Greg Waddell

The world is a strange place right now. Solution providers and their customers are being forced to change their behavior. The coronavirus is altering the way we engage with customers, putting a stop to traditional forms of marketing like tradeshows and customer visits. Buyers were already trending toward digital media as their preferred route of communication when making a purchase, but now they have no alternative. Even for us in the IT channel, who live in the digital domain, this is a great challenge.

As the normalcy of working from home settles in day by day, solution providers must attempt to strike the right chord with their customers if they choose to venture into digital marketing in a quarantined world. I am sure everyone has received their fair share of cringeworthy, tone-deaf emails throughout the last few months. I have also seen creative, unique promotions that genuinely entertained me or helped me solve a problem that otherwise would have been ignored. The channel can be a difficult medium to navigate digitally as a marketer in general, but now it is more complicated than ever. Here are some tips on what to do (and not do) when marketing during the coronavirus outbreak:

1. Do: Be helpful and supportive

The best thing a solution provider can do right now is provide something of substance to help their customers who are in need. This could come in many forms: identifying which of your vendors offer extended no-cost licensing during this crisis, providing critical solutions that are essential to healthcare institutions or improve one’s ability to work from home, or just being educational and informative when messaging to customers. Make sure you first identify what your company innately can do to help, then allow that answer to influence your tone and overall digital presence.

2. Do Not: SELL! SELL! SELL!

Now is not the time for aggressive selling. Offers that ignore the present circumstances entirely and go straight to all-caps promotional offers come across as completely tone-deaf and inhumane. Customers are more likely to respond to a message that acknowledges the world we are all currently living in, as opposed to one that ignores it entirely to push a product.

3. Do: Build a sense of community

There is one thing that all of us have in common right now – our everyday lives are much different than they were two months ago. Solution providers have an opportunity to relate to customers by embracing our collective change. We can learn from consumer brands like NIKE and IKEA, they have been successful in creating a feeling of togetherness by acknowledging the circumstances and incorporating personality into the content they produce during quarantine. This is one area that the IT channel is uniquely positioned for. For many solution providers, there is no shortage of “partners” out there to work with – hardware and software vendors, distributors, and customers across a vast variety of industries. Lean on this network of channel partners for collaboration in videos or highlight specific individuals to give your promotions a more personal feel.

4. Do Not: Schedule ahead and forget

The easiest mistake to make when content planning is now more critical to avoid than ever before. With how rapidly things are changing, it is important for solution providers to be flexible and adapt to the environment around them. Content plans that were made pre-2020 must be altered and traditional activities must be replaced. Do not hesitate to make proactive changes – you may have allocated MDF and Co-Op from your top vendors to support tradeshows, tabletops or lunch & learns that have now been cancelled. Instead of losing those funds entirely, prepare creative ideas for reallocation – video podcasts, online happy-hours with giveaways, or product donations for front-line workers.

5. Do: Be different and (try to) entertain

Unique circumstances call for unique ideas. Standing out is rarely a bad thing when it comes to digital marketing. Knowing that the majority of customers are spending hours of every day at home on their phones, scrolling social media or checking email, it’s not a bad thing to try to give them something to smile at and pass the time. Finding the right mix between normal and fun could be the key to unlocking a new audience that could become customers in the long-term.

6. Do not: Be cliché

I have received countless versions of the “Our Response to the Coronavirus” email, and after the first two or three I just started deleting them one by one. They typically all have the same common characteristics: too corporate-sounding, too bleak or negative, too many buzzwords and not enough substance. Solution providers should not feel pressured into producing digital content unless they are confident and comfortable in the message they send. Be personable, thoughtful and avoid generic messaging – we’re all bored enough already.

Solution providers now have a unique opportunity to strengthen customer relationships through creativity. As time passes, digital marketing will play an important role in restoring normalcy to our everyday lives. There is not just one perfect way to do it, but by spending some extra time honing in on what you can do to help, entertain, or bring people together, you can still have an impactful presence in the lives of your quarantined customers.

The first time I came across 3Eye, I wanted to be the next Eminem. No kidding. It was May of 2015, I had just graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Advertising and I was looking for my first real job in my field. But more importantly to the 2015 version of me, I had just finished my third live performance in three months as a rapper, and I was having a blast.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always loved music. I grew up in a music-obsessed household – some of the fondest memories of my childhood include listening to the Beatles with my dad or singing my lungs out to Kelly Clarkson in the car with my mom. American Idol was a weekly holiday in my household. I started writing songs when I was in middle school, and the habit continued into high school and beyond. When I got to college, some of my friends started making hip hop beats and my rap career began. It was never my main focus in life, but it was an absolute blast to be up on stage with a microphone and a room full of family, friends and strangers.

So back to 2015. I’m fresh out of college, not entirely sure where the road of life is going to take me. I loved music, but I wanted to get into Marketing. I had a job offer waiting in Chicago, but I wanted to move to the Kalamazoo area to be close to family. That’s when I came across 3Eye, and I was invited to interview at their office in Battle Creek for a part-time position.

My first impression of 3Eye was: “This office is small and these people are awesome”. They had around 8 employees at the time, and a small office space they affectionately called “The Wolf Den”. But after a short conversation with Conor, our CEO and Danielle, the Marketing Coordinator at the time, I was hooked. They talked about the fun work environment, the family atmosphere their employees felt, and the incredible opportunity for growth both as a company and as an individual at 3Eye. I left the interview hoping two things – that I made a good impression and that I could talk my way into a potential extension into a full-time offer.

I went 1 for 2. A few days later, I was offered a 3-month long contracted position as a Marketing Coordinator at 3Eye. As much as I wanted to work here, I wasn’t comfortable moving across the state for a job that could have me interviewing again in a few short months. So I turned it down. I applied for more jobs. I did more interviews. I recorded new songs. I played more shows. Shortly after, I accepted a full-time marketing position at a different company. I moved to Kalamazoo. But I didn’t forget about 3Eye, and in the back of my mind, I hoped our roads would cross again.

A year and a half later, a friend of mine sent me a text. “Hey, didn’t you interview here?” It was a screenshot of a job listing at 3Eye.

Marketing Coordinator. 3Eye. Battle Creek, MI.

Full-time.

I jumped on it. A couple phone calls and a few weeks later, I was offered the position, and I happily accepted. Now, I’m a lot different than the 2015 version of me they had met. I no longer want to be the next Eminem, but I do still write songs and jam with friends when I have the time. I have more experience and better skills that a good Marketing Coordinator needs. I know where my road is taking me.

But the new 3Eye is a lot different different than the company I was introduced to in 2015 too. The staff has more than doubled in size. They said goodbye to The Wolf Den and just moved into a gorgeous new facility on Beadle Lake Road. They have brand new offices and desks, a cafeteria and a workout room. They have a Wellness Committee that plans healthy potlucks and team fitness activities. They even have a new website and logo that I was lucky enough to work on.

But the best part about 3Eye isn’t the place itself. It’s the people. Everyone takes the time to get to know you. Conversations are genuine and everyone treats each other like family. You don’t have to hide your personality, and if there’s something you have an interest in, whether it’s professional or personal you are encouraged to go after it. And as it turns out, I’m not the only employee at 3Eye who loves music. That’s why when you open up your calendar to book a conference room or reserve the workout stations, your choices are:

Push It (the workout room)
Purple Haze (our purple-walled conference room)
November Rain
Dire Straits

If you walk through the halls, you can find a mural of Jimi Hendrix hanging in Purple Haze. You might hear music coming from the speakers in Conor’s office. That’s how this blog that you’re reading came to be called Channel Orange.

Outside the new office, there’s yellow caution tape tied to a bunch of trees alongside the river that runs nearby. Our Wellness Committee has been working on marking a path for a walking trail that we are all going to help clear this Spring. We have some walkers, some runners and some bikers and we’re hoping it will be used by everyone. It starts right at this bridge that crosses the river, and it loops around to the left before making a full circle and winding all the way back to the start. I imagine it’s not much different than my personal path or 3Eye’s path as a company these past few years. And they all lead back to Beadle Lake Road.

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Greg Waddell