Rebuild marketing momentum for a fast start

Regardless of our concerns about the pandemic and subsequent waves, it’s important to start laying the foundation for the next 6 months. This means investing in marketing and communicating to customers now. There is no good time to start, and if your brand wants to remain relevant, aiming for a fast start is good medicine.

For many brands and marketing teams, 2020 is close to an end. We are still grappling with the pandemic and its far-ranging impact on everything from office operations, re-evaluation of business models and the type of brand stories that matter to customers still overwhelmed with change.

Take heart!

Remember that your company survived a lock-down in one of the toughest situations we have collectively met. It is time to take stock of your assets, resources, and start to recover with a view to grow.

During this period, it is important to be more visible than ever, to your customers, partners, and supply chain.

Being clear about your objectives, outcomes and roadmap puts you ahead of the game. Clarity provides space to plan and position your brand for opportunities that will come up.

Here is our perspective on the next steps to take, to focus on business and marketing over the next 6 months.

What are your objectives and outcomes? Decide on them, for the medium term and importantly for the next 6 months.

What would be a positive outcome for your business by March 2021?

With objectives and outcomes in place (we recommend using OKRs to plan them), it’s time to build a roadmap on getting to them. Are you looking for revenue, profit or to scale up?

Each objective requires a different path and set of tools to get you there.

Once you are satisfied with your roadmap, that is when the magic can start. Each stop or milestone in your map requires a specific set of things to happen. It might require collaboration with your partners, or to launch a new product catering to customers.

Keep in mind, customers have changed their preferences since the pandemic happened. This means you cannot assume they respond to the same triggers as before.

Do some research about your customers. How have they changed and adapted since the beginning of 2020?

Use the data collected to revise your business and marketing plans. This is when you can choose to scale back objectives if necessary.

Winning 2020 will not be about whether you kept as much as possible to your 2019 plan. It will be about how you set your business up for 2021.

With objectives, outcomes, roadmap and an updated business or marketing plan, you can start by focusing on quick wins. We suggest the following wins to get the momentum going.

Be visible - This starts by determining whether you have the foundation to communicate with your customers and partners. This can be through formats such as email, or digital events.

Be digital - If your business used to rely on events, start thinking about doing so digitally. Tools such as Zoom and Google Meet allows video calls of up to 100 pax or more. The important thing is to reconnect with your customers, to share updates about your products or to refresh the relationship.

Be selective about audiences when you have limited resources - If there are specific milestones in your roadmap such as a product launch or announcement, consider which audiences to engage, for example, media/bloggers or influencers. Remember that communication over video means a lack of sensory information such as non-verbal language and touch. Send samples or review units to your target audience where possible.

Be accessible - Your customer service team should be accessible as much as possible. This can be through digital means such as chatbots, direct chat software and to be proactive about sending emails, newsletters to your customers if they have opted in.

Be authentic - Decide on the brand story and tonality your business will adopt throughout the 6-months and perhaps longer. Being authentic and empathetic can help you reconnect with customers.

---

We are Brand Utility is a business consultancy. We work with brands in the corporate, retail, travel and technology spaces.

We offer strategy and tactics to support growth outcomes - revenue, scale, regional expansion and market entry – for our clients.

Areas of support include:

· Branding: Messaging, positioning, approach to market

· Marketing: Storytelling, content, social media, email, community amplification

· Lead generation: Digital advertising, social media advertising, social commerce, e-commerce

· Integration of marketing with business operations: We function as a seconded marketing and/or PR lead for your brand

Discover more about our services at our website or book an exploratory consultation through this link.

Photo by Aditya Romansa on Unsplash