July 2021 - Analyze. Create. Achieve.

This blog we discuss some of the marketing necessities needed in a post virus laden world. At the present time, let’s use the word “post” loosely. Call us cynical, but we don’t believe we’ve seen the last of the virus. Or, the last of business shutdowns. This is especially true given the variants that are popping up.

We’ve all seen what happened over the last year and a half to business. Most importantly we saw what happened to small business. Some made it through. Some did not. Most are still feeling the effects. It’s always good to plan ahead. We hope nothing happens but it’s always good to be prepared. Let’s talk about some of the marketing necessities you’ll need to know if any future shutdowns occur again.

Marketing is an investment and security blanket, not an expense.

Preparation is key.

Website. The website for your business serves as your online home. It should be pretty, comfortable, functional, and secure. In short, let’s look at each individually. Pretty meaning designed well and nice to look at. Comfortable equals easy to use. Functional means everything is operable. Finally, secure meaning, well, secured!

Look up some statistics and you’ll quickly find that during the shutdowns, online searches were through the roof. Customers will Google, Bing, or whatever to see that you have an online presence. Many customers will not even entertain contacting a business without a site.

Small business should ALWAYS stay in touch with customers.

Staying in touch.

Email Marketing. Another key point of preparation is to consistently touch base with customers. There’s a host of ways you can do this. For example, one of them is email marketing. Yea, yea, email marketing sometimes gets a bad rap. Maybe you’ve already tried it and it didn’t work for your business. However, it’s all in the content and/or offer!

Custom email blasts can (and in our experience does) work well. During the shutdowns, two of our local clients continued sending quarterly emails. Their open and read rates were off the charts. The length of time their customers spent reading were also very high. Comparatively speaking, their numbers were almost triple the standard rates of email blasts. Why? They spoke to the customer.

Both of these clients are still seeing the positive results of staying in touch through email. Their base knows they care and trusts them. They offered help, information, and weren’t necessarily pushing just sales. We’ll be happy to share these stats and references for both clients. Just ask us! 🙂

Other ways to stay in touch.

Social Media. One of the marketing necessities that can’t be left from the list is social media. Good grief, social media usage numbers exploded during the lockdowns. For some businesses, it was their only way of communicating or marketing.

It’s important to realize though, your social media marketing shouldn’t be just about selling. In fact, we’d recommend only making that about twenty five percent of your posts. Maybe less. Companies that offered consistent help and solutions for the given situation prospered. Creating humorous content during the stressful times also mattered. With this in mind, remember, consistency is key. Your business can’t post randomly once per month or two and expect to see results. It. Will. Not. Happen. Instead, plan to post several times per week, or get some help that can manage this for you.

Direct Mail. Ye olde direct mail. People were home during shutdowns. They still received mail. Consequently, if this occurs again you need to be ready. Again, we hope it doesn’t come to this, but a prepared mailer strategy in place is better than not having one at all.

A solid direct mail plan and design with beautiful imagery or graphics plus a great offer will pay dividends. No, we’re not talking about slapping together some boring, cheap, flimsy, pieces with drab stock images. Will. Not. Work. We are talking about custom mail pieces with a punch! Pieces with spectacular attention grabbing textures, colors, photos, and a big bold offer are what stands out. Coupled with a helpful message, your business will really reap the rewards.

Do you have any alternate ideas for other marketing necessities in the event of another shutdown? We’d love to hear them!

Need any advice or consultation on a marketing preparation strategy? We are always here to help.

Analyze. Create. Achieve.

This blog will discuss some FAQ’s about marketing. When meeting with new (and even existing) clients these often come up. Without a doubt, business owners want answers. Hey, guess what? We want to answer them!

It’s totally understandable why a business owner, or someone in charge of the business, would have questions when considering hiring a marketing firm. They should. Anytime we make a business decision we have questions too. For this reason, we’ve decided to compile a list of some FAQ’s about marketing. Let’s get to it.

Common Questions

Question: So, what all do you guys do?

Answer: At this point we usually go over the list of services we offer. You can view them here https://77designco.com/services-2/

This is the “get to know one another” part. Clients usually want to hear about what services they may be able to use and more importantly how it can help their business. At this time, this is also our chance to explain what we do and why we do it. It’s equally important to lay the ground work on our particular style of customer service and work ethic too.

Question: Our website is older. We can’t get ahold of the person that designed it anymore. Can you update and work on bettering our website?

Answer: This is a pretty common question. It’s also one we typically don’t like to get. Why? Because the answer usually isn’t what the client wants to hear. If a password and email for the site is unavailable, you may have been taken to the cleaners. This is common in the web field. Let’s reiterate…not always though. However, too many times we’ve met business owners that have 0 access to their own website. This sucks. A new website is typically the answer.

We also don’t repair sites because there are too many ingredients already used that we don’t know about. It’s like trying to bake the exact same cake without an instruction list of all the ingredients used in the original. Ask immediately whether you’ll have access to your website upon contracting a web designer.

A Few More

Question: Why can’t we use both (or multiple) logos?

Answer: Using multiple logos isn’t a good idea. It creates confusion. Certainly you want to create brand recognition and have people identify with the color and logo. To sum up, usually you want to go with just one logo.

But, there are times you can switch colors to represent your company as a social awareness brand. For example, Major League Baseball switches standard colors to pink for breast cancer and Mother’s Day. Apple for Pride month, and various other brands routinely change colors as well.

Question: Why shouldn’t we use stock photography?

Answer: It’s not that you shouldn’t. There are instances when you may need to use them. We just believe that creating custom images for your company is much more impactful. Additionally, here’s a few more reasons why:

The image(s) aren’t your products or company. A stock photo cannot accurately represent your founder, employees, or other staff. Consumers may likely find the same image(s) elsewhere, maybe on a competitors marketing materials. Further, it’s just misrepresentative of your brand.

Conclusion

We could go on, but for the sake of keeping this “Some FAQ’s About Marketing” blog short and sweet, we’ll stop here. Perhaps, we’ll revisit additional questions in the future.

Check in next time for more marketing info and tips!