VIDEO: Business Actions in Times of Crisis

Written by Agency Jet | Mar 18, 2020 3:21:49 PM

Transcript of this video (links included)

Good morning Colby here from Agency Jet.

Just wanted to come at you with a video, talking about Business Actions in Times of Crisis.

Obviously, it's a very interesting time right now, a little unprecedented. We don't know what's happening in the future, but we do know we need to move forward so I thought this would be a valuable video for the times.

It's actually been inspired by Clayton at The Hoth who I'll leave a link in this video as well if you want to watch that.

But this is gonna come from a your business perspective, an Agency Jet perspective, and just to understand what we can do during this time, when, you know, our days look different.

So to start off, to introduce myself, as Colby here, I've been at Agency Jet for a long time, I'm the Director of Client Strategy.

Many of you may know me or may have worked with me.

I've worked with hundreds of individuals over the years, and then maybe you've worked with one of my colleagues, or maybe this is your first introduction to Agency Jet.

Either way, welcome.

If it is your first introduction to us, Agency Jet provides world-class digital marketing services, search engine optimization, web design and development, and social media, and of course, pay per click, advertising and retargeting, those sorts of things.

So welcome, But this video should be valuable for anyone whether you know who we are or you're brand new.

So we're going to jump into the main points here basically going through this time.

We know that adversity is happening right now.

We're trying to figure out our lives.

And then the rest of it is what you can do during this time. Keeping the economy going, making, sure you're moving your business forward by selling and marketing.

And then, of course, how you can work remotely.

I'm actually full-time remote for Agency Jet anyway. So I'm sitting right here in the bedroom of my apartment that kinda doubles as a home office, and then that's Milwaukee over my shoulder there, even though our headquarters is in the Twin Cities.

So, we definitely have the capability to work remotely, and we want to share some of that information with you a little bit, So we'll cover that briefly.

And of course, if you have more questions on how to work remotely, we'd be fantastic resources.

I'll make sure that my contact information is in the bottom of this message as well.

Colby Wegter

Director of Client Strategy

612.392.1677

colby@agencyjet.com

So I just wanted to put this quote forward, because really, I think it's very pertinent to learn more from losing than winning.

You learn how to keep going.

So right now, it may feel like we're losing.

Maybe business is not coming in the door.

Maybe some of what you've had has been walking out of the door and in kind of a panic mode.

It's not ideal, obviously, but we do learn more from losing.

This is a perfect time to learn.

And we would all be ridiculously kicking ourselves if we didn't learn from this situation.

So, I found this quote to be very relevant, and it's gonna kinda dive into what happens in business and when adversity happens to us personally, as well.

So, I thought I'd touch from a personal note, and these are just a couple of mine. I have had plenty of adversity in my life.

I'm 30 years old, but back when I was in college over a decade ago, I didn't come from a rich family. I didn't have a lot of money.

And I had to pay my own way.

And, so, I basically learned to survive on $5 a week.

And that's not an exaggeration.

I had a very, very low bank accounts.

I found different ways to cook food.

You know, I had a lot of ramen noodles and things like that, but also, it really taught me how to manage money.

I look at some people who I spent college with who have trouble managing money where it's very, very easy for me because I had to, I was forced to survive.

And so now, I feel like I'm very fiscally responsible because of that.

So that was one example.

And then just another one, the first job I ever got out of college, I actually went to college for education.

So I was teaching at an elementary school in Brooklyn, New York.

And it was just not the best situation.

And the school was actually kind of on hard times, and I stepped into that as an assistant teacher.

But within a couple of weeks, I was actually forced into a lead role for over 100 kids.

So, just kind of first job out of college, I was, I was frankly overwhelmed, and absolutely stressed out, you know, kind of losing weight, and, and just not getting much sleep.

But, what that job taught me is that it can always get more difficult.

It can always be tougher and it's really made me thankful for what I have at Agency Jet.

And what, you know, I definitely express how good it is here to my colleagues, so that they know, even if they haven't had adversity like this, I can use it as teaching moments for them to let them know how truly great our culture is and what we have for our staff.

So, it's really been a fantastic learning experience, these sorts of things.

And, I'm sure you have personal adversities as well that, you know, when times are tough, you're learning a lot more than when times are good.

So, I think, Just to share these personal examples helps.

Now, how does it apply to business?

And this time specifically, where we need to find the optimism, we need to know that we're going to get through this.

You know, this sort of thing is not necessarily something any of us expected.

And it's certainly not something we want our businesses to feel affected by.

But it's the new reality now.

So, we need to find the optimism.

We need to be positive.

We know that we're all in this together as a worldwide crisis.

So it's not just affecting certain industries, it's affecting all industries.

Just like in the adversities slide just before we need to identify things about ourselves and our business during this time we really need to use this time to propel ourselves forward.

So how do you do that for your business?

Don't stop selling, because the way I see it.

If you stop selling now, if you put everything on hold, there's going to be an aftermath as well.

Eventually, we're gonna get through this crisis and come out the other side.

But if you stop selling now, you will stop putting your name out there.

You will have delayed things, and then you have to deal with a second crisis after this first worldwide crisis.

So, it just seems to me, like you're compounding the issue.

So, what does the aftermath look like?

If you stop selling right now?

Ask yourself, Can we handle to not sell for another couple of months, because we didn't put our name out there, and of course, we don't know if it'll be a couple of months or longer or less.

So it's just something to consider if you stop now, you're basically putting your business in even more trouble.

So don't stop selling, and you need to sell by putting the client first, and the employee second.

Alright, so protect your company by putting your clients first.

Think of things you can offer them, you know, new promotions, perhaps.

And actually just thinking what does my client need more than what we want to sell?

Because if you help your clients, you'll keep that business.

So we actually think of this from Agency Jet perspective.

This is our mantra, our mantra is client first, employee second, investor third.

So, every decision we make is for the client first, and Agency Jet succeeds, basically by default if our clients do.

So, it's just a very easy mantra to adopt, but to put forward, it takes a little bit of effort, if you're only concerned about your bottom line, you have to change your thinking a little bit and put the client first.

If we put our clients first and not put our bottom line first, our bottom line tends to be healthy anyway.

But, of course, your support will change.

So, building lasting relationships, even in troubling times means if you are selling something a certain way, your support may have to change, but you can build relationships over time if you can offer other things to clients.

Those relationships last well past this adversity.

So maybe your orders cease, your new business stagnates, but these give you opportunities to nurture your current contracts and to really move them along and build that relationship to a stronger focus.

And we see this as an example with Agency Jet as well.

Most SEO contracts out there for search engine optimization, just an industry wide are around 4 to 6 months long.

But over 70% of our clients last for over a year, and we have many clients in the two year, three year bracket, and beyond.

So, we are continuing to add value month over month.

How we do that is by putting the clients first.

Always put the client first if you can, and especially during these hard times.

But if you're able to do that, it will keep the economy going, so, like I said, the inspiration for this video is by Clayton.

And I'll put that link down below.

But the economy needs to continue working and that means transactions, right?

So, even if it's not a person to person, and it's more of a remote transaction, that option is available for almost every business out there.

And if not, you know, obviously, your challenges are a little bit more, but this again is a time to learn how you can adapt to those things.

But just to keep the economy going, I basically copied Clayton's ideas here.

The economy moves by people completing transactions that funds your payroll, then your employees get goods from other places, and buy things, and that fuels those companies', payroll, and on and on it goes.

So, just remember that remote business, it really is on the rise anyway, And so, there are really almost a semi remote structure and full remote structure for any business out there.

When you think about it, Obviously, having phones or recording this, on GoToMeeting.

Right now, this is where we have our meetings for Agency Jet.

So it's completely possible, and yes, it looks different, but it's not impossible to complete.

So, just something to keep going.

And then just stay optimistic again, Where everyone's going through this, everyone has to adjust to remote sort of environments, to some degree.

Obviously, we're very used to it, but others may not be.

So just know that you're going through this with everyone else.

And we'll all come out the other side.

Don't stop selling and definitely don't stop marketing.

Again, if you're not putting your name out there, you're going to be kind of handling a second crisis when this worldwide crisis is over.

So nothing happens overnight in Google.

That's the first thing I want to say, because, from a digital marketing perspective, something that we're really well versed in, Google typically operates on a two month timeline.

And I say, usually there, because we're not Google employees and we can't predict the future.

But really, when we put work on our client websites, they tend to take a little bit of time to stick in Google to actually see rankings move up and traffic move up.

So if you would take a hiatus from marketing your business, you're already two months behind basically is what that means.

And also, this is an opportunity while some people are exploiting the market in the absolutely wrong way.

Like buying hand sanitizer per dollar and selling it for 70.

When it comes to the digital marketing perspective, if you're going to market anyway, there are opportunities out there.

Prices are lower now, especially for cost per click, prices for a lot of keywords and campaigns than they were a week ago.

And that's because people are pulling their campaigns.

They're not actually using budgets and campaigns right now because they're putting it elsewhere.

Or just saving up.

So if there is money for it, you're actually going to be getting plenty of bids on it, you know, pay per click keywords, those sorts of things for a lot lower than they were not that long ago.

So there is an opportunity there, Then when it comes to changing the way you market, you really just want to come from a mindset of helping versus selling.

You don't want to necessarily think of as Clayton put it in his video, selling in abundance when everything is good.

You're always coming up with ways to 10X somebody's business or to increase in other product lines, something like that.

If you come from the selling aspect of helping somebody, how can we help you through this crisis?

What is something you're missing?

Or what can we do to provide more security?

That's really going to take you a lot of work.

So let's actually go into that a little bit more.

How can you help instead of selling just because it looks different than extra offerings for current clients?

Basically, helping them avoid catastrophe.

For us, it would be taking advantage of those pay per click campaigns if they can't necessarily invest in the monthly SEO.

Or, if they have a web design project that they just can't finish the payments for, there are options to move forward, you know, offering different payment plans.

Instead of a lump sum, we can do with other monthly payments to ease that issue a little bit.

So, just kind of offering extra avenues for clients to feel secure and not have them just completely feel like, how are we going to make this payment, or how are we going to survive as a business.

And keep in mind, competitors are going dormant.

So, kind of, like, don't stop marketing.

A lot of competitors are kind of in that mode where we don't know what to do, so we're just going to cease all activity.

This is really an opportunity to get your name out there, even more, doing things that you're already doing, but just non-stop, basically.

Or in increasing it.

Just a tiny bit, under a reasonably sized budget.

So even if your bottom line is decreasing, you get your name out there.

And actually from a digital marketing perspective, we might see our business actually grow a little bit in this time simply because everyone's now, if they were out in the field for their job.

Many are working in a remote environment, and so they're online and so we're more likely to get visibility to our website, so if you have that sort of opportunity as an online entity, It is definitely worth continuing to market and help clients that way as well, if you have that ability.

And then help equals long term relationships, like I said before, it's our motto.

Client first, employee second, investor third. It's not all about making a dollar.

It just isn't, because in these moments, you don't really know when the money's gonna come in, or when it's going to leave.

And so if you can help clients first, if you can build the relationships, you have those clients who can stick around for the long haul, will stick around for even longer, if your average time of contract is six months to a year, potentially, by nurturing these relationships, now, you can turn that into 18 months to 24 months.

So just something to keep in mind.

There is plenty that can be done during this time.

So, how do you use your time?

There's plenty of things you can do, like I said, some of this have already touched on, but you can build new features for your business.

If there's something that you haven't been able to get to before that, you can now's the time to actually build it.

For instance, I'm going to be working on a lot of Agency Jet's pricing sheets, just kinda updating them, sprucing them up a little bit because it's something that is really what we need to do, but we just haven't had a lot of time to do them as far as an aesthetic point of view.

Providing new offers. Specifically, promos during downtime.

Like I said, if you can offer more payment structures rather than lump sums for clients.

If you can offer low priced options, as far as social media, for us, is a really good example, where we can offer very cost effective options, to get your name out there, on social media, just think of your own business, and what sort of promotions you can provide.

And, if they're low cost, all the better.

Items on the backburner can be attended to.

Like I said, our pricing sheets, you know, polishing up our website a little bit things like that.

There's always something in the background, right?

There's always something sitting on your desk that you just haven't attended to in a year.

Now's the time.

Go ahead and cross off some of those projects.

So you can come back to the office, refreshed when the crisis has passed, and have a lot of projects done for so evaluating internal processes that are lacking polish.

Plenty of things like that, how are you handling incoming calls?

How are you responding to inquiries from your website?

Those sorts of things. Are those processes polished or not?

Are those things you can actually improve?

And of course, remember if you can work remotely, you can also videoconference with your fellow employees and just kind of have meetings on these sorts of things, how can we polish these processes and make them better?

Then, very much, what I would say truly evaluate your website.

Learn about SEO.

These are two things that you can absolutely do right here right now, because, first of all, search engine optimization is the fastest growing marketing technique in the world, And that's for very good reason.

Because if you're doing traditional marketing, you know, door to door, E-mail, billboards, whatever it is, you can't really see the return on investment.

And also it's not necessarily going to hit the target market.

Whereas SEO is designed marketing for exactly when someone's looking for your product or service, you're showing up.

So that's what we do really, really well.

And then, as far as truly evaluating your website, is it easy to use?

Does that load quickly, Is something hard to find?

Can you click on things easily?

Just look at it from a user experience aspect and, if it is not easy from an unbiased opinion, if you can produce better.

Then it's time to, to make some refreshments and I would consult an agency like us to see if we can help you with that.

Then of course, take time for yourself.

Working remotely, I know how lucky I am to have time as my own, so long as we deliver to clients.

We do normal business hours, but you don't have to work set hours so long as you that are there for your clients, of course, with putting the client first attitude, we never let clients go by the wayside.

And so if I need a half-hour to walk my dog, I can absolutely do that take these times to actually refresh yourself, you know, binge watch TV, read, write, whatever it is that makes you comfortable and relaxed.

You know, now's the time to relax and recharge your batteries.

So you can go back into your company when the crisis is over and really bring value to them.

How do work remotely?

Like I said, we do this really, really well.

I'm using GoToMeeting right now.

I've just put a couple of prices up here.

Zoom is also a fantastic option.

Basically, you can record calls on GoToMeeting, specifically. It also records transcripts as well.

I'm not sure if Zoom does, I'd have to double check, but I know that GoToMeeting is now recording transcripts.

Everything is recorded to the cloud, and you can share that link with anyone, So it's really, really valuable.

You can record all the calls, that's what agency that does, and that's what I'm using right now to record this.

So definitely very easy to grab these things, and you can use both web applications or desktop applications.

I prefer the desktop application for GoToMeeting, and it works fantastically.

Also, how to work remotely, communication with your team, Slack or Skype.

Both of these can be used as a free version.

We actually, as a team, use free version for Slack, because it's good enough for us for now.

Of course, as we expand, will go into the Standard and Plus modes.

But it's really a great product as far as how, how slick it is, how easy it is to communicate, how you can save things in Slack, particularly, you can even have Google Drive connections and those sorts of things if you use those platforms as well.

And then of course, Skype has been around for a long time.

It's tried and true.

And if you haven't used Skype yet, it is very easy to use as well.

So just something to consider from those aspects.

So what is Agency Jet are doing right now?

We are fully remote.

We've always had this option, like I say, I'm fully remote, a lot of the staff is as well.

Our headquarters is in the Twin Cities, where people are actually going in the office, but right now, fully remote.

We've always had these capabilities and when it comes down to it, if there's a winter blizzard or something like that, we employ this.

Just like what you're seeing now is a recorded video, we do meetings that way.

So it's completely fine, we're used to it.

And the same office hours as usual.

There will be no interruptions in service.

We've been completely outfitted for things like this for years.

So, even, though we didn't expect it to come, you know, six months ago, necessarily, we know that, now, we are really pleased that we've put these sort of practices in place that you'll never see an interruption in service as an Agency Jet client.

And then, of course, we're following all CDC guidelines.

If employees have to go to the office of course, we're making sure that everything is cleaned, wiped and followed by the CDC.

And, then, of course, the social distancing in those things as well.

So, obviously, you've probably heard many things about it at this point that just know that we're following those to the letter.

So, what's the best thing you can do?

Honestly, this is my biased opinion, but it's also a very important thing.

Your website should be your number one employee at your company and when you really think about the times, it's the only one who can truly guarantee business coming in right now.

Because it doesn't require social distancing, it doesn't require to go to the doctor and those sorts of things.

It should be your number one employee.

So, how you can discern whether your website is actually working for you or not, we provide absolutely free assessments, 100% free assessments of your website, and it's 100% education, as well.

So, it's not a sales pitch.

If you do want to work with us, we have a second meeting for that, But the first one is strictly to educate on where your website is that is conducted by GoToMeeting, and takes around an hour.

It's done by a client strategists.

Sometimes even our CEO Darrin, will do a web assessment for you.

But basically, it shows you how to make your website that number one employee.

But keep in mind, this website requires No 401 K, Social Security, Medical, Vacation, it doesn't take sick days, it doesn't complain, and it's only job is to turn one-way communication into two-way communication, and make sure that people who are looking for your products and services contact you. We are experts at helping your website do just that and to get you found on Google for those terms.

So, what I would say is, take full advantage of a website assessment from us as it's 100% free.

I will leave that information at the top of this post and at the bottom, as well.

And then from there, it really just sets you up, potentially, if you want to pursue digital marketing, great.

If not, you at least know where you stand.

So it's really, really valuable there.

And what I would say as well, if you want to learn up on SEO, go ahead and go to our blog at

agencyjet.com/blog.

You can get that web assessment.

Again, like I said, I'll include that in the link to click on as well, But really, what I would say during these trying times, guys, is absolutely, you know, try your best to stay positive.

There's so much that can be done.

Definitely, a lot of things can be crossed off the list when, when you look at these times of crisis there is so much we can learn from them, so hopefully you found this video helpful.

I really want to thank you for watching, And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to the contact information you see there, And then, of course, check out our resources.

We'd really love for you to give them a look.

Thanks again, guys, and stay safe out there.

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