5 Effective Crisis Marketing Strategies During Coronavirus

“Survive, Improve, and Seize Opportunity.” 

—Greg Milano

Businesses worldwide were caught unprepared by the sudden surge of coronavirus. Events were canceled, most businesses closed, and people were advised to stay home while the government, including the health sectors, are mitigating the transmission of the deadly virus.

Given the extremely alarming situation, economists believe that the economy has fallen into recession. That said, businesses must undertake the necessary steps to fight the global economic catastrophe. Business losses should not be a reason to cut on marketing costs as doing so may have long term consequences. 

Companies that continue to thrive despite recessions are those that persistently market themselves. They take advantage of the fact that effective marketing maintains something akin to a meeting ground where businesses and their potential and existing customers connect and transact, thereby resulting in uninterrupted and long-term profitability.

How can businesses maintain operations in the middle of an outbreak? How can business owners exhibit how useful their services can be despite the strictly regulated interactions they may have with new and existing customers?

5 Marketing Tips for Taking a Great Leap Forward

1. Build a More Solid Relationship with Customers

Establishing a close business relationship with customers is a powerful customer retention strategy. As customers become more attached to a brand, the less likely they are to switch to competitors. Content creation, email marketing, and social media presence must be executed to win the heart of customers.

1. Content Creation is the process of writing informative blogs or articles that speak for one’s brand. The content should include solutions to customers’ problems, client testimonials, and reasons for engaging with the brand.
2. Email Marketing is a cost-effective way of sending different types of personalized messages to the right audiences. It is also a useful channel for spreading the word about an upcoming promotion or enticing customers to try exclusive, limited-time offers.
3. Social Media Marketing is the use of social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to facilitate active interaction between businesses and their customers. Using social media is an excellent avenue for pinpointing encouraging product or services reviews, influencing buying decisions, and helping resolve concerns of target audiences.

2. Build Brand Awareness and Visibility

Search engines’ algorithms change over time. Hence, businesses should monitor these changes to be able to ride with the current tide. Being easily searchable online is vital to corner the market, and this can be done through the following:

1. Familiarity Principle refers to the increased preference for a product or service because of repeated exposure that leads to familiarization.
2. Blog Optimisation pertains to updating old content that can still bring value to customers. Updating old content entails incorporating trending keywords to help boost the content’s ranking in search engines.
3. Recommendations speak about word-of-mouth marketing. Businesses must encourage customers to recommend them to their friends and family. They can likewise create an interview video where customers share their positive experiences with the brand.

3. Focus on Conversion Rate Optimisation

Conversion Rate Optimisation or CRO is the systematic strategy of increasing the number of website visitors who convert into customers. It also refers to customers or site visitors who took an action such as filling out a form, subscribing, or making a purchase.

1. Positive Reviews and Stories include customer testimonials, social media reviews, and case studies, all of which are crucial during the purchasing stage of customers as they prefer companies that have proven to bring them great value. With this, all positive reviews and stories should be posted across all business websites and social channels.
2. A User-friendly and Stunning Website increases visitors’ engagement with the site. Business organizations should invest in creating a visually appealing, user-friendly website complete with scannable content relevant to the products and services offered. This is to enhance the users’ experience and help boost conversion.

4. Review and Analyze Analytics

Data analytics is a key factor that helps businesses understand customer behavior and their choices based on their demographics (age, gender, location, interests). It also provides a clearer view on how customers were able to find the website, what the website’s most popular content/s are, and the total number of conversions it garnered in a day, week, or month.

1. Check Google Analytics. It is a great tool for monitoring and analyzing website traffic. If used properly, it can definitely boost one’s marketing strategies by keeping track of the traffic source, customer location, web browsers used by customers, and the keywords used by customers that lead them to the website. Therefore, when using Google Analytics, the goals of the company should be set up and clearly defined while search consoles should be aptly connected.

1. Review Social Media Analytics. Social Media Analytics provide the essential information as to the effectiveness of an organizations’ social media marketing campaigns. 

Social Media Analytics help businesses in terms of:

• Understanding their audience 
• Determining what better content to produce
• Finding the platform where customers are most active
• Tracking competitors and their activities
• Creating effective marketing strategies

5. Execute a Test-and-Learn Approach

In the digital marketing world, one strategy may not work for everyone as businesses have different products and/or services. At the same time, trends in digital marketing can be unpredictable. An effective marketing strategy today may not be as effective in the coming days. 

When experimenting for the best marketing techniques, the most engaging content calls to action, and website characteristics and visuals, there are certain points that need to be considered to avoid wasting time and losing money. 

1. Budget within one’s Means - Businesses should be realistic when allocating budget for their marketing plan. The financial cost should yield financial gain to achieve the best ROI possible.
2. Prepare a Well-Defined Strategy - A clear and organized strategy helps businesses achieve their marketing goal. It enables them to evaluate whether they have reached the target ROI or not. The strategy or plan will also serve as a basis for determining which aspects of the marketing approach used can be improved to gain more favorable results. 
3. Make it Simple - To get concrete data, plans should be simple in such a way that changes or adjustments that yield higher profits can be done easily.

The Key Takeaway: It’s not the end of the world economy.

The truth of the matter is that the rapid spread of the novel coronavirus disease will leave economic consequences worldwide. However, the current situation must be taken as a golden opportunity for businesses to improve and plan their solid marketing strategies to survive the ”black swan of 2020” along with any other inevitable future changes.

Today is the finest moment to find answers to the following crucial business questions:

• What is the best way to find leads and customers?
• How can the products and services stay relevant after the downturn?
• What are the challenges that one’s business is currently facing in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis?
• How can businesses carry out the above-mentioned solutions?