5 Tips for Marketing Managers to start the 2nd season of 2020

By: Raquel Padovese*

At the end of last year, just like almost everyone else, I made my predictions for 2020. The famous year-end promises. I always do, every year. Not because of a cliché, but because I truly believe in the power of visualization and positive thinking , and the fact that reflecting helps me create plans and set my priorities.

Well, like every year, my predictions showed me a f*cking year. And it really started like that! By the end of 2019 I had become a SkyOwner with the challenge of delivering a great event, which would be a milestone for the company. The result? It couldn't have been better, I told this story on my Linkedin a while ago.

To celebrate, I had bought a trip to visit my friend/sister who lives in Colombia and I was closing my ticket to visit my other friend/sister who lives in Holland. A lot of plans. They just didn't include a PANDEMIC.

Working at a startup taught me that speed is essential, adaptability is key and taking risks is what drives you forward. Working at Sky.One taught me that #Innovation, #Overcoming and #Partnership have to be carried out daily to achieve bigger and better results.

So now, about to start the second half of 2020, I have gathered this repertoire and, in my personal and professional life, I have started the second season of 2020. We cannot change the external environment, but we can control our attitudes to determine how we want things to happen happen going forward.

It's not easy, we have a very serious health problem with loved ones or even strangers suffering. Friends and family with increasingly serious financial problems. But the one thing we know is that sitting still isn't going to help. Let's do what we can together and thus make the wheel turn .

And when I look at my profession, I see how I was impacted. Everything we've done up until now needs to be done differently from one hour to the next. In-person events? We don't know when it will return. Emails? I myself have several deleted without even opening. Lives? I don't care about the amount. But, like everything else in life, it's no use freaking out. It's time to take a step back and understand how to solve it. And now, having done this exercise, I want to share some tips with you.

#1 take care of your people: the tip is not HR, I'm talking about marketing, and I reinforce that this is tip number 1. A team that understands where we need to go and why they know what to do. We need creativity , dedication and a dose of optimism to make it all happen. You don't create this, not even working 24 hours a day, but your engaged people do.

#2 know your audience: when we compete for attention with various other content, assertiveness is the key to success. We've been talking about this for a long time but now it's gone from important to essential. Knowing the public goes through:

• Understand the company that buys from you (yes, I'm talking about B2B!), its segment, the impact of the crisis on it, trends and solutions that will make a difference right now.
• Understand your contacts within the company: priorities, fears, challenges, desires and needs.
• We all want and need help right now. Knowing the above points, it is easier to sell only to those who will really benefit from your product.

#3 experiment: try new things. Videos, texts, lives, emails, podcasts, whatsapp, telegram, social networks... the toolbox is big! Again, understand what makes sense to your audience and invest energy in new things.

#4 partnership: quality content is more important than volume. Join the best on those topics that are relevant to your customers and add more value to your communication.

#5 truth to make a difference: be real. Speak and do. The company's values ​​and culture must be put into practice. Believing in what we say and do really makes a difference right now. Let's look at the glass half full together and change the course of our market. The resumption has begun, be part of it together with us and make a difference with what really matters!

*Raquel Padovese is Head of Marketing and SDR at Sky.One