The New Normal – Through the Eyes of the Marketing Manager
As our usual way of work and life has been changed completely over the past couple of weeks, it has been a challenge for a lot of us to find the ‘new normal’. Working from home, when you’re so used to the office environment and camaraderie, is something that everyone from our offices had to get used to. No amount of Zoom, Whatsapp, Skype or emails can beat a face to face conversation.
Transparency and honesty is interlaced in our core business values, and in challenging times like these, we believe that it’s more important than ever. That’s why we have released a series of blog posts, written by our fantastic team of telemarketers across our group of companies, to showcase their days working at home – their trials and tribulations and, of course, their triumphs.
Our Marketing Manager, Mela, writes her own blog post on how the marketing world has changed and how businesses can learn from that.
As a marketing professional, I have learnt in my experience that you need to be ready to adapt for any problem, any eventuality, every success and every failure. The past couple of weeks has shown me that there are some things that you just can’t prepare for. For each and every one of us, every single aspect of our lives has been turned on its head – and we’re all trying to muddle through to just survive at this point.
For myself, I am extremely lucky in the fact that not much has changed in terms of my day to day routine. I get up, I go to work, I drink coffee. However, the current crisis has tested me in many ways. My motivation, my mental health and my marketing knowledge has all been put through the ringer. As we all adjust to ‘The New Normal’, it’s vital that we keep lines of communication open and not shy away from talking about these issues in the age of coronavirus. In the same way, we shouldn’t also shy away from talking about customers and business. ‘The New Normal’ is exactly that – work shouldn’t stop as our daily life changes. In marketing, we need to be looking long-term as well as continuously building our brands, protecting our staff and honouring our values.
The Impact on Marketing
It goes without saying that whilst some businesses are flourishing, there are others which are seeing performance drops. With this sudden loss of revenue, it can be easy to see that in some businesses that marketing would be the first point to trim budgets and maximise efficiency.
Whilst the maximisation of efficiency is a marketers dream, a trim budget most certainly is not. At The Lead Lab Group, we have had open and honest conversations about how to market ourselves given the current climate. Both of our B2B and B2C arms are working full steam ahead as we are reshaping our essential marketing strategy. In our sector, we have seen many companies who have altered their marketing campaigns to great success in the past few weeks by focusing on their lead generation. For The Lead Lab Group, we are ensuring that there is mindfulness in our content marketing as well as continuing to build on brand image.
Treat People With Kindness
Already, we have seen massive companies fail to act quickly or suitably to the situation and they have already come under national scrutiny and derision. I would urge marketers to be kind and aware of the situation that we are currently in. These companies that follow this are the brands that will undoubtedly rebound the most quickly. Too often we see companies who only see money signs – that will impact them in the long run. In this time of uncertainty, there are many businesses that need to prioritize consumers and employees’ safety and we are ensuring that we are doing so by having everyone working from home and providing support to everyone that needs it in these trying times.
I am not a medical professional, or a politician, and I definitely cannot see into the future – so essentially, I am of little help to the vast majority of people in this crisis. However, I do know that in this extreme cultural shift that we are currently going through, it is important that brands address the issue with tact, empathy and mindful marketing.
In short, marketing and the way in which we market has changed drastically in the past few weeks. We’re constantly adapting all the time and The Lead Lab Group continues to grow and improve. We are all working together to get through this crisis and it has been so nice to see everyone on Houseparty at the end of each working day for a catch up and quick trivia game!