Everybody is waiting on the current crisis to end
and for everything to go back to normal. When will that happen? In two weeks?
In two months? In two years? No one seems to be able to predict with any
certitude when the crisis will come to an end and what the long-term economic
impact of it will be.
If you are in charge of marketing, what can you
do? The temptation is to stop all marketing. Why spend money, time and effort
on uncertainty? If that is your thinking, you better think again. Why?
Marketing has to adjust to the times in which we live, that is the truth. But
marketing cannot shut off the engine and expect to restart it on a dime. There
are three reasons you should not stop your marketing.
Your
customers need to know you will be there when this is all over
If your customers are not hearing from you now,
they should be. They need reassurance you are still in business and are not
going away. Why? Because there is a gloomy outlook from several industry
experts about the viability of businesses if the shutdown lasts much longer. I
have read reports predicting the end of whole industries! That seems really
extreme, but that is what is trending in business news feeds these days and it
causes your customers to panic. You need to send some assurance their way.
Communicate
your support
What can you do if your business has been
completely shut down during this crisis? Many businesses have found themselves
in this very situation. What do you market if you have been told to sit idle
until the all clear has sounded? Communicate your support for those on the
front lines – like health care workers, those who produce critical products,
those who clean and sanitize the places we frequent, those who move goods from
manufacturing to warehouses to stores, those who make finances available, those
who keep our internet running, and many others that provide crucial services.
Take your pick and send kudos from your company. But you should not forget
those who are stuck at home either. I saw a marketing message from the sports
network, ESPN the other night. When your business is built on reporting what is
happening now in the world of sports, yet all sports are shut down, what can you
promote? They promoted missing sports in a heartfelt marketing piece that
encouraged people through empathizing with their situation. "There’s no place
like sports,” the spot emphasizes and then simply states, "We miss it too.” (See it here.) Empathy
is a strong identifying emotion. You can make an emotional connection between
your brand and your audience if you communicate support during this time.
Look for
the essential new
What innovative businesses are finding is a new market
during this time. Companies like Zoom, the video conferencing format;
Postmates, the local delivery service that does more than just deliver food,
they will shop for you and deliver to your home; and social media sensation
TikTok, the video sharing/dancing network, are seeing huge spikes in growth.
Where there is a need, there is an opportunity for business. New business has
to have marketing to succeed. However, even if you don’t expand your service
and product offerings, you might want to rethink how you market certain aspects
of how you do what you do. For instance, if you are sellling a product, how is
that product handled before it is packaged and shipped? Was it produced in a
clean environment? Did the workers who handled it wear gloves? Was it cleaned
again before it was sold to the customer? These are things we just took for
granted before this virus. Now they are critical pieces of information that
will make people want to buy from you or not. Shift your marketing to the new
essential information people need before they will say yes to a sale.
Should marketing stop during this health crisis?
No, it should just adjust.