Unsurprisingly, businesses that cut their marketing budget to the bone (or stop marketing altogether) are the first ones to wonder why they find it so difficult to rebuild when the crisis has abated. It can be argued that marketing is, at its core, a process of communication and without going into the detailed definition of "what is marketing", a consistent communication strategy is one way to ride out a crisis. While we recognise that maintaining the same level of marketing spend may be seen as impossible, there are many ways to make a small budget work, and for some communication channels, there's no cost at all (apart from time). So, what are these free communication channels? Fortunately, they are some of the more familiar ones: Social Media Getting the most from social media will typically require some form of spend, but posting organically still has a place, and the core channels are all free to use: Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkedIn Posting regularly will keep you in touch with followers, and engaging content increases your chances of new followers / likes and different people interacting with your brand. It's a great way to communicate with lots of people and keep your brand in the customer's eye so when they need your product or service, they think of you. YouTube Another free way to generate content on your business and video is arguably the most powerful medium to communicate your message. And the good news is, you don't need a top-end studio or Hollywood style editing to produce your video. Most smartphones have decent enough cameras these days to film in HD so all you need is a room with decent lighting and you're away! If you want to make more of an impact, there are stacks of free video editing apps available on the App Store / Google Play so you can add some "pizazz" to your video. Also, depending on your target market, Tik Tok is another platform worth checking out, especially if you're after the 16 - 24 demographic. Mailchimp The bulk email platform has been the staple of marketers for years, and while the paid-for features are what makes this product stand out, the free service definitely does the job. You can set up an account and send to up to 2,000 email addresses free of charge, and the intuitive drag-and-drop functionality means you can send your first email within minutes. You need to be mindful of GDPR, but if you have a database of compliant email addresses sitting there gathering digital-dust, start using Mailchimp. Blogging Blogs can be a bit marmite for some companies - they either love them or hate them. What we've found over the years is that the ones that don't use them don't really hate them, they don't have the time to write regular articles. Either way, many websites have a blog feature built-in, but simply don't use it. If that's you - get writing! There's lots to talk about, and by adding photos, you can illustrate your message even more. PR A press release is another free way to communicate about your business to a broader audience. Lockdown may be a difficult time, but that doesn't mean you haven't got any good news to share and both print and online news sources will be grateful for a well-written story that is engaging and positive. Have a think about what you're doing that's newsworthy and get in touch with the different outlets. These are just some of the free ways to maintain your communication, but with all of them, content is king. If you have the ability to develop engaging content for the above areas, our advice is simple - get it done! Maintaining your marketing communications during lockdown means you'll have lost fewer customers (as they won't forget about you) when things get back to normal and who knows, you may even collect a few new ones. More importantly, you'll be in a much stronger position than those businesses who have to start from scratch again and ultimately, spend a hell of a lot more to get back to where they once were. If, however, you don't know where to start with your communications during the lockdown, you don't have the time, or your marketing team are furloughed, get in touch. We offer flexible delivery models and can help you through this tough time until things get back to normal. For more information on our services, click this link and email info@mjrmarketing.com to arrange a chat with us - https://www.mjrmarketing.com/services

The Coronavirus lockdown. There's no other way to look at it other than it's a major crisis. And unless you are in the habit of planning for a pandemic affecting your business, it's probably caught you totally off-guard. So what can you do? Like any crisis, how you respond can have a significant impact on the outcome. You can bury your head in the sand and hope it all goes away; praying for a Bobby Ewing moment where you wake up and it was all a bad dream. Or, you can review your situation, plan and prioritise what you need to do then get it done so you not only survive the crisis, but you come out the other side ready to go again. This is easier said than done, so below are some tips on a marketing review and planning process we use that may help your business. We call it OOPPA, and it stands for: Orientate Observe Plan Prioritise Act Orientate: Try to identify where your business is right now compared to where it was before the lockdown took place. It will give you a benchmark from where to start and an idea on what to focus on and what to "pause". Questions to consider: Your business pre-lockdown: How was your business performing before the lockdown took hold? Were you coming to the end of a bumper financial year and riding the crest of a wave or had your business already started to slow down? Which products / services were performing well? How were you marketing them? Were you primarily acquiring new business or servicing existing clients? Your business now: How does your business look right now in comparison? How many staff are still available to work, or are they all furloughed? What marketing skills do they have? Do you have access to your business / products / services? How many clients are still active V. how many have you lost? Which ones are likely to go in the near future? What impact will this have financially? Which clients are key? What products / services can you still sell / provide during lockdown? Can you change your business model to continue trading - e.g. offer your services online, provide deliveries, etc.? Observe: Think of this as looking specifically at your marketing activity in the same way - before and right now. Before lockdown: How much marketing activity were you undertaking? What were you doing? Who was doing it? How much were you spending? What was working? How much time was it taking? Right Now: What marketing activity are you doing now compared to before the lockdown - is it the same or has it dropped off? How are you promoting the parts of your business that are still trading or have the ability to trade if you made some adjustments? How are you keeping in touch with your customer base - key clients in particular? How are you managing the fall-out of letting customers down due to the current restrictions in place? How are you educating potential new customers on your USPs, your story and why they should choose you? Planning: Think about the activities you need to be doing to keep your head above water and what you need to be doing to prepare for the restart after the lockdown is lifted and the recovery starts? If you can, set targets and work backwards from those targets to develop bite-size mini targets to attack one at a time. Right Now Communication: What communication channels are available to you (social media, email, newsletters, PR, etc.)? What do you need to communicate with existing customers? What do you need to tell potential customers? What do you need to say to your team? How often can you communicate? Who will do it? Advertising: Can you negotiate preferential rates with advertisers during lockdown? Can you secure better positions that competitors may have vacated? Are there digital platforms (Google, etc.) that you can tap into? Can you arrange something small now that gives you a great advertising spot when things are about to return to normal? Promotions: Do you have lots of stock you can offer at a discounted rate right now? Can you "beef up" the service you give customers, so they get more for less? Suppliers: Has your supply chain changed during lockdown? Will it return to normal? If not, who is out there that can replace suppliers? How quickly can you get your suppliers to react when the date to lift the lockdown is announced? Is there a delay? If so, how will this impact on your ability to restart? Delivery: If you can change your business model to sell certain products / services, what does this look like, what's needed to make it work? For the "restart." Can you win back any lost clients - how will you do this? Which new customers / clients will need your products and services? Will they have an immediate need? Where are they? How to you contact them? What are you saying to them? How will you tell your story and differentiate from the competition? What are the main products you want to shout about when things get back to normal? Will you offer a promotion? What is it? How will people access it? How will you shout about it? Do you want to initiate an advertising campaign - what does it look like? If you will have a minimal marketing budget, how will you maximise it? Will you return to the "old" business model? Will the new way of working become the norm? Can you incorporate the two? How will you tell people? Who will undertake the marketing activity? Will they have the time and skillset? Prioritise Now, more than ever, you need to be talking about your business, its products and services, so make it a priority and make time for it. Even if you're not trading - keep talking about your business. If you are trading, do people know? If you've made changes to your business, what are those changes, and how will they benefit customers? You want to keep your business in people's minds, so prioritise what you can be doing right now, next week, next month, as well as what's needed to get ready for the restart. Get it down on paper or as an online document. Prioritise the importance of each activity and what resource you need to execute it. Set dates and times. Be realistic. Remove the activity that's not essential and focus on the activity that will make a difference. Tip: Consider your top clients: How did you get them as clients in the first place - what was the process? Can you replicate that in the current climate if needed? If not, plan what you will do to get similar clients after lockdown. Products and services Which ones are the most profitable that use the least resource that you can offer right now - how do you promote it? When you re-open, what will be your flagship products? Prepare a campaign to market them. Act: Get it done. Follow your plan and even if you hit stumbling blocks along the way, keep moving forward with your plan and don't be afraid to restart the process if other major changes happen. Above all, look for the opportunities to exploit and don't bury your head in the sand - one thing is for certain, this isn't a bad dream and your Bobby Ewing moment won't happen! It will get better and if you develop a plan, not only are you doing something lots of your competitors are not, there's a good chance you'll come out of this crisis a lot stronger as a business. Thanks for reading. If you would like our help with any aspect of marketing, we are here to support you, regardless of your business size or sector. Visit the services page of our website for more info or email us and we'll get in touch with you - info@mjrmarketing.com

Are you still slaving over a hot laptop? Creating blogs is time-consuming. We know it needs to be done to connect with clients and help our websites rank in searches. If only it didn’t take up hours every week, hours which you could be using elsewhere in the business or to spend with your family and friends. Isn’t it time you did something differently? Here are some great reasons you should outsource your blog 1. You get a professional – Content writers are either professional marketing writers or journalists or both, who can turn their hand to whatever you need. They are used to meeting deadlines, writing clearly for different audiences, and understanding the brief; you give them. 2. You get top-quality research – writers use their research and interviewing skills to ensure the facts in your blogs are checked thoroughly, and they know where to go to source information on any subject. 3. You get ideas – There’s nothing worse than sitting and staring at a blank Word document, worrying about what you should be creating. A content writer comes to you with ideas, and that takes the burden off your shoulders. You don’t have to scour the media for good news lines or dream up a subject which will resonate with your clients. 4. You save time – A professional content writer will write more quickly than you do because it’s what they do all day, every day. You have a million other things to do – the accounts, talking to clients, writing tenders, pitching presentations, dealing with staff issues, and planning the future of your business. Phew! That takes up quite enough time… Imagine having another hour, two hours, or three hours a week back to put into all of those things, instead of writing blogs. 5. Your content is written to support your SEO – Content writers work closely with experts in search engine optimisation to support what they’re doing to get your website found online. That includes using targeted keywords and key phrases in a natural, organic way to help your blogs rank in Google and other search engines, and splitting blogs into different headings to encourage search engine algorithms to crawl them. 6. You can save money – What, outsourcing saves money? It can, especially if the person in your business creating the blogs is you or another key member of staff. Your time is worth far more than any content writer’s, but if you spend your time writing, you can’t be selling, producing your products or services, ensuring your clients are happy or chasing payments. If you don’t have the time to do those things, won’t you have to pay someone else to do them? 7. You can focus on other things – How about planning for your business growth or recruiting that new member of staff? Focus is everything in a business. Without it, you can’t take action and make things happen. 8. It’s a numbers game - Research by HubSpot showed that businesses which blog at least 16 times a month get more than three times the traffic to their websites than those who blog up to four times a month. So, if you want more attention online, you need to invest in getting it. Outsourcing allows you to do that cost-effectively. 9. You can cut through the noise – There’s a LOT of content out there. A professional writer will help you target the people you want to hear your messages, craft a message that answers their problems and speaks to them and tell a compelling story to hook them in. 10. Your case studies are polished until they shine – There’s no better way to build trust that to show your potential clients what you do, and how successful it has been for a past customer. Content writers know these stories are gems which can be powerful in attracting more clients to you. 11. You’ll get content which helps you generate leads – Blogs don’t just need to build trust and rapport with potential clients; they need to help turn them into paying customers. So, use them to signpost your website visitors to other relevant pages, such as your services, your testimonials or reviews, or your contact page. Professionals understand the need to include internal, and external, links in blogs, and strong calls to action. After all, unless you tell someone what you want them to do, how can they do it? If you need help and advice about blogging, click here

• What should I post? • When should I post it to get the maximum impact? • What kind of images should I use, and what are the optimal sizes for different platforms? • How should I be uploading video for each platform? • Should I use a scheduling tool, and, if so, which one? • How do I use the advertising features on each of the different platforms? It’s enough to make your head spin, isn’t it? There is, of course, another big question which all business owners have to ask themselves: “How on earth have I got the time to be doing all of this stuff?” For many business owners, the answer is surprisingly simple. You don’t have the time. That’s why many end up with big gaps in their timelines, days, weeks, months, or even longer between posts. Yet, we all know that social media management is vital these days if you want to connect with customers and get good leads. So, how do we get ourselves out of that Catch 22? What can you do to ensure your social media management isn’t a nightmare? It’s time to think about outsourcing the management of your social media pages. There are several distinct benefits to doing this. 1. Your social media is managed professionally by someone who understands each platform and the trends in marketing. 2. You don’t have to run yourself ragged, creating posts and scheduling them – your time can be spent on something else. 3. You don’t have to keep coming up with ideas for posts. Your social media manager will be a fountain of ideas for impactful posts. 4. The technical stuff about uploading videos and images in the correct format is no longer your problem. You can breathe a sigh of relief. 5. The social media manager has all the scheduling tools at his or her disposal already, so you don’t have to spend money on licences for them, and knows when to post to get your business seen. 6. They also have a deep understanding of the advertising features and can create the best-targeted adverts with the lowest pay per click rate possible for your business. 7. They understand split testing of adverts, pay per click rates, and how to write compelling advertising copy. How do you choose the right social media manager for your business? Find a company which offers all you need in one place, as we do at MJR Marketing. You’ll need a marketing company which offers content, images, graphics, design, animation, videography, and excellent social media skills. Pick a company which is innovative, creative, and passionate about helping your business, which is just like us, of course! If you’re looking for someone to ease the burden of managing your social media, why not call us to start the conversation - click here to get the ball rolling