How To Rethink Your Marketing Strategy To Survive COVID-19 (3 minute read)

How To Rethink Your Marketing Strategy To Survive COVID-19 (3 minute read)

Whether the lockdown lasts 4 weeks or a few months, there is no doubt that this pandemic will have a profound effect on the New Zealand economy and your business, especially if it is based on in-person relationships.

While your first instinct would probably be to cut on costs where possible, your marketing budget should not necessarily be one to immediately be put on hold. Quite the opposite in fact, as while these are definitely challenging and uncertain times, there are also opportunities.

So here are some tips for what you should consider doing at the moment, which will not only help you generate income in the short term, but also make your business more resilient in the long term.

1). BE VERY CAUTIOUS ABOUT INCORPORATING THE PANDEMIC INTO YOUR MARKETING

Riding on a current trend is normally one of the best possible marketing strategies. However, when it comes to this pandemic, you have to be extremely careful with how you are going to manage it. On the one hand, you can’t pretend that it’s business as usual and act like Covid-19 doesn’t exist. It could be interpreted as a lack of empathy or you could look out of sync with the rest of the world.

But by the same token, you can’t be seen to be profiteering from the situation, making light of it or even have an opinion on it. There has always been a strong link between emotion and marketing, but this is an extremely delicate situation and getting it wrong could cost you dearly in the long run. So what should you do?

A safer angle is to acknowledge the fact that people suddenly find themselves with a lot of time on their hands and that they are stuck at home with a lot of uncertainty … slowly going insane with boredom over the coming weeks, while probably feeling stressed too.

Your first task is therefore to find out how their centre of interests have changed, and how you can meet them. This may involve a fundamental shift in your strategy. For example, being at home may mean that they have time to finally tackle those DIY jobs they have been putting off, so it would be a golden opportunity for home renovation businesses to launch an advertising campaign on that theme. Likewise for garden centres (like Kings Plant Barn - one of our amazing customers). Any gardener knows that Autumn is a very important time to start planning the following year’s crops!

So rather than your usual “Come and buy our products”, re-direct your campaign to “Why not take advantage of your free time to do all those DIY / gardening jobs that you never have time to do”. This way, you are addressing several needs, a concrete need to do a task that has needed attention for a while, with the added bonus of alleviating frustration or boredom and taking one’s mind off stressful thoughts.

2). SHIFT TO ONLINE (IF YOU CAN)

As social distancing has suddenly become the ‘norm’, companies that rely on in-person contact will have to fundamentally rethink the way they do business, and it is true that it will be easier for some than others.

The very first thing you need to do is look at all areas of your business and shift it online, be it from a logistical point of view, sales, marketing or delivery to the customer.

3). REBUILD/REBRAND YOUR WEBSITE

In the hustle and bustle of the everyday running of a company, websites can be a bit neglected once they are up and running, and perform less well over time in terms of bringing traffic. Now is the time to spruce them up!

If you haven’t looked at your website for a little while, having a thorough website audit may give it a new lease of life. It will inform you of what works, what works less well and will be the basis of devising a new strategy.

Creating and testing landing pages to get the best conversion rate, while often neglected by businesses, is in fact a very efficient process.

Last, but not least, update the content of your website, adding new services or products if relevant, possibly updating the navigation structure or changing the pictures. Now is also a good time to do some keyword research, update your SEO, and rewrite your content (blogs included) as needed to incorporate the results.

4). CREATE OR EXTEND YOUR ONLINE AD CAMPAIGNS

This is when your keyword research will come in handy.

If you already have Google Ads campaigns running, check your Google Analytics (on both your site and your ad platforms) against your updated list of keywords to identify which campaigns will still be relevant and which ones can be paused, and if necessary, create new ones.

In addition, there is a complementary range of Google Advertising programs which are all excellent and can yield results quickly, such as Google Display Ads, Google Shopping Ads, Remarketing Ads. Used together, they can bring your business to a whole new level.

But which ones to choose? How much money should you invest? How to make sure that they all work together and not against each other (or not at all)? Anybody can set up their own campaigns, and anyone can waste a lot of money not targeting the right things. But if you want to maximise your return on your investment, you need experience, and this is where we can help.

5). BRUSH UP ON YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

Social media is everywhere, but most importantly, this is also where your clients or future clients are, so engaging with them this way is essential.

You know the usual suspects: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc… but it has to be said that, when it comes to results, Facebook Ads are second to none as they offer a wide range of types of campaigns to draw visitors in. They also have an advanced feature that allows you to target by location so if your business is local, it is the perfect platform to communicate with clients.

For B2B companies, LinkedIn Ads can also be a good choice.

If you were already advertising on Social Media, like with all your other marketing offers, check that they are still relevant in the current context and adjust as necessary.

6). CREATE VIDEO CONTENT

We all know that video content is a powerful marketing tool, yet businesses haven’t all embraced it. Maybe it’s stage fright and you don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera. That’s ok, you’re not the only one! But in this time when we can’t meet in person, the visual medium is more important than ever.

It will allow some businesses to carry on as usual: companies who deliver in-person training or consulting will be able to continue with webinars; fitness centres could offer their members recorded classes; restaurants could start cooking classes live or as videos.

And even if none of that applies to you, videos are still a very effective way to develop brand awareness and to make people discover your products, and YouTube Ads are, of course, the ideal medium for them. And the best is that it will still be relevant once the quarantine is over.

7). REMEMBER TO THINK LONG TERM

In these uncertain times, you may be tempted to reduce your expenses by diverting your media advertising budget, but for a lot of you it’s the last thing you should do at the moment, because your competitors won’t. They will take advantage of the fact that other companies withdraw and put themselves in front of your customers. It is a short-term loss, but also potentially a long-term loss as there is no way of knowing whether your customers will come back to you afterwards.

Inversely, investing wisely in content marketing and brand building activities now will place YOU in front of other companies’ customers, and will also put you in a much stronger position to hit the ground running when things go back to normal.

Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, said “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

The unprecedented situation we are facing is absolutely one of those key moments which can “force” a change upon our business, but for the better, by re-inventing what we sell and how we sell it. For those who embrace the change, they will emerge more resilient to future challenges on that scale.

FREE COVID-19 MARKETING CONSULT

If you want some practical, jargon-free advice on how to change your marketing strategy to flourish through the lockdown, why not sign up to our free Covid-19 marketing consult? Find out more here.