Marketing Tips For Right Now!

Marketing Tips For Right Now!

Well team, it’s here. The lockdown has reached New Zealand, and that means many changes to how we go about our lives and our businesses, obviously. No news there. As a digital marketing agency, we’re developing plans on how to adapt our clients’ marketing plans to this new temporary reality. What key messaging points are we going to use? What platforms are we going to use to communicate those messages? How can we help them to adapt their offers to this situation? 

The positive that we can pull from this, is that many humongous businesses are pulling their ad spend, it’s like panic buying but in the opposite direction – we could call it panic saving. 

Now, we do NOT think this is a good idea, for anyone. Now is the time to get your shit together, to be there for your customers and to help them in any way you can. Disappearing from your online channels isn’t the best way to achieve this. 

Back to the positive in this – if bigger companies are withdrawing their ad spend, it means that ad costs drop as there’s less competition, and smaller businesses have the opportunity to compete in the same field as those bigger companies. Make sense? 

Use this as an opportunity. Adapt! We’ve all seen those social posts about awesome businesses that were born from a crisis, right? If you haven’t, here’s a few: Disney, FedEx, Microsoft, Uber… You get the point right?

Whether you’re a startup, planning a launch, or already pretty deep into business, there is always opportunity – you just need to know how to find it, and then how to market it. We’re going to look at some key points to market your business during this time. 

Tip 1: Have empathy

People are scared. That’s the reality, right? So show that you care, and inform people about what your team is doing. Share in the feeling of your customers. Right now, sit down and audit your upcoming social content and your email automations. Anything in there that isn’t relevant or is downright insensitive? GET RID OF IT! Get it out! Don’t send something that’s going to trigger people 😀 Honestly, check and double check everything, because now isn’t a time to be losing customers. 

Tip 2: Don’t overload with information

Who’s had more than 20 emails from companies that you didn’t even know had your email address, telling you about how they’re taking measures against Coronavirus? From our viewpoint, if you don’t have anything that’s actually useful for people, as in you’re stopping services, or the service your customer could usually expect has now changed, and you’re writing to tell them about it, then just don’t bother. Again, now is not the time to encourage people to unsubscribe from your email list. If you’re emailing me to tell me that your employees are washing their hands more, I’d honestly question your hygiene practices before this whole time. 

Tip 3: Don’t be flippant

While this is a time of opportunity, don’t be a dick. Don’t try to take advantage of the situation. For example, if you bulk bought toilet paper or hand sanitizer, with the aim of selling it at a high price, you’re a prick. I don’t think more needs to be said on that. 

Tip 4: Make sure your messaging is relevant.
This comes down to tone of voice and what you talk about. If people aren’t able to buy your products, show them what they can do with what they currently have. If you’re in beauty, talk about self care, keeping your skin healthy while in lockdown. If you’re in fitness, show people how they can keep fit while at home! What cool recipes can they make? What home activities can be fun, healthy and entertaining? Even if they can’t buy your product, one day we’ll come out of this, and if you’ve been a pioneer of entertainment and knowledge for your target audience while they’ve been on lockdown, they will come to you when they can. 

Tip 5: Don’t be product heavy
This should go without saying but if you’re spending this time to sell, sell, sell and then can’t deliver, it’ll only result in a bad reputation. If you’re not providing value of any kind other than your product at this time, it will also result in a bad reputation, or in people just being indifferent to you, which could even be worse???

Focus on brand awareness. What are your values? What do you believe in? What do you stand for? What’s happening with your team? Update your audience with all your changes. Keep them involved. If you’re a family owned business, show the family side and focus on your messaging surrounding support and empathy. Show you care about health and wellbeing more than sales right now.  

Tip 6: Grow your audience. 

Grow grow grooooooow! Grow those email lists! The ideal world would be to have your new potential audiences waiting to buy from you the minute the lockdown is over, right? It likely won’t happen that way as we’re all going to need some time to adjust once this is over, but you get the jist. People all over the country are now in information harvesting mode because well, when spare time is mixed with isolation, what else can we all do? So, now is not the time to slow down your marketing efforts. Now is the time to tweak those marketing efforts to the current situation and become even more valuable now than you were before. Create value packed downloads, lead magnets, free templates, podcasts, webinars and so on. It’s your chance to grab your audience’s attention. 

At the end of the day, there’s been a lot of panic lately and you know what? We get it. It’s tough to not jump on the bandwagon of buying toilet paper, even if you know that you don’t need to, because you see that there’s no tp left at the shops because everyone else has panic bought it. It’s natural. We’re human. But being human, we are able to experience the beauty of imagination. We can imagine different realities, and so, we can act in a different way to others, because we can imagine a different end result. 

Our advice, don’t give up. In fact, double down on your marketing efforts and give value to your audiences. Help them. Be there for them. It’ll pay off, promise. 

And finally, don’t worry. We’re all in this together. It’ll be hard and strange but I ask you, have you ever seen Earth stop turning?