If you’re reading this when it was first posted, then we’re currently on our seventh week of social distancing measures in the UK as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. There are some discussions as to when things will start to transition back to normal,
It’s a good idea to start thinking about how you’re going to adapt your marketing initiatives ready for when we start phasing out of social distancing measures.
When things start to return to a new normal, marketing will be more crucial than ever. Particularly if your business was financially affected by COVID-19; you’re going to need to make up for a couple of months’ worth of lower-than-usual sales.
To help, I’ve put together a list of five things to consider when it comes to planning for marketing in a post-corona climate so that you can start getting ahead and get ready for when things pick up again.
1. Communication
When the rules of the UK lockdown begin to ease, it’s likely that your business will be operating slightly differently to ensure the safety of your staff, your customers yourself. Social media is a great way to keep your customers up to date with any changes in operations or service levels - especially if a lot of your clients kept up with you online before lockdown started.
It’s not advisable to use social media as your only communication tool, but definitely consider incorporating one or two communication posts into your short term content strategy.
2. Transparency
Be open and honest about how COVID-19 has affected your business, and how you’ve managed to use the situation to your advantage. Create and share content that explains how your business has drawn positive change from such an abstract situation. Examples could include day-in-the-life videos made while working from home, blog posts on new practices and how they benefit your customers and so on. You don’t need to share specifics, just share the challenges you’ve faced and how you overcame them.
Being transparent about how the pandemic has changed things for your business helps humanise your brand and, in a way, enables your customers to relate to your brand. Ninety-nine percent of people have been affected by Coronavirus in some way, shape or form - it’s unrealistic to pretend that your business has come out of it unscathed!
3. Adapt your strategy to fit your audiences’ new habits
44% of internet users globally are spending more time on social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook and 12% are listening to more podcasts during the Coronavirus outbreak (source). It’s likely that this is due to people being furloughed or out of work, so they have much more time on their hands.
However, when the UK workforce begins to ease out of lockdown, people’s routines are likely to change again. With people going back to work and slowly returning to everyday life, it’s expected that internet usage for leisure will decrease again. Don’t forget to adjust your marketing strategy and content plan to reflect the changes in peoples’ behaviour, just like you did when lockdown began.
If you operate in a B2B market, your clients are going to be back in work and focusing on their businesses again, so be prepared to get back to giving value to your prospects and sharing the benefits of your product or service in a post-pandemic context.
Similarly in the B2C market: your customers are going to be returning to their normal lives, so let your marketing activities reflect that - but again, in a post-pandemic context. If you're interested in learning more about how you can adapt your strategy to fit your customers' new behaviours, you can schedule a free consultation with me here.
4. Community & Advocacy
Throughout the social distancing period, the British Public have been coming together to show their support for key workers and doing their bit to help, from running errands for their vulnerable neighbours to volunteering. It’s possible that this sense of community will continue past lockdown and migrate into other areas of everyday life.
You can use this new found sense of community and togetherness for your brand by developing an advocacy programme or giving clients and customers access to an online group or forum where they can share tips and experiences. You could even provide content or extra help exclusively to people that have already made a purchase from you. All of these seemingly small gestures will help to encourage repeat purchases and positive messages being spread about your brand.
5. Remarketing
If you carried on marketing throughout the worst of the outbreak, the chances are that you’ll have built up a strong audience of people to begin remarketing to. Those that saw your marketing efforts during the pandemic will be able to recall your brand, meaning you can start driving people back to your website when they’re finally ready to make an enquiry or make a purchase. Getting a strategy in place means that you won’t lose any time and can get to remarketing as soon as things begin returning to normal.
To summarise, it’s probably going to be a little while before things completely return to normal. However - like when lockdown began - that doesn’t mean that your marketing efforts should stop. By staying ahead of the game now, you’ll set yourself up for success later!
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