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Innovation Blog

What shape will your marketing plan be in when the world gets back to ‘normal’?

A man in red and a man in blue climbing to the top of a hill with flags.

Are you still focusing on the new normal of working from home, distance learning and Zoom meetings?  Are you the person sending co-workers viral memes or commenting on the latest show you binge-watched this week?

Your competition sure hopes so. 

Your competition has been on the phone with me discussing her strategy to regain market share. She set-up a meeting with her sales team to discuss the February results of a direct marketing campaign and how to regain awareness a week before we all go “back to work.”  She is engaging with our editors about story ideas and secured an executive interview because her company has formulated a solid marketing plan around a Q3 product launch. She sent a new script for our video team to use when they film a custom video.

Your competition is watching what you do.  They see your inactivity as an opportunity. They know their best chance for growth or maybe even survival is to beat you while you are at home waiting. They have used this valuable time – time that we all have said at some point we wished we had so we could slow down to plan, strategize and discuss the future – to actually assess opportunities to reposition their product against you. They aren’t just planning to be first out of the gate, they are getting a huge head start. 

I wrote down three quotes from conversations with your competitors that I’d like to share to provide a glimpse into how they are thinking about their marketing plan. 

“Here’s the reality check – we are not all in this together.  We create our own path to success.”

My take: No one is waiting for you; it may be too late in August or September, especially if your competitor never stopped marketing. When its time for business, your customers will not wait for you.

 “If we always did it this way, and it was just ‘working,’ now is the time to try something different. Now is the time to try and maybe fail.” 

My take: Our customers – the buyers and influencers of our products and services – are a captive audience and are more willing to stop, read, listen, or watch a message from you, so that when they are ready to buy you are on the short list.  The person who provided this quote is pivoting marketing dollars into a webinar in May. Its something they have never done and willing to try – and fail fast at – if it doesn’t work.

“There will be three types of recovery – the V shaped, the U shaped or the L shaped. If we don’t act now, I am afraid the pace of recovery will be like a U. Everything we are doing today is for the quick bounce like a V. And unfortunately, we anticipate an L-shaped, lack of recovery for some of our competitors.  We don’t see how they will make it.”

My take:  Even if your company has furloughed the production department or you are working at home for another month, the best time to discuss a marketing plan is NOW.  Our 80+ member team at Babcox is working every day to help marketers put together campaigns that make sense to reach your targeted audience.  We know that what may have been your strategy three months ago may be different for the next three months. We know that those who will see a V-shaped recovery are the ones still marketing, still planning and still finding time to think BIG about a marketing plan.  Let us put our team to work for you. 

Randy Loeser is the Publisher/Executive Director of Content & Video at Babcox Media. Connect with Randy by email or call (330) 670-1234 ext. 285.

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