“How brands prepare today for a return to some form of normalcy can make all the difference in the recovery of your business. Companies that are using this time to develop a re-entry marketing strategy will have the advantage.”
Wise counsel for any business trying to navigate the pandemic. The words, in their original form and followed by several strategy tips, are found in Marketing in the Moment , a quick-read ebook published by Insight Marketing Design in Sioux Falls, S.D.
After the pandemic was declared, “we decided we needed to provide some guidance, some quick tips for marketing people, who were faced with something that no one has ever faced before,” said Candy Van Dam, the company’s chief strategy officer.
By April, the South Dakota-based marketing firm started publishing a weekly e-newsletter offering one-minute-read marketing tips for businesses. The posts were archived so readers could access them later, she said, but by the time September rolled around the company had published enough tips to compile them in a handy reference for business and marketing professionals.
“We thought we should make a book,” Van Dam said. And so that’s what it did.
ADVERTISEMENT
The book, perhaps really more like an extended newsletter, is available for free download on the company’s website and offers helpful tips, insightful analyses and practical tactics to help business, marketing and public relations professionals better weather the pandemic storm.
The book is 23 pages – one page per chapter, including the cover, introductory and end pages – and is purposefully designed for quick perusal. It takes only about one minute, if that, to read each of the 20 chapters. But the 20 minutes it takes to read “Marketing in the Moment” might be the best 20 minutes the reader has spent preparing her or his next business strategy.
Some of the chapters include “Take a Moment to Conduct a Brand Audit” (Chapter 1); “Employees Should be Top of Mind” (Chapter 3); “Go Further When people Are Going Without (Chapter 12); and “Share Your Know-How” (Chapter 17).
“The key to everyone benefitting from your efforts is that the knowledge you share reflects your brand positioning and provides real value to the participants,” reads one chapter, offering several tips.
Van Dam said the book is currently available only on the company’s website , though it might make it available on other online platforms in the future. Additional chapters may also be added to the book, since the newsletter continues to be published every Tuesday with additional tips.
“I think if this pandemic continues, we'll probably do an addendum to it, maybe chapters in groups of 10 or something,” she said. “But yes, I can see a new set of chapters coming up.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Van Dam said what is most exciting for her is that for every book downloaded through the end of the year, the company will donate $1 to the Feeding South Dakota food bank.
“We decided if we were going to do the book, we wanted to be able to help a nonprofit as well,” she said. “We're not making any money on the book, but we are going to donate $1 for every download. … The response has been very positive.”
