Insights

Few would argue these are challenging times for businesses.

Interest rates have increased, energy prices are soaring, and general operational costs are rising. The pressure is on.

More than ever, business minds will be whirring to find ways to get in more business (to increase turnover), save money or both.

However, today’s wider economic challenges can result in organisations making decisions they may later regret. Decisions which affect their brand and profitability. That is even more likely for organisations who did not start to consider how to approach these challenges months ago.

Typically what happens, is a business falls into the trap of making marketing and promotion one of the first cuts. Closely followed by internal staffing and operational costs. What they should be doing is the opposite.

It may seem counterintuitive, but in a period of austerity, businesses should lean into - rather than pull back from - marketing and promotion, as well as cost saving exercises. Do it in positive ways, and here’s why.

Firstly, publicity in tough times reinforces your brand and promotes security and trust.

Secondly, there is a good chance your competitors will be pulling back, or taking their foot off the gas with their marketing. This gives you a brilliant opportunity to pull some market share away from them. If they’re not pulling back, there’s even more of a reason to actively get in front of them.

Thirdly, in real terms, customers won’t stop buying. But they will be looking for deals or assurances that their purchase will be a good one. That’s where strong messaging counts.

With any marketing or promotional campaign you run, always think strategically.

What’s the objective? How does it fit into the current processes? Who is the target audience for your message? What’s the communication or buyer journey? Good planning, covering the entire journey of the prospect, is the key to success.

Investing in marketing is one approach to helping your business survive and thrive. Another approach is to save money on operational costs.

Again, beware of short term actions that can be detrimental to your success. Decisions that slow the organisation down can give your competitors the edge. Taking staff out of the operation can compromise your processes, putting undue pressure on the others at a time you’ll need them most.

Whatever your required objective, there’s a powerful tool that can help your business. It’s video.

That may be a surprise to you. But video has some great functionality that can empower the way an organisation communicates - both outwardly to make money and inwardly to save money.

Video now, if made properly, has direct interactivity. Video can be built into frameworks that work with CRM systems. Video offers multiple choice user options, that enables the viewer to experience and control their own information journey.

This takes video way beyond social media and website front pages. It opens up the realm of true functionality and productivity. Lead generation, up-selling and sales conversions to make money. Customer onboarding, product demonstrations and staff training are just some of the cost saving applications.

For example: Cisco’s research revealed that product demonstrations have played an important part in 83% of buying decisions in manufactured tech, products and software.

Video is the apex tool to help organisations communicate with clarity, strength of message and purpose. The world is yet to see a challenge or circumstance where video cannot support the process or strategy to answer it.

Making video work strategically, strengthens the way an organisation communicates. It’s also a guaranteed way of getting great ROI on using video.

In times of austerity, communicating confidently to generate more money, to build stronger teams and processes, are ways to combat economic pressures and build a stronger more robust organisation.

Hax

CEO - Prisma Broadcast