Category: Art of business storytelling

Steps to take during COVID-19.

Some might say that it has been a rough year! Indeed, hardly you may name any industry or business that has not been affected by the Pandemic of COVID-19. But in contrast to the panic that swept the market several months ago, today we see that some businesses seemed to pass the darkest hours with flying colors. Moreover, not only didn`t slip into oblivion, leaving unemployment and debt behind, they seem to have become even stronger! And we don`t only talk about the “Essential” industries like food, media, healthcare, and pharma. On the one hand, their raise is pretty predictable in the current situation. But at the same time, they have suddenly found themselves in an unprecedentedly competitive atmosphere and also had to adjust their marketing strategies.

So let alone construction, entertainment, manufacturing, travel, transportation, and numerous other business segments that due to their nature have suffered from quarantine restrictions and social distancing! But even among them, today we see not just survivors, but bright examples that due to their timely action and ability to adjust marketing tactics during COVID-19 seem to have grown stronger, enriched with the new experience. We all know that a sage constantly observes others and learns from their mistakes and experiences. Observation has always been named among the most efficient tools in any marketing strategy. So let`s have a detailed bird`s eye view of the most efficient marketing tactics applied during the pandemic and see how they have worked until now and whether they will be relevant in the post-Coronavirus market.

What is a marketing strategy and why does it need adjustment?

Marketing strategy is a combination of tactics that defines how your business will communicate with the target audience and encourage it to make a purchase generating your revenue. It can be imagined as a navigator app that shows your current location and directions to the destination. And just like during traffic, operating on a live market, you are constantly influenced by outer factors that don`t depend on you but affect your journey greatly. the Pandemic of COVID-19, social unrest, recession, and natural disasters that happened this year are exactly those factors. If you are traveling with a navigator, you may receive warnings and work out alternative routes. Otherwise, you risk getting stuck in a tremendous traffic jam or even a horrific accident.

That is why marketing strategy, no matter how thought-through it might be from the very beginning, has to be constantly adjusted. This was true before when marketing tactics were modified according to consumers` purchasing phases. But today, both businesses and consumers don`t have a clear vision of the future and have to combine a habitual lifestyle with the imposed precautions.

That said, the marketing strategy adjustment today differs from the one we might have been used to until now. Here are the top 11 steps you want to take today to adjust your marketing plan to the ongoing situation. Moreover, if you manage to react timely and adopt the new rulebook, you have a strong chance to benefit from the current situation and become a part of the fundamental forces of the post-Coronavirus economy.

Explore the new demand

The worst mistake you can make now is to start thinking that nobody needs your service in the current situation. Remember, demand does not disappear, it simply reconfigures. And so should your offer. For example, social distancing does not mean that people don`t need clothes. But the demand for lounge clothes and underwear today is as high as it has never been before. While outdoor apparel had to step back. In other words, instead of investing in more aggressive promotion of whatever you have to offer, re-stream your efforts into learning what the consumer needs. People still want to make a purchase and they need your help and direction today more than ever.

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Sell relevance, not the product itself

In a time when people are anxious and worried about their health, jobs, and education, they are constantly looking for solutions. The only chance to sell anything today is to persuade a consumer that your product is a solution to the topical problem. Therefore the promotion tactics are changing now focusing on relevance more than the product itself. Determine the pains of your target auditorium: anxiety, insecurity, boredom – and start persuading that your product is the solution.

Offer payment plans and options

Since we`ve been moving towards a cashless economy for quite a while, online payment options are not a novelty today. But considering the ongoing situation and financial insecurity of consumers, it is time to take a new step and offer payment plan variations. Payment plans significantly reduce the financial burden in a short perspective, becoming a strong psychological motivation to make a purchase now, without having to postpone it for better times. So eventually a business gets a chance to boost up the conversion even though consumers are aiming at cutting down their spending.

Communication is the key

Staying in touch with your audience becomes a crucial survival factor. When newsfeed is overflown with blood-thirsty information about bankruptcies and collapsed businesses, it is crucial to let people know that you are not just alive but doing great. Despite the traditional reminding effect, sharing news about your business, demonstrating that you continue working, and making your customers happy are effective credibility factors. People want to associate themselves with winners – those who don`t collapse and keep operating under any circumstances. This will have a positive effect in the future. A company that managed to push through the Corona crisis will be much more valuable in the eyes of a consumer than any newbie.

Use Social Media Future Marketing Tool

Being an ultimate surrogate of human interaction, social media has experienced its rebirth today! For some people, it is a way to stay in touch, for others – an escape from reality and a grim feed of television and radio. Moreover, social media is surely turning into a global marketplace. The new features that appeared after the last update of Instagram only prove it. So, if you`ve been neglecting social media until now, today is the day to create a business account. Targeted commercials, engagement through direct communication, and the ability to reach potential customers worldwide – are the undeniable benefits of social media marketing.

Online presence becomes the only presence

No matter how powerful, social media should not be the only stream of your digital marketing efforts. Since the world is forced to move online, even such traditionally offline industries as restaurants, entertainment, etc started to settle in the virtual space. The principle is simple: online presence becomes your only kind of presence. And while in the real world, you have been restricted by the physical borders, rent prices, or working hours, digital space wipes most of those restrictions up. Arranging a website, creating SEO-friendly content, Product Animation Videos, Customer Interactive Videos, and Advertising the brand with the help of animation videos, webinars, and e-books – those are the marketing tools of the new world.

Make customers a part of your marketing strategy

People love to be involved. They also like to know that their opinion is valued. You may use these traits and kill several birds with a single stone – audience incorporation. By welcoming your consumers to be a part of the adjustment process you benefit in several different ways:

• – get the relevant insights about the demand
• – demonstrate your care and appreciation
• – stay in touch with existing and potential customers
• – optimize your marketing budget by saving money on research
• – receive a lot of precious data about your customers and those who are somehow interested in your product and service.

E-mails, social media accounts, or any kind of feedback information received through the survey become the foundation for a further digital marketing strategy.

Become a part of the recovery process

The true nature and policy of any company are revealed during critical periods. And at times of recession and social unrest, businesses, no matter how big they are, attract the most attention. Social responsibility becomes a crucial factor that may build the image of your brand and determine future development. The inner and outer policies of the company and its willingness to support the community and contribute to the recovery process became powerful marketing tools during the Pandemic of COVID-19. Pivot your marketing tactics on serving the community and the greater good. Volunteer work, collaboration with local authorities and other businesses, as well as demonstrative workforce preservation efforts, have turned from an indulgence image-shaping policy into a part of marketing tactics.

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Investigate your sales funnels

The importance of sales funnels for a successful marketing strategy cannot be overrated. However this year the rules of the game have changed so much that even such a powerful tool may have stopped working properly. The time has come to take a closer look at your sales funnel, analyze, and re-evaluate the data. Make competitive analysis your priority as whatever step you may be willing to take now, might have already been taken by a similar business. Everybody makes mistakes nowadays and anybody may have unexpectedly hit the jackpot. Taking this step, analyzing and re-evaluating your sales funnels, is exactly what separates you today from gaining or losing at least 20% of revenue.

Capitalize on competitors` decay

Online Ads are the ultimate tool of any modern marketing strategy. And when they are created and targeted correctly, they become extremely efficient. But the thing is that online ad networks base their activity on the Cost-per-click principle. Therefore, the bigger the competition in the segment, the more value the ad gets. This competition is created by small businesses and therefore because of the collapse and decreased activity in this segment, online ads cost much less today. Moreover, this leads to the unprecedented growth of the ROI of paid ads today! This increase gets up to 71% making paid ads as advantageous as they might have been only when just appeared several years ago. The market has already started the slow but sure restoration, therefore this tendency will not last for too long. But if you haven`t considered paid ads before, today may be your last chance to benefit the most from them without too much investment or effort.

Sell Knowledge

Knowledge is power – that is what we have always been told. But today the value of knowledge is as high as it has ever been before. Here are only several benefits of integrating an educational program into your marketing strategy during COVID-19:

• – You keep on selling. When you can`t sell your physical product, start selling  your experience and knowledge about it and its application
• – You stay in touch with the existing consumers and gain new ones
• – You collect information about customers that may be used in various marketing planning later on

Things to avoid in your Marketing Planning during COVID-19

So now, that we have discussed the most efficient steps that you may take today in your Marketing Strategy, the time has come to discuss the most common mistakes made by various businesses during this period. The benefit of overviewing the situation today is that we have enough data to understand what works and what may turn into a disaster. Many quite traditional and habitual actions that have been an essential part of marketing planning only a year ago, have turned into gravestones for numerous businesses this year. Other actions looked like pretty innovative unconventional solutions but in fact, turned out to be impulsive steps that only brought businesses closer to the cliff. Here are the key “Don’ts” of marketing planning during COVID-19.

Continue living as if nothing has happened

Some companies decided that pretending that nothing is happening and sticking to the marketing plans that have been working perfectly until now will advantageously differ from their, competitors. First of all, customers reacted to such politics with great sensitivity, accusing businesses of neglecting. Also, it is quite obvious that recession, unemployment, and financial uncertainty – all those natural outcomes of the Pandemic have influenced the demand and purchasing ability. Those factors are crucial for any kind of marketing strategy and ignoring them has naturally led to a breakdown.

Increasing the commercial intensity

Another marketing extreme that has led many businesses to disaster this year, was an inadequate increase in inactivity. Yes, this might have worked before when sales went down due to such factors as growing competition or the inability to catch up with the trends and demand. But in the situation when customers don`t buy either because they are trying to cut on their spending or don`t feel the need for your product, aggressive marketing strategy with extensive commercials, e-mail newsletters, and constant and impulsive reminding about yourself, have caused nothing except for irritation and range. Remember, customers, are not that stupid. They can tell when someone is simply trying to sell them something and can easily see through even the most sophisticated and multi-leveled PR stunts.

Dying dramatically

The most common mistake made by businesses in their marketing tactics during COVID-19 is emphasizing their mystery. In other words, overwhelms consumers with messages about the devastating state and close bankruptcy. These tactics are faulty for several reasons:

• – The “Closing” sales are cheap and quite an old trick that has been worn out by retail and does not work that well today
• – In many societies, independent businessmen are associated with wealth. So no matter how small your business might be and what kind of losses you may experience, a person who might have just been fired because of the overall recession, won`t feel sympathy for you
• – We are all in the same boat and everybody is coping with the same issues. Marketing strategy is taking action, not imposing your product forcefully.

Unfortunately, Coronavirus may be here to stay. Those measures that we take now to adjust our marketing plans may not be a temporary fix, but a permanent practice that will change the way we look at marketing forever. Quarantine restrictions have changed the whole concept of consumption, making numerous businesses re-adjust their activities or become irrelevant in the way they have been operating until now. But despite the overall devastation, it is important to understand that any kind of change or consternation is a chance to get a freshman to look at a situation or strategy and re-evaluate habitual actions and policies.

As for the overall market, the current situation will appear to be a perfect indicator of which business models and marketing strategies are versatile enough to be efficient in critical situations. After all, when the dust settles, we shall witness an unprecedented renovation of the whole market, offline and digital, which inevitably follows any kind of global consternation. The phase of struggle and invention of temporary fixes is over. The next few months will represent a new period in the marketing industry – global restoration and establishment of new principles and patterns.

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