So here you are, trying to keep your social media plan moving, or decide what to share in the first place.
When we look at our marketing efforts, we can generally break them into two sections. One is lead generation and the other is brand awareness. They work together, but often have rather distinct tactics. Lead generation is all about intentionally moving people along the sales funnel as quickly as possible. For brand awareness, we’re more interested in regular exposure with brand building touchpoints amongst potential customers.
When you focus on building a strategy for the latter, you’re focused on sharing the idea of what your brand is all about and therein developing trust. Building trust is possible even when deploying digital media tactics; we’ll share ideas on this further on. Consumers are increasingly demanding transparency and those firms that are able to demonstrate deep levels of this are poised to succeed.
We are finding that, given everything shifting around us, it has created new opportunities to showcase how your team is solving problems and continuing operations.
Your Daily Operations are a Source of Content
When we think about the purpose of business, 70% of consumers want to know what brands are doing to address social and environmental issues (1). Coupled with this trend is skepticism, particularly with larger companies, of whether or not their actions are actually accomplishing anything. “Consumers are looking for brands to show - not just tell - them what they’re doing” says Sheila McLean, president of Markstein communications agency (1).
This mindset can be applied across your business and can be extremely valuable when entering new areas of business. Utilize what is right in front of you; if it is a particularly busy day in the warehouse, have someone take a video of what is going on and explain what is happening. People also wonder how businesses think; so, after a management meeting, you could film outside the boardroom to quickly recap the highlights of the meeting. If the people want insight into your business, show them! It creates trust and confidence in your operations.
COVID-19 is A Perfect Opportunity for a Marketing Pivot
As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, many business owners find themselves needing to pivot their businesses to survive in the short run. Breweries are making hand sanitizer and the number of companies supplying face coverings is uncanny. Many of these businesses are taking on operations with an entirely different end product than what they are used to.
Recently, we interviewed a sales manager, Amir Kassaian, from a German company that manufactures parts that can be used to increase automation across all industries. The company pivoted their operations to invent and manufacture emergency ventilators as well as managing the final market for deliveries. They worked both sides of the production process with their logistics expertise to help expedite the process.
The company saw a need for ventilators and teamed up with a University professor from the Czech Republic to begin manufacturing them. “It was a very fast process” says Kassaian, “they went into mass production in about a month.” (2) People worked around the clock to get these things made. You can imagine how a few stories, images and videos about this pivot can shed light on the hard working, innovative team.
In the end, content generation doesn’t have to be all that complicated. You may not have to look far but look around you, seek to understand what your customers care about. Even further, use this knowledge to see whether your current operations stack up or if there is room for improvement.
Cited
1 Business Wire. “Consumers Expect the Brands they Support to be Socially Responsible.” Accessed August 11, 2020. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191002005697/en/Consumers-Expect-Brands-Support-Socially-Responsible
2 Personal communication between Rose Agency and Amir Kassaian, August 2020.
3 Vogue Business. “The Implications of Fashion’s Pivot to PPE Production.” Accessed August 11, 2020. https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/the-implications-of-fashions-pivot-to-ppe-production-covid-19