Greetings from the team at JDR! It's been a hectic couple of weeks in the aftermath of the Coronavirus outbreak, and we've had to make some rapid changes to the way we work. All of our team are working remotely, and we're anticipating even more changes in the coming weeks. You've probably had to do the same in your own business, so we're all in the same boat.

It makes us miss the days of the relentless Brexit updates!

If all goes to plan, in 2-3 months the UK will start to lift the social restrictions and the UK can go back to work. We all expect there to be a surge in demand when this happens, but it won’t be business as usual - this crisis will change business practices forever and your business will need to adapt to the new world.

Let’s talk about investing in the future of your business. I always remember the Bill Shankly quote which was to “strengthen while you're ahead”. In other words, he bought players before he needed players. He reinvested in the squad before he needed to. As a business owner, you have to do the same thing. Economically, we're in uncertain times, with Brexit AND the coronavirus outbreak worldwide. No doubt the businesses that succeed will be the ones that are efficient, financially well-managed, plus, well-managed from a team and employee perspective. Most importantly, for a business to succeed is to also have a highly effective sales and marketing team that can go out to win customers and beat the competitors.

When you join us at JDR Group, we want to help you understand how we can help with your digital marketing efforts so you can reap the rewards of getting your name out online. Here, we explain the JDR process and how you can benefit from collaborating with us.

You may have often thought of the following questions when setting aside funds for marketing efforts:

• How much money should I spend on marketing?
• What percentage of my turnover should I put into the marketing budget or spend on marketing?

All companies need to engage in marketing activities if they want to succeed long term – you can’t rely on referrals and chance enquiries to deliver predictable growth. However, for busy SMEs with stretched resources it can be difficult to decide whether to task your marketing activities to in-house staff or to hire a professional agency. Let's look at the pros and cons of each option:

Goal setting is essential for measuring success (or failure) in marketing. Without goals, a campaign risks drifting off target without achieving anything of substance. In this introductory article we discuss how to set the right type of goals for your marketing campaign.