Lockdown Marketing Essentials – 10 straightforward Sales & Marketing actions you can take right now to improve results both during and long after lockdown.
Well, we’re all back in lockdown – home schooling has become the norm (again), most of us are now expert “Zoomers” and “What’s for dinner?” seems to be the highlight of the daily conversation. Aside from the day to day of it all, many business owners are looking intently at how to sure up their own organisations to weather or even thrive in these difficult times.
At the end of 2020 we wrote about the impact that COVID-19 was having on Sales and Marketing teams across the UK and how to pivot your Digital Marketing to respond to massive change. Since then we launched our hugely popular “Free Digital Help Sessions” and one of the primary topics (unsurprisingly) has been Lockdown and what businesses can be doing right now to impact change.
In the spirit of sharing then we’re pleased to bring you 10 Lockdown Marketing essentials, 10 straightforward actions you can implement right now to help your business grow and thrive.
1. Get to know your Customers (again)
2. Brush up your Remarketing
3. Geographical Targeting
4. Get Real with your Creative
5. Embrace Social
6. Take SEO Seriously
7. Start a Referal Program
8. Focus on Feedback & Reviews
9. Cut out wastage
10. Get Automated
When things are going well it can all too easy to focus on new business at the expense of an existing customer base. Loyal, established customers that were with you long before any of us had even heard of COVID-19 can feel neglected and unloved, as well as unsure. Take the opportunity to pick up the phone to long standing customers to both reassure them and really understand how you can help them during these times. Even if you did this during the first lockdown a simple phone call from you can be really powerful.
If your customer base is on purely online try targeted, personalised emails that let people know your strategy. You’re not giving away trade secrets but rather ensuring that your customers know you care about them and that can go a long way.
If you don’t do any Remarketing then now is the time to start! Studies have shown that consumers and business buyers are more cautious in their purchasing decisions and are “shopping around” for the best deal. That could mean that at least some of those site visits that didn’t convert could still be in the market for your products and services. A simple display remarketing strategy will help you convert as many of your site visits into customers as possible, by reminding buyers of your brand (subtly of course). The best part? Remarketing costs are super cheap compared to Paid Search because they’re your visitors so get cracking with it today.
If you’re already using remarketing as part of your plan then take the time to review your creative and messaging. Get super sharp on why you, why your product or service – it’s competitive out there so make sure you stand out.
This is one of our favourites and one that you can implement (or ask your team to implement) right away. Typically most PPC activities will include some level of geographic targeting, regions, postcodes etc which is fine when your audience are in the office….Houston we may have a problem here.
As we’re all largely working from home traditional geographic targeting may leave you cutting out some of your key audiences. Rather than throw your geo-targeting out of the window look at relaxing it in favour of additional demographics; income, age and parental status can all be layered into PPC pretty quickly.
At the start of the first lockdown many businesses chose to adopt a “wait and see” style approach to their marketing, not ignoring what was going on but not reacting quickly either. The jury is out on which brands are getting in right this time round but what we are seeing is a more sensitive, authentic voice across advertising. Of course, no-one (us included) want to hear any more bad news but making out like everything is hunky dory just won’t cut it. Take a look at your own messaging and put yourself in your customers shoes, how well would it resonate with you? Today?
Social use is up across the board, according to Statista 44% of us are spending more time on Social Media which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for businesses during lockdown and beyond.
Many Business Owners and Marketing Leaders that we speak to struggle to get real value from Social. Getting the mix of engagement right can be a long haul to actually generate revenue from Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok or any other platform. If this sounds like you then Social should be your number one Lockdown Marketing essential. As well as generating huge brand awareness, Social platforms (executed well) can be a key channel to generating revenue. Take a look at our Social Media for SME’s blog to get started or give us a call today
Organic Search Optimisation (SEO) has always been a long-term strategy. Earning and owning your top spot positions can be hard fought and hard won but can save you £££’s in paid PPC spend if you can get it right. If we’re talking about Marketing Essentials for today then why is this so important? Well, glad you asked. SEO is a long game and needs love, care and attention to compete for key terms, it can also take time to see results. Keyword Grouping or Keyword Clustering is a highly effective strategy to own your target terms and a great place to start. Whilst we’re in lockdown then take a look at some of our favourite Keyword grouping tools to start building your own SEO plan for the future.
Simple! Only kidding…A good referral program can be a lifeline for businesses during difficult times but can be tricky to implement, especially if it’s your first time. Getting the right mix of value to your customers and value to you is often a stumbling block to success. Many businesses feel that they need to include huge giveaways or financial kick-backs to be effective. In some cases they can be useful but the primary reason that buyers refer other buyers is that they’ve had a great experience with you. As part of your Marketing Essentials focus on simple actions that let your happy customers share their experience with others, simple email footers or share buttons can be just as effective as a big reward.
Word of mouth is one of the most powerful tools any business owner has in their toolbox. You, like us, trust friends and colleagues way more than any advertising slogan and feedback can be a powerful weapon in any market. Review tools like Trustpilot, Feefo and Capterra are great for capturing positive reviews but can be pricey to implement. Google has a free tool to capture reviews in your Google My Business account, simply request a review via a short URL and they are automatically added next to your Business in search results. Check it out here.
Like all things generating reviews seriously can take focus and time as well as support from your team, many businesses incentivize their team to collect reviews as a key part of their strategy. As one of your Marketing Essentials try talking to your customers and team about their thoughts for reviews and use lockdown to build a solid plan.
Wastage can happen anywhere – right under your nose – Lockdown can be a great opportunity to take an objective look at unnecessary costs across your business and specifically within Marketing & Sales. Focus on the key activities and especially those that actually generate revenue – often Marketing teams can get side-tracked creating one off’s that don’t contribute to the wider goal, make sure everything you’re doing is 100% focused – even if it’s on a long-term goal.
Wastage doesn’t just mean yours or your teams time – wasted ad spend is double problem. Take the time to review your targeting across all of your advertising platforms, Search & Social, be ruthless with what is and isn’t working and reset your demographics during lockdown.
Marketing Automation, Sales Automation & Process Automation – all areas that you can have a massive impact on during lockdown. You may not be ready for full blown automation across the board but there are some big areas that can save you serious money quickly.
Simple steps like ensuring your leads are automatically added to your CRM (which saved one business a whopping £25,000) or building a simple nurture to welcome new customers can be done relatively quickly and will last long after lockdown is finished.
If you’re new to Marketing automation it can seem a bit of a black hole, where do you start? Which nurtures should you build? A good Marketing Automation Platform will help you nurture customers based on their needs and could give you a long-lasting sales boost in the process.
As we look towards the end of this lockdown none of us know what the future will bring or how far reaching the consequences of COVID-19 will be for businesses across all sectors. What we do know is that a well-oiled, performance led Marketing Team or Agency will always help you maintain a competitive edge regardless of the market.
If there’s anything we can help you from with Marketing Essentials to Sales Growth we’d love to hear from you – get in touch today.
Posted by Helen Brookes on Sunday 24th January 2021
