The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has altered nearly every business in some way or another. Some firms are facing increased demand, others are about normal, many however have faced extreme hardship as certain industries have fallen off drastically. Even for businesses that have experienced increased or unchanged demand, procedures and operations have changed, with a focus on carrying out operations, employee safety and work from operations.
Marketing has taken a back seat to many of these more fundamental problems, but marketing remains one of the most important tools to facilitate your business operating in this changing environment.
Here we will take a look at some important considerations for how to market and drive sales during the prolonged pandemic.
Proper planning key !
Take a look at your marketing plan from the previous years and analyze each element and how viable that will be during the altered pandemic operations. For example, many firms utilize event marketing, special events, sports promotion and other methods that involve large groups of people which is not advisable during the pandemic. The budgets for these activities should be heavily toned down or eliminated, with potential savings to the overall marketing plan or their budget shifted to another marketing activity.
Other marketing types will see little change other than budget and content considerations throughout the pandemic. For example, digital, broadcast, SEO, email, and promotions can be heavily leaned upon with success.
The goal is to pull from the old marketing plan what will continue to be effective in a long term pandemic and then prioritize what needs to be changed first. This will form the basis of your COVID marketing plan. Like any marketing plan, you will use data to analyze what works and what doesn’t, which will be a learning process as all companies are operating on marketing assumptions that must be tested.
Marketing Content
Constant contact with potential new customers and old customers is incredibly important. The content of your communications is more important than ever. The content should be based on your marketing plan and coordinated across media types. Once you decide what type of precautions you are taking to make customers safe, adjusted operations such as “take out only” etc, and offers to run, you need to build campaigns around these main ideas.
If you are changing your operating hours or providing delivery services, it is essential that you effectively communicate this with your audience. They need to know they are safe, and how they can do business with you. Don’t assume your customers know your new hours or understand that your location is appointment only etc.
These operating updates should be a core part of your marketing content and spread across multiple channels with regularity.
For some businesses, the types of offers they can run have changed, for others, not so much, but make sure that in addition to the operating changes, that you provide customers with compelling offers that are time-sensitive. These offers not only will generate action with new customers, but also promote prior customers to buy. It’s important to be tasteful with the content of your marketing materials. For example, let your audience know that you fully realize things have changed and that they should be assured you are here form them. Consider focusing on two types of offers or promotions each month that are different and should be enticing for different audiences. Over time you can tweak what is working, and what offers seem to be the most common.
For restaurants, in particular, you MUST regularly, potentially daily, but certainly weekly, what your specials are. If you are takeout only, offer a small menu that varies week to week as a way to lower your costs but still provide variety. You should be posting all specials across social media and through your email marketing lists. It’s important to note that potentially offering a more basic dish at a lower price point than normal can be a great way to show guests that you care about them and fully understand the economic reality while providing a good meal. This has been an effective strategy for numerous restaurants, bakeries, etc.
Adjusted SEO and Web
Don’t forget to update your SEO and blogging focus with new keywords that will generate clicks and searches during the pandemic. For example, many are now searching for “car dealership delivery”, “bakery takeout” etc, which are likely not keywords you would have had as goals prior.
Work with your SEO partner to develop relevant search terms and phrases that will help you capture more inbound leads for pandemic altered searches.
Document What works and doesn’t !
Even basic note-keeping on what is working and what isn’t is a powerful tool to use in the coming months and years. This will form a playbook of procedures that you can use as necessary. The more detailed the notes, the better. Many marketers were shooting in the dark when the pandemic started, with little idea what would work and what would fail, but as the summer as come to a close, marketers and brands that pivoted early, have been able to learn better how to navigate the changed environment. Don’t afraid to try something new, even with a low budget, sometimes different PPC keywords or marketing content can work effectively even if it doesn’t initially seem like it would.
Online Presence is more Important than ever!
Now more than ever your website IS your brand. Since most are not venturing into stores as often as before, more of the buying decision is taking place before an appointment or store visit is planned. This means that your website is critically important to your success. You need to have a website that works great on mobile – 50% of web traffic is mobile!! Your website also needs to look great, load quickly, and show off your products or services effectively.
Proper analytics, call to actions, contact forms, chat popups, current promotions and social media integrations are all important components to convert as much web traffic as possible to paying customers.
Reviews are also more important than ever since many consumers are being more careful about how much they spend and doing more product research than before. If you don’t have many reviews, build an email campaign asking prior customers to rate you on Facebook, Google or yelp. For businesses that have more one-to-one contact ask customers via a phone call or even in-person to consider giving you a review. There are other ways to incentivize customers to create reviews as well, such as gift card drawings etc for those that leave reviews in a period of time.
Final Words
Marketing during COVID is more important than before, the business landscape is changing and will be permanently altered. If your business is going to thrive and continue to grow, then you absolutely have to develop a marketing plan that is effective during the ongoing pandemic. You don’t have to get everything right the first time, but simply pulling the plug on your entire marketing plan won’t end well for your business- your competitors will be grateful though! Many firms have lowered their marketing budgets and that is advisable depending on their current financial situation. If you are going to drastically lower your marketing budget, make sure to pivot on content, keep a broad but less deep approach to media and media channels, and regularly update your promotions.
Volan Media:
Volan Media is a top Knoxville Advertising Agency and top Knoxville video production firm providing a full range marketing, video production and advertising services that are solely focused on generating action. Let us put our experience making hundreds of commercials, websites, integrated media campaigns, and marketing plans together to help take your business to the next level. Let us know if we can help!
