Now is not a time to panic, but to gain perspective. People’s lives are at risk; both, your health and your business are important, and while you focus foremost on your health, you have to make your brand survive and thrive as well. A good promotional strategy has to include a deep understanding about the market, the challenges posed by circumstances and customer needs. Once this is done, accelerating your digital marketing efforts will be helpful. Many things you knew about your ‘target audience’ are a thing of the past now. With economies taking the hit worldwide, people are feeling anxiety, their daily routines have changed completely, some may have lost their jobs while some are risking their health to keep the stream of essential services trickling. Under such circumstances, it is intelligent to read the pulse of your customer base and then market your brand in accordance. Here are some tips to do so:-
1. Being Human – adjust marketing campaigns and timelines.
COVID19 has changed many things and in dealing with these changes and challenges, your previously planned, well-laid marketing campaign plans might have to be pushed back. You must ease up on the urgency to do things immediately. Now, it is more important to focus on the situation at hand and allow grace periods to your clients for any due payments. It is imperative that you connect with your customers like never before, reassuring them of your help and support whenever required. You should craft a message that is sensitive to the current situation, takes into account your customers’ new situations and concerns, and is honest, transparent, and human.
2. Go Digital – leverage the power of technology
It is the need of the hour to maximize your customer engagement now and indulging in content marketing, social media marketing, offering discounts and optimizing your ecommerce store will help in promoting your brand. However, you have to make sure that what your company’s website/ blog homepage promises to deliver, is appropriate for the times — and there should be no gaps in the deliverance of the same. Now more than ever, taking the extra steps to stay accurate will help you to maintain the trust you’ve worked so hard to build with your audience.
3. Offer Discounts
In the early days of crisis, it could be seen as blunder to advertise discounts and deals. However, as the situation becomes vivid, and descends into what may likely be an economic recession, price-conscious shoppers will be looking for those deals. In such times, offering discounts can be helpful in attracting new customers, building loyalty among existing customers, driving traffic to your site, and increasing your sales. This will make your brand an ‘affordable’ one in the current times, thereby increasing your customer base and cash inflow!
4. Maintain clarity in your proposals- master your tone
Marketing and brand building in the conditions imposed on us by the coronavirus must lean on community and relationships with existing customers. If you can strike the right tone in your messaging when communicating with clients, and that message is well understood and resonates, your business will be in a good position to retain market share as economic activity begins to normalize again.
5. Stay on track – be hopeful
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all the changes you need to make to keep your brand afloat, just remember that you’re not alone. Everyone is having to make adjustments right now. Prioritizing work and making changes is advisable. Remember, this a passing phase and saving your ideas and well-performing campaigns for reinstatement in the future when they will be more effective, is a brilliant move. Things will return to normal someday. A new normal, but a normal nonetheless.
Thus, in trying to figure out exactly how to stay relevant and appropriate during such an unprecedented time, we must not feel hopeless . For those businesses seeing lower sales during the crisis, take advantage of that downtime and be ready to come back strong.
Avtar Madan
Himanshu
Shree Lahiri
