Start-Up Expert Luke Lazarus Provides Unique Insight on Marketing During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far-reaching, devastating effect on individuals as well as businesses around the world. To date, approximately 750,000 people have died, and more than 20 million have tested positive worldwide. The actual numbers may be significantly higher because the test rates are low in many areas. In addition, there is uncertainty about how people have contracted the virus and have been asymptomatic. There is also a likelihood for false negatives among those who have tested for the virus.
The brutal impact of the pandemic extends far beyond our personal lives and health. Businesses have been harshly affected in a variety of ways as well. The actual impact varies by factors like the industry, the business’s activities and even the business’s geographic location. Between mandatory shutdowns, stay-at-home-orders and a general fear among people about what could happen if they venture out, many businesses have felt at least a modest financial pinch. Others have been pushed beyond the brink and have closed their doors permanently.
Developing a successful marketing plan during these unique and trying times requires the insight and the careful touch of a true expert. Luke Lazarus is an accomplished and respected marketing specialist. He has an international clientele base and a solid track record for satisfying his clients’ varied expectations. Notably, Lazarus also specializes in strategic growth and planning for startups and small businesses.
The Insight of a Marketing Expert
Through his deep level of expertise, Lazarus recognizes the need for marketing strategies today to reflect compassion and empathy. At the same time, an effective marketing campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic could make the difference between a business that sinks or swims. Lazarus also believes that the company’s brand should be aligned with the marketing campaign if it will be successful during the pandemic and beyond.
What can your business do to fine-tune its branding and marketing strategy for the remainder of the pandemic and in the post-pandemic era?
The ability to pre-schedule marketing campaigns is a true lifesaver for busy business owners. Through pre-scheduling, you can formulate your full marketing campaign and plan for its release at specific times that have been carefully and strategically selected. If your business has any pre-scheduled or recurring marketing campaigns, these should be pulled immediately.
Now is the time reassess your full marketing strategy and message in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pay attention to messages that may seem crass or unfeeling given the current environment. You do not necessarily have to toss these campaigns into the trash. Instead, consider tweaking them or putting them to the side for use after the pandemic has subsided.
We currently live in a time when social distancing is the norm. Most aspects of life as they were before the pandemic have vanished, and we are faced with adopting the “new normal.” A marketing message that embraces this while remaining empathetic and respectful may garner more attention and respect from the target audience.
While nobody knows exactly when the pandemic will end, this will be a thing of the past at some point. Your marketing strategy will need to shift dramatically to adjust to changing times when that happens. The time to prepare a marketing strategy for the post-pandemic period is now. Identify the revised message that you want to express after the pandemic. Consider laying the groundwork for the transition in your current marketing strategy so that you are ready to act when the time comes to do so.
Your marketing message is largely defined by visuals and language across most platforms. The pandemic has changed what is realistic and socially acceptable right now. Visuals should reflect the quarantine lifestyle, social distancing and other accepted norms. Ideally, they will do so in a positive way that accurately reflects the brand’s image with meaning.
You understandably are operating your business to turn a profit, but blatant profiteering off of a pandemic that has taken so many lives and ruined so many others can seem insensitive and selfish. Carefully review your revised marketing campaign to ensure that it does not send the wrong message to your target audience. One message that could convey respect and care involves the announcement of precautionary steps. This could include steps that your business is taking to continue serving customers while also keeping them as safe as possible in your establishment. If you cite any statistics or pandemic-related data, ensure that your information is from a respected authority. False information can reflect poorly on your brand image, your product image and your overall authority.
Your business may be one of the fortunate ones that has not been harshly affected by the pandemic. However, many people have lost friends and family members to the virus. Others have lost their jobs or have been impacted in other harsh ways. Any message that you put out into the world today and in the months ahead should reflect humility and genuine concern for your customers and for the community as a whole regardless of how successful your business is today. When a marketing campaign strikes the right chord during a challenging time like this, the brand’s image can be viewed as positive, strong and supportive.
Establishing the right marketing message during the best of times is not always easy to do. Your message today must meet all of your standard marketing needs, and it must accomplish those goals with the highest level of empathy and respect.
Now is the time to reassess your marketing message and to tweak it so that it properly aligned with the times. Luke Lazarus offers expanded services that are based around these tips and that are impressively effective. Those who need professional marketing assistance should reach out to Lazarus soon to learn about his services and capabilities.
A Solid Background in Marketing Principles
Luke Lazarus understands the value of a solid education, and he enriched his mind thoroughly at a young age while growing up in Perth. In fact, he earned his Master of Business Administration degree from Melbourne Business School when he was 24 years old. Lazarus then got his feet wet through four of his own startups. These ventures become successful relatively quickly, and they provided Lazarus with exceptional opportunities to learn and grow through hands-on experience. By the time he was 33 years old, Lazarus sold these ventures so that we could use his deep knowledge to serve his clients as a marketing consultant.
Success Linked to a Core Principle
Luke Lazarus has devoted his career as a consultant to one essential goal. That goal is to provide his international business clients with his full support so that they can achieve their marketing objectives. As an accomplished marketing consultant with an international client base, Lazarus has linked his success to one critical principle. That principle is to identify a client’s primary mission and to allow that mission to serve as a guide. In fact, Lazarus advises his clients to dig deep when identifying their mission. He tells them to do this up-front before they invest in marketing.
He cautions that it is often easy to lose sight of that mission in the process of promoting growth and profit generation. In the long run, time, energy and money spent growing a business is used effectively when efforts are laser-focused on a narrow vision.
More specifically, Lazarus emphasizes the importance of storytelling to his clients. He believes that the marketing message for every brand or product should tell a story. The story should be directly linked to the qualities or values of the product or business. More than that, the story should be relatable to the target audience. Employees and investors should also relate to the story so that they can wholeheartedly support the business. One of the most important aspects of storytelling is the long game. The story should be flexible enough that it can grow and develop with the brand or product in the future. This principle has been invaluable in recent months as marketing strategies have adjusted to the pandemic.
Valuable Contributions to Startups
Through his years of experience consulting with entrepreneurs, he has learned that the demise of most startups is rooted in one or two issues. These issues hold the company back from achieving their goals. Once they are identified and addressed, the startup can regain its forward momentum and achieve a higher level of success. Lazarus typically works with startups on a short-term basis. He helps them to identify and correct immediate challenges.
Personal Secrets to Success
The most successful business professionals are those who manage to find a balance between professional and personal lives. For Lazarus, the secret to his success is rooted in structure. He has followed a daily fitness routine regularly for years. He also always makes time to walk the dog. Additional time for personal growth and well-being is spent on charitable efforts, spending quality time with those who are dear to him and reading the newspaper. Lazarus believes that this routine enables him to find a harmonious balance in life. This balance lays the foundation for him to fully focus on his professional activities so that he can be his best while serving his clients as a marketing consultant.
Lazarus also maintains focus on the future. He sees that the experience economy is rapidly growing. This economy is rooted in the consumers’ increased interest in experiences rather than in the accumulation of things. He is increasingly helping his clients to tap into the potential that the experience economy provides.
A Proven, Results-Driven Path
Lazarus has a proven track record of delivering results for his clients, and this record spans across more than two decades. His presentations for numerous businesses and products have directly contributed to startups raising millions of dollars in essential capital and seed money. His reputation precedes him, and many CEOs actively seek out his services.
Marketing strategies developed by Lazarus are rooted beyond storytelling. He digs deep to identify nuances in the market segment and to discover important facts about the competition. Lazarus has an uncanny knack for easily identifying consumers’ motivations, desires and needs related to the product or brand. By sharing this insight with his clients and developing a strategy around these factors, he is able to define crucial points of interest and to support the development of relevant services and products.
It is not enough to simply develop a desirable or useful product or service. The brand or product also must be successfully launched. Initial momentum is vital, so Lazarus focuses on developing a complete launch strategy. This revolves around budgeting, a timelines and the development of goal-oriented, cost-effective plans.
A marketing plan can only be successful when it is profitable. Because of this, Lazarus always focuses on an analysis of performance metrics. Any analysis-driven changes to the marketing strategy must remain aligned with the brand’s story or image. The best time to identify an issue with a marketing campaign is as soon as possible and before funds are drained from the marketing budget unnecessarily.
Through decades of experience working with numerous startups and established businesses, Lazarus has noted a critical fact. Regardless of the industry or niche, a successful and sustainable business model is tied to three key factors. These are transparency, a focus on continual improvement and consistency.
Focused on Serving Clients
While some business professionals and consultants focus on profits above all else, Lazarus understands that profits are the result of providing excellent service and of working hard. In fact, one of his favorite quotes is from Henry David Thoreau. It states, “Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking.”
Simply working hard, however, is not enough. For Lazarus, spending time working efficiently and effectively are essential to success. He begins each day meditating for up to 15 minutes. This enables him to manage stress and to remain focused throughout the day. His days are frequently spent multi-tasking, so establishing focus and clarity first thing in the morning is essential. While he enjoys a cup of coffee, he reviews email messages and creates a to-do-list for the day. This is followed by a walk with his dog and a trip to the gym.
A similar structure is applied to his busy professional life. Because Lazarus is pulled in many directions, he often can only spend a day or two meeting with a client. However, he understands the importance of his time spent with each client. His ability to understand the company’s products, goals and issues are essential for creating an effective and strategic marketing plan. Those few days spent together ultimately can affect the success of the company, so Lazarus always makes the most of that time.
Lazarus has several go-to methods for keeping him laser-focused during his workdays. In addition to the development of a daily to-do list created first thing in the morning, he writes everything down. This includes business plans, shopping lists, notes from client meetings and more. When he is unable to physically put pen to paper, he utilizes voice recordings. These recordings are transcribed later so that all of his notes and thoughts eventually are in written form. While transcribing recordings, he creates prioritized lists of action items to guide his plans for the next day or week.
A Personal Approach to Professional Services
As a busy marketing consultant, Lazarus successfully compartmentalizes his professional and personal lives. However, he draws from his personal life to provide superior service to and results for his clients. Lazarus recognizes that his personal needs and problems provide him with valuable insight. This insight enables him to work more effectively. In fact, this personal touch that is incorporated into all of the projects that he works on have become his trademark. This is a trademark that instills value in his services, and his clients directly benefit from it.
A Broad Look at the Big Picture
While Lazarus encourages his clients to remain focused narrowly on their primary mission or goal, he also understands the importance of a broad outlook. Generally, consumers must have a need or desire for the product or service. They also must be drawn to the brand or business through a deep, emotional connection with its story. The marketing strategy must successfully evoke desired motions that spur a specific action from the consumers. These hold true throughout the pandemic as well.
Today’s consumers are not satisfied with simply feeling a strong emotional tie to a brand or product. They want to engage with their preferred brands. They also want to share values, have an ongoing relationship with the brand and even equate the brand or product with experiences.
Because Lazarus has been so effective at tying all of these factors together, he has been overwhelmingly successful in his career. His continued success stems from his ability to adapt to the radical challenges and changes that have been introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, his ability to remain flexible and to develop flexible stories for his clients have been invaluable in recent months.
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Originally published at http://companyleaders.org on August 14, 2020.
