When the chips are down, double-down!

Off the back of our recent small but meaningful wins, I decided to make some changes to how we operate as an agency. I am sharing this today because I've been asked to, as it may help just one other person make a change for the better, or realise it’s not just them when social media is a shiny front to the reality of many businesses putting on a brave face.

Throughout lockdown we've noticed some of our clients panicking, concerned about their future and rushing to implement change, most of the time these decisions come from desperation and worry. As you know, we never make our best decisions under these circumstances. Many of these clients suffered from shiny object syndrome, trying to find the next tool that will transform their business and help them stand out above the noise of busier social media platforms. These tools do not exist.

Whilst we helped to calm and steer those clients to better decisions, we acknowledged as a team that we too fell foul of this, by jumping to new strategies without thinking, when we should have trusted our instincts and followed tested methods. I’m not saying do not try new things, innovation is important, but when the chips are down, keep things simple.

It’s important to understand that all businesses can struggle, look at the big companies we’ve lost during this period of downturn. We were lucky that the foundations we laid a few years ago meant we were able to weather the storm, and while we, as with many are working to bounce back, it will take a while for things to settle down I’m sure.

So, what are we changing and what has worked...

We've set up role-based HIT lists for each team member - providing clear, tailored action points focusing on consistency across marketing, comms and sales that put our brand and clients first.

• Consistent brand messaging
• Scheduled posts - Real-time follow-ups
• Block day into 5 sections; Social, Emails, Outreach (Calls, Prospecting), Work, Planning

We've become a calm company. So all internal meetings are on a Monday morning and client demos are first thing or last thing in the day, giving our team protected time to focus with minimal distractions.

We are a remote-first agency. We have an office, but staff can now work from home and we'll ensure they have adequate space and equipment to work effectively.

Focus Fridays, we focus on ourselves and internal, personal and company development. No meetings or demos. This makes our company as important as our clients, they benefit in the end.

We slow down. 1-week planning, 3-week sprints. No unnecessary pressure deadlines and adequate milestones. This makes our team relax, make better decisions and have the freedom to experiment, which ultimately delivers the best work. If you work to a fixed cost or hourly/day rate, it’s important not to under-sell yourself. Give yourself time to do a good job.

Better planning. I now plan tomorrow the night before. In the morning I follow my HIT list, then I know exactly what I’ve decided to focus on and I do not deviate. What we found fun was making HIT lists for others, not ourselves. It’s interesting to see what other people suggest you should spend your time doing. If you don’t have a team, ask your peers to help you create one and do the same for them.

Double-down. Focus on the tasks and channels that make a difference. If you do well on Facebook, double-down. Networking, double-down, Linkedin outreach, double-down. For us, it's virtual networking & lead-generation from automation and follow-ups. Around half of our funnel is existing clients in our CRM who receive our emails, the other half is relationships we've built recently. Instead of sending more emails, we make them better with more value and better subject lines to increase our reach. For new clients, we focus on the now issues and develop a strategy.

I hope this helps someone feel more in control and be able to focus on what’s important. My inbox is always open should you want to bounce any ideas off me.

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