So – this is my first blog on this website. I’ve blogged before in various other locations, but the first blog is still a strange one to write.

There are plenty of other areas on the site where you can learn about the services I’m offering, so I’m not going to cover that here. Instead, I think I’d like to achieve two things on this blog. Firstly, I’m going to tell you a bit more about my situation and why I’m doing this, and secondly, I’m going to tell you what to expect from this blog, so you can decide whether you’d like to come back again!

Why am I doing this? I’ve been in ‘pure’ marketing for about 9 years now, and prior to that, I was always working on projects or within roles that had elements of marketing. It’s strange, but looking back I realise that almost everything I’ve ever done was marketing in one way or another.

I’ve always felt that marketing is a gut feeling, as well as an academic subject – people have been marketing as long as they’ve been conscious. It’s often referenced that prostitution is the oldest trade, but I think marketing came first – they must have found their customers somehow right?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve now found myself unable to work, unable to market, and that feels rather strange! There are a lot of people in my position, so no doubt you understand what ‘furlough’ means, but just in case – ‘furloughing’ is a new government ‘job retention’ initiative brought about to protect people from redundancy during this strange time. A lot of the working world is ‘on pause’ and businesses, like mine, need to reduce overheads to survive. But more than likely, on the other side of this, a lot of those jobs will be required again – and it’s quite the kerfuffle to reverse redundancies on a large scale. Furloughing should bridge that gap, allowing businesses to retain their staff without paying them. Instead, the government pays them (not a full salary, but it’s enough to survive – have a google to find out more).

Whilst I’m hoping that this pandemic ends quickly and I can get back to working for my employer asap, I’m not certain exactly how long that might be, and I’m keen to make sure that a) I keep my eye in – I love marketing and don’t want to be taking a break from it, and b) I can give some people some help in this rather weird time.

A lot of small businesses are either adapting, or closed entirely at the moment, and it’s those businesses that I can support. For example, high street businesses like hairdressers or sandwich shops – how can we help you keep your audience engaged over this period so you can relaunch with a bang when the lockdown is lifted? You’ve got plenty of time on your hands, let’s polish your website, or work on a blog?

Businesses that are adapting, like those that previously supplied the restaurant industry, are (very honourably!) turning to home deliveries. I want to help these adapting businesses – let’s get a website set up, let’s address your ordering/payment system, let’s get you some social media coverage and drive customers your way. People are still waiting weeks for a Sainsbury’s or Waitrose delivery – I’ve found local businesses that will deliver fruit/veg/meat/fish tomorrow – let’s get the message out there.

So hopefully that helps you understand a bit more about my current situation and what I’d like to give back to the business community. All my consultancy is free of charge during my furlough period, I might just ask you to write a testimonial for me to publish in return 🙂

What to expect from this blog? Blogging about marketing can be pretty dull – it’s good for my own SEO, but it doesn’t make great reading. I plan to use this blog both as a personal and business blog. I’ll tag the posts accordingly so you can skip the personal (or the business) if you like. Expect posts like;

• case studies of people I’ve helped
• write-ups of my activities in lockdown
• interesting things I’ve found to help thrive in lockdown (recipes, life hacks etc.)
• thoughts / theories about marketing – ideas that you can takeaway and use yourself

That’ll do for now, a much longer blog than I planned to write – maybe I’ll use this as a script for a video 🙂

Stay safe,

Alex