Common Sense for Companies During The COVID-19 Pandemic

Coronavirus outbreak has been upgraded to a pandemic. Everyone is trying to adjust with the new normal; enterprises have gone remote, and the search rankings of websites are decreasing on Google. The only trending keyword is coronavirus these days.

It has caused a massive scale disruption for the marketers and forced them to take unprecedented action, including stopping reviews, tweaking promotions, or discontinuing certain advertising. 

At this time marketers need to plan their next moves wisely to either
alleviate downside risks or capture all the possible upsides.

Below are some of the latest actions that brands should take in their
marketing approaches to deal with the fallout. 

Be Fair-Minded

Ensure to treat your customers fairly during the Pandemic. Don’t try to
up sell things or do lousy publicity to make profits. Fewer sales generated from fair marketing is much better than the profits earned via bad marketing. If you run a chain of the hotel and your clients have booked earlier for the conferences, return their deposits.

At this time, you may be suppressing the flow of revenues, but treating clients fairly will create ethical terms with your valued customers, and vice versa.

As St Louis said,

“Your behavior during lean times will be remembered
during luxury moments.”

Be Empathetic

This one may be in the shortest supply in the world but also the easiest
one to apply. Let your clients and subscribers know that you care. Focus on
empathy rather than creating selling opportunities. Reshape your advertising and promotion strategies more in line with the current Pandemic.

Send emails with the subjects, such as “we are with you”, “you are not alone”, “we are in this together”, etc. It will make a big difference and be a permanent boost to your brand loyalty.

Leverage the power of content as it is still your best friend

Engage your readers by creating motivating or insightful content.
Remember that better-informed visitors will become better prospects in the future. Optimize your content with keywords having a high volume in Google SERPS and social media, which is obviously “COVID-19” or “Corona Virus Pandemic.” Craft content on the topics according to your site’s niche with trending keyword.

Here are some excellent examples. 

• How brands are responding to a coronavirus outbreak
• List of stores and restaurants who are offering deals and freebies   
• How the coronavirus impacts marketing strategy
• Smart ways to invest while coronavirus fears spike 
• Powerful principles for navigating through a Coronavirus pandemic

Win customers with free offers

Offer more free stuff if you run an e-commerce store. If you are in the
entertainment industry and provide streaming services, you can stream free news and entertainment content amid the coronavirus outbreak. Offer free account access for kids, lifestyle and entertainment programming, it can help you stay in the eyes.

Stay connected with your customer base

If you go out of sight, you will be out of mind; and no business can
bear this loss. Keep in touch with your customers at every stage in their
digital journey to retain an existing customer base. Online discussion tools
can do the job for you. Get more social on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, to inform and engage users and double up on e-commerce marketing efforts. 

Track the varying level of impacts in local geographies

Track data in local geographies that experience varying level of
audience response and how it impacts on your site’s conversion rate. Find out how the audience is reacting to the Pandemic. Carefully manage expenses on digital marketing and monitor refreshed Return on investments on new cost levels. Understanding when the crisis is winding down, what is being said and when businesses can return to normal, can be the key to tackle the negative situation. Create a content-focused marketing scheme with coverage of trending topics, impacts by geographies, and sentiments.

Your Catch

If you respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic with transparency and
compassion, you will be rewarded by your audience. Be creative and quick and measure your success at every stage of the marketing strategies you experiment.

Few things to mention before parting up are;

• Make sure your marketing experiments are easy to deliver.
• If it works, well done! Repeat the same, please. 
• If it doesn’t work, try new things quickly and ruthlessly. 
• Be smarter and always be ready to tackle all the challenges.