29 May React: Adapt: Attack – Finding New Revenue Opportunities in a Challenging Market

In a constantly evolving market, it’s challenging to guarantee sustainable business growth ― Technological and scientific advances are continuously shortening the life cycles of products and services which also means that new competitors appear quicker than ever before. This instability makes it necessary to keep evolving and take advantage of new business opportunities.

Although the current situation is unprecedented, bear markets and recessions are not. This pandemic is just another challenging market with different nuances and levels of impact. The resounding commonality of every challenging market is that they all eventually end and leave a ton of learning lessons behind!

The business environment today requires BRANDS to move their businesses towards new perspectives; constantly looking for growth opportunities to allow them to find their right serviceable target market.

The death of the high street has been talked about for a long time and before this pandemic, we were seeing a shift in consumer habits, with the US for the first time ever in April 2019 seeing more online shopping than bricks and mortar retail.

The pandemic will likely be a significant catalyst to widen the gap exponentially, which presents great opportunities for those who have the knowledge, capability, and products/services to take advantage of this shift. However, the key to this all is to have the right digital marketing strategy in place to capture the attention of this ever-growing online audience.

For insight, we reached out to Felix Trusler, founder of venturesell.io who understands the importance of producing measurable marketing ROI. Venturesell is a performance marketing agency specialising in enabling revenue growth for startups and scale-ups, which we (RODLEM) have recently partnered with (details on this to follow – watch this space!).

During our conversation, we discussed Felix’s approach to finding new revenue opportunities in a challenging market, which can be broken down into 3 different action types: React, Adapt Attack!

1. REACT

We need to start by resetting our way of thinking and to adopt an internal mindset which recognises that we are, in essence, autonomous and the only people who can change the situation for the good of ourselves and our customers.

HOW TO REACT

• Support Current Customers. This should be your number one priority. Everything’s changed – time to do a ‘Re-Discovery’ session and uncover your customer’s new world issues.
• Based on the ‘Re-Discovery’ sessions, it’s time to take stock and re-evaluate your services. Is your current service going to be sufficient or do you need to Adapt?
• Be flexible and look where your brand can add more value. Amend your service provision in line with your current customer’s requirements where possible.
• Avoid Discount Disaster. The most important thing is the health of your business – don’t give discounts your Brand can’t finance.

2. ADAPT

Surround yourself with experts, invest time and resources to improve services, and explore new alternatives.

HOW TO ADAPT

• Segment Your Audience. Divide your audience into smaller groups with similar characteristics and needs. Tailor your messaging to each group and ensure your call to action is clear and adds value. You want to be able to predict what action a person will take having consumed your content.
• Develop a Clear and Effective Marketing Strategy. ⁣This should be a defined map that leads to your business vision. Evaluate and optimise your resources for each target market/use case. Define your way of measuring success and ensure you test your content / messaging.
• Optimise Your Brand for Digital Platforms. Consult a digital developer for the right CMS for your project so you can make the most of your Brand and carve out your niche online (try not to DIY – platforms such as Squarespace offer poor load times and thus bad UX) Leverage your Brand using existing platforms where possible to give your brand extra reach and revenue potential. If you’re looking at eCommerce you can increase your reach using Instagram / Facebook checkout, Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. For Brand Awareness consider Quora, Medium, and Reddit which all work beautifully. If you’re SaaS (Software as a Service) consider Launchingnext.com and Producthunt.

3. ATTACK

Digital Interactions with prospects are key. Everything from the way we buy clothes to how we see a doctor has had to transition into the digital sphere. How we interact with prospects digitally will be the key determinant of success.- Benchmark your current digital marketing KPIs- Look at competitor ads and identify best practice- Create realistic KPIs with the expert.

This is not 2008 but we can learn from it. The Brands that did well in the last recession targeted new audiences via mediums that delivered better ROIs. This is no different.

HOW TO ATTACK

• Develop Brand Advocacy Through Consumer Loyalty to Supercharge Your Growth. Connect to ensure success. Your content is only as valuable as its ability to attract audience members and compel them to engage with your business on an ongoing basis as subscribers, customers, evangelists, or ideally, all three! Once you have an engaged audience, your efforts to ensure relevant and quality content should result in loyal customers, and increase sales. Gather valuable insight on your customers and activate your most ardent followers as Brand advocates. Create attractive, customised content of your brand, that connects to your consumer through great storytelling.
• Build Relationship Funnels to Promote Your Brand. Create engaging, educational guides that demonstrate your Brand expertise. Promote your post using Paid Social and AdWords to support its reach. Optimize your site for local SEO with pay-per-click advertising. Use ChatBot platforms that enable you to instantly engage with customers, such as SMS, voice, video, WhatsApp, email etc. They are more effective than lengthy ‘contact us’ forms. Our preferred chatbot uses Twilio integrated with the WhatsApp API but t ManyChat is also good as it has integrated Google Pay capabilities (your customers can buy from within the chatbot)
• Strategic Business Partnerships (SBP). Collaboration is great! The right partnership can kickstart revenue growth. They allow you to reach new customers, expand your influence, and enhance your value.

What makes a good SBP? In short, it’s all about your customer journey. Ask yourself: What resources and additional services could add further value to my customer’s experience? Where do my customers go before, during, and after they use my products/services?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

→ Be Flexible and Look Where Your Brand Can Add More Value

→ Develop a Clear and Effective Marketing Strategy

→ Build Relationship Funnels to Promote Your Brand

→ Let Digital work for you – make use of existing popular platforms and communication tools and don’t forget…

The best ROI comes out of Brand advocacy. Your consumer satisfaction will be your growth engine.