With the world in lockdown and the global economy taking a huge hit due to the current pandemic, many businesses have been greatly impacted by the aftermath, and are looking at different ways to cut costs to survive. If your company or brand does not fall into the essential goods and services sector, then your sales have most likely dropped. For example, in China the virus caused retail sales to drop by 20.5% and the unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 in February. Not good.
Businesses around the globe are questioning the value of marketing spends in a time where people are less likely to consume their products or services. While slashing marketing budgets may seem like the next logical step, it will greatly impact your business once this is all over, and it will be. If we really want to survive and come out stronger, we need to think long term and see the bigger picture. This is where a sound digital marketing strategy comes into play. While some brands are taking to social media, others are revamping their website and app communications to meet the need of the hour. Here are a few things to keep in mind when revisiting your strategy.
Analyse Your Current Audience
With most offices shifting to a work from home space, meetings reduced to calls and daily commutes coming to a halt, we have more time on our hands to dig deeper and understand where our current audience is turning to, what they are doing and how they are trying to cope. These insights will greatly impact the communication strategy that your business needs to use to stay relevant. While it may seem very promotional to most marketers, having your brand name out there and visible will make a huge difference to how your business thrives post the lockdown.
Connection is Key
Most people want to feel connected and heard during this time of isolation, which is why digital has taken the forefront. This is the best time to focus on your content creation and SEO strategy — push out information that will keep your audience engaged, informed and entertained, not to mention easily available.
Embracing innovative technology is another key way to engage with your audience, and enable business through this current transformation. Social distancing and lockdown have made it difficult to reach our audiences or generate sales — B&M stores are facing huge losses and even declaring bankruptcy. At Unifynd, we focus on innovative products that blur the lines between online and offline. During this time, we have leveraged the online capabilities of our product, Future Retail Technologies, to ensure our customers are able to connect with their audiences in the right manner and upgrade their marketing & business approach.
Revisit Your Budgets
No one is expecting you to have a big-budgeted marketing plan, but with organic reach and conversions greatly reduced, it would be wise to set aside a budget to help your ads get the visibility they deserve. If you are an e-commerce brand, now would be a great time to invest in PPC marketing. Apps have been adapting by providing add on services with the integration of technology, providing their customers with safe options to avail their products & amenities. Do not give up on Digital at this point in the game, it could make or break your business.
Prepare To Prosper
If you have managed to understand your audience, connect with them, make their lives easier and more bearable in some manner, you will fall into the bracket of businesses that have made a difference. Post this pandemic, you will have the upper hand against competitors that chose to stay silent in a time where having a voice was more crucial than ever. While most brands will need to play catch up, you can transition your marketing strategy fluidly and focus on upping your sales and profit margins.
The current situation might seem glum, and tough choices need to be made, but tough times don’t last, the tough people behind the businesses do. Make sure you revisit your marketing strategy and revamp it to power through. We will see brighter days.
