Since COVID-19 hit, small businesses have had to work twice as hard to survive and achieve their mission despite roadblocks. Mannix Marketing was no exception and I am immensely proud of our team for going above and beyond to ensure that they not only achieve successful results for their clients but for the whole community.
I thought I’d share some of the steps as a company we took for ourselves and our clients that worked in our favor. That way, in case there happens to be another wave of COVID-19, or a similar situation arises in the future, you can refer back to this blog post to know what worked for us.
Success for Our Team
March 5, 2020 – Working from home
Success for our team is a major part of our mission, which is why we decided early on March 5th to encourage all employees to work from home for their own health and safety. Almost everyone packed up their computers that day and easily transitioned to working from home. We are fortunate to have computing in our blood which made the transition from in-person meetings to Zoom just a bit easier. Due to a quick decision to err on the side of caution, no one contracted the virus.
Success for our Communities
March 14, 2020 – Community Helps Facebook pages were created
The success of Mannix Marketing is directly related to the success of our communities. On March 14th, I was at the doctor’s office and I overheard the nurses talking about the imminent school closings and how would the community ensure that children who depended on the school meals for their only meals of the day were fed. That broke my heart. We created two Facebook groups that evening–Glens Falls Community Helps and Saratoga Community Helps–to help people find essential information. The schools were on it and had incredible plans for feeding the children but there were so many other dire needs in the community and people did not know where to turn. In the community cares Facebook groups, acts of kindness were a daily occurrence, people shared resources, delivered toilet paper and fed the needy. When they say “it takes a village,” it is true. Our villages and communities came together in these groups.
Success for our Clients
March 16, 2020 – Takeout and Delivery Promotions on our Regional sites
Restaurants were told they needed to shut their doors and could only offer take-out. The editors on our community websites: www.Saratoga.com, www.GlensFalls.com, www.LakeGeorge.com, and www.Albany.com quickly reached out to every restaurant in the region to create a to-go and takeout directory and resource for the communities and listed all restaurants whether they were a client or not as it was important to us to support all businesses in that critical time.
March 18, 2020 – The Mannix Cares Social Promotion Program takes root
Many people were afraid to buy takeout for fear they would catch covid. So Mannix Marketing formalized a social media marketing promotion by incentivizing Mannix employees to buy take-out and share both the Mannix social accounts and their own personal social media pages to show people that it was safe. Our goal was to encourage others to help save our restaurants by buying take-out.
April 19, 2020 – Webinars & Training on How to Market During COVID-19
COVID-19 changed marketing for everyone. That’s why we put together free marketing webinars and blogs to help businesses figure out their marketing through this tricky time, whether their business was temporarily closed, they were operating differently or continuing on as usual. You can still view all these webinars and blogs in the COVID-19 section of the Mannix Marketing blog.
Collaborating with Our Local Chambers, CVBs, and Government Agencies to Get Information Out
For those who have been wondering… is my chamber doing a good job? Is my government working for me? COVID-19 has shown that we have many true local heroes. There has been collaboration on a level that has not existed previously and people working at all hours of the day and night to help small businesses succeed. We were grateful to be included in the communication committee to help get the word out to both local businesses and travelers on best practices, the status of openings and communication, being involved in banner signage to early morning Facebook Live ask me anything posts to share that Lake George was welcoming guests and that masks were required indoors. The Mannix portal team worked day and night answering visitors’ questions on social media to encourage visitors to come to the region keeping up with communicating what was open, what was closed, could you swim in the swimming pools, where to buy hand sanitizer, etc…
Success Check: How Did We Do?
If you have any feedback on how Mannix Marketing responded to COVID-19, or suggestions for how we could improve our process if something similar arises in the future, I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to contact me by sending an email or sending a message using our contact Us page.
