Coronavirus has meant the end of ‘business as usual’ for almost every industry, forcing the rethinking of marketing strategies and campaigns for thousands of businesses.
Although you may not be able to sell as usual during the impact of coronavirus, especially if you sell physical items, there are still ways to keep your brand and marketing strong throughout.
1. Empathy
The number one item to have in mind at all times is empathy, ensuring you are considering your customers, target audiences, and their current experiences and priorities.
Marketing during coronavirus needs to focus on helping to solve problems and fulfill needs.
This also means having empathy for yourself and your current situation – this is not the time to obsess over a drop in sales targets achieved, but instead to refocus and control what you can while you go through the same life changes as the rest of your peers.
There is a large amount of support available for businesses during this time – make sure you make the most of it!
2. Resources
If you have knowledge and resources you think could be useful to your audiences and peers while they are adapting to coronavirus’s impact, try to incorporate them into your content marketing.
Although it may not be the ideal time for hard sales tactics, you can share your information and wisdom to show people why your business is the best at what you do, and ensure you’re front of mind next time they need what you can provide.
3. Shift to digital
This doesn’t just go for creating online sales for your products (which you’ve probably done by this stage if you can!).
If your marketing relies on traditional physical tactics like out of home (OOH, such as billboards, posters, flyering etc) or physical assets such as printed newspapers, magazines, or anything similar, now is the time to reevaluate how you can move these to a digital format.
Look into Google ads, rework your SEO, and develop your own paid social media campaign to target your future audience with the best data available. Everyone is online, so you need to make sure your brand has the best chance of being seen by them!
Read more: How to Use Social Media for Your Business
4. Brand awareness
Your marketing messaging is likely to require a solid pivot in response to coronavirus – with Australia Post and courier services under the pump, and many suppliers struggling to keep up with demand, changing your marketing focus is key.
By focusing on raising brand awareness, positioning, and recall, you can use your time and resources to set yourself up for a bigger and better return to business as usual, reaching new audiences.
Don’t forget that word of mouth and positive endorsements are worth their weight in gold – reach out to happy customers to get testimonials and case studies to use in your marketing as evidence.
Read more: 5 Tips for Creating Outstanding Customer Experiences
5. Open and transparent communication
There is nothing to be gained from acting like coronavirus hasn’t had an effect on your business and marketing – people value transparency and humanised brands for almost all decision making, and connecting with your audience emotionally is going to have a more positive effect than pretending you’re impervious.
By communicating clearly about delays, supply issues, and any effects that may impact your customers, you help yourself get ahead of any issues rather than being pushed into a defensive response.
With such widespread effects from coronavirus, almost all audiences are empathetic and understanding of issues occurring for industries across Australia and the world.
If you want to find out more ways to help your business grow, read more of Hub Australia’s business tips.