The world will be changed by this event. Some businesses will fail, some will survive but may never be the same. Others will survive, consolidate and then thrive. One of the biggest changes that we think won’t be reversed is the accelerated shift to digital interactions that this virus has forced us into. That covers everything from how people shop (online shopping and delivery will be strengthened and will likely remain that way), the way people interact with healthcare (doctors are now tele-doctors and that will probably also continue even after the virus situation abates). For those of us who hate queuing, imagine a world where you talk to your doctor via webcam! It’s not far off, we are already talking to chatbots on websites!
The way that your future buyers and customers interact with your business will never be the same again. For some businesses, that’s not a major shift. But for some businesses, the shock of this change to faceless interaction will be massive. Physical commerce as always comes to mind, but this change will also affect entertainment (Netflix will gain customers and cinemas will lose some), consulting services (old-school accountants have started embracing Skype) and many others.
Are you ready for this change? Here are some objectives you could consider:
Objective – Rapidly move to digital marketing
Tactics:
- Measure how your current digital marketing yields results
- Identify best-practices in digital marketing for your industry
- Hire a digital marketing expert
Even if you think you have digital marketing waxed, remember that your competitors will all be massively raising their game in this regard too. We have mentioned a lot about restructuring your business and reducing costs, but this is one area where additional investment is almost certainly a good idea. If in doubt, start by hiring an expert in this space, even in a temporary capacity to help you get started (if you need some contacts, let us know and we can recommend a trusted few).
Objective – Lead with digital sales strategy commensurate with the times
- Equip sales teams with tools, materials and content to succeed
- Adjust pricing to accommodate businesses / people with cash-flow issues
- Implement sales strategies to businesses / people who are less impacted
You need to get creative in how you sell your product and accept that your customers won’t be willing / able to shell out a huge amount of money upfront. (the RLActive Strategy Creator is a great tool to remap your product to customer interaction).
We will be running several free webinar’s discussing the above in the coming week. Look out for the details on our website and Facebook.