The article below is really interesting as it points out that companies are losing US$1.9 Billion because of crap content.

The infographic is worth studying as you can see that there is a generation gap when it comes to content.  For example, short form content, the 50+ don't like where as the 18 - 35 "like" it.

Covid19 The Changemaker

Covid19 has forced change upon us. 

Sales and Marketing hasn't Changed for 30 Years

In the past, I worked for organisations where sales plans and marketing plans didn’t change.  We just deleted the year, such as 2019, off the market plans powerpoint slides and added 2020. 

We upped the figures by 20%, expecting to get 10% signed off from our bosses. An annual song and dance. 

From a Sales perspective, apart from the usual coming and going of salespeople, there was an annual move around of sales people and accounts. But nothing really changed.

But there again, it didn’t need to.

Before Covid19 Sales and Marketing Was Predictable

Life was good.  There was always somebody in sales that did a big deal that save the number.  There was always a big event that marketing could muster around.  The number was done, the bonuses were paid.  Mortgages were paid, car payments made and food placed on table.

The Coronavirus Changed Everything

Let's not forget that advertising was invented in the 1930s, 90 years ago.  Cold calling has been around for 30 plus years and email has been around for 20 plus years.  All invented in the 20th Century. 

Here we are in the second decade of the 21st Century and we are using techniques that are older than the people that are using them. Why has nothing changed ... until now?

What About the Cost of Sales and Marketing?

The thing is, Covid19 means we have limited cash, the business and deals we once closed, we cannot guarantee will happen.  The lockdown will cause a recession the likes of we have never seen. If we keep doing what we did before the lockdown we will run out of cash and go out of business.

Where Is The Cash Your Spending on Sales and Marketing Going? 

As a business leader, you have to look at the cost of sales.  What I mean by that is that we have to look at the cost of sales and marketing.  The plans that we ran in a pre-covid_19 world will not be fit for purpose and you may not realise this until you have run out of cash.

How You are Wasting Money on Content

Covid_19 is a big wake up call 

In a recent article by Joel Harrison editor at B2B Marketing he sums it up so well

"Corporate marketing and messaging: RIP

Old-school corporate style messaging, the kind that dominated B2B for decades, with its de-humanised focus on corporate size, corporate ego and assumption of logical decision making has been a dying breed in B2B for many years, but coronavirus surely is the last nail in the coffin. To connect with customers in this climate requires marketing with a human touch."

Employee Advocacy 

.... and getting your employees you "spam" this out on social is wasting their time as well.

What Is The Covid-19 Unique Selling Point (USP)?

In a world where all products and services are the same, and where the buyer is scared you need step change in the way you "speak" to the market.

Cut the Corporate Crap

Empower your teams to talk on social using their authentic voice.  This is about leading with empathy, but is not the "helpwash" that has becoming from brands.

A quote from the B2B Marketing article mentioned above is

“Every time I open my in box and see an email with a title reading ‘In these unprecedented times…’ it’s like the screech that you get when someone runs their nails down a blackboard.” Great B2B marketing needs to stand out, and you won’t do that by regurgitating the obvious. So, kill the cliché – not just now, but always.

Empowering your teams to talk on social is not based on cliches, it's based on the feelings, beliefs and knowledge of your people.  The people they are connected to them, know them and love them. And are more likely to share the materials.

Is There a Business Case?

While we were in Singapore, we looked out at the Singtel building.  They are the largest mobile telco in Singapore.

Their twitter has 39,200 followers, not bad. But all they tweet about is special offers, which to most of us is boring.  How do I know that? 

Singtel 

have 25,000 employees, 4.1 million subscribers and 640 million customers. 

Let's assume we get 10% of the Singtel workforce to write blog a month, which they share on social and they all have 100 followers. 

That's a network of 250,000 vs the corporate twitter account of 39,200.

(That's 30,000 keyword optimised web pages on the internet per year.)

Let's assume that we activate only 30% of the staff to write one blog a month and they share that through 500 connections.  500 is the average people have.

(That's 90,000 keyword optimised web pages on the internet per year.)

That's a network of 3.75 Million vs the corporate twitter account of 39,200.

Now you can see why so much money is being wasted in your current marketing. How easy it is to spend money in the coming recession and get a return.  But you have too know, where to spend it and "what go you here, won't get you there". 

The Low Risk Approach

Here at DLA Ignite, we are not pivoting, we have been transforming companies to use social and digital for four years.  We have the track record, we also know what when we run our social selling programs the results are repeatable and predictable.  In fact, we have done this so many times that we are a low risk option.

If you want to get out of this mess, maybe it’s time to talk to us. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/timothyhughessocialselling/

Thanks to Stephen Sumner for being the inspiration behind this article.