So, for the majority of us, we’re heading into another lockdown tomorrow.
You cannot help but compare this to last time.
My mind instantly jumps back to that fateful Sunday night in March when the announcement came.
A mad dash to the office, grabbing everything we needed for home working, emptying the fridge, turning the heating off!
And then I sent a video message to my team with the plan and reassurance that everything would be fine.
I didn’t know this, of course, but I was confident.
I knew we’d have around two weeks of clients cancelling/postponing campaigns.
I knew we’d have issues with debtors settling their invoices.
I knew the phones would be unusually quiet.
However, I was quietly confident that once most had settled into home working, the phones would ring again.
Clients would resume their campaigns.
Debtors would pay up.
And that’s pretty much what happened.
From day one, I made it clear to the team that we need to be shouting from the rooftops that we’re still here, we’re still promoting, and that you should be too.
A lot of our clients were concerned with appearing to be crass, offering their wares during a global crisis.
If we’d all downed tools and slipped into apathy, there’s no doubt that would have been an absolute disaster.
I was so impressed with all those who battled through, and more so with those businesses that needed to pivot to ensure cash was still coming in. We helped many do this.
So, here we go again.
Talking to friends, colleagues, clients, etc, there seems to be a common feeling.
A combination of, ‘Oh no, not again’, combined with a more positive attitude of, ‘We’re fully prepared for this’.
And that’s the same message from us.
If our clients even notice that we’re working from our bedrooms rather than our offices, we’re doing something wrong.
What are your plans for lockdown if you’re able to still function? Will you do anything different to last time?
We’re relaunching our ‘delayed 2-for-1’ offer.
This is where clients paying rate card prices can now take advantage of having a second campaign free of charge but delay one or all campaigns until they are ready, the only stipulation being they put down a 50% payment in advance, with the balance being payable before their first send.
This helped a lot of clients last time get straight out of the traps when lockdown ended. It helped those who needed to promote their offers during lockdown before their competitors undercut them, and it helped the aforementioned businesses who needed to pivot to get the information out there on how they’ve adapted.
It helped us too, of course. It kept our existing clients talking, and it brought in lots of new prospects for us. It ensured our income remained steady and allowed us to carry on doing what we do best – generating leads.
Let me know what your plans are and, if you like, how we can assist with those plans.
Lee Shore
4th November 2020
