cft

Why Marketing Shouldn’t Slow Down Now

Can you still market yourself in a crisis? If so, how?


user

Delaney Mann

3 years ago | 4 min read

The world’s in crisis and no industry will be left untouched. The impact of businesses closing and the economy slowing will be felt for months, if not years.

Every business will wrestle with the question, “How do I carry on?”

This is uncharted territory.

Should I Continue Marketing?

The short answer is yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.

Marketing, yes. Carry on as usual? No.

Here’s why you should continue marketing efforts:

  • You’ll be in a better position when it ends
    First, everyone is slowing down — attempting to wait out the disaster. They’re sitting back to see what happens, and then reacting. This pause is your opportunity. While everyone else is slowing down, you can get ahead. You’ll be better off in the end than if you’d let everything slide. Remember, this too will pass.
  • You can’t win if you don’t try
    Not every business is going to come out of this harmed beyond repair. All will change in some way: some will close, a few will grow, and most will shrink, but if you want to give your business the best shot, you can’t quit now. It needs you more than ever.
  • You can reassure employees, clients, and partners
    The world is unstable right now. The situation is changing rapidly.
    If you have employees or customers that rely on you or partners you interact with, reassuring them is worth the effort.

Things to Consider Doing Now

1. Stop and review any pre-scheduled posts or ads

If you’re ahead of the game, you likely have some scheduled posts coming up or ad campaigns set to launch.

Hit pause on everything.

These were all curated before we knew what was going to happen to the world. The situation is changing rapidly and anything curated pre-crisis likely doesn’t have the right tone to fit the current landscape.

Carrying on “as usual” is a quick way to look off-tone or out-of-touch to your audience, which will decrease confidence in your company (at best), or anger and alienate your customers/employees (at worst).

2. Think through (psychologically) where your customer might be

Whether you’re a B2B company or B2C company, every person is impacted by this on some level.

They may be on the front lines of this fight or have family members who are (or are themselves) in a high-risk group. They may fear job security, or may simply be enjoying time to watch Netflix with their family while this sorts itself out.

No matter what, their lives are not where they were a few weeks ago. You can either speculate where they’re at mentally or talk to them to get a pulse on what they’re thinking.

This will give you a much better idea of how you can show up for them.

3. Decide how you can add value

Once you’ve taken the time to understand your customers, you can decide how to show up for them.

Think through these questions:
- How can I best add value to their lives today?
- What can I say that brings comfort?
- What do they need from me right now?

4. Create a new strategy

The thing that’s going to get us through this crisis is creativity.

Many of us are either stuck at home for the foreseeable future or will shortly be.

How can we use this to our advantage?

Ideas for Creative Content

Livestreams

As we self-isolate from the rest of the world, it may provide a welcome breath of fresh air to offer interaction in the form of a livestream.

Is there something you could host a digital community event for or maybe a training you could offer? You could offer a live Q&A or a virtual tour behind-the-scenes of your quiet office/manufacturing process. Could your community members watch something together with live chat?

It’ll take some creativity, but I’m sure there’s a way you can use this to your advantage. Offer comfort through community and try out a livestream.

Educational content

People stuck at home are looking to make the most of their time. This means they’ll be more likely to engage with content (even if they’re less likely to buy something).

Put together eBooks, courses, tutorials, videos, or blog posts that engage their attention. Offer them for free for now and grow your audience with these credibility boosters. This will keep your audience engaged and should pay off when the economy starts to pick back up.

Customer service

Customer service is more important now than ever. As your customers, clients, partners, etc. are struggling to navigate this new reality, they’ll likely have questions for you.

Quick response time is valuable — build their trust and confidence in your company. Show them how you’re handling the crisis, don’t let them guess.

This is also creating free content for your other (quiet) customers, keeping your company in the feed and reminding them that you’re here for them.

Interactive content

Can you create quizzes, polls, or spark discussion?

You can use Instagram/Twitter features to create a poll or an interactive game that keeps your brand top of mind in this tumultuous time.

This Too Shall Pass

Regardless of what you choose to do, it’s important that you acknowledge the current state of affairs and move forward with courage and grace.

This too shall pass. Do what you can now to set yourself up for success on the other side.

This article was originally published on medium.

Upvote


user
Created by

Delaney Mann


people
Post

Upvote

Downvote

Comment

Bookmark

Share


Related Articles