Channel Engagement, Employee Engagement, Marketing, Trade Engagement

Short-term investment, long-term impact: why persistent engagement brings an advantage during a recession

Ian Mast-Hughes
8 February 2021

Have you ever wondered what the magic ingredients are to a successful brand? Every day globally we see and recognise logos, straplines, colours and imagery. Whether physically on a supermarket shelf, a bill board or digitally on Instagram and Twitter – they all resonate with us.

If you’re a channel marketer responsible for the strategy to take your brand to market, to get your products or services known and to increase sales it might feel like you don’t have enough budget to pick those magic ingredients. After all it took more than a Coca Cola truck to make it the global brand that it is today.

Getting your brand noticed and achieving cut through with your channel and trade audiences could be far easier than you think. In the current recession, when you need it the most, here are three key points on persistent engagement we live by at FMI brand engagement agency.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

You have your product, you’ve got channel partners on board and now you just need sales. But how do you keep your brand front of mind when hundreds of other companies are also selling via the same distributors and resellers? Invest in putting yourself out there, and we don’t just mean throwing rewards at staff. Create an online environment through which you can continuously speak and communicate directly to your audience, show your commitment to them and allow your brand to be heard daily, weekly, even once a month is better than not at all.

Position yourselves and take control

Once you’ve created your online environment it’s time to take control. Don’t rely on assumptions – never assume email communications has been sent out by a distributor promoting your incentive or that you have exclusivity on the sales floor that week. Take control and drive all channel communications out centrally, launch your activity with impact and see sales gain traction immediately. Invest in the right channels of engagement; if you can’t train staff face to face, then consider implementing cost-effective social media tools that are easy access and quick to implement. If you can’t reward top sales performance with that black tie awards dinner then consider a virtual conference – all promoted by your brand via your online environment.

Measure absolutely everything you do

Covid-19 has changed everything and channel marketers will need to be even more certain how their spend will deliver against company objectives. If you are driving communications via an online environment imagine all of the data that is being collected that can be turned into actionable insight and measured effectively. Stop running your channel incentives off paper, stop under utilising marketing teams and start driving your persistent engagement today – it will pay off in the long term and stop competitors swooping in on your customers.