Ben Wheelhouse From Emote Digital Explains How They Help Their Clients to Survive COVID-19 Crisis

Ben Wheelhouse, Digital Advertising Director at the digital agency Emote Digital, has answered our questions regarding digital transformation.

He explained how Emote Digital has led their clients into investing their marketing budget in the respective digital channels during the crisis. It is inspiring to read how they have handled this process as a digital agency.

Q1. Digital transformation for companies and brands has become almost mandatory in a very short time. As a digital agency, how are you handling this process? Can you please share some concrete examples elaborating your digital transformation process?

We’ve been able to streamline our process in website design and development to assist clients looking to accelerate their move to eCommerce, in light of everything that has happened. We have been working hard on big projects, with tight timeframes, to get them across the line in order to minimise the financial impact that store closures have had to retail businesses.

On the marketing side, our services have always been extremely flexible and so our clients have used the full benefit of this as they’ve pivoted their campaigns and focus over the last few months. Those clients who needed to pause paid ads have switched to maintenance services, such as SEO, in order to ‘get their house in order’ whilst business may be quiet.

Examples of this are here, but to list a few; we have helped Genesis Fitness move to online fitness classes, sold out all of NC Fitness’ home workout equipment in record time, accelerated Bakers Delight’s eCommerce project to facilitate for bakery closures, and switched Puma’s digital advertising focus to home workout gear, and clothing.

Q2. Can you share some precautions you have taken to continue business as usual during the COVID-19 outbreak?

First and foremost has been working from home, with all client calls via video for the foreseeable future.

We have worked closely with a number of clients to perfect their crisis-response messaging suitable for their customers. We have also had to ensure we are responsive to any store or warehouse closures or laws affecting our clients’ businesses and immediately reflected this with their online activity.

Q3. What industries are your clients mainly focused on? How has COVID-19 affected these industries?

We work with clients across all manner of industries, so have really seen how this virus has affected the full breadth.

Retail has obviously been a major one with the interruption to logistics and the high street, but ultimately we have seen the strongest online turnaround for these clients, with many posting record months for online sales figures since lockdown began.

We have a number of clients in the recruitment space, who will certainly feel the effects of this for quite a while, and the key here has been to ensure we stay present for their prospective clients, and portray the correct message in all marketing – to look after the workforce. This is where our brand story and content writing offering has been incredibly valuable.

Q4. What are your insights into digital transformation within different industries? How do you think they will evolve?

I believe this whole thing will have a massively positive effect on the digital transformation of businesses in the long run.

Those who maybe didn’t place their digital presence as a high priority before will have realised the importance of it now. This will ultimately be a huge benefit as user experience is improved across the board, and so our online experiences become quicker, easier and more enjoyable. And this is exactly what we have been helping our clients to achieve.

Q5. Companies are now investing more on various digital channels. Based on your know-how in digital marketing, which sectors should focus on investing in which digital channels?

This is always a case by case basis, but what I would say is that Facebook and Instagram (unsurprisingly) has shown its power over the last few months. Generally, we’ve seen amazing results for our clients despite what has happened, and so we recommend it to play a major part in any brands marketing.

On Google, we’ve seen different search trends, and have either dropped or increased media spend accordingly. This is something that we recommend anyone managing a Google Ads campaign should be checking on a daily basis right now, such is the climate.

LinkedIn is another big channel, particularly for our B2B clients; however, I’d anticipate that with the state of the job market, feeds may become overflowed with people looking for opportunities and thus it may become less desirable for advertising in the short term.

This pandemic has really backed up our beliefs in a multi-channel marketing approach. Relying too heavily on one platform can mean a bigger impact if something does go wrong. Thankfully we have been able to pick up any declines for our clients on specific channels, in other areas, or in brand new channels they may not have considered before. AdRoll, Taboola and Spotify are just a few of these which we have been increasing our activity on recently.

Q6. After the COVID-19 crisis, it is expected that the need for digital agencies will increase. Companies will invest in digital more than ever. In this case, why do you think they should partner with your digital agency?

As a full-service digital agency, our offering stretches the full digital space from branding, through websites and marketing.

We have a team of real industry experts that know how to deliver the best results across every industry, region, channel and platform.

Our premium partnerships with WooCommerce, Google, Facebook and more are the accreditation that justifies the amazing results we deliver for our clients, over extended periods of time. We don’t just want quick wins for our clients, we want a sustainable growth that allows us to partner together in the future.

And finally, in these tough times, we’ve shown just how much we can adapt, and that we are here for our clients every step of the way, no matter what happens.

Q7. Are there any practices that you have adjusted during COVID-19 that you would like to continue after this crisis ends? (e.g. remote working)

We’ve probably been in more frequent contact with our clients than ever, such is the nature of how this situation has rapidly developed each day. This is something we want to continue as it builds a strong bond and ultimately allows us to do our job to the best of our ability. There is nothing more powerful than an open and honest relationship between agency and client.

Q8. How does being a DAN member contribute to your agency’s success?

We love that people trust the DAN network, and we see it from the traffic driven to our site. It also allows us another avenue outside of typical marketing channels to talk to our target market about what we are up to, and any new updates to our offering they should be aware of.

About Emote Digital

Emote Digital delivers integrated solutions with beautiful results since 2001. In-house WordPress, WooCommerce, Shopify and digital marketing services.