There have been changes in the ways marketers have responded. Marketers are now delaying or reviewing their campaigns. The continuing uncertainty for how long the virus will last has significantly impacted marketing strategies as companies adapt to changing demands and shift their focus. There is an increase in organization changing, adapting or pausing their marketing strategies. A fifth of large enterprises are investing in digital transformation initiatives during the COVID pandemic. Here are some tips that marketers can incorporate in their work when coming up with new creatives to promote their campaigns during this time.

1. Language

Add a humanitarian layer to your communication. This will strengthen your brand and build loyalty post Covid-19. Be consistent with your communication and be sure to demonstrate your understanding of the crisis and how your brand is addressing it. You can do this by offering relevant and truthful content to establish yourself as a compassionate and helpful brand. Create relevant and informative posts that are times strategically throughout the day to keep your customers informed. Keep your tone positive and optimistic! Brands that market effectively, strategically and compassionately during this period will be the big winners when this pandemic is over. Treating your customers as friends especially at a time like now, is a great marketing strategy. Use this period to build your brand and show your customers that you care by creating unique and special offers with high value. So keep in touch with your customers and build a relationship!

2. Segmentation

To effectively market to your customers, you need to create personas that describe who they are and what they might need from your business. Include specific issues that your customers may be facing. For example, some customers may currently be more price conscious due to job loss. Some businesses in markets may be struggling to stay relevant in the current economy. Create a range of personas for your different target audience. Set a budget for each of these campaigns with their individual persona and monitor which campaigns yield the best results. We’ll go into further detail as to why collecting data is important right now.

3. Collect Data

Some customers might not be able to purchase your product or services right away. For those customers, provide them with a way to stay in touch or share their information. You will then be able to follow up and hopefully convert them into a loyal customer once they have the means to be able to make that purchase. Secondly, collecting data is an important step to see what works best for your business. By collecting data and using analytics about website visits, sales or whatever metrics are most important to your business, you will then be able to scale with the ideas that work and drop the ones that are not performing. This will allow you to try our new content.Invest time in reviewing your website, your audience and market segments. Forecast which segments will make a comeback first and build a strategy for it.

4. Be present and active

There has been a change in consumer behavior during the pandemic. More consumers are spending more time on social media. Your target audience is more active on social media now more than ever. With people going out less, they are connecting more online by engaging with social content and ads a lot more than before.That being said, now is a unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for brands to engage more with their audience to build a strong relationship with their existing and potential customers during this pandemic.
Some questions you can ask yourself whilst brainstorming on new content ideas are;

1. What are you doing to help your customers during this time ?
2. How are you making things better?
3. Do you have a new product or service that people can use during this time ?
4. Do you have any offers that are competitive that customers can take advantage during this time ?

By answering these questions, you’ll be able to then expand on your keyword and interests list and showcase how active your brand is by promoting the products or services that make sense during this time. Ensure that the communication and brand presence are constantly on.

It is important to stay focused on the long-term and not shy away from new growth opportunities. Branding works best in the long-term. Cutting budget spend too much when not necessary would negatively impact the brand when the pandemic is over. Marketers should not forget that in the midst of a crisis – there could be opportunity. Review the roots of digital strategies, the strengths and weaknesses of the past whilst forecasting the changes in the market to build a recovery plan.

Before you go, check out our latest COVID-19 related articles from last week.

COVID-19; Driving Through Crisis

COVID-19; INDUSTRIES THAT WILL PROSPER

COVID-19; HOW THE PANDEMIC IS AFFECTING THE MARKETING INDUSTRY

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