Lockdown has caused a great deal of hardship for many businesses, not least in the massive downturn in orders and the normal business processes being thrown into disarray.
It’s also been a time when many firms have had to, very reluctantly in most cases, borrow more money, on top of that already taken and not fully repaid for the last downturn in 2008, and the huge uncertainty and delays over Brexit during 2018/2019 that caused many to have to dig deep and take on yet more unwelcome debt.
Marketing, quite rightly, has not been the main focus during this depressing time, as bosses have had more pressing matters to focus on - like just how to survive and keep their furloughed staff on board.
As we begin slowly, and very slowly… to emerge from a full lockdown situation, it’s been a nagging question for some business owners, about how they can possibly begin to rebuild some momentum to marketing & sales and increasing flat revenues?
If there’s been a lockdown across the country for everyone, there certainly has been in business’ marketing spend.
As a marketing consultancy, we’ve seen it first-hand and been hit hard ourselves, as clients predictably put us on to skeleton terms, have cancelled or put-off work to some unknown future date.
Which we fully understand and endorse if it serves the bigger picture.
BUT… Like most of you reading, we are resilient and to some extent, although this is a new paradigm, it’s just another hardship we have to endure and get through - just like all the others that come along when you’ve done 16 or so years in business - I’m sure many of you will empathise.
It also has to be mentioned, that the pandemic and lockdown has actually been good for some businesses - some have actually prospered, but they are in the minority and blessed with some product or service that has flourished under these unusual conditions, or adapted successfully, as not all can.
The question of when to start ‘live-firing’ again in terms of your marketing is an individual decision, but you have to ‘sense’ when demand and activity are increasing…
The first of these signs is that the roads are a little busier since last week, more people beginning to get back to work and occupying offices again.
You might see that calls, not only sales calls, but general call traffic, begin to increase again and that your website visitors begin to creep up a little.
Or you may find that the number of normal business emails increases in number and frequency… things just beginning to bubble up again.
For me personally, at the beginning of this week, I set up my first PPC campaign since lockdown, only at £10/ day with a ‘Marketing After Lockdown’ message and a landing page call to action, https://www.marketing-consultant-uk.com/ppc-land-covid just to garner if there is any response and get in early - a couple of reasonable enquiries have proved the concept to date, as long as I can convert :-)
Of course, for some businesses, it may just still be too early to start risking valuable cash in marketing campaigns etc. as stated above, you have to sense and gauge when the time is right, before really getting out there with gusto.
It may be that you have carried on a level of marketing right through lockdown, which is a wise move, to keep your customers and prospects warm while not overly committing funds on media or other expensive initiatives.
Hopefully, if we avoid a second or third Covid-19 wave, business can begin to assume some normality, and you can make strides in your marketing and sales development to get everything back on track again, this all being well will be within the remaining weeks and months of this year into 2021.
If you’d like to discuss any marketing related matter for your business, and how to get the plan going to take full advantage of post-lockdown opportunities, give Phil Ashforth a call on 0791 395 7160 (no marketing sell), I’ll honestly try to give you good advice, and I hope I can help.