Two ways marketers can prepare for the unexpected

culled from:managers-know-how.com

Of course, everyone has the same idea at this time of year, so there’s bound to be plenty of buzz and even more noise across all industries. But with organizations so often focused on the major events taking place between now and New Year’s Day, sometimes it can be easy to lose sight of what consumers are talking about in the brief respites of downtime between events.

Indeed, how can you make the most of the in-between?

We’ve talked before about how your brand can make the most of the lull during slower seasons, such as the dog days of summer, but how can you capitalize on the moments of time between Fashion Week and the launch of the pro sports seasons? Or between back to school, thanksgiving and the holidays.

It’s in these moments – on random Tuesdays or a lazy Sunday morning – when brands have an opportunity to engage their audience in a meaningful way while everyone else is caught up preparing for the perfect holiday campaign.

Take the recent temperature drop in Alberta: While winter marketing isn’t on anyone’s mind just yet, smart brands that allocated room in their budgets and calendars for unexpected moments were the ones who could step up for their customers around this unseasonal weather.

Balancing plans with unexpected opportunities is a challenge for organizations large and small. Here are a couple things to help make the process work for you:

1. Keep your finger on the pulse. Ensuring that your business is aware of both international and local trends from the start is a must when it comes to reacting quickly on items that fall outside your hero content. In real-time marketing, the seemingly unplanned moments are often anything but.

A perfect example of this was the official announcement of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Royal Baby Number Two. If we take a critical look at this major news event, was it really that unexpected? Most of the world expected Britain’s most famous couple to eventually add to their family.

Brands like Nissan followed the chatter early on and planned to take action if and when it was confirmed. Getting pre-approvals on the content, they were able to act quickly when the time came producing a piece of content that spread quickly on social media channels. After seeing their post become a focal point in the international trending topic, it’s easy to see how these ‘small’ moments allow brands both big and small the opportunity to strike a chord with their audience outside their traditional tactical messaging.

For small businesses especially, this can be a simple, yet powerful way to leverage the moments outside items dotted in your content calendar to keep the conversation relevant and going strong.

2. Sort through the chatter. Keeping up with the trending hashtags appearing on Twitter alone can be overwhelming. To successfully leverage trending topics, there has to be some strategic direction in your read and react approach. All conversations that you are engaging in, either planned or unplanned, must ladder back to your business objectives.

It’s when brands, either intentionally or unintentionally, pipe into conversations that can be politically charged or have no relevance to their offerings as an organization that this approach can backfire.

Coming under fire for not understanding the meaning of a #hashtag around domestic violence, DiGiorno Pizza learned that jumping into a conversation before doing their research, is a recipe for disaster. Brands who have been more informed in their approach are able to not only engage with their current audience in an interesting way, but also branch out to a wider consumer base.

As crucial as it is for any business to strategically plan ahead, it’s a huge miss to discount the in-between moments that provide an opportunity for your brand’s personality to really shine.

Breaking through a crowded space during any season can be challenging, so why not leverage the smaller moments which can provide just as much value for your brand and your consumers? Your monthly calendar is likely full of major marketing milestones but there’s always room for more. Keep track of what’s happening between those planned events for what has the potential to become a milestone moment for your brand.

The old saying “life happens when you’re busy making plans” rings just as true for brands as it does for people.