Most of December is typically spent reviewing the results of social media campaigns in the past year for clients and strategizing their marketing efforts for the next year. Nothing more needs to be said to describe the global economic situation in 2020. There is also no need for a professional analysis to feel the misery of the situation.
To be honest, there were some of our large international clients who were not able to survive the impact of the pandemic. Others collaborated with us, which allowed some of our retail clients, who bore the brunt of the pandemic, to experience three months of a splendid turnaround. The most hardworking are those who were profitable when market conditions were good and as new clients were ready to adapt their marketing strategy when the pandemic struck.
The three states of being beaten, breaking through, and restructuring – do these portray your brand in 2020?
Being Able to Quickly Adjust as a Key Strategy
During the pandemic, many large international brands faced the biggest challenge, which was a lack of flexibility to adapt quickly.
When planning social media content for clients, we typically plan on an annual basis with quarterly adjustments. What we did more this year was to take two weeks to understand the changes our clients’ businesses had to undergo as a result of the pandemic and then made rapid adjustments to their marketing strategies. While the workload of both the agency and clients increased tremendously, being able to timely adjust and execute strategies during this extraordinary period has saved many of our clients’ turnover this past year.
Resolution Is Extremely Important
Some of our retail clients, like their peers, have been battered and bruised for many years, but have set their hearts on going all out with going digital. This is not easy for more traditional clients who are used to spending money on traditional means such as television but have only tested the waters on going digital for several years.
Most of the brand decision-makers this year understand that consumers are glued to their mobile phones or the television more than ever before. With advertisements, a fully digital shopping app, and an advanced live marketing program, it is possible to achieve annual growth of 30% through great determination. Strategic changes are important, but having the right mentality and determination are more important.
Do More With Less
This year, I have had more contact with clients who thought they had a solid set of digital marketing strategies, similar to everyone else, but could not achieve the desired results. Upon meeting with us, the first few words that came out of their mouths are “we are looking for more digital strategies”. One does not need too many strategies. Sometimes, one is enough. A blunter way of putting it is: “What else can be done?”
The mentality of such clients towards digital marketing is part of a traditional media delivery strategy, that is, “multi-channel“. Their mentality is to get their brand onto every marketing channel, whether Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, website, AR, live marketing, or an online store. What else is there?
But to put it truthfully, the brands may not be deeply connected with consumers across the various channels. This is the strategy of switching from “multi-channel” to “omnichannel“. It is not how many channels the brand has or how many messages it releases, but the overall customer experience. If customers can experience the impact of the brand’s messaging on a particular channel, the greater the chances that they will connect through that channel again.
Reorganizing and enhancing existing channels may be more effective than constantly trying new ones. How much lost this year is a foregone conclusion. More importantly, what have you learned, and what needs to be improved to make 2021 even more promising?
Reference: https://berniewong.net/more-than-anything-2020-has-been-a-laborious-year/
