I never thought that getting back from the best holiday of my life would be a huge shock to the system it was on 17^th March 2020. I’d gone from being in paradise in the Maldives into being in enforced self-isolation for 2 weeks (which after spending 2 full weeks with hubby was definitely a challenge).

I also soon realised that the lockdowns were going to change the way we needed to market and a whole new game plan was required as the game had changed in a big way.

So, step 1 was to talk to my clients about what we currently had in planning and revisit their strategy. One of these clients was Rivers Insurance Brokers.

I have been working with Rivers over the past year to develop a marketing strategy and use my expertise to execute it for them. Prior to my going on holidays we had developed some consistent marketing and had been in the final stages of launching their new lead generation magnet and funnel. We were just about to hit go when COVID-19 changed everything.

When I got back from holidays and changes were being made daily to our life and work situation, both the client and I knew we needed to pivot and change what we had planned. The messaging and content we had planned was just not appropriate to the new environment and would’ve impacted them in a negative way. I must say it, how fantastic it is to work with a client like Rivers Insurance where the CEO was on board immediately with the change in strategy.

So, it was time to pivot, and that is exactly what we did.  My idea was to put the focus back on their clients and their local community. This was a natural fit since it fitted perfectly with their core values of ‘we care’ and ‘you will never be alone’.

So, we paused the content we had ready to roll out (we can use that later so it is not wasted) and we created new content that would suit the current situation.

We based much of it off the questions they were being asked every day from their client’s so we knew it was relevant and relatable to what they needed right now.

We then created blogs specifically around COVID-19 related issues – this included FAQ’s, Cybercrime issues, how insurance was impacted by remote workers etc.

I also initiated a Client Spotlight to showcase clients who needed extra love and were struggling with sales. This was embraced by the entire team and the clients who were feeling the love from Rivers.

We have also been sending weekly EDM’s to clients with updates, new information, client spotlights along with a survey to ask them what information they needed most, so could deliver that to them. As part of this process, we were able to collaborate and share the content of our trusted partners, enabling us to not only provide highly relevant communication but to share the love of the people we work with regularly.

We are also pivoting the content on their social media channel to be ‘Covid’ specific and creating a bunch of Fun Rivers Remote Working tips which are shared regularly. The planned content was put on hold until we feel it is the right time to share it.

Then to pull it all together we created a downloadable Fact Sheet that dealt with the issues that many people might not have considered in regards to how their insurance would be impacted by having staff at home. A highly valuable piece of gated content that has a positive impact on their client’s business.

The pivot in marketing also had an unexpected benefit. The staff embraced it and could see firsthand what we had been trying to achieve to date. They were getting great feedback from their clients who were appreciative of the support Rivers were giving them.

Clients can see that Rivers actually live & breathe their core values and the amount of communication leaves no doubt that they are determined to support them through this challenging time.

It has resulted in a huge increase in exposure to them in existing and potential clients, a new appreciation from existing clients, the staff happy to get involved in marketing activities. One of the original blogs was also picked up and shared by an industry body.

 

History has proven that companies that continue to market their business during a downturn are the ones that come out stronger at the other end.

It is a pleasure to work with clients like Rivers Insurance who are authentic and genuinely care about their clients, but who understand that their marketing needed to be pivoted not paused and it is paying off in such a positive way for them (and will continue to do so)