"External issues can often feel scarier to businesses, as they often creep up on us and can cause a sudden uncertain climate for your business to navigate"
It can often be the case that in times of struggle, a business will first look to make cuts to any expenditure they deem to be unnecessary. In many cases it is marketing that falls into this category, however, this is often a mistake that can see businesses worsen the situation for themselves.
Read time 5 minutes
If we look at things logically, often, businesses get into troubling times due to a decrease in customers. This decrease can be due to a range of factors, from external issues to internal issues. I want to take you through a few of these factors and explain how I have seen and actioned marketing strategies, to ensure that a business returns and exceeds its previous position.
Internal Issues
A common internal issue within businesses is a lack of vision, staff feel demotivated and often confused about exactly your business and your brand stand for. This, in turn, leads to less than desirable customer service and can even leave customers confused as to what you provide them with.
Selecting the key members of your team and participating in a ‘Brand Sprint’, is something that I have seen help to unify a team and begin producing marketing communication that has an aim and a clear target audience. A brand sprint looks to engage a team into talking about how they view the business’ brand and where they want to see it, through a range of different activities that ensure active and relevant thinking is given throughout the sprint.
The end result will be a strengthened brand, a unified team and a knowledge of marketing best practise. All of these elements will come together to help you truly represent your business and its services and/or products, allowing customers to better understand why they should choose you.
External Issues
External issues can often feel scarier to businesses, as they often creep up on us and can cause a sudden uncertain climate for your business to navigate. As you begin to notice that your sales are starting to take a dip, it is hard not to panic and begin looking for ways to cut your business’ expenditure. In this time you must remember the role that marketing plays, it is the mouthpiece of your business and is crucial in ensuring that customers still know that you exist.
When responding to external issues it is important that your marketing team or agency are fully up to date on the issues latest information and guidance. Reassuring your audience that you are aware of the issue, and are taking the necessary steps to minimise the risk from or at your business are crucial, to begin with.
What needs to follow this is having your marketing strategy analysed and tweaked to present your business in a way that consumers will be looking for, given the current climate they are living in. Ensuring that your business and brand are doing everything they can to remain relevant and successful, so that once the issue has passed normal business can resume; perhaps with an even greater impact due to the alignment of business functions found during the issue response era.
What is important to remember when it comes to both internal and external issues, is the role of marketing is much more than many may think. By nature, we can help you to align many business functions and give purpose and strengthened clarity to both your branding and marketing strategy.
We are a friendly bunch and will always do our best to support our clients, especially during sudden uncertain times like we are witnessing at present.
