24th March 2020. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in India to stop the spread of Covid-19, and our entire routines flipped 180 degrees. Till then, honestly, we were not entirely sure about the severity of the situation and how it will affect our lives. We do now! The lockdown has changed our perspective towards work, home, health, and environment, and that too fundamentally.
There is a highly popular meme that is going viral on social media – “Your grandparents were called to war. You’re being called to sit on your couch. You can do this.” Yes, it is true! These are difficult and unprecedented times, albeit less harsh than fighting an actual war. However, the lockdown has given rise to another pandemic – an economic one. Doubt. Uncertainty. Fear. These three words have grasped our entire economy as businesses face these unprecedented times.
Now that we are in the second phase of the nation-wide lockdown, it has become imperative to look at a few things that are necessary for the survival of our businesses. One thing is for sure, no one will emerge out of this lockdown the same as they were before. What that means for your business is that you can’t rely on the old marketing patterns to lure and serve your consumers. I’m not saying that you need to completely discard the current mechanisms in place and start afresh, however, slight tweaks – if not fundamental – are necessary in these tough times to have a sustainable and lasting brand image.
Let us have a look at some of the marketing efforts that can help you combat the impact of Covid-19.
Utilize Your Marketing Budget Wisely
This lockdown has taught us to be frugal and spend wisely. Essentials and necessary services have become buzzwords in this past month or so. The same applies to your marketing budget. With these sudden changes in economic conditions, business owners and marketers will find themselves in a tight spot wherein they will have to get the same results, or even better ones, with tighter budgets and marketing investments. Here, you need to understand that conversion optimization can help in lowering the cost per acquisition (CPA) and generate improved results. As per a forecast from eMarketer, ad spend across the globe is presently down by nearly US$20 Bn from the start of the year. So, instead of completely stopping the spend, you need to refocus on key trends that are emerging.
Another study shows that the spend on social media marketing has increased by 29%. These days the only way to be social is through digital media and social platforms. Thus, you need to rethink how you can restructure your marketing resources and tap into the trends. If you were previously focusing more on email marketing and funnel marketing the now would be a good time to turn your attention to social media marketing.
Having said that, don’t exploit the situation. There are several examples of unethical practices of businesses exploiting consumers’ uncertainties and fear. This is not entrepreneurship and neither is it marketing. Moreover, it can also turn out be highly short sighted. You will make a quick buck now, but will end suffering even more in the long run.
Find an Opportunity
It may seem like the world has stopped for your business. However, there may still be a few opportunities. You need to find those. For instance, you need to explore new and emerging technologies that promote social distancing and similar trends yet advocate your business. The latest example of it can be given of a recent interview of Zomato COO, Gaurav Gupta. He introduces the idea of contactless dining and how they are already speaking with their brand partners to incorporate the concept in the coming months.
Such ideas are essential for the survival of your brand. Your consumers have become highly skeptical and need a strong push to get them back on track. Innovative ideas integrated with essential safety measure creates trust and shows commitment towards serving them.
Give Something Back to Your Customers
Now I know, this does not apply to all types of businesses. Nonetheless, it is important. Your loyal consumer base has suffered as much as you, if not more, in these difficult times. If you own a product or run a service, you can offer a free upgrade to existing consumers or huge discounts to new customers. Online learning platforms such as Udemy are offering huge discounts on the courses. Audio streaming service Audible is giving free streaming of stories for engagement as well as entertainment. These are difficult times and keeping hold of your existing customers is extremely important. You must be regularly in touch with them or else you are at risk of losing them out. You must have heard it a million times, it is always cheaper to keep an existing customer than acquire a new one. And it is more relatable and logical in these times. In addition to this, giving an extended run of your product or service to new customers offers a greater chance of their conversion at the end of the trial.
In such periods, as the purchasing patterns and media consumption of consumers change, marketers need to gauge emerging patterns and also anticipate consumer requirements. Technology and real-time insights that can predict customer needs and interests are now becoming essential for marketers to develop a supportive, meaningful, and engaging relationship with consumers.
Be More Tech Savvy and Build a Digital Presence
There cannot be any other time (we seriously hope not!) which demands you to be more tech-savvy and build a strong online presence through a large scale digital transformation. It has become a serious challenge to meet customer demands and you need to think about how best to serve them with social distancing restrictions and limited resources. Technology can be a highly effective tool in such conditions. Communicating with your consumer has never been easy and thus need to be used effectively. All the marketing efforts must be rearranged from the Covid-19 point of view and its long term business impact. You need to focus on improved personalized connectivity and different methods to keep your services active.
As people are staying at home, their time on mobile phones, tablets, and computers is already on the rise. YouTube India has already capped its streaming quality limit to SD (480p). What this means is that people are spending more time online. This offers you a unique opportunity to market your business in lieu of traditional practices. This is the time to up your digital presence and creates a stronger online brand. Tweak your ad-spends to effectively reach where they are. You need to consider different ways that your business can digitize your services and products to be ready for potential emergencies while being flexible to adapt to future trends.
Update Your Content Strategy
Your marketing efforts will be entirely futile if you don’t update your content strategy. As mentioned before, people are skeptical about non-essential services and products. You need to win back the trust of your consumers by delivering customized, targeted, and relevant content. You need to be aware of the direct impact of Covid-19 on your business and industry so as to align your upcoming communications and interaction with your customers. Businesses must consider the following points that ‘new normal’ and Covid-19 may affect content strategies for different industries:
- Perform a Content Audit: Your company’s website serves as an entry point for introduction to your business and offers all the important information that a consumer will see the moment they look you up online. So, it becomes highly important to perform a thorough content audit and ensure that the customers are getting exactly what they are looking for.
- Have a Dedicated Covid-19 Page: We can’t stress enough; these are difficult times. If your business falls under essential services or is severely affected by this global pandemic, you must consider creating a dedicated Covid-19 page that offers all the necessary updates. This will help you in capturing relevant Covid-19 related traffic. It will also help you direct your consumers to the key areas of your website.
- Be Geographically Diverse: Covid-19 is a global pandemic. However, it is affecting some nations worse than others. For instance, South Korea has had better luck in checking the spread of the virus than compared to say in Europe or the US. Such a diverse geographical impact can have a serious impact on your traffic. For that, you should consider diversifying your target regions in order to get traffic. With the help of international SEO, you will be able to generate more traffic and be less dependent on a single region or country.
- Keep Creating Content: This is one of the best ways to be relevant and active in the public eye. You can create different types of content such as blogs, articles, news, updates, and even videos. Blogs and videos are two main types of content consumed by netizens and having a constant churn of relevant and consumer-oriented content is definitely a step in the right direction.
- Share Positive Stories: People love stories, and they love good storytellers even more! Amidst these restrictions on social interactions and the social distancing measures, people are searching for something meaningful. Personalized content integrated with positive and emotional touch will create a strong sense of connection. It can be anything from personal efforts during these times to how your business helped others during this challenging period.
And Most Importantly…
Stay strong. Stay healthy. What you are experiencing right now is certainly difficult and challenging. However, this is nowhere close to what our ancestors have experienced. And they came out on top of it. This too shall pass! World’s most famous historian Yuval Noah Harari said in its latest interview with India Today that we (humanity) have never been in a better position to deal with a pandemic than ever before. What we have is the intellect and the ability to cooperate, which certainly is not present in that microorganism. As a business owner and a marketer, this is a perfect time to try out something new. Now is the time to develop new marketing strategies and test them. We will definitely come out stronger through all of this!
