As the government begins to allow businesses and shops to begin a phased re-opening, that light at the end of the tunnel has started to become just a bit brighter. Whilst we begin to emerge slightly blurry-eyed to a new world, the question you ought to be asking is what does this mean for my business and my marketing?

The phrase we have all heard is ‘new normal’, so what does this mean for you? As well as needing to implement the right social distancing measures, this current situation is looking to be with us for quite some time and it is now absolutely vital that businesses start forming a plan at least for the remainder of 2020.

Here are our top four areas that you should be focusing on:

1. Targets

Are you still driving against your pre-lockdown targets and getting demoralised because you are not hitting them? 2020 is going to be a very different year than it was looking like in January, so you should now be rethinking your targets and re-evaluating your business goals.

Perhaps you need to lower your projections, adjust your overall focus and look at your strategy for every area of the business (marketing, staffing, employee rewards etc).

2. Communications

Communications are VITAL for any business as excellent, clear communications with your customers and prospective customers is something that they will remember you by.

Do you have a communications plan to let people know how you are operating? We recommend going as far as re-visiting any marketing collateral and making amendments so it appropriately reflects the current climate.

Perhaps you need to add to your materials to let people know how you are keeping them safe if you work on-site, for example.

If you do not have a communications plan, we recommend grabbing a piece of paper, writing down the key messages you need to communicate and with whom then putting it into a timeline or Gantt Chart covering now to the end of the year. 

3. Products

By now you have probably realised that some products or services will be more relevant than others and also more likely for customers to buy. Can you perhaps adapt your products or services to meet the new measures in order to make them even easier to sell?

This is something that you should be thinking about having in place for the rest of the year. Dare we say, you may even need to cut certain products or services which are not relevant.

For example, you may be an interior decorator and struggling because people are not confident about you being in their home (despite having the material to let them know how you are keeping them safe). Perhaps you could adapt to promoting exterior work and paintwork. Whilst this may not be as profitable, it will certainly keep you going and could be another arm to your business in 2021!

4. Strategy

This is the last point that ties everything together! Most people think that a marketing strategy is a long document that sits in a file and is not touched. This should not be the case.

Don’t make your strategy long and boring! We recommend not more than one or two pages and simply to divide things into months with actions for each month. How can you promote your business over the next six months and what do you need to change in order to remain effective?

Why not grab a tea, pad and start brainstorming; if you don’t your competitors will!

What are we doing?

As we look at adapting further ourselves over the next six or so months, we are working on some exciting new offers and specific services to help our clients bounce back! Keep your eyes open for further updates as we let you know about these!