COVID-19 has completely changed our way of life, including how we make purchases and how we market.
In our latest Covid Marketing Tips, we want to share five quick “big picture” tips that train you to think and see things in the way that will deliver better results for your business in the Covid era. . .
5 Marketing Tips During COVID-19
First: Experiment. We all need to try new things to reach new people. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, many right now are hunkering down into a survival psychology and messaging. Instead, we believe that this is an opportunity to go on the offense and focus on growth. We are encouraging our clients to reach new people instead of merely expending your resources on holding onto your existing network. Both can be balanced in a way that still results in growth. For example: consider leveraging your existing relationships – clients, partners, and longtime staff – to find opportunities for new business. Also, make a point of targeting new audiences online. This is the time to take measured and informed risks that stand to payoff significantly both now and in the long run after Covid is over. Bonus tip: In line with the spirit of experimenting strategically and investing in your own growth, we also recommend that you use all the digital marketing tools available to you. That means don’t stop with social media ads. Try email marketing or Pay Per Click Advertising, or some other tool your business has never used. This may just help you strike your next revenue stream of loyal customers that have found your business digitally while looking for better services.
Next, don’t be afraid to adapt and innovate in your regular business practices. One innovative option that businesses can try during Covid is to work with and empower marketers to use flexible pricing options. Developing different, flexible pricing models in their campaigns and direct customer/client relations will better position your entire business to more quickly respond to consumer sentiment and outpace your competitors and market prices to drive sales. This will maintain your competitive edge and, paired with the right marketing campaigns, will help your business thrive. Another option is to broadly encourage more (safe) 1-to-1 communications between your business and customers/clients to bring back a more personal touch. Some options include encouraging phone calls, video calls, individual and personalized emails, and increasing engagement through your business’s Facebook Messenger.
Finally, make sure your marketing and general communications messaging is sensitive to the Covid era. This means stepping away from aggressive “hard sell” language and instead utilizing soft sell approaches that convey empathy and a strategic emphasis on the long term. Covid will end, and your business should communicate that you understand things are difficult now and are willing to work with clients and customers to help ensure things will improve. One creative way to message the longevity theme is to discuss your company’s own history. Consider communicating how you have survived hard times before and how you have stayed loyal to customers – just as they’ve been loyal to you over the years. These times lend themselves to storytelling forms of marketing. One particularly effective medium for storytelling is video. Bonus tip: remember that most people will likely mute video advertisement whether it’s on TV or the internet. So when making a video, be sure the imagery and any text is clear and strong enough to communicate the essential message without sound. We recommend playing your ad on mute as you craft it so that you have this built-in before it launches!
These five marketing tips to help with COVID-19 should help you continue pushing your boundaries and thinking in the way your business needs to in order to successfully navigate Covid and truly thrive beyond it.
Need help creating a COVID Marketing Action Plan for your business? Reach us at 866-DAVIDAXEL (866-328-4329) or dave@davidaxel.com