Getting past the pandemic

14th January 2021
Sheep Land (the Yorkshire Dales, England)

Welcome to the 7th  edition of the Geospatial Marketing Academy Newsletter – a fortnightly newsletter by me, Elaine Ball, on all the stuff that matters – geospatial marketing, life! A special non-contact high five to Lauren and Balaraman. Welcome to my world.

Happy New Year, Friend!

2020 has caused havoc to every Geospatialer in more ways than one!  From personal life changes like having the kids at home! 🙀  to living on ZOOM calls 👹  But in a time of crisis it can be hard for marketers to know where to begin. 

The other week I asked my Instagram followers “what is important for 2021?” 

“Getting past the pandemic” was a hot topic to talk about! Obviously!

Let’s take a closer look

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity”

― Albert Einstein

Super shift to a digital world!

Have you noticed our industry has had to embrace digital marketing!  More and more of you have taken to the online methods, despite the uncomfortableness (is that even a word 🤷‍♀️) of it all, I mean “group video calls”!  🙅‍♀️

Geospatialers who jump head first and embrace new ways despite how they feel will build better and stronger businesses!  Change has to be embraced!

We have seen a webinar pandemic (literally) over the past 6months and even shows going online.  Exhibitions like Intergeo jumping head first into the into the virtual world, client user conferences like ESRI embracing the new norm?  Despite the uncomfortableness of it all – these guys have taken a leap of faith and will have learnt a ton of “what works and what doesn’t!” making them stronger! 🤔

So how do you get past the pandemic?  What should you do?

Here are my 10 top tips:

1. Start with your purse 👛 strings.  Review your overall spending, not just your marketing capital but those little subscriptions and costs that don’t seem very important but inflict your bottom line; do a bit of spring cleaning (even though its January)

2. 80/ 20 Rule.  Focus on the 20% of clients that make you money.  These are your bread and butter clients.  Improve your relationship with these as they will thank you for it in the future through recommendations

3. Understand your market by figuring out who you really want as a client!  List all the pros and cons of your current user base.  Design content that attracts more of that type of client by addressing their frustrations, problems and concerns!  Remember your product or service is solving a ‘pain-in-the-butt’ problem, so educate them!  Build trust and make it super easy to buy from you!

4. Build a subscription list. Yes – there is money in a following!  Build a list of fans keen to hear from you.  Educate them, support them and add value to their lives through great content!

5. Nurture that community.  From social media to subscription (email list) fans, these are all the people who want to hear from you. Don’t disappoint by ad-hoc messaging.  Plan out a monthly series of great content that addresses problems and adds value.  Use Mailchimp for email automation and Hootsuite for social content automation.  This is gold to any Geospatial business!

6. Improve your customer service. Take the time to improve your P’s and Q’s.  This will not only improve your brand positioning this minute, but improve your reputation!  Customer service is going to be vital in the covid and post-covid world.  Empathy will be super key in any Geospatialers marketing tool kit!

7. Brand Empathy.  People will remember brands who do acts of good especially in a crisis.  Have a think on how you can protect, support and help your community within this period.  It will not only boost your brand but make you feel super good about yourself (self-care)

8. Outsource.  Is ⏰ an issue to get stuff done? Look at outsourcing!  Check out Upwork and Fiverr and find someone you can delegate those tasks you hate!  Focus on what you love and improve how efficient you are!

9. Build a sales funnel.  I love sales funnels.  They work in every type of business!  Review your sales process and implement.  Want a copy of the Sales Leads Webinar i did in December 2020, drop me an email and get your house in order!

10. Invest in you.  What are the key things you need to change in your business to take it to the next level?  Fancy getting your hands on a ton of marketing lessons focused on the Geospatial Industry?  Then check out GMA (Geospatial Marketing Academy) here.

“It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change”
-Charles Darwin

Wishing you a prosperous 2021

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Thanks for reading to the bottom. Thanks for your kindness and generosity.

Stay safe. Stay sane. Wear a mask!

I’ll be back on 28th January 2021

Elaine

PS – If this email was forwarded to you but you’d like your own in future, just sign up here and I’ll do the rest.  You can catch up on any of the old letters here.
– feel free to link up with me on LinkedIn here

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TOOLS

Marketing tools I learnt about this week:

1. LOOM – record video messages of your screen or cam or both with this funky app!