Here, Aro’s Managing Director Billy McKenna discusses why working from home has opened doors for many businesses and shares tips to help your business thrive despite covid-19.
Abraham Maslow once said; “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.”. This is a quote that inspires continuous evaluation, consideration and change within business. With the right tools and support, this challenging time can help your business to grow in the long term, not wither. To back this up, I recently read that approximately 65% of Forbes’ top 1000 businesses were founded during a recession or depression.
Marketing is all about reaching the right people at the right time. As lockdown continues across the UK, it is important to see this new style of working as an opportunity. As production managers and business development teams are suddenly working from the kitchen table, surrounded by crying children and mischievous pets, they are limited to three connections to their work.
These connections are the internet, their technology (largely phones and laptops) and social media; all of which can be harnessed by digital marketing. In short, your audience are now utilising technology more than ever, which means you should be too.
Whilst digital marketing is a broad term with many golden opportunities, I would advise concentrating on three key platforms: email, social media and webinars.
With email service providers (ESPs) such as MailChimp, it is now easier than ever to create lists of your target audience to keep you front of mind with your current customers and potential customers too. Don’t forget to personalise your emails, keep them brief, and put a call to action (CTA) or click through to your website above the email fold. Email is a low-cost way to keep in touch with warm leads and current business; did you know that the conversion rate from email is 6.05% compared to social media, which is just 1.9%?
I would also suggest making sure you give your social media platforms some love. Keeping your channels updated with news, information about your services (and any change to service due to covid-19) will show your audience that you are prevailing and ready to support their needs. It is also worth considering that whilst many people are furloughed, they are bound to be spending more time on social networking platforms, particularly Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter- so keep these updated to give a good impression.
With many people – including procurement teams and engineers – with more time on their hands, this is the perfect moment to present them with your idea, how your products and services can help them achieve for their own companies. It is possible that production and buying teams that were too busy with the here and now before the crisis, can now spend a little more time thinking of new opportunities, new ways of working.
The third content I would suggest investing time in would be webinars. At this time, sharing knowledge and keeping connected is vital to maintaining business connections. Trust me, your customers will remember who checked in on them at a difficult time. I have launched several webinars at Aro, giving digital marketing workshops as well as offering advice and free consultations to manufacturing businesses, which are combating covid-19 like the rest of the country. This is a real chance to help your industry survive and to add value to customers and potential audiences.
In conclusion, I encourage you to check in, share knowledge and swap out that hammer for a digital marketing strategy. If you would like any more information, a free consultation or a discussion about marketing support, please email me at billy.mckenna@aroprandmarketing.co.uk.
