Now is the perfect time to take a fresh look at your marketing

A lot of businesses, us included, have had to very quickly adapt to the sudden and unexpected changes to the workplace that have emerged as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of us are now working from home and doing everything we can to deliver exactly the same value and output to our customers regardless of the circumstances. In fact, most of us are probably working harder and better than we ever have because we’re now able to dedicate all of our focus to innovating for our customers.

And the same should go for your business’ marketing – your audience is still out there, and active too. They’re most likely less distracted and more able to seek out the IT solutions they’ve been longing to implement but haven’t had the time to address. Computer Weekly saw a sharp 69% rise in page views to their research site for IT professionals last week, as well as a record number of clicks on their daily e-newsletter, which just goes to show that IT decision-makers are proactively engaging in technology research and potentially better placed to plan than ever before.

As strange as it may seem, COVID-19 has actually presented a rare opportunity for many businesses to take a step back and assess where changes can be made to help them improve and progress. With less distractions and a breather from the tyranny of the urgent, there’s a chance to look at your marketing differently, get ahead of the game, or simply reflect with fresh eyes.

Tomorrow is here!

Like all of the half-finished D.I.Y projects around your home that you’ve suddenly been freed up to complete, the same can be said of your marketing. You now have the time to think differently and disruptively, and plan ahead for when the world returns to a state of normality. Everything that was a job for tomorrow can now be done today.

With this in mind, here are a few important things you could be doing to make the most of your marketing during this difficult time:

1. Finally establish your business’ value proposition

A lot of your marketing is centred around how you position yourself and talk about yourself as a business, and it can be incredibly difficult to do that without a clear idea of your unique value. The first step is to create some top-level messaging that effectively establishes your IP, ensuring all the content you create thereafter is consistent, accurate, and impactful. This is a huge undertaking that many businesses can forego for far too long at the detriment of their marketing, simply because they don’t have the time to think about it. But without a clear value proposition, staff are left feeling confused about the “real story” and customers never get a true sense of why they should put their trust in you instead of another IT partner.

2. Go all in on content

It’s known throughout the marketing world that content is king. But sometimes content isn’t a small job – a lot of it takes a significant amount of time and preparation to get right. With more time to play with, you can start creating some really compelling and in-depth thought leadership pieces like white papers and guides. These both enhance your credibility and add value to your customers’ thinking, especially when there’s a good chance their IT strategy will be under review when normality returns. Releasing these pieces now also means you could potentially capture an audience that might ordinarily be too busy or preoccupied to read what you produce.

3. Build up a backlog of blogs

The blog or news section of your website is only effective if you’re regularly posting to it. It’s a big turn-off for anyone visiting the page looking for timely insights if the last thing you uploaded was six months ago. Use your time to get ahead with your blogs and begin to build up a substantial backlog of content that you can schedule to go over the next few months, or even for the rest of the year. Obviously, it’s important to ensure what you’re writing about is still relevant, but by lining things up ready for release, you’re covered for when work starts to get busy again.

4. Swap direct mailers out for something digital

You might have been in the middle of planning a direct mail campaign that relied on sending something out to your customers, but with no one at the office your good intentions are scuppered. But there’s no need to abandon the idea altogether – there are creative ways to achieve the same impact digitally. Explore the different digital platforms available to you and you might uncover a few unique approaches you’d never considered before, and which could set you apart in the eyes of your customer.

5. That doesn’t mean overdo it with emails

Going digital doesn’t mean cranking up your email broadcasts. An important thing to note is that while emails can be a great alternative, people don’t like being bombarded. If you’re going to take advantage of email, it’s best to make certain any campaigns are sufficiently spaced out. Be sure to keep your schedule light and non-intrusive. Similarly to building up a backlog of blogs, you could setup several email campaigns in your chosen platform ready to go, ensuring you’re one step ahead for when people return to work.

6. Give them something to watch with a webinar

Webinars are an entirely digital medium that are easy to setup and can offer customers important insights that they may not find elsewhere. The world has quickly had to get to grips with video conferencing as a result of the coronavirus, so people are used to digesting content in this way. It therefore makes sense to tap into an emerging behaviour. Failing that, other snackable content like a podcast series could work just as well.

7. Give your website a spring clean

Much like the fact that your house is now spotless because you’ve had the time to give over to cleaning it, it might be time to tidy up your website. You may have had a snag list you’ve carried over since your website was launched, or you might feel some of the content is now out of date, or you might decide it needs a complete revamp altogether – there has never been a better time to get it done. There are also some quick wins you can realise by applying a few tweaks here and there, like ensuring all your links work or updating some of the imagery to help it look refreshed. After all, it’s the first thing your customer looks at, so make the first impression a good one.

With everything that’s going on at the moment, both in a professional and personal capacity, it can be hard to see the wood for the trees. But we promise you, by taking some time to optimise your marketing now, you’ll be in far better shape for when we emerge out of the other side of this. And while this isn’t necessarily the best time for every kind of outbound marketing effort, you can still be turning your attention to strengthening your foundations so you’re ahead of your competitors for when it really counts.