Find What Works For Your Brand

Every brand, in every industry, everywhere around the world, is facing game changing circumstances. Even so, Anne Marsden wants you to remember this: The marketing landscape-business, social, economic-is too varied to have a single answer for its evolution. The answer lies in your adaptability, a trait she says is one of the great business superpowers.

“I think it is important for brands to emphasize the pivoting of their messaging and offers, and be sensitive to your clients and their clients,” says Marsden, founder and principal of Marsden Marketing, an award-winning B2B marketing agency that offers demand generation, strategy, digital marketing and PR to clients around the world.

The steps that can help you find some balance in these shifting times can be the same ones that you can carry through to the other side. Marsden says that in the commitment to take care of yourself and your brand today, it is equally as important to be respectful to the plight of others, i.e., donate and help wherever you can.

“Be resourceful and creative,” Marsden says. “New opportunities sprout from these crazy times, so you never want to give up. Helping others gives you strength. Sure, it all sounds like platitudes, but there’s a reason they’re spoken-they help.”

Marsden offers the following tips for reigniting your playbook moving forward:

• Rethink your target buyers – Who really can use you, and who cannot? Be realistic, be honest, and be caring.
• Shift your sales messaging to focus on the first group – Create funding support for the second group.
• Make it easy for your clients to buy online – Quoting, order submission, proofing, etc.
• Get adept at home address sourcing for target prospects – This is data that will help your brand in the time ahead.
• Identify new business opportunities among the chaos – See above: How to better source home addresses since people are working from home now.
• Shift your messaging to helping instead of selling – The profitable approach is what people will remember.
• Encourage rather than spread fear – The sky is falling is not a bullet point for a post-pandemic revival.

As brands that are refocusing and reigniting their playbooks will attest, it is important to work harder now because many companies are able to hit a “reset button” during these times. The effort ties directly into the strategy that is on the mind of every brand today-preparation.

“Connecting and building loyalty with your audience, specifically by exploring platforms and trying new things, and listening to the feedback you receive is always critical,” Mark Casely says. “I expect companies to spend less on influencer marketing, as it can be difficult at times to see if each investment is worth it. This is a key reason we are working so hard now. We have been fortunate during this time to not see a decline in our sales, and we are focused on spending our marketing budget wisely to increase market share in the near future.”

While fear and uncertainty are the same emotion, a brand’s resources to cope and connect, and collectively share its experiences is greater than at any time before. Finding a path to the future you want to build is something every brand can find strength in.

This article appears in the July/August 2020 issue of Connect magazine published by NextPage, which can be found online here. If you would like a free print subscription to Connect, please click here.