The Road Ahead What's next in the business and marketing landscape post COVID - Simone Douglas

Simone Douglas - "#SeriouslySocial"

Introduction
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is now impacting our personal and professional lives. Many are trying to navigate through their unfolding business complexities related to people, supply-chain, financial health, customer engagement and risk management.
We are currently going through one of the most significant historical changes ever experienced in the last 100 years.

Old businesses will change and new businesses will emerge. We are already seeing a shift in services our clients are adopting as a response to this pandemic. Essential services in relation to healthcare, energy and natural resources, water, and emergency services will continue to be in demand, although the business models for these industries may change.
 
We need to be vigilant and cautious about the further impact of the spread of the virus, and resilient to create new ways of living and working. We need to gain inspiration on how two of the most populous nations of the world; India and China are managing the situation. The collective wealth of western nations will help repurpose spending and improve healthcare.
 
New ways of living and working will emerge as soon as fear subsides, so let’s start now, by discussing ways to reimagine and reinvent our lives, our organisations and our society.
 
IBGR is committed to your success and our programming is designed to give you the tools and resources as well as the one percenters you might be missing that are the difference between feeling like you are in the pilots seat or preparing for a crash landing.
 
 
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Show Objectives - The Why
COVID-19 has been a catalyst for accelerated change – some of it clear to see already, some less so. Companies should begin planning now for low-probability but high-impact trends and scenarios by using a future-back approach. 

Looking far ahead after a period of unprecedented change can be challenging, but it’s essential for any good business or organisation, anticipating a long-term future in a post-COVID world to understand the possibilities that lie beyond. The future of the working world may look very different in the aftermath of the crisis, or it may look similar to what many have been anticipating – just a lot closer.

This time of disruption is also a time of opportunity. By looking ahead through a new, transformative lens, your business can reframe its future
 
​Key Issues - Owner Perspective:

• What digital business pivots do we need to make permanent rather than temporary?
• How are we utilising our social media channels to drive purchase not just discovery?
• How many platforms and channels do we really need?
• How do we humanise our business and our brand?
• How do our marketing strategies and advertising spends line up with our sales and growth goals?

 
What You Need to Know - The What

• 2021 is the year of the customer. We have *got* to put the customer front and center in everything we do as marketers.
• Marketing leaders will want to reassess their understanding of their customers through 1:1 feedback, user testing and surveys to gauge whether changes in behavior are temporary or permanent.
• Email and SMS marketing are critical aspects of your strategy in 2021
• Standing up and standing out is key to your success
• Harnessing user generated content will help you stand out.

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What You Need to Do​​ - The How

• Take a really good look at how all your marketing efforts performed last year and set your benchmarks for 2021
• Plan out your quarter one content including all of the important platforms and content types to ensure a good mix and evolve content marketing management approach to better align content strategy with customers
• Tell your story through your people and your customers instead of yelling at people and review the use of conversational marketing to increase conversion
• Make sure you have the kit required to do what needs to be done from a content creation point of view.
• Complete and maintain an organic search engine optimisation strategy.
• Review engagement options for messaging platforms and improve email personalisation through lifecycle and behavioural segmentation
• Consider innovations in interaction design and video to boost conversion
• Plan to spend time putting lessons learnt and aha moments into practice.  Let me know how it goes.

 
ACT! Nothing changes if you don’t set aside time to make it happen so once you have worked out what you need to do start putting timelines and deliverables on your action plan. Get clear on what you want your customers to feel, what actions you want them to take and what pain points you are here to solve for them.
 
Shows
Previous: Episode C3.11.3 The numbers game understanding the metrics that matter when it comes to sales. - How to interrogate your numbers and ratios to ensure that your team is running on all cylinders, whether you are at capacity or there is room to move, where coaching is required and what to look at from a sales coaching perspective

Next Week: Flying or falling are you ready to leap? - Season recap did you put all the checks and balances in place to make sure you are set to soar rather than crash land.
 

Written by Simone Douglas 
The Publican & Licensee of the Duke of Brunswick Hotel, Executive Director for BNI Adelaide North one of the biggest networking organisations in the world, the driving force behind South Australia’s leading social media agency, Social Media AOK and best-selling author with her first book “Seriously Social – turning your online game into real-world gain”. and the recently released Confident Networker

Simone also serves as Deputy President of the State Chapter Committee South Australia for the Franchise Council of Australia and sits on the Franchise Advisory Council for BNI Australia

You can connect with Simone on any of her seriously social platforms
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