I met a man who had a plan

To make a million dollars

When things didn’t work

Then he lost his shirt

Buttons, sleeves and even his collar.

We have arrived at the part of the year where businesses are making plans for next year. Sales goals are being established and that means marketing budgets for the next year are being put together. Your business marketing strategy is the life of any organization. If you don’t market well, you don’t sell well. How do you wield enough influence in your marketing to sway your customers into paying you for your products and services? That is the challenge of any marketing plan. The fate of your business rides on it. In an ordinary year, you might be able to take the marketing budget from the current year, discuss the success or failures of your marketing efforts, tweak the numbers a bit and submit your budget. This is not a normal year. I would surmise that many of the marketing efforts you planned a year ago – especially those that involved gathering in crowds or touching people – have been canceled for the rest of the year. How do you plan for another year of marketing when you don’t know if your customers will be quarantined in their homes or be out and about? In other words, how do you know what to plan for when the world’s a big question mark? Here are few tips that will help you make marketing plans and put together a budget for next year.

Plan for two scenarios: people being cooped up at home or easing of social gathering mandates. We have a couple of unknowns that will likely push our society one way or the other. First, will the cold and flu season cause a spike in deadly virus cases? Second, how will the politics of the presidential race impact people’s thinking? Marketing is always concerned about what the prevailing attitudes are in their target markets. You could have a very low occurrence of real health issues, but if your target market is frightened to leave home because of the political voices they hear, you will have a hard time selling anything to assembled groups of people. As a marketer, you have to be ready for either of them to be true and have an impact on your customers.

Think of ways you can be effective in your marketing using new mediums. It might be good that your old standbys are no longer viable – try something new. Marketing is all about effective ways to touch the customer. How do you market effectively without literally touching the customer? One way is to tell a compelling story. Think what is happening to people who have to stay at home. What are they doing more now than they were before the pandemic hit? For one, watching more movies on video streaming services. Video is a good way to tell a story. In order to build a connection with your brand, you need to evoke an emotional connection. That can be done very effectively with good video. Deliver this on your social media platforms. Create a Vimeo or YouTube page and boost your videos to people in your target market.

But video is not the only medium you should explore. A good two minute read in a blog is very effective if you market it correctly. So is giving shout outs to your customers on social media. Everybody likes to be recognized for the work they do. Make a positive post about your customers and see what kind of response you get.

On the flip side of the coin, don’t forget about social events and other gatherings where you can make a case for your brand. The social distancing mandates will not last forever. People are social creatures. They will crave a good gathering. When the restrictions are a thing of the past, whoever is first to do a big gathering, and promotes it well, will be the marketing winner. So how do you plan for an event when you do not know when the restrictions on gathering will be taken down? Here are a couple of ideas. If you have the room at your facility, plan on an event that can be quickly put together, such as a customer appreciation day. Catering can typically be reserved quickly. So can items you might need like tents or chairs. There are venues that can be reserved without much notice, such as a golf driving range, a go-kart facility, shooting ranges. All of this is dependent upon your customer demographic. I also like taking the party to the customer. I have known clients who rolled in a grill and cooked lunch for a specific customer in their parking lot. Put a couple target dates on the calendar and then assess whether or not the time is right about 4-6 weeks before the event. If you are a go, promote it to the hilt. Get the word out fast. Make it fun and entertaining.