Build back better… with branding
Love it or hate it ‘Build back better’ has been a buzz phrase for many politicians of late. Including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden in the USA. Since the pandemic it’s fair to say many aspects of our lives changed dramatically – how many of you are reading this from home? The impact the pandemic has had on many of our businesses has altered how we connect with customers: I’d never Zoomed before March 2020, now I use it all the time. For some businesses the challenges have, or course, been far more dramatic. One thing that all of us may well agree on is the business world has changed. What does this mean for the way your business communicates to customers, to your staff and stakeholders? How can you ‘Build back better’ in business terms? What tactics can help you communicate in this new and shifting normal?
Has your business world changed?
Your marketing and your brand should align and reflect what we call your valuable difference: the reason people buy from you. If your business world has been little affected by the pandemic then for you, your marketing and branding should be building on its previous successes. Make sure your audiences know you are still offering the value you delivered before. If your business is now likely to return to ‘normal’ then make sure you are actually communicating that to your customers: don’t simply assume they will know that.
If the way you deliver your services or the way your customers engage with you has been altered by the pandemic then this is where we would say you should review and evolve your marketing. What worked before may not deliver in the future.
Many staff may well work from home much of the time: how does that impact on your service level? What benefits might that mean for your customers? On the surface sometimes that might feel negative. But think of it another way: your carbon footprint has dropped as a result of staff not traveling in every day: is that a potential good news story for your business? Might new processes mean customers get a better response?
Having staff work remotely might seem like a negative but think back to how some big brands like the Halifax communicated. They told a story of staff being ready to help wherever you needed them, over the phone or in store: so suddenly more staff being online really does seem a valuable benefit to any Halifax customers. Is your marketing communicating confidence to your audience? While most of us don’t have big budgets for campaigns what tactics are you using?
What if everything really did change in your business world?
For some of us the way we worked changed completely. Did you develop new processes and services? Is your brand telling that story though? In the rush to develop new income streams did your brand keep up with communicating that value to your audience?
At Glued we were used to running face-to-face workshops as part of our sales process: the logic being that providing some free consulting builds trust and helps our potential customers start to see the value we add. With the pandemic all that had to stop. We shifted to Zoom: would it still work? Yes it has and we now have a growing programme of workshops running throughout the year. We had to work hard with our Email Marketing and social media to get the message out there that we had this new offer. This is now an integral part of our sales process. We’re not sure whether face-to-face workshops will return in the short term. So for us that was a big change and our website, our marketing and our branding has been adjusted to make the most of that. What similar changes have you made?
If something has changed your branding should communicate it
We always ask businesses who are thinking of rebranding: why? What’s changed that needs communicating? As we’ve briefly looked at, if you have new ways of working which are of value or new services then this is a justified reason to consider making changes to your marketing and brand. Some commentators are saying the UK is going to enjoy its biggest economic growth for 70 years; is your business marketing and brand ready to take advantage of that?
Claim your free 1 hour marketing review
Sometimes we know it’s hard to see the wood for the trees from within your own organisation. Did you actually communicate that change? Do your customers like the new ways you’re working? What do they think your business is offering now and in the future? That’s why we’re offering you a free 1 hour marketing review. We’ll go through a questionnaire over Teams or Zoom to discover some of the answers which we hope will help you shape your marketing and branding plans in the new normal we all face.
To book a slot with myself or my colleague Rob Harrison please contact either of us:
David Wilson davidwilson@gluedlimited.co.uk
Or book a free slot on David's Calendly
Rob Harrison robharrison@gluedlimited.co.uk
Or book a a free slot on Rob's Calendly
