In our recent blog, we talked about the three most valuable audiences to target during a challenging economy. For this section, we’ll be focusing on three different marketing initiatives that can get immediate action and how they work for each audience group. 

Engage with your audience 

Things have changed amid COVID-19, and you’re going to need to re-evaluate both your engagement strategy and the budget that goes along with it. At Risdall, we have clients that made significant investments to participate in trade shows and travel, only to have them canceled. We’ve helped provide strategies to replace these cancelled initiatives with other efforts to reach and engage their audience. 

Engage with core customers 

For your core customers, it’s imperative that you’re keeping a regular flow of communication and providing them with relevant information. If you are a sales-driven organization, this may be languishing. Identify what information is essential to your customers and develop content that provides them with this information, as well as a reason for you to stay in contact. 

These methods could include surveys, blogs, newsletters, webinars, or any other format that’s both engaging and informative. The key is that your messages are provided in a digestible format at a time when it’s important to your customers. This is a huge opportunity to show empathy, cross-sell and upsell, educate, and inform, and ultimately reinforce what makes you valuable to them.

Engage with key prospects

For key prospects, it is likely that your sales team maintains a database and has had some contact with them. Your job is to help reinforce what makes you unique and the value you can provide. 

Effective engagement will require a mix of content to create top-of-mind awareness and build your reputation, and all content should address your audience’s needs. An email marketing cadence can be very effective to connect with each prospect in your database and deliver targeted, specific information that is essential to their immediate needs. This is also a good time to consider awareness-building using programmatic digital display ads and LinkedIn ads that target your database and provide essential visibility that keeps you top of mind. 

As you create content, consider topics that  focus on thought leadership and your reputation while also delivering opportunities to engage, such as social proof, case studies of how other clients benefited from working with you, and any value-added offers you may currently have.

Engage with ideal customers

Ideal customers are like your key prospects but may not be in your sales database. This audience has probably had no contact with your company, so you have to put more effort into awareness and engaging with them. This is where a strong inbound marketing strategy will be essential. The goal is to capture interest to provide sales with a qualified lead. 

This is an audience that you would have likely spent time and budget reaching with initiatives like public relations, trade shows, direct mail, and mass media campaigns. But now, effective engagement requires harnessing machine learning to create targeted disruption online, creating a mix of top-of-mind awareness, reputation and specific communications that address their needs.

A mix of SEO/SEM strategy, programmatic digital display ads, social media marketing, and landing pages with clear calls to action will be effective while allowing you to see the results and impacts of your efforts in real time.

Differentiate yourself from the competition 

Differentiation can be one of the hardest things for companies to master. Many times, leadership thinks their company is extraordinary, but can’t put this into a concise message that goes deeper than, “We’re the best.”

While every company has differentiators, finding them requires discipline, asking the right questions, a good understanding of your competitors, and some creativity. Whether it really is because you offer the best service or it’s based on the special connection you have with clients, there’s always a reason customers select you. The trick is finding it and then explaining it. 

Many times, working with an outside partner can be extremely valuable for finding out why customers select you. A third party asking questions of leadership and customers will likely uncover insights that are simply not possible for people close to the company to find. Successfully differentiating yourself applies to all three audiences we have mentioned at various stages of their decision-making. 

One key to success is that sales and marketing must work together to define what makes your company different. This must include tangibles like competitors’ service features, service comparisons, and price comparisons, but must also include intangibles like your culture, the way you do business, and your commitment to helping clients improve their business. Also helpful are examples of how you are leading your industry, what you provide beyond the product itself, and what your customers have to say. 

Incentivize your prospects 

As we mentioned in other blogs, companies are evaluating everything and this provides you with a unique opportunity. Whether you are trying to protect and strengthen current customer relationships or create new ones, incentives are a great way to get attention and are a good reason for a prospect to listen.  

Depending on your position in the marketplace and what’s most important to your customers and prospects, this could include:

As with any incentive or sales strategy, make sure your marketing team is working closely with the sales team as you develop your plan. Be creative. Everything doesn’t have to focus on a price discount, and you can change your approach depending on which incentives are most effective. 

Sales will follow

As we said in our earlier blog about audience focus during the pandemic, while things are challenging, keep in mind that there are still customers out there who need what you have. COVID-19 is requiring companies to be flexible and creative with their marketing, but you can be successful. 

We cover the complete 3×3 for 2020 marketing strategy in our Marketing Priorities in the COVID Economy webinar available on-demand here. Without leads, there are no clients, no revenue, and no business. With long sales cycles and specialized products, developing and nurturing ongoing customer relationships is critical.

In our recent blog, we talked about the three most valuable audiences to target during a challenging economy. For this section, we’ll be focusing on three different marketing initiatives that can get immediate action and how they work for each audience group. 

Engage with your audience 

Things have changed amid COVID-19, and you’re going to need to re-evaluate both your engagement strategy and the budget that goes along with it. At Risdall, we have clients that made significant investments to participate in trade shows and travel, only to have them canceled. We’ve helped provide strategies to replace these cancelled initiatives with other efforts to reach and engage their audience. 

Engage with core customers 

For your core customers, it’s imperative that you’re keeping a regular flow of communication and providing them with relevant information. If you are a sales-driven organization, this may be languishing. Identify what information is essential to your customers and develop content that provides them with this information, as well as a reason for you to stay in contact. 

These methods could include surveys, blogs, newsletters, webinars, or any other format that’s both engaging and informative. The key is that your messages are provided in a digestible format at a time when it’s important to your customers. This is a huge opportunity to show empathy, cross-sell and upsell, educate, and inform, and ultimately reinforce what makes you valuable to them.

Engage with key prospects

For key prospects, it is likely that your sales team maintains a database and has had some contact with them. Your job is to help reinforce what makes you unique and the value you can provide. 

Effective engagement will require a mix of content to create top-of-mind awareness and build your reputation, and all content should address your audience’s needs. An email marketing cadence can be very effective to connect with each prospect in your database and deliver targeted, specific information that is essential to their immediate needs. This is also a good time to consider awareness-building using programmatic digital display ads and LinkedIn ads that target your database and provide essential visibility that keeps you top of mind. 

As you create content, consider topics that  focus on thought leadership and your reputation while also delivering opportunities to engage, such as social proof, case studies of how other clients benefited from working with you, and any value-added offers you may currently have.

Engage with ideal customers

Ideal customers are like your key prospects but may not be in your sales database. This audience has probably had no contact with your company, so you have to put more effort into awareness and engaging with them. This is where a strong inbound marketing strategy will be essential. The goal is to capture interest to provide sales with a qualified lead. 

This is an audience that you would have likely spent time and budget reaching with initiatives like public relations, trade shows, direct mail, and mass media campaigns. But now, effective engagement requires harnessing machine learning to create targeted disruption online, creating a mix of top-of-mind awareness, reputation and specific communications that address their needs.

A mix of SEO/SEM strategy, programmatic digital display ads, social media marketing, and landing pages with clear calls to action will be effective while allowing you to see the results and impacts of your efforts in real time.

Differentiate yourself from the competition 

Differentiation can be one of the hardest things for companies to master. Many times, leadership thinks their company is extraordinary, but can’t put this into a concise message that goes deeper than, “We’re the best.”

While every company has differentiators, finding them requires discipline, asking the right questions, a good understanding of your competitors, and some creativity. Whether it really is because you offer the best service or it’s based on the special connection you have with clients, there’s always a reason customers select you. The trick is finding it and then explaining it. 

Many times, working with an outside partner can be extremely valuable for finding out why customers select you. A third party asking questions of leadership and customers will likely uncover insights that are simply not possible for people close to the company to find. Successfully differentiating yourself applies to all three audiences we have mentioned at various stages of their decision-making. 

One key to success is that sales and marketing must work together to define what makes your company different. This must include tangibles like competitors’ service features, service comparisons, and price comparisons, but must also include intangibles like your culture, the way you do business, and your commitment to helping clients improve their business. Also helpful are examples of how you are leading your industry, what you provide beyond the product itself, and what your customers have to say. 

Incentivize your prospects 

As we mentioned in other blogs, companies are evaluating everything and this provides you with a unique opportunity. Whether you are trying to protect and strengthen current customer relationships or create new ones, incentives are a great way to get attention and are a good reason for a prospect to listen.  

Depending on your position in the marketplace and what’s most important to your customers and prospects, this could include:

As with any incentive or sales strategy, make sure your marketing team is working closely with the sales team as you develop your plan. Be creative. Everything doesn’t have to focus on a price discount, and you can change your approach depending on which incentives are most effective. 

Sales will follow

As we said in our earlier blog about audience focus during the pandemic, while things are challenging, keep in mind that there are still customers out there who need what you have. COVID-19 is requiring companies to be flexible and creative with their marketing, but you can be successful. 

We cover the complete 3×3 for 2020 marketing strategy in our Marketing Priorities in the COVID Economy webinar available on-demand here. Without leads, there are no clients, no revenue, and no business. With long sales cycles and specialized products, developing and nurturing ongoing customer relationships is critical.

Our webinar is now available on-demand.

Click here to watch now!

Without leads, there are no clients, no revenue, and no business. With long sales cycles and specialized products, developing and nurturing ongoing customer relationships is critical.

Please join us at 1 p.m. on Thursday, July 23 to learn how to target the right audiences with the best information to attract their interest, get discussions going, and complete sales.

We’ll cover:

Click here to watch on-demand!

While 2020 started out strong for many companies, COVID-19 put a quick end to this growth and left us all in a state of unease. But after months of quarantine and continued uncertainty about how long the recovery will take, businesses need to take action to ensure continued revenue, regardless of how long it takes for sales to return to “normal.”

As we talk with companies in different industries, we’re seeing a number of recurring themes: 

There’s a sense of anxiety and urgency as businesses try to decide what actions to take. Fortunately, there are immediate initiatives to employ that can be successful with audiences amid the COVID economy. Risdall has compiled these efforts into what we’re calling 3×3 for 2020. For this first blog post, we’ll be focusing on the three audiences you can engage for the greatest ROI.

CORE CUSTOMERS

Your current, loyal customers are a group that is often overlooked, but cannot be taken for granted during challenging times. 

We’ve all heard the adage that it’s more expensive to bring on a new customer than to keep an existing one, and this point is extremely important in our current marketplace. Don’t forget, your customers are also facing financial pressure and your partnership is one of the areas where they may be looking to save money. 

In your efforts with current customers, we recommend focusing on protecting and strengthening your relationship. There are four key ways you can demonstrate this:

Showing empathy is an easy way to connect with current customers. Something as simple as a personal note from your president acknowledging the situation and letting them know they’re not alone can be very impactful. An empathetic call from a sales rep that isn’t just focused on closing a sale can strengthen your relationship. But more than anything, listen to what they’re saying and look for ways you can make their lives easier. 

Don’t be afraid to reinforce what makes you valuable to your customers. Recap existing relationships by updating and sharing case studies, developing a newsletter, or developing a regular email and phone cadence to remain top of mind. You cannot simply assume your customers remember what you’ve done for them and why you’re bringing value. (Keep in mind, the people who control budgets at organizations often have no idea what vendors are bringing to the table.) 

Customers are looking to you as the expert and educator on your area of service, and oftentimes their industry. Keep your client roster informed about changes in the marketplace, ways your services can help with their needs, and ideas and opportunities for growth that they may not have considered. This information can’t just talk about yourself and your services. Focus on content that helps your customers solve their problems. 

If customers come to you for certain products and services but not others, now is the time to promote those other offerings. Consider bundling them into packages that prove more cost efficient than working with multiple vendors. Promoting yourself as an easy, single source can help deepen the relationship, save them money and provide you with additional revenue. Obviously you’re not going to be able to sell everything to everyone, but make sure your customers know about your complete breadth of services. 

KEY PROSPECTS

If you are like most of our clients, you have a short list of key prospects you would love to convert to customers. These prospects might be familiar with you, may have had some contact with you in the past, and could have even considered you at one point. Now is the time to focus energy on reaching out to this group. Like all businesses, they are looking for ways to reduce costs. 

Engaging them with a value proposition is a great way to get their attention while generating discussion with your sales team. Depending on your business, this might be a percentage reduction during a specific time period, a volume discount, or support services included at no charge. Make sure your incentives are carefully thought through and that you work with your sales team to identify something truly valuable to these prospects.

Another item that is essential to this group is what we call social proof. This is basically well-told stories of customer satisfaction. An incentive will get your foot in the door, but in order to close, you will need these proof points that cover the various boxes your prospects will need checked. This might be the product itself, your customer service, or how it compares to other products in the consideration set. If you don’t have good social proof, now is the time to develop really good case studies that are thorough and cover the different criteria that this audience will need in order to consider a change. 

IDEAL CUSTOMERS

Like key prospects, the ideal customer audience needs to be clearly defined by behavior and need, but you may not have them on your target list yet. Just like your customers and key prospects, they’ll be evaluating their business and will be open to learning more about how your product or service can impact it. 

You’ll need to reach this group with targeted engagement rather than broad awareness-building efforts. It’s essential to deliver impactful, relevant information along with triggers designed to initiate a request or contact with your sales team. As with your key prospects, you’ll want to work with your sales team to develop incentives that generate interest and result in conversations. 

SALES WILL FOLLOW

While we are dealing with a challenging economy, it’s important to remember that there are still customers out there who need what you have. The COVID-19 pandemic has created opportunities for businesses to refocus efforts, but this requires creativity and flexibility with your marketing efforts. Discussing your current situation with a partner like Risdall, who will help you review your current marketing strategies and engagements, can ensure your efforts get measurable results and sales.

We cover the complete 3×3 for 2020 marketing strategy in our Marketing Priorities in the COVID Economy webinar, available on-demand here.

Our webinar is now available on-demand.
Click here to watch! 

Sales are off and businesses are forced to make difficult choices. Everything with a cost associated is under scrutiny, so where do you focus?

Please join us as we discuss effective, real-world strategies that can keep your business thriving in 2020.

We’ll cover:

  • The three audience segments to focus on for the best results
  • The three initiatives that are most effective for each audience
  • Determining which audience and initiative is most impactful
If you’re struggling to determine what efforts will be the most successful in this challenging economy, this is the webinar for you! We can’t wait to talk more.

 

Click here to watch on-demand!

Longtime professional hockey player, coach, and broadcaster Barry Melrose said skaters should work their hardest when on the power play and it’s the defense that can sit back and settle in. While hardly anyone would claim to be on a “power play” right now, the analogy is closer than may first be obvious. 

During a power play, both teams have obstacles to overcome. One team is physically short-handed while the other is trying to beat the odds. This past hockey season, teams on the power play scored only about 20% of the time and, in fact, were scored against about 3% of time.

While both teams have disadvantages, their desired outcomes are very different. One team aims to get back to where things were, business as usual, so to speak. The other team – the one Barry Melrose said should work their hardest – aims to come away with a goal.

During these unprecedented times, many leaders of organizations say they just want to get back to business as usual, with some saying they just want to get back to work, period. That’s understandable. But it’s also the mindset of being on defense, and means the probability of coming out ahead is drastically lower.

Organizations often find themselves focusing their sights inward and losing a view of what is taking place outside of their organization. This tends to happen when organizations are busy, and doing the work takes priority over other tasks, and/or when organizations get bogged down by the business of being in business and operational functions take large chunks of the day.

In hockey, a red light signifies a goal has been scored, and by using the R-E-D technique, organizations can use this time to increase their chances of coming out even stronger.

R-E-D focuses on three actions that tend to get overlooked by many organizations: Research, Evaluate and Develop.

Research

When was the last time you took a thorough look at your industry? And, for those in B2B, how about your clients’ industries? 

Many organizations say it’s hard to find the time to invest into staying up to date on: 

Good intentions often become low priorities and, eventually, afterthoughts. If you can’t confidently say that you are an expert on what’s happening in these industries, now is the time to catch up. 

Evaluate

After completing the research phase, do this classic exercise: imagine a competitor to your business that, if it existed, would keep you up at night. What does that organization look like? How does it operate? How is it structured and how are its processes superior? What capabilities make it a threat and how does technology factor in? What kind of employees do they have, how do they attract them, and how do they keep them? 

Now, examine each part of your organization and evaluate it against this imagined, existential, threat-posing competitor. 

Develop

Now that you’ve done research and feel confident as an expert on your industry, and have evaluated all parts of your organization against an imagined top-performing competitor, it’s time to take action. 

Develop the framework, structures, processes, tool box, and team to align your organization, as closely as possible, to outperform the imagined competitor. 

Most everyone has obstacles right now. The separator is mindset. Is your mindset to sit back, settle in, and have your aim focused on getting back to business as usual? Or, is it to work your hardest and focus your aim on coming out ahead?

Ryan Richardson helps and empowers organizations to become more effective, efficient, and accountable. Though never playing, coaching, or broadcasting hockey at a high-level, he did have the hair for it.

Like millions of other college students over the last 60 or so years, my college career started with freshman Art History. 

Twice per week that first semester of college, I’d trudge across campus for the 8:30 a.m. class. Joined by a couple hundred other freshmen, we’d sit in a darkened auditorium as the professor would project classic works of art onto a large screen and describe the history of each one.

The lectures didn’t seem to be customized, dynamic, or unique. They were probably repeated, more or less word for word, each year to a new freshmen class. The class was a lecture; there was no Q&A, discussion, or any interaction at all. I’m still not exactly sure from where the professor delivered the lectures, but it was rare to actually catch a glimpse of him. There was no roll call and it’s doubtful the professor even knew the names of those taking the class. 

As concern over COVID-19 intensified and precautionary measures increased, countless organizations have begun to grapple with how to adapt to a time of sheltering at home, self quarantining, and social distancing. They are rediscovering and realizing what matters to keep customers engaged, much like the lessons I learned from my Art History class.

Lesson 1: Interaction Matters

Gyms were some the first businesses to close as COVID-19 spread through communities. Initially, many group fitness instructors live streamed their classes.

The instructors quickly found that their good intentions had difficulties – poor lighting, echoing sound, awkward framing, and maintaining live broadcasts at normal class times although their clients’ schedules had gone awry. Another problem they faced was competing with the already existing and mature industry of workout videos; exercise streaming services allow people to take any class at any time, following along with slickly produced videos. 

Others, including the dance studio my children attend, found success by making meaningful interactions. Instead of just broadcasting or recording dance classes, akin to the workout video model, they use video chat technology and maintain two-way communication. Dancers ask questions and instructors watch and give instruction on form, steps, and the routines. 

Lesson 2: Personal Connections Matter

Over the past few weeks, I’ve received numerous emails and calls from organizations stating how they are dealing with the COVID-19 situation, with many asking for support. Most of these people and/or organizations I hadn’t heard from for an extended period of time, and often times needed a reminder of who they were/what they did. 

Personal connections have always been important. We are more at ease placing our trust in those we feel we know. This may be a shopkeeper or sales rep we’ve worked with, or an organization that prioritizes authentic and meaningful communication.These personal relationships, that consisted of what seems like a continual conversation, were where support was quickly offered and accepted. 

Lesson 3: Community Matters

Seemingly overnight, amidst business changes because of COVID-19, the movement to support small businesses was put into hyperdrive. 

Communities sprung into action to patronize and organically promote small businesses and ones with strong connections to the communities in which they operate. The deep reservoirs of goodwill these organizations had established with their communities meant their communities naturally rose up to support them and show appreciation for the dynamic, adaptive, and personal ways the organizations have served them. Some of these companies have been so overwhelmed with community support that they have been barely able to keep up with fulfilling orders. 

Soon the pandemic will end, and organizations will go back to business as usual. Gyms parking lots will once again fill up, commerce will rebound, and communities will chat about more than the latest COVID-19 prediction model.

In any crisis, lessons can be learned to make tomorrow better. Many are now discovering or rediscovering the importance of interactions, personal connections, collaboration and community.

As it was, my entire freshman Art History course could have been recorded by a professor anywhere in the world and made available for anyone on Earth with an internet connection to watch at their leisure. Take the time to make sure your clients, prospects, and connections know what about your business is unique, that you understand their needs, and that you truly care about making them successful. 

Ryan Richardson is the Director of Media at Risdall Marketing Group and has a deep appreciation for classical art.

Now that we’re weeks into stay-at-home orders and most of us are working remotely from the comfort of our homes, it’s a great time to review an aspect of marketing that often gets overlooked — content.

Risdall is constantly reminding our clients about the importance of fresh, relevant content. With so many people spending more time online and hungry for information, you have an opportunity to share your expertise with a vast audience who are still looking for information related to doing their jobs and ready to listen. Here are our thoughts on reviewing content and some ideas for ramping up your efforts. 

Don’t create content for the heck of it

Before we get too excited, it’s important to remind everyone that it’s never a good idea to just create content for content’s sake. When creating anything, outline the key points you’re trying to get across to the audience and stick to this plan. 

Take some time to review topics and ideas that are important and helpful to your client base. Also, make sure you (or your organization) has a specific point of view you’re trying to get across in every piece. Whether we’re in quarantine or not, it’s never a good idea to just parrot what other authors are saying. 

Time to highlight your expertise

Whether your content is related to the quarantine or not, now is the time to showcase your expertise in the industries you serve. Take the time to craft content that connects your unique expertise to specific needs and interests of your audience.

You know your clients’ needs better than anyone else, and the better you can speak to meeting these needs (and solving their problems), the more powerful any content you create will be. Be specific about your approach and results. Your audience is looking for real, actionable items. 

It’s probably time to create a big piece

A great way to generate a lot of content at the same time is to create a larger piece like an ebook or white paper. These large content types allow you to cover a variety of topics, then break the content into smaller pieces. A good ebook could be the reference point for months’ worth of blog posts that each include a call to action to download the full piece. There’s also a certain amount of authority that comes with creating long-form, useful content that educates your audience. 

Bigger pieces of content typically take more effort to create than smaller pieces. Your subject matter experts may have more time available to dive into a topic, and you can then repurpose and use this content for other pieces in the future. Investing in content now may prevent you from taking up their time for input when their schedules are packed.

Google (and your prospects) love updated content

A great way to make sure your site is keeping the attention of search engines is to keep creating new content. Google has turned itself into an “answer engine” that provides users with the answers they’re looking for. Make sure your content is covering keywords and topics that prospects are including in searches, whether they’re typing out full questions or just specific words. 

If your content topic is evergreen, you could see visitors coming for years to come. If it’s related to a current subject, you’ll see an uptick of visitors simply because it’s a topic that users are actively searching for right now. 

Don’t forget about case studies and testimonials 

The default for most of us tends to be blog and website content, but let’s not forget that client and customer stories and testimonials are an extremely valuable part of your content library and highly effective on pages of your website where prospects are reviewing specific products or services. This real-world “social proof” showcases your ability to meet the needs of clients and generally contain keywords and phrases that are commonly searched for by prospects. 

Chances are your customers are experiencing a certain amount of downtime right now, and may have the time to write a testimonial or approve a case study. It’s also a great opportunity to keep communication channels open with your current and past clients, and to remind them of all the great work you’ve done together. 

Put content creation into a regular schedule

While most of us still have plenty of regular job duties to attend to, we should really be taking any extra time we have to review and refine current content, not to mention creating new content. Even if it’s only for an extra hour a day, it’s the perfect time to get several months’ worth of blog posts, ebooks, and white papers written and ready for review. 

If you need help getting started in this area, we’d love to walk through your current content strategy and how it can be improved. Whether it’s focused on creating new content or reviewing existing pieces and how they fit into your overall marketing strategy, Risdall’s team is ready to help.

We are in unsettling times with office closings, events canceled and many business activities in flux. However, we are still connected online and we can’t just sit around doing nothing. As marketers, we need to be creative, and continue to interact with clients and prospects, introducing solutions, meeting needs and doing the best we can despite the circumstances. Here are some thoughts to keep your company (not to mention yourself) connected with your audience while most of us are working from home.

First thing’s first

First of all, watch your existing campaigns. Make sure nothing inappropriate or irrelevant (ex. an event that was canceled) is being promoted. You don’t want to appear out of sync with what’s going on in our marketplace. (We recently got a message from a restaurant promoting franchising opportunities — while most restaurants are closed!) 

People haven’t disappeared

Just because we’re not having in-person meetings and events doesn’t mean the world has stopped and people aren’t interacting. More importantly, users are consuming content like never before and are looking for relevant information and solutions that can help their businesses now and in the future. Here are some ideas for how to make the most of your marketing, even when most people are working from home.

Proactive outreach

Depending on your business, and the realities of a long-term quarantine, your product or service may be of help to your customers managing through this crisis. Now’s the time to reinforce that, while showing empathy. Let them know what you’re doing to be proactive and thoughts on how we’re all going to get through this together. An email or phone conversation to check in with a friendly “hello” and “how can we help?” can go a long way!

Over-communicate, letting your customers know if there’s going to be an impact on delivery, completion of projects, or any sort of delay during this time. Most professionals are in the same boat, attempting to work with limited resources, so make sure you’re in regular communication with them. Chances are they’ll be understanding as long as you let them know if something is changing. 

Virtual booths

With so many high-profile industry events canceled in 2020, there’s a lot of reduced exposure. However, many of these organizations are turning their cancelled events into virtual trade show booths, allowing attendees (and even those who weren’t going to attend in the first place) access to the speakers, demos, presentations, and information provided virtually on a section of their website. Risdall has already helped clients make this transition after the sudden cancellation of HIMSS 2020 and is seeing very positive results. This inconvenience has sparked innovation and new ideas of how to do things differently for future events — building contingency digital plans or virtual booths for anyone interested in seeing the information that was to be presented at the event, not just the people who were planning on attending. 

Targeted lead generation

If you aren’t doing this, now is the time to start. Creating targeted demand and lead generation campaigns can give you an edge in a marketplace that is more competitive due to this crisis. Defining your target audience and driving inbound sales engagement will result in conversions and sales. Even in a down market, there is still a need for your product or service and targeted inbound marketing allows you to find those who need your product and service and deliver a relevant message to them.

Update your metrics

Don’t wait until the end of the second quarter to reset your expectations for marketing results. We can safely assume numbers are going to be down across the board so make sure you and your leadership agree on updated goals and metrics for the coming months, if not year. We’re still not sure what the long-term impact will be so review and be realistic about what your business will (and will not) see. 

Got extra time? Update your content

You’ve probably already seen cringe-worthy communication that clearly should have been removed from distribution now that events are canceled and most people are stuck inside. (For example, a retail store campaign is of little value right now when people are hunkering down.) 

If you’ve got extra time with cancelations, it’s a great time to review things that often get placed on the back-burner; in particular content. Now’s the time to define and write future blog posts, long-form content like ebooks and whitepapers, and determine your social media posting schedule. Now is the time to create content that is educational and informative and positions you as a thought leader in your industry. Good content posted now can position you for greater visibility and boost your authority as things return to normal. How great would it be to have a significant portion of your content for the rest of the year done and ready for the coming months?

More than anything, stay active

The worst thing any business can do right now is be complacent. Everyone is still active online and available to receive your marketing and content. Work with your marketing team (or agency) to think through the best course of action for your business during times of uncertainty. If necessary, rethink your current plan to make sure you’re being creative about keeping your business visible and maintaining relationships. Things will return to normal and hopefully, the economy will come roaring back. What you do now will impact your business a few months from now.

Don’t panic and if you’d like to talk through ideas and strategy to keep your marketing successful while most people are at home, please contact us.

Friday, November 15, 2019
11:00 am – 1:00 pm
Doubletree Hotel – St. Louis Park
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We are living through the biggest technology revolution in the history of mankind. The ways companies are engaging with customers is changing at an amazing rate and many companies are left confused with how to adapt. Fortunately, Risdall has found ways that allow companies and brands to engage with customers and prospects in ways that are measurable and tied to real-world success. 

Since the start of advertising, the goal has been to interrupt customers and get them to pay attention. Today’s customers require engagement and seamless integration into whatever device, format, or media they’re on. The good news is that every interaction can be measured and quantified. The bad news is that very few companies (and marketing agencies) can pull actionable insights out of all this data. 

Please join Risdall’s President and CEO Ted Risdall has he walks you through where marketing has been in the past, how things have changed, and what it takes to be Digitally Mature in today’s marketing and technology landscape. He’ll walk you through how Risdall engages with their current clients, and how they access where a client’s current marketing efforts stand. You’ll even get access to a tool that will allow you to assess your current marketing state and identify immediate areas for improvement. 

About Ted Risdall – President and CEO, Risdall
Ted led Risdall’s expansion into high technology. While most people thought the Internet was about bulletin boards and chat rooms, Ted was already demonstrating that e-commerce had a profitable future for most businesses. He took that concept deeper, proving that that the web was to be an effective new vehicle for advertising and marketing for both consumer and business-to-business markets. His commitment to technology and talent firmly established Risdall Interactive as a major player on the national scene, where the agency is consistently ranked in the Top 50 Interactive Agencies in the country. With well over a thousand websites under its belt, Risdall integrates top design with functionality in cost-effective implementations. Ted joined the agency in 1993 with a master’s degree from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

About Sales and Marketing Executives (SME)
Sales and Marketing Executives (SME) provides sales and marketing leaders in small and mid-sized businesses learning opportunities via the exchange of practical, proven business strategies and tactics.  Our members are responsible for driving revenue in their organization, as well as for developing and implementing practical ideas that generate this growth.

Click here for more information about Sales and Marketing Executives (SME)

Our VP of Digital Strategy, Erik Hinds, attended the Transformation of Search Summit in New York City, and came back with a number of great takeaways. We’ll be putting this knowledge to use immediately for our clients, and wanted to share a distilled version of what was covered. 

Takeaway 1: Search = Gratification

Nowadays, search is simply about delivering instant gratification. Customers expect to be able to find what they need quickly, whether it’s content, pictures, videos or other media.

This lesson has to apply to websites, too. Sites must be fast and deliver exactly what the customer is looking for. In fact, it’s expected that by 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. 

While organic SEO is essential, companies should also be supplementing with paid search. You have to do what it takes to get in front of someone, get them to your site and cookie them. Grabbing the top paid and top organic search positions is a major brand-awareness driver. 

Furthermore, the search engine results page (SERP) is constantly changing. Just because you own a top organic spot now doesn’t mean it’s yours forever. Google has proven to be a disruptor with algorithm updates and new SERP features. 

Takeaway 2: The Future of ecommerce is Visual

It’s estimated that people retain 10 percent of what they hear, 20 percent of what they read, and 80 percent of what they see. Successful digital-born brands are building real experiences with physical stores, such as Casper Mattresses and Amazon opening physical pop-up shops. Even when thinking about digital marketing, it’s essential to consider the physical elements of your presence. 

Brand loyalty is declining and buyers rely on the new digital, non-linear path to purchase. Intercepting these buyers at multiple stages of the purchase journey is imperative.

Using platforms like Pinterest, you can reach buyers very early in the planning stages. Did you know that many people start planning Thanksgiving gatherings during the 4th of July holiday? 

Takeaway 3: Optimize your Content on YouTube

Listed as the number one online channel for Generation Z, surpassing even Netflix, all ages of users regularly visit YouTube. With 1.9 billion users a month, YouTube accounts for approximately one-third of all internet usage. And while many companies actively utilize YouTube as a marketing platform, very few invest in optimizing their video content. 

When planning and creating content for YouTube, it’s important to focus on what your users want and the problems they’re trying to solve. Remember, they’re probably not on YouTube to learn more about your company; they’re looking for specific information that can help in a specific situation. Research what your competitors are doing, and more specifically, what’s working for them and getting the most views. 

Make sure you’re using the right keywords and video optimizations. This includes title description, filename, tags, closed captioning and transcripts. All this relates directly to how users will find your content and how you rank against the competition. Most importantly, measure your results utilizing YouTube analytics and keep moving forward with continuous refinement and optimization. 

Risdall can help make sure you’re ahead of the curve as search continues to transform, even if you’re just getting started. Contact [email protected] to schedule a call with one of our search experts to ensure you survive, and thrive, in today’s competitive online marketplace.

Ted Risdall, our Chairman and CEO, was honored to be featured on the WeMentor Mondays podcast for September 2019. In this in-depth episode, Ted discusses what it takes for second-generation businesses to succeed in today’s marketplace. Specifically transitioning Risdall to a digital-focused firm during the biggest communication and technology revolution of our lifetime.

Ted talks about how he and his Dad, agency founder John Risdall, led together until 2016. Then how Ted and his wife, Jennifer Risdall, became sole owners of this digital marketing agency. Through these ongoing transitions, Risdall has become known as one of the most innovative, integrated advertising agencies in Minnesota.

Download the complete podcast here.