Uncertain: not able to be relied on; not known or definite
Challenging: testing one’s abilities; demanding
Unprecedented: never done or known before
Covid-19 has forced businesses to reassess their marketing budgets and strategies in order to navigate their way through uncertain, challenging and unprecedented times. The questions is, when something has never been seen or done before, how do you best tackle it?
A good place to start is taking a closer look at your revenue focused marketing metrics to ensure your budget is allocated efficiently and effectively. In the present landscape, standing still certainly won’t bear any fruit.
Throughout this pandemic the message was: stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives. In order to flatten the curve and ease the pressure on our creaking hospitals this was absolutely the best course of action. What is also meant however was that conferences, exhibitions, roadshows and other events were pulled and cancelled. The knock on effect for many businesses across a number of sectors was devastating with some businesses forced into reducing head count and slashing budgets. Figures from the ONS in June showed 49% of workers reported working from home at some point. First and foremost peoples livelihoods and lives have been affected and of course we are hugely sympathetic to anyone affected in that manner. Less importantly, there has been a significant impact on marketing strategies and budgets up and down the country.
If your core focus is B2B marketing, there may never be a better time than now to re-visit your marketing budget and strategy to ensure you are focusing on generating sales and marketing efficiently. Some B2B marketeers we have spoken to have re-targeted their spend to digital channels whilst others have upped their offline spend in an attempt to ‘cut through the noise’ you find online. Whichever way you have decided your marketing should take you, it’s vital now more than ever your campaigns are performing.
We’ve listed a few tips below to help build your marketing strategies and intentions for the next few months:
- Start back at the basics and consider your ideal customer profile. The economic & lifestyle changes brought on by the pandemic may have changed how that looks for you so it’s important to take these factors into account
- Measure your funnel metrics and conversion rates to ensure you can easily attribute revenue generated to specific campaigns, meaning you can see what works and what doesn’t
- Be clear on your messages, content and the channels you will be using. Split test and trial differing combinations.
- Closely analyse your results to ensure you are moving forward with the best combinations of content/channel to form larger campaigns
Once you have stripped everything back and re-visited all the basic pillars you’ll be in a good position to implement your strategy and start marketing effectively. Keep in mind that whilst drilling down on the stats and data can be extremely insightful, it’s the data that highlights revenue and sales which is most important. Opens, page views, re-shares and clicks are great, but it’s the stats that indicate spend and sales which are really key. When your marketing budget is squeezed, ascertaining which campaigns are the best, and worst, for influencing revenue is paramount.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog piece on Direct Marketing, if you need any further info or have an enquiry , feel free to contact us on the office number: 0118 474 888.
