Spend the next few days/weeks thinking about how you can be a better business than before. Are there things that you can do with the time left to improve what you do for customers or to make yourself more efficient.
Look at the competition. Online or offline, local or further afield. Customers have changed their behaviour, their buying patterns may be different, they could have found new places to buy what you sell. So how are you going to win them back? Have you got a welcome back offer? A new range of products? More convenient opening hours?
Have you built in change management? The last year has been totally disruptive for businesses, but we coped. We managed the changes. This is an opportunity to manage potential future change, so take an hour and write down all the things you did. You may be surprised at what you have achieved, and an hour might not cover it
Online? One thing to plan, if you are not already there, is to have a stronger digital presence. That is not just marketing, but how you do business. Put in place the communication platform that will work for you and your customers. Is it Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google or Icebreaker. And think about how to use these to engage customers even when we get back to a more normal environment. Chat to customers when they are at home, arrange calls to tell them when an order is in, be creative! And look for digital options to help your business work more efficiently. There are a lot out there.
Which leads to: be creative. Being creative is not about sitting in a dark room waiting for an idea. It is a practical approach to tapping into other things that have worked and applying them to your business. It amazes me that more retailers haven’t looked at what Apple has done and seen how to get customers more involved with the products before they buy.
Get really and truly customer focused. If there is one big lie told by too many businesses it is that the customer is king. Too often I am expected to work to spend with a business, to call them to remind them that I asked for a quote, or that they promised to get back to me. It is one of the easiest ways to grow your business, just do things really well. Think about yor customers, why they are buying, do they want instant gratification, or are they thinking? Where are there more people like them? How can you make their lives better?
Marketing. Why are so many people so bad at it? Because it is difficult to get right, that’s why. It is not about having a Facebook page or a website, it is about working those assets hard, and not many know how to do that effectively. Have you a strategy? Not a huge big one, just a few pointers that will help you clarify what you are trying to achieve with your marketing.
40 Years in marketing communications developing award winning, pitch winning and most of all customer winning campaigns for clients across multiple business sectors from retail through health to public sector.
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