It’s time.
Time to discuss how it’s affecting your marketing strategies and events, and various ways to continue strengthening your brand in the upcoming months.
As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases increases each day across the US, and the list of events getting postponed, or cancelled outright continues to grow, we wanted to provide some insight into how this has, and likely will, affect business going forward.
This is simply to inform. No politics here.
With so many of our products coming from offshore facilities, we’ve already experienced delays in production times, as factories in China are slower to return to capacity. When they do come back, they’re required to go through extensive cleaning and testing procedures to maintain government enforced hygiene levels. All of this leads to delays. Additionally, this impacts inventory levels for domestic factory partners as well, as certain items (hand sanitizer, anyone?) are depleted.
“But my events have been cancelled, so I don’t need things as quickly as before”.
Unfortunately, we’re hearing more of that refrain. The good thing is that now we have time to plan together. Plan on how to replace the lost leads usually generated at those events, the brand awareness lost, the client retention and interactions that are so important to relationships, and how to effectively and intentionally use the budget that was allocated for those events, before it’s lost for next year.
Here are a few examples of ways we’ve been working with clients to compensate for these lost opportunities:
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- (Clunky) Direct Mail targeted at those prospects you were planning on meeting at a trade show or event
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- Seasonal touchpoint for your clients. You know, the ones you didn’t see at the cancelled educational seminar (we can even drop ship direct to their home address, if they’re working from home these days)
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- Speaking of working from home, as more employees are being encouraged to do so, send a care kit to help with the change and continue to facilitate team building and interaction. Some of us are used to working from home, for others it’s a totally new experience
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- Enhance internal and external communication through intentionally placed promo products that can connect emotionally with the recipient
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- Look ahead to Q3 and Q4. We have the time to plan, so let’s make the most of it. As things get back to normal, let’s be prepare to hit the ground running. Let’s talk.
We can help you with all of these. If you want to dig in more, please reach out to your dedicated Account Rep directly. If you have any questions or concerns on the situation as a whole, please feel free to reach out to me directly at zfowler@inm-group.com.
We’re here to be a resource.
Cheers,
Zac Fowler
President, INM Marketing Group
