As the crisis of Coronavirus (COVID-19) worsens in the UK and beyond, many brands and their people are suffering. Big brands such as Uber and Apple are feeling the fear, with reports of revenue losses because of supply chain issues and declining consumer demand.
There have been indications that COVID-19 is start to impact ad revenues too, with the NY Times reporting that revenue would be down 10% this quarter. It has also been reported that Facebook’s ad business will suffer due to uncertainty and anxiety about the virus.
This uncertainty and anxiety are having a real-world impact, which is affecting the digital ecosystem. However – there are some things digital marketers can try to remember when trying to navigate the current climate.
1. Use Automation to Help Keep Things on Track
If your business has to put things on hold – don’t forget that automation is built to help run marketing tasks in the background for you. Tasks you can automate include:
- Social posts – set weeks of social posts up well in advance and schedule them to go out on multiple platforms at a time/date that suits you best. Connect multiple social channels, including personal LinkedIn accounts so your team can appear active, even when you’re not.
- Utilise automated journeys to nurture prospects along the funnel, such as via email. Set up email journeys to automatically email prospects when they sign up for your newsletter, buy from your website, download a piece of content, etc. Automated email journeys can send a series of emails to your prospect to try and nurture them along the funnel towards becoming a sale. This leaves your sales team free to focus on hot prospects, knowing that leads that are further up the funnel are being nurtured in the background.
- Make your strategy multichannel, by adding prospects to PPC audiences on Facebook and LinkedIn, at scale. If a lead opens an email when they’re on a journey, you can automatically add them to an audience, so your message is reaching them via email and on their social media platforms too.
2. Focus on Multichannel
At this time, your prospects will be focusing more on their phones, keeping an eye on the news and their social channels for updates on COVID-19. This is an opportunity for your brand to take advance of the spike in audience touchpoints and build long-term relationships with your audience, through social and other mobile-first channels.
Try to create an engaging experience and provide comfort in a time of fear – whether that’s through helpful advice, or guidance to authoritative sources. Ensure your team are providing great customer service and an excellent e-comms experience, through as many channels as possible.
3. Use Remote Working and Less Focus on Sales as a Time to Get Creative and Spend Time on Strategy
Many businesses have resigned themselves to the fact that sales will unfortunately drop at this time, due to brands not knowing the future and saving budget. However, you can use this time to focus on strategy, and the various campaigns that you will run when things pick back up again.
There are many scalable solutions like AR technology that can be used when remote working, to ensure your team stays focused and productive.
You can also use this time to update content, tutorial videos and your website, to help your brand look better and fresher than ever.
4. Don’t Hard Sell – Show Empathy
As marketers, the most important question you need to be answering right now isn’t ‘how can I sell more?’. Instead, you should be focusing your message on your customers and how COVID-19 is affecting them. Questions such as ‘how can I better support my customers at this time?’, or ‘how can my product/service or advice help ease my customer’s fears during this time’, will work on bettering your brand’s image, rather than focusing solely on profit.
An increasing number of brands have stepped up their support, including Alibaba, LVMH and L’Oreal. These brands have donated either sums or services, both small and large, to the Chinese Red Cross and other charities. Even a small token of support to pledge your help will go a long way (and it is good for PR, too).
