Rebuilding operational marketing habits in the wake of the Corona virus

Each day this week, we're going to publish an episode that walks you through the five steps that we've taken to evaluate, triage, secure, pivot, and scale our business in this time of crisis. Joining us is Todd Hines, the Head of Content Production at MarTech podcast. In part 3 of our conversation, we discuss how we are setting and trying to execute our short term plans.
About the speaker

Benjamin Shapiro

benjshap LLC

 - benjshap LLC

Ben is a brand development & marketing strategy consultant that left a successful career in business development at eBay to become an entrepreneur that has run a bootstrapped startup, multiple marketing teams at early-stage VC-backed companies, and an independent consulting & content business.

Show Notes

Quotes

  • “One of the things that we talked about in the early days of getting used to this new environment that we are living in, is the monetization aspect and how we plan on serving our partners and adding value to our sponsors, many of which are now faced with a similar crisisas we are.” -Todd “One thing that Ben actually thought about earlier on was the opportunity as we watch all these local events, shows and various conferences being canceled. Many of these event marketers are not able to go to these conferences and so how can we possibly serve them and figure out a partnership with them to advertise on the podcast.” -Todd “Even this time when the US and the global economy are struggling, there is a lifestyle change for a lot of people and we have to think about what the new reality was.” -Ben The first thing that occurred to me with the advent of social distancing is that all of the marketing events were canceled and there’s a lot of marketing budgets out there that are either gobbled up, deleted but some of it hasto be re-allocated.” -Ben“People that are sponsoring marketing events are generally pretty brand awareness forward and we’re able to provide them a sponsorship opportunity that not only has the awareness-building tool because we sell advertorial content but we’re also able to give them better attribution and tracking.” -Ben “Moral of the story here is that we are not trying to be negative or take advantage of the situation but in reality, we are still also operating a business.” -Ben “There is a moral component to think about this. When you are thinking about how to monetize your business during this time of change, you need to think about what is appropriate.” -Ben “For me, as businesses are still operating and events are getting canceled, this felt like an appropriate way for us to try to pivot our monetization strategy and re-focus who we are targeting on.” -Ben “Brick and mortar shops shifting online is a big one. Consumer goods, home goods, home care and the services that help with things like education and on top of that, mental health. How are companies helping people maintain their wits about them, relax and still find satisfaction in life while being homebound.” -Todd “There is a dynamic shift in terms of the industries that are going to actually see growth and a lot of them are going to be related to a change in the way that we buy and receive products aswell as the content we are consuming and also when we are going to be consuming it.” -Ben“The other big one that sticks out to me is the concept of working from home and being a consultant. To me, the big companies that we rely on because we have been operating this business as a home office for a while were video conferencing, chats, payment processing, invoicing and everything that has to do with being a consultant.” -Ben“The first thing that Todd and I did was get down and acknowledge that we needto be operators. To re-adjust our schedule, get back in recording content and then start thinking about how we can replenish our pipeline.” -Ben “Thinking about the monetization for our podcast required some creativity, think about some of our targetings and thinking about marketing in a different way.” -Ben “We had to remember what our plan was, we had to go back and execute the fundamentals. I had to start recording content again which I hadn’t done in over a month and work our way back into building routines.” -Ben“After a time of crisis, when you’ve gone through your triage, you need to re-establish routines or rebuild them in some sense.” -Ben “The systems that you had in place while you were in the office, they still exist. You just need to replicate them in a different environment.” -Ben“You also need to think about pacing yourself. It’s a stressful time so you have to pace yourself. This is not an all-out sprint.” -Ben“During a time of crisis, when you are getting back into the routines and you are starting to deal with the new reality, you need to also get used to it. There are mental cycles that you are going to take just setting up your desk. Be realistic in how much you can accomplish in a given day and try not to burn out.” -Ben “As you get back into the routine, you will start to feel the value of that process and that it becomes a little easier mentally and all of a sudden you’re back into the operating rhythm.” -Ben

About the speaker

Benjamin Shapiro

benjshap LLC

 - benjshap LLC

Ben is a brand development & marketing strategy consultant that left a successful career in business development at eBay to become an entrepreneur that has run a bootstrapped startup, multiple marketing teams at early-stage VC-backed companies, and an independent consulting & content business.

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