Esther
Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast, I'm Esther.
Melanie
And I'm Melanie.
Esther
And today we're talking about acts, not ads.
Melanie
Yep, acts as in acting out rather than doing ads for the purpose of promoting your business, after all, we all the Monday morning marketing podcast, but this time of crisis, it's very difficult to do actual acts, numerous reasons could be the budget isn't coming in in the first place for you to spend, or maybe it just doesn't feel right. I mean, what do you think, Esther?
Esther
Yeah, definitely. There are a lot of businesses suffering out there right now with the economic crisis that we're experiencing during coronavirus and the pandemic, Covid-19, whatever you want to call it, it is a worldwide crisis, and it's something that each and every community and industry and area of life, walk of life is suffering from right now, whether they're suffering physically with the actual disease or whether they're suffering economically due to lack of work due to being self-employed like ourselves, due to the kids being off and having to be homeschooled, there's a lot of things going on, and the world has changed so much in the last few weeks.
Melanie
Is a lot to do with mindset as well as actual things happening as well. We're being bombarded with updates and information from all quadrants these days, from people we meet, from people who message us through social media. I'm communicating frequently, almost daily now with my mum in the UK, through FaceTime and WhatsApp and that sort of thing. And, you know, it's such a different world now. It's such a different way of life than I ever anticipated 2020 would be like, and, you know, it's we've all had to adapt, it's been such a big turn around.
Esther
Yeah, it really has, and like you say, a lot of us have elderly parents, and it's been an adaptation for them as well, my mom was a real socialite and she hasn't left the house in over a week, and that alone, I usually talk to her once a week, it's been every other day and it probably will become every day as it goes on and as she has to stay and longer and longer, but it also means that our elderly relatives have to learn new technology new to them, maybe not new to the rest of us, but new to them, and that is also a very stressful time for everyone, and it's not just the elderly that have to learn new technology, but businesses as well, there are a lot of businesses that haven't made the step to go online that will have to think about this over the next few weeks, but something we're going back to the topic we're talking about, why not doing ads right now? So a lot of people won't have the money to buy from you, you might have the money to put into your ads, but the people just, you know, unless you're really, really essential. Yeah, essential products like bread, milk, toilet paper, then nobody's going to really go and buy it. I mean, even I noticed, like petrol prices, diesel prices, gas prices, they're all coming down.
Melanie
It was such a shame my car is completely filled.
Esther
Mine's almost empty, but I'm not using that to go anywhere anyway, so what's the point? You know, unless I really need to go somewhere, I'm not going to go and put in diesel into the car, and again, if you have a product or service that is not essential, I would use this time to promote how you are helping you as an individual, you as a business are helping during this time of crisis. Have you volunteered to be one of the NHS volunteers in the Republic of Ireland there are HSC volunteers and in America, there are all the other types of volunteers. Are you taking food to your elderly neighbours? Are you picking up their groceries for them? Are you keeping a safe distance from your neighbours, from your own family members who don't live in your house? What are you doing to keep you and your community safe?
Melanie
Yeah, that's the other thing. The other flipside and something I've always complained about, to be honest with you, is the constant negativity that I see in the promotion even before this enormous pandemic, and people would always say, you know, is your business failing? Are you not doing enough to support yourselves and your businesses? And jeez, just for once, guys, lighten up and try and throw some positivity out there because everybody needs a little bit of light relief. Even if you're not sick, you're worried sick about your friends and your family and your business. I know I am. I haven't had an email post through my inbox in nearly two weeks, you know, not for work anyway, it's all been about business supports and how you can help your business with certain strategies and budgets and things you can apply for, which is fantastic, but none of its business for me, so what I'm trying to do myself as Melanie and the stump is to provide this information to my audience on a regular way and thought constantly mentioning, you know, all the negative stuff on my personal feeds, on my social media I'm trying to be lighthearted, I'm showing the flip side, I hope, but thriving in the sensible stuff as well, and one thing I'm not doing, which is driving me mad, is people sending messages through my personal messages to people about, you know, pass this on and you'll get better help, and it drives me mad and it's not helpful, in fact, what you're doing is targeting people through their personal messages and worrying them more, frankly.
Esther
Yes, definitely. I mean, right now, it is positive that we need people out there showing us the best practices and how to use face masks. Do we even need to use them if we're not going out in public? Do you only really need them if you're sick? I mean, there's so many contradictory information.
Melanie
Is gloves as useful as they say? At the end of the day, a lot of people said to me, gloves are great, but at the end of the day, it's better to actually get your hands dirty and then come in and wash them properly for 20 seconds. And following all the techniques that you may have seen on social and that actually get some clean and gloves ever will.
Esther
Yes, yes, and I agree with you, too, on that point, what we do need to know is that different people are giving different messages and so be careful of where you're getting your messages from, but if you are in the health industry or if you know anything about the proper use of PPE, which protective clothing and masks and gloves, etc., use that help us little people who don't know about the little intricacies of which mask is best if you're sick, you know, help us not to be spreading on what unwillingly, unnecessarily, unknowingly this disease, the sooner we can get this disease under control, the better it will be for everybody, for kids, for adults, for the elderly, for businesses, for self-employed, for employed, everybody wants to get back to normal ASAP. Yes, we'll have a little bit of time on our hands right now as to, you know, contemplating what we're actually able to do and not able to do, but if you have the ability to do this to send or to help get the message out there, help us by showing your act of kindness. The other day in the UK, they had clap for carers and everybody at a certain time was to go to their back door, front door, a side door, enough space away from the next-door neighbour and clap to support the local health services, which is wonderful and a great way for us to show our support, things like that, that bring positivity, that bring people back to being people and not just worrying about the crisis and the economic crisis and the health crisis and everything else. Let's all be positive and let's see where we can go with this.
Melanie
Ultimately, what's going to work for your business isn't putting money into what's not right now, maybe in a week's time, maybe in two weeks time. What people are looking for is up to date relevant information is suitable and appropriate about your business and providing in such a way that they're getting something from it that's useful. So it's definitely acting, not acts.
Esther
That's it for today. Hopefully, you'll go out and spread some positivity after hearing this podcast if you have any worries or concerns we are at the other end of a chat, we are selfie living with our families, but we are available to talk with you, to help you and to be a listening ear, if that's what you need. Thank you for joining us, and we'll be back with another episode of the Monday morning marketing podcast next week.
Melanie
Bye bye.