Adjusting your Marketing Strategy During this Crisis with Mark Schaefer.

This week’s podcast is an interview with the amazing Mark Schaefer. Mark is a globally recognised author, speaker, podcaster and business consultant who blogs at Grow – one of the top FIVE marketing blogs in the world! At the time of the interview, Mark had actually been diagnosed with coronavirus 17 days prior. We are going to be talking about how it affected him, but also his content and how he is adjusting in this time we are in. Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast • We have to reframe our business and our strategy based on what is going on right now. • Are you relevant in this moment? • Pivot your content – some content you may have had planned may now seem irrelevant. • The world needs you to teach something different right now. • Make sure your content is meaningful and helpful. • We constantly have to reassess what we are posting and read the room. Make sure you keep thinking about how your audience is feeling and what they are going through right now. • Ask yourself, what do your customers need RIGHT NOW. • Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – many of our customers are likely to be at the bottom level right now. • If your product or service is aspirational, this may not be the right time to be selling, but you can still keep marketing your brand. • At this time, your brand is more than the short-term sales. • People will remember what you do during this time. • It’s all about survival right now and what we can do to help. • People who are “known” means having the reputation, the authority and the presence to get your job done. • If you are “known”, you have a permanent and sustainable competitive advantage. • If you have some down time right now, you need to be working on this concept of being more “known” and building your personal brand. • Never take your audience for granted, you need to continue to be a leader. • Think about what your purpose is right now, be brave and use this as an opportunity. • Inspire your audience, and help them in a positive way. • Be gentle on yourself. Just because we have the time and the space, doesn’t mean we emotionally feel like doing it. • The biggest goal we can have right now is to arrive and be there in one piece when this is over. • We need to focus on the little things such as staying healthy, taking care of relationships and comforting and nurturing our children. • We don’t have to be remarkable right now. • This is a period in our life where it is not like it’s ever been before, so we can’t be hard on ourselves! • Reframe this time as a complete reset. • We are not that far away from the world exploding with joy! We will appreciate all those little things we once took for granted. • It takes time, work and patience to build your personal brand. • Manage your expectations, you can’t build a business overnight! • There is no magic button to success – consistency is key. • You need to become a habit in people’s lives so they look forward to what you produce. • Consistency is more important than genius. • We are all in industries where it is competitive, so we have to keep going! • Just because someone is doing it one way, doesn’t mean it’s a particular style that really works, they have just found what their ‘tribe’ likes to see. You will find what your ‘tribe’ likes too. • You don’t necessarily need to be an expert in something to be known. • Show your journey to your audience, no one starts out as an expert but we can all learn! • We have an opportunity right now to really work on our brand and become a legendary. We could do something in this crisis that people will never forget. • We have an opportunity to do something that can create loyalty that lasts forever. The one thing you need to remember above all else… We can continue to show up during this time to our customers and our audience, by being helpful and relevant through our content. The best way is always to be authentic, although it may take longer, it is definitely the way to go.