In the early year 2020 when the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic and many of the workforce packed their laptops to start working from home, little did they know that the year would bring anticipation and speculations about what the post-COVID-19 world would look like. While the socio-economic impact would vary from country to country, the impact is inevitable. The World bank’s Global Economic Prospects report is a preview of how economies will contract. Evident changes include new consumer behaviour. Few sectors like consumer goods and entertainment are thriving; others like travel seem to be nose-diving.
Image source: Hubspot
Irrespective of sector or industry you are part of, think about how you are going to sail through the coming tough times. Owing to shrinking economies, evolving customer behaviours and additional decision influencers for financial spends, one job that is going to get tougher would be of the marketing team. If you are one them then pace-up for this new ‘new’.
Let’s re-learn marketing for Post-COVID time
1. Cut the cliché campaigns
Traditional marketing of lead hunt, deal discussion and business conversion is about to change forever. It is evident from data that responses to typical sales emails are not encouraging and so are responses to other conventional marketing approaches. Reinvent your communication. Recently McDonald’s Philippines President and CEO Kenneth Yang’s message about what they are doing as safety measures to protect their employees and deliveries to customers is one great example of future marketing. Many food brands and restaurants are highlighting their safety measures and ease of takeaways. That’s good marketing because it is about alleviating a concern (safety) that customers would have in COVID and post-COVID world.
Image Source: Hubspot
2. Enable easy transactions
Search, selection and purchase for a product or service will continue to happen online, preferably. It is important to enable these actions with tools that ease a customer’s journey from one step to next. Go out full-digital. Don’t stop at a website or webinar, engage your customer through e-brochures, chatbots, virtual visits etc. Analyze and upgrade it from customer responses and experiences—surveys, feedback etc. These are great ways to collect data about customers preferences. Get secure online payment options enabled because the post-COVID world would use more digital transactions. Look at how online grocers Amazon, Bigbasket and Flipkart are mastering it by constantly evolving.
3. Opt and optimize
Businesses, big or small, are going digital. But are these marketing channels optimised to get you best returns? With more and more people opting for online business, it would be a fish mart where seeking traction of a customer would become difficult due to competing distractions. Stand out. Have a clear, simple, yet strong messaging strategy. In these times, an emotional connection with prospective customers and the community is important. Reports suggest that a socially aware marketing message is more likely to connect with customers and bring business conversion. Opt for relevant messaging like IKEA started #I’amStayingHome and optimised it with what could be best done in a situation with your products or services.
4. Make your money count
Marketing budgets could shrink while the scale of outreach needs to grow exponentially. Cost-per-click might not remain the key metrics as customer engagement would see a 360-degree shift. In such times get good value for money. Consider marketing platforms that offer free or competitive multi-channel support. Save money to make money. Use a comprehensive social media marketing plan with free or pooled service providers, without compromising on the quality and safety of information. Free email campaigns, add-on accounts for team subscriptions etc. are few of the freebies being offered by digital marketing platforms. Invest in post-sales services too to gain customer confidence and loyalty.
5. Read the unseen
Collecting and analysing consumer behaviours through relevant tools and techniques would be a critical factor in marketing success. See the way Google works promoting your searches or Amazon helps you navigate for products based on your past searches or purchases done. Artificial intelligence (AI) enabled tools are crucial to reading the minds of your customers. Data would be the new dollar that would tailor your marketing pitch. Marketing campaigns would be driven more by the dynamics of customer’s responses or engagement.
Success of post-COVID-19 marketing would be about how you read your customers. This is a new situation for everyone, so all businesses are out for level play. One who is preparing today to face the post-COVID world by investing time and resources in setting-up the right infrastructure, team, external partners etc. would have an edge over peers. Prepare well and play to win!
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