April 11, 2020

#DemandGen 11: How to Pivot Your Communication Strategy (During the Pandemic) w/ Patricia Beitler

So… it’s not business as usual anymore, particularly if you’re an SMB.

You’ve probably been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak. The truth is that your customers are struggling, too.

On this episode, I interview Patricia Beitler, President of Velocitas, about her take on altering our communication strategy during the pandemic.

What we talked about:

  • How the right communication strategy now can create growth
  • Positioning yourself for success when the pandemic is over
  • Tailoring your communication to your customers’ needs
  • 5 things to consider in crisis communication

This #DemandGen episode is co-hosted by Sheila Kloefkorn, CEO at KEO Marketing.

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You can find this interview, and many more, by subscribing to the B2B Growth Show on Apple Podcasts, on our website, or on Spotify.

Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.559 --> 00:00:11.109 Learn how to turbo charge your marketing results by building repeatable, scalable demand JEN 2 00:00:11.269 --> 00:00:17.030 systems from Sheila cleft corn, CEO of Keo Marketing and founder of the Business 3 00:00:17.070 --> 00:00:22.100 Owners Marketing Academy. See if you qualify for a complementary Marketing Road Map for 4 00:00:22.219 --> 00:00:33.259 your business at Keo Marketingcom Slash Audit. You're listening to BB growth, a 5 00:00:33.340 --> 00:00:37.890 daily podcast for B TOB leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, 6 00:00:38.090 --> 00:00:41.850 like Gary vanner truck and Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard from the 7 00:00:41.929 --> 00:00:46.570 majority of our guests. That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional 8 00:00:46.729 --> 00:00:50.840 speakers and authors. Most of our guests are in the trenches leading sales and 9 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:55.759 marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the 10 00:00:55.880 --> 00:01:00.039 fastest growing BDB companies in the world. My name is James Carberry. I'm 11 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:03.880 the founder of sweetish media, a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm 12 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:07.549 also one of the CO hosts of this show. When we're not interviewing sales 13 00:01:07.590 --> 00:01:11.349 and marketing leaders, you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business. 14 00:01:11.750 --> 00:01:14.989 Will share the ups and downs of our journey as we attempt to take 15 00:01:14.989 --> 00:01:19.939 over the world. Just getting well, maybe let's get into the show. 16 00:01:25.219 --> 00:01:29.180 Welcome back to BEDB growth. I'm your host for today's episode. I'm Sheila 17 00:01:29.260 --> 00:01:34.769 cleft corn, CEO of Keo Marketing. This is the eleven episode in the 18 00:01:34.930 --> 00:01:40.849 Hashtag Demandin series. I'm joyed today by Patricia Baitler, president of Velocitas, 19 00:01:41.010 --> 00:01:46.609 a full service one stop shop for Public Relations, digital marketing and branding solutions, 20 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:49.079 which ash. I'm thrilled to have you on the show now. No, 21 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:52.719 yes, it's a pleasure to be here and be going you today. 22 00:01:53.159 --> 00:01:57.000 Great, thank you. We're excited to have you. We are on opposite 23 00:01:57.000 --> 00:02:00.319 sides of the country, with you being in Miami and me here in Phoenix, 24 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:02.989 but we're seeing similar things in the market place with all that's going on 25 00:02:04.150 --> 00:02:07.670 in the world. Just tell me a little bit and our listeners about your 26 00:02:07.709 --> 00:02:10.349 background and what you're up to a velocit us. Yeah, so I actually 27 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:15.379 started the agency in two thousand two and we're full service. We initially started 28 00:02:15.419 --> 00:02:22.900 actually online with branding and web development. Is that's my background and it and 29 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:28.099 then over the years we are going to be evolved into a full service, 30 00:02:28.539 --> 00:02:34.610 public creations agency, and that's primarily our business, and then provide additional services 31 00:02:34.889 --> 00:02:39.250 that support that to continue to create awareness, and we do that for a 32 00:02:39.330 --> 00:02:45.080 VGB sector and also, you know, other types of businesses and helping them 33 00:02:45.280 --> 00:02:50.319 to checkt and, especially now as everything is continuing to evolve, to shift 34 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:54.840 their messaging and and continue, you know, changing every day as it as 35 00:02:54.879 --> 00:02:59.750 it continues. Well, that's great. Will certainly helping the to be businesses 36 00:02:59.909 --> 00:03:02.389 with their messaging is really important and it sounds like you have such a great 37 00:03:02.909 --> 00:03:07.310 background in both the implementation as well as the messaging, being full service with 38 00:03:07.750 --> 00:03:13.659 Public Relations and digital marketing. But today I think the topic that you and 39 00:03:13.740 --> 00:03:17.460 I have talked about discussing is really really important. So this is an interesting 40 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:22.539 time to be in business. Small businesses in particular have been hard hit by 41 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:28.090 the COVID nineteen outbreak and I'm excited about this topic. So my first question 42 00:03:28.250 --> 00:03:34.409 is, how should business leaders and marketers be thinking about their communication strategy during 43 00:03:34.449 --> 00:03:37.810 a crisis like this and, if you can expand on that a little bit, 44 00:03:38.169 --> 00:03:42.240 how can they use it to actually create growth for their customers and their 45 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:46.400 company? Yeah, so our team has been working actively with our clients to 46 00:03:46.479 --> 00:03:52.120 pivot their their mark communications strategies and during a crisis and and in ways of 47 00:03:52.879 --> 00:03:57.629 growth, tactfully. And now it's the time to really think about your messaging 48 00:03:57.949 --> 00:04:04.909 and how you're providing your clients or customers and how that can tension or during 49 00:04:04.990 --> 00:04:10.659 a time. And we really learned that with the messaging, it's really important 50 00:04:10.900 --> 00:04:15.500 to make a significant change into what you were what you had before. For 51 00:04:15.620 --> 00:04:19.339 example, a lot of people develop their content and messaging for social work, 52 00:04:19.420 --> 00:04:24.529 for their email company, for any of the work that they're doing, or 53 00:04:24.610 --> 00:04:28.410 had that already in face and now it's basically looking at how we can shift 54 00:04:28.490 --> 00:04:31.170 that in more ship work and keeping the audience in mind. You know, 55 00:04:31.370 --> 00:04:35.730 like pretty important to think about who needs to hear from you, what they 56 00:04:35.769 --> 00:04:40.279 need to know. You know what every reading the answer is is very dependent 57 00:04:40.360 --> 00:04:45.079 on your business model and you know what, what's the priority for you also 58 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.959 to get out there and how you can provide that support. So you are 59 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:53.870 saying is it's not business as usual. You need to change your message based 60 00:04:53.949 --> 00:05:00.430 on this pandemic. Do Advise your clients to do both or to switch completely 61 00:05:00.750 --> 00:05:04.310 to crisis messaging? Well, I did. There's a combination. It just 62 00:05:04.389 --> 00:05:09.300 also depends on the business, as I mentioned, every every company is different, 63 00:05:09.339 --> 00:05:12.779 but you have to address it as a company and I think initially we 64 00:05:12.860 --> 00:05:16.860 were looking at our healthcare clients and not really thinking that this really affects every 65 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:21.649 single company and and they're in a different way. So, you know, 66 00:05:21.970 --> 00:05:26.970 that message. Everybody has to have some messaging, you know, out you 67 00:05:27.009 --> 00:05:31.050 know, whether it's within an email campaign or to their customers privately, to 68 00:05:31.089 --> 00:05:35.279 let them know how they're addressing it and then also look at how they're helping 69 00:05:35.360 --> 00:05:39.600 the community, you know, and making a difference. For example, one 70 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:45.160 of our healthcare clients open to Corona CONEA virus testing facility. Just you know, 71 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:48.279 that was really exciting because we're announcing something that is relevant, that's going 72 00:05:48.319 --> 00:05:51.750 to help people right now, at this moment very time, you know. 73 00:05:51.829 --> 00:05:56.189 And then you have to think about, you know, while you're pivoting your 74 00:05:56.230 --> 00:06:00.269 messaging, like how position yourself come out on top after all of this. 75 00:06:01.709 --> 00:06:06.620 Yeah, definitely. I think that's so important that you're thinking about external and 76 00:06:08.139 --> 00:06:14.339 internal communications. So obviously letting customers know, especially if you have a product 77 00:06:14.379 --> 00:06:19.329 or a service that relates to the pandemic, but also letting internal folks, 78 00:06:19.410 --> 00:06:24.769 like giving sales people the tools they need to be able to communicate during sales 79 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:28.209 calls that they can't be insensitive and just get on the phone and talk about 80 00:06:28.209 --> 00:06:30.410 the same thing. They need to sell, but they need to put it 81 00:06:30.449 --> 00:06:33.800 in the context of what their prospects are going through, whether their prospects are 82 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:39.920 all now remote employees or things like that. I think that's so important and 83 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:45.480 timely. So you mentioned your healthcare client that they're focusing on the community. 84 00:06:45.480 --> 00:06:47.910 Can you give an example of that? So, yeah, what they've always 85 00:06:47.910 --> 00:06:53.189 been very community for. You know, that was their base, you know, 86 00:06:53.310 --> 00:06:57.589 prior to this happening. So immediately they jumped on how they can make 87 00:06:57.629 --> 00:07:01.620 a difference and one of those was, you know, creating going beyond the 88 00:07:01.779 --> 00:07:05.899 scope of their the Medicare plans that they offer and then, you know, 89 00:07:06.100 --> 00:07:12.259 creating ways to help the community over all. There even actually implementing face masks 90 00:07:12.540 --> 00:07:17.370 right now, ordering face masks that that's great and provide. So it's really 91 00:07:17.490 --> 00:07:21.370 great. Like we've actually been trying to gather more and more information on the 92 00:07:21.449 --> 00:07:26.769 plans or what they're doing right now so that we could integrate that into all 93 00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:30.519 of our messaging for them. That's great. That's great. So what about 94 00:07:30.519 --> 00:07:35.000 a business that isn't directly as related, like a healthcare business? But what 95 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:40.079 if they're a retail business and they've been hard hit? How would you address 96 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:44.949 that? I mean, we have other businesses that have been hard to including 97 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:49.230 law firms, which is, you know, another service based industry, and 98 00:07:49.790 --> 00:07:55.269 that's been, you know, having to create the messaging, also the as 99 00:07:55.350 --> 00:08:00.060 we've mentioned earlier, both out you know, externally and internally, and how 100 00:08:00.139 --> 00:08:03.259 they're addressing that and then also, you know, what they can do to 101 00:08:03.379 --> 00:08:05.620 help their clients, you know, which is really important because right now, 102 00:08:07.100 --> 00:08:11.019 having that legal support is really important. I think they also just made that 103 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:15.889 one of the businesses they just, think a couple days ago, just announced 104 00:08:15.970 --> 00:08:20.850 it one of the essential ones. Yeah, the essential businesses. So I 105 00:08:20.930 --> 00:08:26.209 think that it's that's something they're considered, but that they're considered an essential business 106 00:08:26.250 --> 00:08:31.439 during this time. So you've been able to help your law firm clients because 107 00:08:31.480 --> 00:08:35.919 they are essential businesses. How have you helped them? We've actually been shifting 108 00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.559 all of our seminars. We like everything that we had planned, events, 109 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:43.830 seminars, webinars, and we've also done that for a pounding clients, but 110 00:08:45.149 --> 00:08:48.350 you know, it's been a major ship, especially for the law firm clients. 111 00:08:48.389 --> 00:08:54.269 That support really stayed in condominiums. We just created partnerships and launching series 112 00:08:54.740 --> 00:09:00.580 to provide ongoing support to those that live in in condominiums. That's great. 113 00:09:01.019 --> 00:09:05.779 And what were some of the challenges that you had from going from traditional events 114 00:09:05.860 --> 00:09:09.730 to virtual events? I really it just happened organically, I mean the sense 115 00:09:09.809 --> 00:09:15.409 that I happen to have an IT background, so it was very fluid. 116 00:09:15.610 --> 00:09:18.529 I just shifted and reached out to them and I think that, you know, 117 00:09:18.690 --> 00:09:22.370 what's really important is that communication and having those relationships. So we just 118 00:09:22.490 --> 00:09:24.879 started, you know, instead of reaching out to them and talking, we 119 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:30.480 had already discussed and set dates for the next few months coming events, and 120 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:33.120 I said, hey, how about, you know, we switch these all 121 00:09:33.200 --> 00:09:35.600 for webinars. You know, we could support, you know, your your 122 00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:41.990 clients and ours and just become a resource. So you're very able to help 123 00:09:41.070 --> 00:09:46.309 put them with some messaging and then the technology of getting it shifted and then 124 00:09:46.389 --> 00:09:50.470 your outreach strategy change to is that right? Oh yeah, no, absolutely, 125 00:09:50.509 --> 00:09:54.340 and then we did. We created all email campaigns, got those going 126 00:09:54.659 --> 00:09:56.580 on, promoted them leading up to the you know, to the event. 127 00:09:56.659 --> 00:10:01.019 We had a hundred fifty at our first one, which is a really successful 128 00:10:01.019 --> 00:10:05.139 yeah, that's great. So, yeah, I felt exciting, if you 129 00:10:05.220 --> 00:10:07.850 know, just kind of running and first stimulating, there's no question about that. 130 00:10:09.570 --> 00:10:13.370 Just kind of hit the ground running and shifting everything over as fast as 131 00:10:13.409 --> 00:10:18.929 we possibly could for the first two weeks where definitely exciting. Well, I 132 00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:24.840 just love the all the ways that you're helping your your clients navigate this crisis. 133 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:28.759 But how do you recommend that they position themselves to come out on up 134 00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:33.320 after the crisis? So, you know, as I mentioned, every company's 135 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:35.509 different and I think we need to look within and say, you know, 136 00:10:35.669 --> 00:10:39.350 what it is that you can do to make things more efficient for your company, 137 00:10:39.509 --> 00:10:45.830 and that's not home or it's overall looking at the things that are more 138 00:10:45.870 --> 00:10:50.419 successful for you, the marketing initiatives that you've been doing, because I think 139 00:10:50.419 --> 00:10:54.179 a mistake that people make if they think that now the time to hit pause 140 00:10:54.620 --> 00:10:58.379 on a lot of those initiatives, and it's the opposite. This is your 141 00:10:58.419 --> 00:11:03.179 opportunity to really show King Your Company and yourself and how you can make a 142 00:11:03.259 --> 00:11:07.610 difference and that you're being there for them and so it depends on the company, 143 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:11.210 but basically depending on when your company and what the core is in the 144 00:11:11.250 --> 00:11:16.169 values of them are, and then positioning them and putting them in the forefront 145 00:11:16.210 --> 00:11:18.480 so that you can help your clients. That's great, Patricia. Can you 146 00:11:20.279 --> 00:11:24.080 just summarize maybe the top five points or so that people should be thinking about 147 00:11:24.440 --> 00:11:28.519 related to how to pivot their communication strategy during a crisis to create growth? 148 00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:35.029 Absolutely. So the most important thing is your message and think about, you 149 00:11:35.149 --> 00:11:39.429 know, how you can, you know, provide the support for customers and 150 00:11:39.350 --> 00:11:45.789 create a lead to attention, and also your audience, taking into consideration who 151 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:48.860 they are, what they need to know, what they're going through, depending 152 00:11:48.899 --> 00:11:52.659 on your business model, the mode of communication and how you're going to utilize 153 00:11:52.700 --> 00:11:56.740 that, focusing on the community and when you're doing people the extra mile, 154 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:03.049 make a difference during his time and, most importantly, how you can position 155 00:12:03.129 --> 00:12:07.809 yourself to come out on top of the Patricia, thank you. This is 156 00:12:07.929 --> 00:12:11.129 so helpful and it's been a great conversation. I love your perspectives on how 157 00:12:11.169 --> 00:12:16.919 to pivot your communication strategy during this trying time. If anyone listening has follow 158 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.159 up questions or would just like to connect with you or get help. What's 159 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:22.960 the best way for them to find you? They could go to our website, 160 00:12:24.080 --> 00:12:30.350 velocitiestcom, or send an email to info at velocitiestcom. Great well, 161 00:12:30.389 --> 00:12:33.909 thanks again for being on the show. What you've shared is incredibly valuable and 162 00:12:35.110 --> 00:12:37.389 for our listeners. As always, if you're interested in learning more about how 163 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:41.230 to increase your leads and sales, especially in a time like this, we 164 00:12:41.350 --> 00:12:46.779 can always request a complementary marketing audit at K Eo Marketingcom. Thank you, 165 00:12:46.899 --> 00:12:52.179 Patricia. Thanks everybody. Stay healthy and safe and look up to you next 166 00:12:52.220 --> 00:13:00.570 time. That I hate it when podcasts incessantly ask their listeners for reviews, 167 00:13:00.809 --> 00:13:03.450 but I get why they do it, because reviews are enormously helpful when you're 168 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:07.330 trying to grow a podcast audience. So here's what we decided to do. 169 00:13:07.769 --> 00:13:11.370 If you leave a review for me to be growth in apple podcasts and email 170 00:13:11.370 --> 00:13:15.759 me a screenshot of the review to James At sweetfish Mediacom, I'll send you 171 00:13:15.799 --> 00:13:18.600 a signed copy of my new book, content based networking, how to instantly 172 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:22.960 connect with anyone you want to know. We get a review, you get 173 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:24.440 a free book. We both win.