Marketing Your Business During The 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic
A lot has changed in the course of the past few weeks especially when it comes to marketing your business with the Covid-19 virus in full swing throughout the country.. We are all learning to navigate this new norm and now more than ever more of us are working from home. It’s a bit wild. My family and I are home on self-isolation and it is absolutely challenging to work, care for the kids and home school. I’m sure many of you are facing the same thing. Given the current situation I have made some drastic changes to the content that I am putting out in an effort to support you.
Having been in business for nearly 17 years and endured many global challenges in my years, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you some marketing strategies and recommendations during this climate.
- Adjust your message accordingly – I’ve seen this a lot with big brands who plan their content well in advance especially but it is important to reevaluate any previously scheduled message so that you don’t send out any offensive messages that might result in damage to your brand. As you move forward through a crisis like this consider how you might be able to reframe your message to apply to the current situation. For example, a gym might want to adjust their messaging around how everyone is at home and now is the time to get into shape they could even consider doing a special incentive to get people hooked on their programs.
This is especially important when you consider something you could tie into your core values. For example, my client Steven Greene of Make the Grade, he owns a tutoring business and online community for creating success for students.. He has been in business for many years and one of the core values is that parents should be co-educators in their child’s education. This is a great example of leveraging your core values because he can now speak to this philosophy and tie it into how many people will be distance learning their children for the foreseeable future.
- Facebook Ads – As with any economic disruption many advertisers, especially the big ones (notice you have seen zero ads for travel and cruise lines) pull all of their advertisements effective immediately. This is a huge opportunity for smaller companies and online businesses to take advantage of these lower cost ads. Facebook Ad prices fluctuate based on demand.
The good news is that I have seen very little disruption to ad conversions during this time and in all actuality I’ve actually seen ad costs go down and conversion increase. Why? Because people are spending more time online. What does this mean for you? If you already have an offer or opt-in that is converting organically (or is proven) this might be time for you to consider ads. If you are already running ads it might be time to ad more add spend to them. Again, all of this is contingent upon having messaging that is in alignment with the current client so make adjustments accordingly.
- Be Consistent – If you have been following me for any period of time you know that I believe consistency is essential to success. It is more essential now more than ever to be consistent because people are looking to industry leaders to see what they are doing and user behavior is changing. Meaning people are spending WAY more time online. NOW is the time to show up and deliver value to your community.
- Be Real and Authentic, – Again, this is one of my core values but now more than ever people want to feel a connection to you. Gove are the days of the perfect staged posts and now are the days of posting a picture of your morning pjs and your evening pjs since everyone is working from home! Be real about what is going on in your life so that your community can relate.
- Reach Out – I have gotten the opportunity to connect with so many people who I haven’t spoken to in ages. Make a list of past clients, business colleagues, old friends and reach out, ask how they are doing if there is any way you can support them during this time. I am finding this not only refreshing but it keeps me connected to the outside world.
Let me know in the comments what your plan is to market yourself during this time!
