Making the Most of Marketing During The Pandemic

A clear understanding of your target audience is the basis of good business marketing. When you understand and relate to the challenges that your target audience faces, their preferences, day-to-day lives, their happiness etc, you will be able to cater to their needs in a better manner. Once you identify and recognise these core aspects they deal with, it becomes easier for you to tailor your products and services around these key findings and attributes.

Since the outbreak of the global pandemic, everything you once knew about your target market has changed at least to some extent. To make the most of your marketing efforts, it’s important for you to take steps to re-assess your marketing strategies and make decisions that will help you survive in these challenging times.

Let’s take a look at some key marketing aspects that will come to your rescue during the pandemic.

Alter Marketing Campaigns and Timelines

Let’s be honest – all your well-laid marketing plans have come to a standstill thanks to the lockdown being imposed, and that’s fine! Focus on what’s important as the pandemic affects everybody, even you. Take time out to sort out your personal affairs as you make arrangements for your family, friends and your employees to keep them safe while doing the best you can at the moment.

Once that’s taken care of, it is time to focus on your business and brand. Tailor a message keeping in mind the sensitivity of the issue at hand as you take into account the new concerns and situations of your customers. Address the message and be transparent, honest and human in the way you present yourself.

Be Positive and Sensitive to the Issue at Hand

Try your best to maintain a positive and upbeat outlook as you stand in solidarity with your customers ensuring them that you stand with them in these uncertain times. Give them hope that together all of us can overcome this and plan for a better future. While you communicate this, ensure that you don’t cross the line by being insensitive to what your customers are going through. Don’t try and reduce the scale of the pandemic and its effects on daily life.

Conduct Content Audit

As soon as you have re-evaluated your marketing plan and campaigns, perform a quick audit of your existing content. Ensure that whatever you have put out there as a brand, is relevant and appropriate to the current situation. For this, you need to take a look at your blog, homepage and your website by extension. Once you do this, give some thought to the type of content that would prove to be useful to your customers in the present situation.

If you have any relevant information, you can update your content accordingly and re-release it across all company platforms. Answer questions revolving around the current situation as you provide valuable information to your customers.

For instance, work from home, dealing with anxiety or stress and entertaining kids stuck at home are some topics that are trending since the lockdown was imposed. If your brand fits in any of these criteria or something else that’s relevant to it, ensure that you post about it as this might get you the necessary traffic and attention.

Leverage Social Media Marketing

Use your social media platforms to communicate and appeal to your customers on a human level. If your brand can come across as a person that feels and has the same challenges that customers can relate to, your target market is likely to be more receptive of you. To create such a relatable brand image, you have to make the most of social media platforms as they are a powerful way to build lasting and trustworthy customer relationships.

Ensure that you maintain a proper line of communication and engagement with your target audience because, in these times, it is one definitive way of maintaining a good relationship.

Monetise Customer Loyalty

In the wake of the pandemic, consider integrating your email marketing and customer loyalty programs to ensure successful customer retention. It might not seem ideal but when you try it, you will realise that it is perfect. It could be your ticket to stay in business as you sail through the toughest times. It is also a time to focus your marketing efforts to offline channels as well as you print customised brochures, pamphlets and catalogues that your customers can flip through from the comfort of their homes.

A surefire offline marketing method is by leveraging promotional products. Try creative and fun ways to put your brand out there using custom or printed beer mats, power banks, reusable face masks, hand sanitiser kit and more keeping in mind their relevance to the current situation!

Final Thoughts

Marketing in such uncertain times must heavily lean on establishing a sense of community, camaraderie and solidarity. At the same time, your focus should be on brand building and nurturing customer relationships. Striking the right balance with your marketing tone is the need of the hour. When you appeal to your customers as they are now and your marketing message resonates with them, your business will be in a good position to retain its place and market share in the current economy.