Recovery strategy

Andy Ball, MD at Balls2 Marketing, talks about rethinking marketing strategies post-Covid.

The last few months have been tough for the industry. From working through the Covid crisis, to finding our feet in the new normal, many existing, successful, business strategies have been shelved, and companies are adapting to deliver what customers need right now.

Operations have changed, not just to enable safe working practices, but also to try and get products out of the door as quickly as possible with the limitations of a highly pressured supply chain.

If your business has changed, your marketing strategy will need to change too. This is the perfect time to review your strategy: what messages you are putting out, how you are communicating with customers, and where the best return on investment is for your money.

First, think about where the opportunities are for you.

Many retailers are reporting a surge in online enquiries through their websites and social media channels, as lockdown pushed even the biggest technophobes into shopping online. The shift to working from home for many white-collar workers is creating a bigger market for conservatories, glazed extensions and garden rooms to be used for office spaces. Whether an installer or part of the supply chain, can you adapt your strategy to make the most of this?

If you have staff remote working, can you get them more involved as a team through your social media? Certainly, this has been very successful for customers, and their teams, suppliers and customers have liked and shared the posts. It has also proven positive for recruitment as prospective employees can see the company’s commitment to their teams.

These situations can all be turned into opportunities that are easy for your business to take advantage of by incorporating new digital marketing, customer communications, or team social engagement plan into your marketing strategy.

No one can predict what the road to recovery will look like, but I know from experience that companies who continually adapt and change to get their marketing right are most likely to be the ones who come through the other side.