Like every crisis, COVID-19 presents opportunities to those willing to think outside the box. For marketers, this means a renewed push towards digital. With an unprecedented number of people working, living – and buying products – from home, pure play digital marketing approaches have the potential to create a massive impact.

The key is for marketers to “read the room,” to understand the different ways in which people are dealing with this unprecedented situation and to craft digital messages that resonate. Let’s have a look at few tactics firms can adopt to succeed in the post-COVID world:

Communication: less is more

Communication matters now more than ever: audiences are quite literally captive at home. Indeed the lack of real-life communication is creating an ongoing mental health crisis. In this scenario, audiences crave empathetic voices that resonate with their experience. In this scenario, the adage “less is more” is essential. When crafting a message, it’s important to be genuine: blindly cashing in on COVID-19 is a tactics that runs the risk of misfiring: a number of organisations even have unofficial policies on the kind of wording that needs to be used.

The specifics don’t matter as much: you need to focus on empathy, on stories that are relatable to the audience’s current situation, and on solutions to their current problems.

Being right there: consistent engagement

Hundreds of millions of people around the world are finding that they have more free time on their hands than ever before. This means that they have more time for leisure, more time for friends, and even more time to engage with brands. The consumer’s list of more important things to do has shrunk considerably, presenting brands with a unique opportunity to step up the frequency and quality of their consumer engagement. A strong push today towards multi-channel engagement – across devices, browsers, and apps – is beneficial because communication-starved consumers are primed for any kind of engagement. In this scenario, soft-sell outreach can work in tandem to generate a consistent, high level of two-way engagement with consumers.

Offer help to reap the long-term rewards

Empathy doesn’t just mean commiserating with the audience’s problems. In these times, people have less. In this scenario, soft-sell campaigns aimed towards building consumer trust and long-term relationships will be far more effective than product-based hard sells. Your audience might not be able to buy your product today, but you can go a long way towards guaranteeing a positive relationship by building trust. Wherever it’s possible and economically feasible, find ways to help your audience, no strings attached. For instance, IT software companies are offering special discounts or product freebies. Manufacturers are helping with virus testing efforts. Use this time to build the story of why you care for the customer. When the world goes back to normal, the trust you build will reward you manifoldly.

Conclusion

We’re living through a watershed moment for digital marketing: people around the world have been physically constrained to their homes and to digital platforms for months. Marketers who are able to leverage these unprecedented levels of audience availability will be rewarded in the months and years to come. But with everyone trying to get in on the action, standing out, really connecting with the audience, will be the greatest challenge.

Power Technologies – For further enquiries on any of our expertise or services, whether it is for website design & development, mobile application development, or digital media marketing, please feel free to contact or WhatsApp (+6016)-202 1700, email [email protected] or visit powertechnologies.com.my. Thank you.

Power Technologies

Author Power Technologies

More posts by Power Technologies