While our May Brews & Brands session was remote instead of in-person, that didn’t slow the flow of practical insights shared by our participants. Here are just a few of the highlights.
Rethinking everything was a major theme, from finding ways to partner with your competitors to looking beyond your traditional audience for prospects.
A question that resonated with everyone was this: how has the pandemic forced you to do things you were unwilling or unable to do before? There was broad agreement that it forced many of us to do things we already knew we needed to do.
How can you take advantage of this new environment? More importantly, how can you keep that nimble “pandemic mindset” even as we reopen? “Virtual” has the potential to make your market much wider. How can you embrace it?
Another shared idea was that value is more important now than ever before. If resources are limited, consumers and businesses alike will want to know what they’re getting for their money.
For example, if you’re an insurance agency, do your customers know their agent? Do they get annual reviews? How personal is the relationship? First name basis? Do you know — and share —your clients’ values? Do they know yours? Are you educating them?
Everybody should be asking questions right now. Questions are a vaccine against faulty assumptions. Do you really know how this situation is impacting your clients or customers? How about your prospects? Ask. It’s the only sure way to find out.
A recurring theme was “lean into the punch.” Everyone seemed to agree that embracing — and even helping to create — a new normal was the key to a fast recovery and future growth. It takes the ability to think short-term and long-term at the same time, because short-term decisions have long-term consequences.
The discussion also covered ways to use technology to take things off your plate. Focus on automation to help you keep clients informed. Think about investing time now in areas like writing email templates — time that will pay for itself many times over in hours saved and clients landed down the road.
Speaking of technology, the Brews & Brands crew always shares some of their fave raves and new finds, and this session was no exception. Recommendations included:
- Zoho – a free tool that does everything Hubspot does and integrates with Constant Contact.
- Switcher Studio – a video production tool for easily creating and editing video with phones and tablets.
- Flodesk – an email marketing tool.
- Filmora9 – another video editing tool.
- And a book recommendation: Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.
Our next Brews & Brands is on Thursday, June 11th from 3:30 – 5:30 PM. With any luck at all, we’ll be back together in person in the private room at Against the Grain in Louisville. The size of the group is limited, so find out more and reserve your place now at www.brewsandbrands.com. If the session ends up going virtual, you’ll receive an email with instructions.