The ripple effect of the pandemic has been overwhelming, to say the least.
Nearly every aspect of everyday life has been affected somehow, and business life is no different. Shortages, delays, and lack of resources have been hurdles in the world’s recovery, and despite efforts to overcome these challenges, many businesses are still struggling.
The marketing industry is not exempt from this struggle. However, after two years of pivoting our business to grow with these changes, we’ve learned some valuable tips for persevering through these (seemingly endless) pandemic-related issues. So today, we’re sharing these tips by detailing how we work to minimize the gaps and continue to produce quality work for our clients.
Research Investments
Our team has been creating competitive landscapes to understand our clients and their industries for years. A competitive landscape cross-compares the prospective client with their top competitors. It analyzes a brand’s service offerings, keywords, differentiating factors of their business, design aesthetic, and everything in between.
Now, competitive landscapes are more valuable than ever. With all that has changed in consumer behavior and how people do business due to the pandemic, this investment is needed. Marketers should see this as a critical investment to ensure that they know the competition and their marketplace in order to have robust marketing strategies and tactics put into place that will convert measurable results.
At Rizco, we create competitive landscapes for nearly every new prospective client, and we update them periodically for our long-term clients to stay ahead of industry changes. So, while this process might not have been on your radar to invest in, we highly recommend and consistently see valuable results from the detailed process.
Digital Dilemmas
The marketing industry has transformed in recent years and, for many, has taken on a completely digital persona. However, while the digital age has some fantastic perks, it’s not without challenges. The use of digital vendors/software is one, in particular, that’s been shaking things up in the industry.
Now that digital vendors have become necessary in many cases, so has the need to shift budgets to pay for their subscription fees and train marketing staff on the new platforms. This hurdle prompts marketing agencies to change their pricing models to keep up with the influx of fees. As more platforms emerge and become staples in the industry, unfortunately, the costs of aligning with them and the time it takes for marketing teams to learn the software will rise as well.
At Rizco, we have specific tried and true platforms we trust to deliver our client’s messages and propel their business. While there are still fees associated with these platforms, we believe the investments are well worth it.
1. For social media management, Agorapulse is an excellent tool for scheduling, managing, analyzing, and performing social listening for our client’s social media accounts all in one place.
2. For email campaign management, we typically recommend using MailChimp as it simplifies scheduling and tracking the success of a campaign.
3. Finally, for landing page management, Unbounce allows us to launch landing pages and analyze how many viewers and form submissions each page receives, which helps to support digital campaigns and/or support clients who have websites that need to be updated.
Coordination Woes
We don’t need to tell you there are shortages of nearly everything these days. Raw materials, food, and, most importantly, workers to fulfill these tasks are in high demand, not to mention disruptions in the global supply chain have elongated timelines for marketing campaigns.
So, when starting a new marketing project, it’s essential to keep these delays in mind. For example, marketing collateral that only took two weeks to ship may now take a month or possibly more. Although this is frustrating when you need a fast turnaround time, receiving quality pieces and work is worth waiting for and will help your business see positive results long-term. That’s why we recommend factoring in delays and potential shortages into your plans as far in advance as possible.
At its core, the work of a marketing agency is to help a client grow despite campaign setbacks. We believe in being transparent with our clients about the current state of the industry and potential changes they need to expect. We live in ever-changing times, but it’s essential to keep moving forward by relearning new skills, adjusting strategies, and keeping our eyes on the bigger picture. Follow Rizco on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter for more marketing tips and information for businesses and agencies!