Companies across countries and industries are facing major obstacles due to COVID-19, a pandemic that has swept over the world like an invisible hand diminishing everything in its wake. In a short time businesses- whether big time or small time have suffered and some have been forced to shut down altogether.

With almost all employees working from home, managers and business owners are faced with the additional task of monitoring and coordinating work. While some have been successful in churning out productive work during this lull phase, others are still confused with handing out tasks and making the best use of so many available man-hours.

This unprecedented situation has upset advertising and marketing strategies everywhere and it comes as no surprise that low sales have made marketing managers reduce ad spends considerably. What then is a brand supposed to do to ensure that its audience does not lose sight of it?

Here are some insights as to how brands can market through a crisis:

 

Build relationships

It is a stressful time and honestly, while most people are browsing products, no is really placing orders.  At such a time, discounts and offers would prove useless. Instead, one should look at communicating with customers. Letting them know about trends, future products, or prompting them to mark favorites that they can purchase when the situation allows it.

 

Go online

If you own an offline store, it is likely that you have been made to shut operations. During the time of a pandemic such as this one, you could consider going online. And we don’t mean a website that will cost you a lot (because frankly, we all are a little broke). Leveraging social media channels like Instagram, and Facebook to introduce your business and create brand and product awareness (and maybe even allow customers to book products for delivery) is an idea to consider.

 

Create Value

If you are a compulsive instagrammer, you have seen brands going LIVE with activities and things-to-do to make productive use of your time. So many brands have chosen to collaborate with yoga/pilates/dance instructors, nutritionists, and therapists who create content around how to make the best use of this time. Giving the consumer something that he can relate to during a troubled phase builds trust and credibility. Users have been religiously devouring this type of content.

 

Create viral yet meaningful content

Now by viral content, by no means do we mean that you need to create pandemic related memes and jokes. No thanks! Fresh information, good news, positive quotes- all of these could act as mood lifters and conversation builders online. You can even create blogs and post them on your website. Create as many blogs as you can. You can post them even after the pandemic is over when you’ll have less time to write. With all this time on our hands, the number of people who are likely to read them has surely increased.

 

Testimonials

Now is the best time to send out messages to your most loyal customers and ask them to send video or text messages about their experience with your brand. Allow them to get creative by giving them ideas and if it works well, you can also use these on your social pages. This will increase organic credibility and hardly takes any effort.

 

Optimize for SEO

SEO is an ongoing process that takes time and consistent effort; something that marketers are unable to fit into their everyday work routine. Now would be a good time to invest in a long term SEO strategy that can be extended throughout the year. Adding relevant keywords in page titles, meta descriptions, ALT tags, and content optimization are some of the things that you can work on during this free time.

 

We hope this helps with the declining productivity as you work from home, and we would love to speak with you if you need more ideas.

Meanwhile #StayHome and #WashYourHands