Josh Ritchie — March 30, 2020 There’s no denying this is an uncertain time for marketers. What should you prioritize? How should you adjust or change your messaging? Should you rework or update your strategy? We’ve been helping our brand partners navigate these same questions for years, and there’s one thing we know for sure: Brands should not stop their marketing efforts (even in challenging times), but they do need to adapt.
We believe that brands of all shapes and sizes have a unique opportunity to step up to the plate right now—not just by donating goods or funds but by supporting their communities and communicating with clarity, intention, and integrity.
But it’s hard to know how to do right by your business and your people when you’re confused, concerned, or just plain stuck about what to do next. Hence, many brands are pausing their marketing efforts. Marketing budgets are coming under increasing scrutiny, and many marketers feel like they can’t move forward.
Despite this disruption, however, there’s still a significant opportunity for marketers and marketing organizations to sharpen their focus, cut things out that aren’t serving their business, revisit the foundational elements of their brand and/or content strategy, and focus on getting real results.
We believe in purposeful marketing, so over the last week, we’ve been doing some serious soul searching about how we can contribute our skills in a meaningful way during this crisis. We started with our tips on how to be a responsible marketer during Coronavirus disruption. But now, more than ever, we think it’s our duty to help brands get unstuck.
We also know we all need a bit of help in navigating the situation at hand (ourselves included). Over the last several weeks we’ve been leaning hard on our network of coaches, mentors, peers, and experts, which has been tremendously valuable. It’s also made us realize that we can pay that counsel forward to support marketers in new ways.
So, today, we’re announcing that we are launching coaching services.
For the sake of simplicity, we’ve decided to focus on two tracts:
- Brand Strategy
- Content Marketing
Over time, this may expand or evolve to other things. But for now, we’re focusing on these foundations to help you get your marketing on the right track during this unique time—and beyond.
Through our coaching, you’ll get direct access to our people and experience to learn about the proactive things your brand can—and should—do right now to strengthen your marketing. This includes custom recommendations for all aspects of your operation, including our expert guidance on how to:
- Establish or clarify your Brand Heart (Purpose, Vision, Mission, and Values)
- Follow best practices and avoid marketing mistakes during this sensitive time
- Revise your brand or content strategy
- Strengthen or pivot your messaging
- Audit your brand identity to identify opportunities to improve positioning and cohesion
- Identify ways to differentiate your brand with updated brand identity guidelines
- Figure out what to pause, push back, or proceed with
- Identify what brand stories matter right now
- Execute your strategy (even with limited resources)
- Create value-focused content for your community
- Use our unique tools and resources to keep moving forward
- Align your work to support your true brand goals
- Streamline your processes and ditch what isn’t working
Above all, our goal is to provide the support you need to re-emerge from this situation with a stronger vision and the ability to execute it. Of course, we know every brand’s needs are different, so we’re happy to tailor our coaching for whatever it is you need.
We believe in making the best of every situation and finding the lessons to be learned, so we encourage you to look for ways to elevate your brand during this time. Walk your walk, tell powerful stories, and work to keep people connected. It’s what the world needs more than ever.
If you’re curious to learn more about this work, or have questions about your brand’s marketing challenges, email me at josh@columnfive.com.
We’re here to help you get through this as painlessly as possible. In the meantime, we hope you stay healthy and safe out there.
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