In our last article we ran a few pointers on how to re-construct your marketing for the ‘here and now’ to, at least, try to maintain some revenue. 

In this, the third in the series, we thought we’d look at what brands and businesses should be doing now to be fully prepared for the when we all emerge from this crisis.

Now, we understand just how difficult it is for any business right now. For most it’s difficult to focus on anything other than the week ahead let alone planning for the longer term. However, as we’ve said before, we should try to use this time constructively.

This current ‘lull’ in activity provides the perfect opportunity to take a step back, plan where we go next and set a new course for when the world starts to return to the ‘new normal’. This new course should not only be focussed on helping the business through the next few months but the next few years.

There’s no doubting that we are all going to come out of this with very different views on life, different behaviours and very different attitudes. We’ll act differently, engage differently and certainly buy differently.

For many, attitudes towards brands will have changed as well. And it goes without saying that, if the consumer has changed, then brands will have to follow suit or risk being out of touch.

But how do brands and businesses prepare for the ‘new normal’?

Put simply, review everything from top-to-toe, start by understanding the new needs of your customer look at how this aligns with your brand, your proposition, your messaging, your content and of course your product/service offer.

This might sound like a daunting task, but you’ll be surprised how smoothly the process can run if you follow some simple, logical steps.

Get to know your customers

Understanding your customer is a pre-requisite. Knowing what to do with that understanding is paramount. Providing a great experience will be THE number one priority.

Dig deep into understanding what’s changed, identify their new behaviours, their experience needs and brand choices, spending habits might have changed, as well as how, where and when they come in to contact with your brand.

Ultimately, identify your ‘sweet spot’ customer and focus in on their needs and wants from your brand.

Build your Experience

Focus on the customer experience. What does it look like now, what do your customers want it to be?

Most businesses focus purely on the multitude of touchpoints where customers engage. After all these are the ‘transactional’ stages at which customers interact with parts of your business and its offer, and it’s easier to build into your business structure.

BUT that often diverts attention from the more important issue: the customer’s end-to-end journey.

The experience includes many things that happen before, during and after their product/service experience.

They can be long, they can straddle multiple channels and touchpoints, and, depending on the value can often take days or weeks.

At every stage of the journey investigate the detail, understand what is expected from you at every stage.

Our process is more defined. By looking at the customer’s experience through his or her own eyes—along the entire journey taken – you really begin to understand how to successfully improve performance.

Map the Journey

Driving ‘footfall’ or traffic is vital, converting that traffic is paramount.

Map out the individual journeys, the mechanics and the triggers. Identify, what you want your customer to do next. Focus on the key stages of the journey and make every interaction valuable to the customer and you.

• Remember content is king – identify the content you need to deliver the journey/experience.

• Remember, think about what your customer needs and expects at every stage.

Don’t try to boil the ocean. It’s impossible.

The simple logic behind this statement is that you will never have the resource or hours in the day to everything all in one go.

At Vault we’ve developed some unique strategic models and workshops to help you review, identify, uncover and construct your brand and marketing strategy.

If you need some support to help you prepare for the ‘new’ normal why not get in touch? We’d be delighted to help.

Don’t let budget be an issue. We’re working through this by offering our clients reduced fees for our planning models and even offering to defer a high percentage of the payments until thing get moving again here’s an example.

Why not give us a call to discuss how we can help you today.