As we h7can say goodbye to this horrendous year and hopefully look forward to a brighter future.

Vaccines have been developed, and are being rolled out across the world. But it doesn’t mean the world is back to normal. It won’t be for some time yet.

So, what does this mean for marketers?

Depending on where your clients are, you might be used to meeting them in-person. Even working with them on-site. For now – and the foreseeable future – this isn’t looking like something marketers should be doing. To protect ourselves and others, marketing services need to be delivered remotely going into 2021.

How Can We Continue to Deliver Marketing Services Remotely?

Working remotely is something certain sectors, such as tech and digital companies, have been used to doing long before a global pandemic hit. However, for many others, since March 2020 this has been a new and unsettling experience.

Even when running your own marketing agency, teams often worked in the same office. Now, for good reason, we are being encouraged to work from home. Some companies are giving up offices for good, going with a purely remote setup. As these same restrictions make it difficult to meet clients in-person, we need to think long-term about supporting them more effectively.

1. Over Communicate with Clients

Something tech and digital companies have known for many years is the need to over communicate, when working with remote teams. One or two-line emails isn’t enough. It helps no one when communication is limited and between clients and those providing a service.

Aim to tailor how you communicate around the needs of your clients, of course. Some might prefer email. Others phone calls. Others might prefer texts or messaging platforms. So be mindful of that. But keep the communication flowing, and always aim to go into detail.

When you provide detail, you avoid the risk of misunderstandings or wrong assumptions being made. Trust is built and maintained on the strength of how well you communicate.

2. Help Clients Retain Customers

As noted in this blog, “it costs more to retain customers than to win new customers. In 2021, it’s going to make a lot of sense to put your marketing budget into customer retention. Holding steady in a global crisis qualifies as a win.”

Helping your clients retain customers is one of the best things you can do next year. Use social media, content writing, interactive content (such as quizzes, surveys, games, polls, and videos), and email marketing to keep customers engaged within the marketing funnel.

3. Create Engaging Content

Engaging and interactive content could include anything that isn’t static, such as articles and landing pages. This content on the website can include quizzes, surveys, games, polls, and videos. Social media content can of course be engaging and interactive too.

4. Support Customers Taking Their Own Pictures

One of the challenges of not working with customers face-to-face is they will need to take pictures for social media.

As part of the service marketers offer, many would normally do that themselves. Once pictures are taken, they’d be edited, filters applied, and then used in social media posts. Therefore, you need to help clients take their own pictures, and then send them over.

Here’s a few easy ways you can encourage clients to take eye-catching pictures:

• Set up weekly reminders, and actively follow-up
• Especially if they’re busy clients, always give them a full week to take pictures, then you edit, filter and publish the following week
• Get creative with content. As long as you know their business well, help them see new ways they can get pictures…. especially if they’ve not got customers in their premises right now, due to restrictions.

5. Provide Clients Solutions to Help Win Them More Customers

Depending on what your clients do, they might need more help engaging with customers more directly. See if you can help them above and beyond providing marketing services.

Marketers that go above and beyond during a pandemic and recession will do even better after this. Your clients could be in the same position of not being able to offer services face-to-face. One way around this is video instant demo and screen-sharing platforms, such as CrankWheel.

When it comes to sales meetings/calls, the most effective technology is video platforms, such as CrankWheel. 74% of sales leaders found that video, whether remote screen-sharing or Instant Demos, helped them hit their target. Video is known for being 34x more effective than phone or email, as a way of engaging with prospects.

Recommending a solution to clients could help them engage with their customers more effectively, as well as increase conversion rates. Be creative with how you help companies. Thinking outside of your marketing box could open up new opportunities for you, and your clients.

Going into 2021, we have a lot of reasons for confidence. Alongside reasons to be cautious and careful still. Looking after your customers, providing excellent service, and communicating with them is the best way to work with them in 2021.

About the Author

Jói Sigurdsson, Founder & CEO of CrankWheel, a zero-hassle screen-sharing web and mobile-based app, designed to help salespeople increase conversion rates and engagement with prospects.