In the first of our weekly AMA series, Raj Nijjer, VP Brand Marketing at Yotpo, spoke to Kaleigh Moore, Freelance Writer for Vogue Business, Forbes, and Adweek, about effective marketing strategies, advice for pitching the press and communicating to customers in the current climate, and tips for work-from-home productivity. Watch the video for the full talk and see our recap below.
What are some impactful strategies you’ve seen brands implement?
I’ve seen a lot of brands leveraging their influencer network. Brands that have existing relationships can continue to do their marketing and sales work, but they don’t have to go to consumers with a hard sell; they have someone else doing it for them.
Something else I’ve seen work well is the focus on more live content that lifts the veil on the brand. This is a great moment for transparency: get in touch with your customer and start a conversation about how you can get through this together.
For example, Haus is hosting virtual happy hours, where they talk about what to mix their product with and how to stay connected. I think there were about 500 people at last week’s gathering.
Two athletic wear brands, NOBULL and Body Glove, are doing a good job connecting with their communities by offering at-home workouts. It’s super on brand, not too pushy, and a great way to keep customers engaged.
Pattern Brands is another amazing example: I got an email from them this week that said, “Hi – maybe you’re not looking to buy our products, but we know you’re spending a lot of time at home, so we’re going to share education around our work, what our team is doing right now, and how we’re adapting.”
What advice do you have for marketers trying to get in front of customers or media?
Everything is so uncharted right now. A lot of people are scrambling to communicate with their audiences without being insensitive or tone-deaf. Brands are hiring crisis communications counselors, putting together dedicated teams, or at least having a lot of meetings about it internally. My best advice is:
- Pause and reconsider the relevance of your email automations
- Reassess your ad strategy – think about what customers want to see right now
- Tweak your messaging to be more considerate of the crisis. Be sensitive when speaking to customers
- Use this time to gather customer data through focus groups, customer surveys, and customer one-on-ones
- Ask your customers: how can we serve you? How can we do a better job for you?
- If you’re pitching, be mindful of what writers are talking about. How can you adjust a pitch or story you would normally tell to be current and relevant?
What are your best strategies for working from home?
I’ve been working from home for about 6.5 years. It’s hard to figure out what your workflow should look like. When do you put clothes on? When do you shower? When do you take a lunch break and how long should it be?
I tried productivity hacks, time blocking, and working based on themes of the day, and finally got to a point where I feel like I’m getting the most out of my day.
My workday starts around 8:00-8:30am with emails. Then I do a sprint of focused work from 9:00am to noon, then another work sprint after that — of course, all punctuated with dog walks. I live in a super rural area with not a lot of people around, so my main point of connection is Twitter. It really is my virtual water cooler. During my work sprints, when I need to come up for air — that’s where I go. I finish up around 3:30pm.
I have a white board here where I keep my prioritized to-do list going, and a paper list on my desk to stay super focused and organized. It’s great for keeping all of your tasks right in front of your face, to remind you to get out of a Twitter or YouTube rabbit hole. I also have an accountability partner to check in with, which helps keep me on track and avoid procrastinating.
As far as human interaction, I do get lonely and feel isolated sometimes. I try to have virtual coffee dates, meeting up with a few local writer friends and a mastermind group.
You can learn more about Kaleigh on her site and find her on twitter @kaleighf.
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