We currently find ourselves in strange and desperate times, for businesses and their customers alike. Most businesses are stuck with no revenue without any prior warning. Surviving this crisis might seem like only a distant dream, but if you market effectively now your business will weather the storm.

As we have seen in previous economic recessions, the companies that make it through successfully were the ones who marketed with the strongest customer focus. Here are some of the key principles they followed:

Love your customer

If you can’t do business with your customers, now is the time to let them know you love them. Having your customers at the heart of your marketing strategy means that you will communicate with them in a way that is relevant to them in the current circumstances. Keep in mind that they are just as affected by the pandemic as you are. Businesses hard selling at them and demanding that they ‘spend now’ will not inspire loyalty in the long run.

“I will be loyal to you if you are loyal to me” is definitely the key phrase here.

Know your customer

The main aim of any business is to sell their customer something that would solve a specific problem for them. Whether it be a product or a service, knowing why your customer chose to support your specific business is vital. What is it that made you different from your competitors?

It is important not to speculate on what you think it could be. It can be tempting to cast your net out, hoping to reel in as many customers as you can. But this will cost a lot of money and will wield very poor results.

You need specific analytics on who your customers are. What demographic group do they fall into? What are their typical spending patterns? How has the pandemic altered their behaviour?

The simplest and most cost-effective way to do this is to delve into your social media interactions. If you know who your customers are, ask them for online reviews. If not, get someone with a strong digital marketing background to set up and track your website visits, social media visits and online interactions for you.

Remind your customer

With the lockdown rules in place, people are spending an increasing amount of time online. They are turning to the internet for entertainment, coping mechanisms and to keep communicating with the outside world.

Once you understand who your customers are and why they prefer your brand, you can design an effective social media plan. This plan will aim to give your customers information and answers that would most effectively encourage loyalty. Once you have a loyal set of customers, your business will thrive no matter how much your competition lowers their prices.

In an ideal scenario you want your customer to say: “See, this is why I like them.”

Use the downtime in operations to make your customers more familiar with your brand and with your business. Endeavour to send out regular newsletters that communicate your core message. Let them know what you that you are on their side during the turmoil and that you will be available for them once everything returns back to normal.

Keep dealing with your customer

During every period of economic turmoil, businesses had a choice to make: adapt or die. The current Covid-19 crisis has meant exactly that. Business has been severely disrupted and most companies are unable to trade as they normally did.

ParcelNinja CEO Justin Drennan said they have seen a spike in the number of companies which are currently not online that want to launch an ecommerce offering.

With foot traffic in malls and shopping centres decreasing, businesses are seeing the value of being available online.

If your business was still available during the crisis, even just through communication, your customers will remember that you were there for them while they were isolated at home. Hearing from your favourite brands during dark times provides a small sense of normalcy that people will be very grateful for.

If you need help setting up proper online analytics, or to create a digital marketing campaign that will see you through this uncertain time, contact us. We are available during the lockdown.