. But with trends towards online marketing and remote work being accelerated, online resources will continue to play a huge role in our lives.
How we approach marketing has changed dramatically in just a few months. Your clients and prospects are now spending vastly more time on social media and in their email. With engagement on LinkedIn up 55% since the start of this crisis, your presence there is more important than ever. People are looking to engage, but instead of a hard sales pitch, they’re looking for solutions and insight they can use. It’s time to focus on your marketing efforts and building your audience. Several key things are more important than ever right now:
Invest Now
Companies who invest during a recession are the most successful on the other side of it. Don’t wait for that recovery to happen, or you’ll be too late. Everyone else will have a big jump on you. Instead, take a long term view and start focusing right now on the activities that will set you up for success on the other side of this crisis. Marketing is working better than ever right now, but you have to make sure you’re meeting your prospects and clients where they are now instead of waiting for the other side of this recession to get started.
Focus on Building Relationships
In a recession, it’s even harder to get a direct return on advertising. Instead, now is the time to focus on relationship building which will translate into long-term, sustainable growth. Pitching without building a relationship first doesn’t really work anyway, so start building those relationships now. As we’ve seen in the data, marketing that focuses on building a relationship and really connecting with your audience and their needs is incredibly powerful.
Word of Mouth has never been more important.
The initial response during a recession is to pull back, but marketing is more important than ever right now. The data shows that the businesses that foster relationships during this recession and grow word of mouth by providing the right kind of insight-driven content are the ones who are going to perform best in the recession and take full advantage of the recovery. The key during this time is to tailor your marketing to offer insights that match the needs of your audience as we all move forward through this recession. Word of mouth has never been more important and it’s the perfect time to continue to grow it.
It’s Time to Move Online
With trends towards online marketing and remote work growing, now is the time to move your marketing and networking focus online. The hard sales pitch just isn’t effective right now – and honestly, it never was. The most effective way to set yourself up for the other side of this crisis is to build relationships with your prospects and clients. And the best way to do that is through good marketing. Having a strong online presence that leverages online technology to remotely interact and communicate with your audience of clients and prospects will be key to making your marketing more effective and scalable.
All the best,
Bill Bice
Executive Chairman
