First and foremost, we hope all of our clients, suppliers, competitors and friends across the industry are keeping well. Stay safe in these tough times and remember to keep in touch - we're always up for having a chat!
We have excellent contingency plans and expect to remain open for business at full capacity throughout this period. Your Account Manager will be working remotely, but their contact details remain the same and response rates should not be affected.
To the many people working in sectors such as hospitality, which will undoubtedly be hard hit, we wish you well. It's great to see that Great British resolve, restaurants becoming takeaways, pubs offering beer cartons to take home, there is always a way. Like everyone, the essential workers, NHS, care, public sector, transport, logistics and food supply chain will always have our utmost respect.
The marketing industry moves quickly.
We've already noticed a number of changes in the way that clients are running campaigns. Almost all direct mail activity has been paused, it's understandable really as it seems the vast majority of us are working from home now. Additionally, telemarketing operations are also being scaled back, especially where they rely on switchboard transfer.
Email is the polar opposite of the other channels.
We expect email marketing volumes to increase as budgets are shifted to different revenue streams. A number of clients have already reported higher interaction rates on their e-marketing. Presumably, with many of us working remotely and possibly with us expecting business to slow, it would appear greater time is available to interact with email content.
Every marketing department will react differently over the next few weeks and months, some will scale back, some will see opportunity - ultimately we're not here to tell you how to run your business, but we can offer advice, share experiences and hopefully put a smile on your face.
Business will be affected, working practices will be altered, but we will get through this. Stay safe everyone.
