Masks, vaccine mandates, negative tests … the global COVID-19 pandemic and its long-lasting impacts continue to be the hot topics of nearly every conversation — with friends, family, colleagues, clients and strangers.
Businesses are continuing to navigate the new normal that includes exclusively working from home or a hybrid office model, increased and enhanced technologies, and the ever-increasing demand for instant access. As with any major event, COVID has dynamically shifted customers’ perspectives, altering the way they think, feel, act and purchase. They’ve changed their behaviors, so businesses need to change, as well.
When at a crossroads and unsure how to proceed, brainstorm, go back to the drawing board and go back to basics — the fundamentals. Here are some tips to make your marketing more meaningful.
Confirm the pain point
New products and services are born when a problem needs to be solved. Is your product or service still solving the same customer pain point? Are there other problems you could help to solve based on your current resources? Helping ease someone’s pain creates a demand for your offering and provides a natural sales funnel.
Redefine your target customer
Is Sally Shopper still the person buying your widget? Or is it now her college grad kid? Revisit your audience, build an incredibly specific persona and then illustrate and name your customer. Get in their head.
Outline the usual demographic, geographic and psychographic details and include an answer to a new question: How has the pandemic impacted their daily life? When you start digging deeper, you may uncover new findings and ideas for ways to reach your ever-evolving customer.
Identify ways to be smarter, better, faster
Does anyone even remember a time before free two-day shipping? Grocery delivery? Smartphones? Internet? Use technology to your advantage. Explore platforms to automate your business functions and explore how they can directly impact your end-user. Working smarter, better and faster will launch brands into the next era.
Customers demand brands deliver fast. During the pandemic, innovative companies have developed and expanded their apps and delivered on the desire from customers to get what they want, when they want it.
Keep it multichannel
Gone are the days of, “Let’s run a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl to sell our chips.” Good businesses look at every possible channel to reach their customers. Despite this past year shifting the focus to digital, brands must get back to multichannel strategies to keep the connection with their customers authentic and organic.
Traditional avenues like television, radio and billboards can co-exist with digital advertising, earned media, social media, and event and experiential face-to-face engagement. Direct mail can be coupled with in-store retail promotions and/or mobile app push notifications. Having a multichannel marketing approach will drive brand loyalty and is necessary for success.
Consumerism and engagement define today’s world We’ve got to up our game in this post-pandemic world and get better at meeting our customers where they are and when they need us most. Make your marketing meaningful by solving a pain point for your target customer and do it smarter, better, faster by keeping it multichannel. ●
Maggie Ellison is vice president of Event Marketing Strategies
