Marketing In a World With New Holes in Your Belt

Today I'll be sharing with you a plan for how to adapt your marketing to tough times. Now is not the time for fluff, but it is absolutely not the time to stop marketing. I'll be giving specific advice for both B2B and B2C businesses.

Hello and welcome once again, I am Dennis Lewis. These are the soliloquy is from a very secluded soapbox, talking to live from lockdown Spain, hopefully a little less lockdown in the next few weeks. But yeah, here we are once again talking about business talking about entrepreneurship. And talking about Hold on.

I’m just gonna check here. I think we’ve got a technical problem again. No, it looks like we’re good. Yes. All right, great. I’m just kicking with the team there. And talking about how to keep your business afloat, how to keep your business as solid and as resilient as possible and how to hopefully even grow a little bit in these times at least. Keep yourself ready to come out on top and we’ve talked about in the last Six weeks, a whole lot of different topics.

We’ve talked about business resilience, we’ve talked about a lot of marketing topics. We’ve talked about quite a few blockchain topics. We’ve had interviews, lots of stuff. And I was kind of a little bit thinking, you know, where do I go with this? You know, hey, I’ve been around the block a lot, but I couldn’t eventually run out of stuff to talk about. And then what would I do tell slick jokes? Not very good at it.

So I mean, that probably isn’t a great, you know, this isn’t a great way to start my stand up committee, my career. So and then I got to realize, and I thought, well, you know, one of the things you know, we we provide marketing services, we’re, I’m a storyteller. And one of the things I realized is that I’ve helped you I’ve talked to about lots of pieces of things that you should be could be doing in your marketing, but I don’t think that you know, that’s not enough.

We need to take a holistic view. And so I was talking to a friend of mine this morning and we were chatting and he said, Well, you know, you should, you should put this into a plan, you should, you should at least give a structure to what you’re doing because otherwise it kind of, you know, depending on what day somebody listens in, well, they might get a really juicy tidbit.

But you know, they don’t have a context, they don’t have a framework for where this all fits in. And so lo and behold, that’s what we’re going to do. And today, I’m going to talk to you about marketing. In a world where you feel like every day you’re adding a new hole to your belt because you’re pulling it tighter every day, it seems like you’re, you’re looking to find new ways to cut back to to keep costs under control to to, to, you know, keep batten down those hatches in this storm.

And you’re aware as I am that this isn’t the time To not be marketing, but you’re also scared. I mean, it’s normal that and marketing is a is an easy place to cut. Okay, yeah, it’s not a good place to cut, but it’s an easy place to cut. You know, if you cut your marketing, Facebook’s not going to complain, you know, you’re not going to get a whole lot of blowback.

You’re not it’s like, like you’re putting, you know, you’re cutting team members, that’s really emotionally hard to do. So, you know, it’s, it’s a, it’s a real, it’s a real straight to the bottom line thing. You might think, you know, just cut that marketing budget out. There you go. One big scoop. But that’s not a very savvy strategy. So what I’m going to do to you today, is I want to talk to you about marketing and tough times, because this isn’t the time for fluff.

And the idea of this presentation is okay, we need to we need our marketing to be eating ramen. Right now. We’re eating noodles. It’s not, you know, this isn’t caviar. And you know, I’m on Sephora again, stay, you know, this is this is you know, okay simple, comfortable college dorm room food that we need to be doing, we need to be making the most of every penny that you have for your marketing.

And, you know, to do that we really have to hone in on doing the right things. So, you know, I always put this slide in, you know, it’s my favorite slide. I’m not going to repeat it three brains, cerebral, limbic and reptilian. And I mostly leave this in now because if you want this slide deck, I think this is really important for you to know and it should be there.

But I’m not going to repeat this slide today. But I am going to repeat something I say a lot and that great marketing really isn’t that hard. It’s just saying the right things to the right people. The trick is finding the right people and knowing what the right thing to say is okay. So it’s simple, but it isn’t necessarily obvious how to do it. Okay? But really just remember, all you have to do is be talking to the right people and saying the right things, and it will work.

Okay, and that does it and it will act like a magnet, it will bring sales to business. So with that in mind, the way I’m going to start this off is I’m going to talk to you first about what every business needs to do first, okay, this is the big picture. And it doesn’t matter what kind of a business you have, these are the things you have to be doing. And then I’m going to talk specifically about b2b businesses, and then specifically about b2c businesses.

And we’re going to dig in a little bit to the whys, those aren’t the same. But first of all, every business First of all, you must be reevaluating your messaging, okay. And I know I’ve said this, but I’m going to pound this into your heads. You must reevaluate your messaging the things you were saying seven weeks ago will not work today. Because the same people are not in the same mindset, they are not thinking the same way they are not feeling the same way and they are not behaving in the same way. And because of that you must reevaluate your messaging.

You got to really bring it down to a reptilian level, you’ve got to make what you offer essential. It has to be. It can’t be considered fluff. Because like I started off this presentation talking about this isn’t a time for fluff. So you have to reevaluate your messaging. And then you have to go back and look at the infrastructure that you have in place and make sure that it is optimized, well honed, not a lot of superfluous stuff going on. And that really hones in on that message, that new message.

One of the key things that you should do and is probably It might not have occurred to you as you have to reevaluate your lead magnets, whatever it is that you’re offering to get people into the top of your funnel, and to get them onto your email list and to get them into your Facebook Messenger list or to get them into your contest or whatever it is that you’re offering as a as a lead magnet. And if you’re not, then this is definitely something you must be doing. You need to rethink that. It may just be that you need to edit and make sure that the content of those lead magnets reflects that new messaging. Or it may mean that you need a whole new lead magnet. Okay? It may be that what you had were offering before wasn’t good enough or wasn’t on.

Topic enough. Okay. And remember, lead magnets aren’t necessarily just ebooks, they can be videos, they can be spreadsheets, I’ve had really good luck with spreadsheet lead magnets in the past, we might even do a live stream about this just to kind of give you guys an idea doesn’t really matter. I mean, they could be, they could be all sorts of things that can be lead magnets, or they could actually be, you know, free services if you want or, you know, it could be a consultation, it could be a strategy session.

But whatever your lead magnets are, you need to re evaluate them and make sure that they really aren’t tone deaf in this market and that they talk to your prospects reptilian brain that it really gets down to the survival, the survival level, or at the very least, an emotional connection in the limbic brain. You need to determine your available budget. Okay, this is obvious, but you got to do it. You really have to think about it and to say, Okay, yeah, I’m I’m putting new holes in the fence.

I’m pulling it tight, I’m squeezing it in, I feel like I’m wearing one of those courses that that, you know, women used to wear when in the in the, you know, in the 1800s. But you got to have a budget and you got to figure out what it is going to be. And then from there, we start breaking out and saying how we’re going to use it. Definitely, you must reevaluate your offers, okay? This goes with your messaging, you know, what you’re offering may not be enough right now, what you were offering beforehand, maybe you’re you need to look at your pricing.

Maybe you need to look at the bundles at the packaging at the way you put together what you’re offering. Maybe you need to, you know, add some content into the offer as well or you need to add some extra services or something in there to make it even more compelling so reevaluate your offers. And then last but not least, reevaluate your target audience. Okay, think about this, you may have been focused on a certain nation in your market.

And that niche may not be as good as it was before all of this happened. So, you know, maybe you were, you know, you were reaching out to a specific type of business or a specific type of consumer. And those people aren’t in a buying mode right now because they’re hard hit, then you need to reevaluate that you need to say, Okay, I shouldn’t be putting my marketing into a to attracting a target audience that isn’t going to be able to afford my products, my offers my services right now I need to pivot.

So these are the six really core marketing things that you must do, regardless of what kind of business you all okay, this is this is essential. And that being said, If that’s all you do, you’ll be ahead of many. Okay? You really will, if you will go back and and please, you know, read this over, we evaluate your messaging, your infrastructure, your lead magnets, Determine your budget, reevaluate your offers, and re evaluate your target audience, you will be ahead of the pack. Okay. But wait, there’s more.

Okay. I just love that phrase. I just, you know, I’m, uh, I’m from the time that I was a little kid when all that when when infomercials were invented, I can still remember the little, little spirally thing that would make spirals out of vegetables and all sorts of weird stuff that they would sell on TV. And there was always a wait, there’s more. So But wait, there’s more to this presentation. First of all, let’s talk about b2b businesses, okay, because there’s a difference between marketing to b2b and marketing to b2c. And there’s even a bigger difference right now.

With the market like it is, so b2b businesses and these are ordered in my opinion in order of, you know, pretty much what you you know how I would order them your email marketing game, Okay, number one thing you must do, okay? Forget until you finish this don’t go on to number two. Okay? This is really really important. I mean really segment your list, get your focus on your any automated sequences you have that may need to be tweaked and adjusted to your new messaging. If you don’t have automated sequences, you may need to create them. And then email put in place an email strategy that really builds a relationship with your with your email audience.

Okay, and we did I did a whole presentation not very long ago on email marketing. Go back and listen to it. Okay, and Your email marketing game. Okay, that is number one thing you need to do. Okay. Number two, implement a comprehensive LinkedIn outreach program, okay? And I recommend using a combination of automation and personal outreach and being very involved in this. So it’s not a robotic thing. We have a complete methodology that we use.

It’s very powerful it works, you will get you lots of conversations going in a very quick, short period of time. If you want help with that, reach out to me, leave me a comment and we’ll help you with that. LinkedIn outreach works, okay, it for b2b sales, it works. Okay, now you have to be you have to be smart about how you do it. We don’t use any of these weird little browser extensions and stuff like that. That’s a pain in the ass.

Okay. We have we know the tools and ways to do this, but you need to be doing and you need to be, you know, doing it consistently every day. Okay, um, put in place a content strategy, create quality content and get it out there, okay? And there are ways to create a lot of quality content went out, investing tons and tons of your time. Okay? If by the way, if you want an example of that you could go, you can go and look at our blog on greenlight digital.

And you’ll see that these we’re leveraging these live streams on our blog, we’re leveraging them in social media. we’re leveraging them in all sorts of different platforms to create with basically one, content creation, a whole bunch of content that’s going out and it’s going out in a whole bunch of different places and building backlinks and all sorts of good stuff for us. So put into place a really good content marketing strategy. Again, there’s a whole presentation on content marketing go backer, you asked me a question. I’ll give you a link in that in the comments, whatever you want.

Use personalized videos in your funnel, okay? And I mean personally sending one to one videos and I did a presentation on the tool on joro that is really great at this, incorporate that into your LinkedIn strategy into your email strategy and into your content strategy. Okay, it makes it gives it a really cool personal touch that is very powerful. Okay, implement number five implemented Facebook Messenger chat bot on your website.

Okay. It’s really not that hard. It and it is a you can you can once it set up, it will be there for pretty much forever. It works. It will help you build a list and it will give you direct access to your audience. The people that are coming to page Okay, so this is a simple thing, but it’s really important and last but not least, Start getting interviewed on industry podcasts, okay, there is no better source of really high quality leads and authority than being on podcast. And once again, I did a presentation all about podcasts and I did a presentation about a service expert Booker’s that we use. It’s really great.

So if you want to, you know that that information is already there for you just if you don’t know where to find it or whatever, go to the blog on green light digital, scroll on my profile, you’ll find it, send me a comment and I’ll make sure you get the link. Okay. It’s It’s not that. So this is my six step marketing plan for b2b businesses right now and they’re not that expensive, okay? It’s not going to cost that much money. Okay, and this is powerful stuff. This will drive sales, okay.

And that’s what you need right now. You need a pipeline full of prospects that are going to believe that your product that you’re offering is essential for them. Okay, so that’s b2b businesses. Let’s talk about b2b see businesses. And lo and behold, number one on the list is exactly the same as the b2b is because you must have your email marketing game. Okay? This is essential. It really is. And for e commerce businesses for b2c businesses, this is how you keep in touch it is still email is still the number one platform for conversions.

Right after that you need to be building and cultivating an enthusiastic Facebook Messenger list. Okay, those are your two for b2c businesses. These are your number, your two most important assets or assets right now. So really, make sure you’re doing a good job on both of those. And like I said, You’ve got I’ve done presentations on both, then focus on your e commerce channel, okay, right now, that is going to be more important probably for your business than any other distribution channel you have.

Okay, so really hone in optimize, make sure you you know, it doesn’t matter if you Using Shopify appears and WooCommerce if you’re using you know Magento doesn’t matter as much the platform but really make sure you’re getting the most out of it make sure all of the possible conversion tools are working together to up your rates as much as possible. Number four run a contest or giveaway campaign. Okay for PVC companies. This is awesome right now Okay, do it just just there’s like I said, I did a presentation all about contests.

We’re going to be talking about one of the tools that we use a lot soon. So you know, this is good stuff okay contests work and they drive enthusiasm and drive. You know people make can get excited and they engage with your brand. They keep your your Facebook posts going and people commenting and all of that is is a great way to do to keep your to get your message out there. So A well thought out retargeting campaign, this is number five, make sure that the people who are coming to your site are coming back.

Okay? And this is this is really this is essential okay Don’t let this and don’t just do it heavy handed where you’re always running the same ad to the same people that have been there and they’ve seen it seven times, okay you need to structure that by days and you need to really hone it in so that you’re you’re taking your website visitors down a path towards convert, okay. get interviewed on podcasts, this is great for b2c companies as well it’s just gonna be that the podcasts gonna be different. So if you sell women’s fashion products and get on fashion podcasts or get on you know women’s you know, Mom, mom podcast, whatever it is that you know that fits, and then the last tool for b2c businesses up your Instagram game.

Okay, that is almost without a doubt the number one social media platform For b2c so if you’re only gonna you know you can’t do everything right now you’ve got to be cautious you’ve got it you those holes those new holes in your Belgium are squeezing tight pick Instagram for b2c businesses, okay, and there’s a lot of really cool ways to grow your Instagram profile and to get things going. So that is b2c businesses. Here’s the final conclusion of today’s presentation despite what it may feel like now is not the time to stop market okay? It isn’t the apocalypse isn’t the world has not come to a close there still customers out there.

There’s still people out there that want and want to buy from you. And now is the time to be smart about your marketing but to not stop. So with that said, if you have any questions, please leave them below in the comments. If you’d like some help with anything you’ve seen in this presentation, reach out to me we We’ll help you, we’re here for you. You know, we’ll do this on that we’ll make it as easy as possible for you.

We understand the tough times and we understand that it’s as, as marketers, we need to be flexible and we need to adapt to what our clients are asking for. So that’s what we’re doing. That’s where you know, we’re here for you. If you want to reach out, there’s our website, green light dot digital. You can get me here on LinkedIn, no problems. Thank you very much for listening in and participating in these live streams. Talk to you tomorrow. Take care Bye for now.