6 steps to keep your marketing relevant in a crisis
The world is changing your marketing must change too!
Don't lose customers with your old marketing message
The first thing to remember is “people don't buy products or services, they buy solutions to their problems”. Which means your marketing message (selling points) for your products must be centered around the problems your target audience is experiencing. When your customers' problems change or a world crisis like Covid-19 happens, it shifts the way customers think and prioritise their needs.
Just think of pivoting like the recalculating feature on your satnav. You have a product or service you are selling and are using particular marketing messages to communicate your product is the best product to solve your target customers problem. If your customers' problems change for whatever reason you change your marketing message (your route) so that your product is still a direct answer to your customers new problems. In other words, your end destination hasn't changed, only your route to get you there has - your marketing message. You are still selling the same product but you have changed (recalculated) the marketing message so that you are now the obvious go-to person to solve this new problem.
Step 1: Identify Your Offering
Make a list of your products and services you offer. This needs to be very thorough, note down every add-on you offer including all your packages. You can use a spreadsheet to do this exercise.
Step 2: Identify Your Customers New Pain Points
Step into the mind of your customer by writing down all their new pain points. If you don't know this information off the cuff - do some research. Have a look on facebook, Linkedin or Instagram what are your target customers talking about online? Contact some of your existing customers and ask them what they are currently struggling with at the moment
Step 3: Identify How Your Product Solves Your Customers Problem
Under each product/service write down how it makes your customer's life better? What problem does the product/service solve? What will using your product enable your customer to do that they couldn't do before? Think about the questions customers have in their minds when they search for products and services like yours, answer these questions.
Step 4: Craft Your Marketing Message
Using the information from step 2 and 3 you craft your marketing messages for each product and service. When you are writing your copy, be sure to empathise with your customers needs and understand where they might be coming from.
Step 5: Get Customers To Take Action
Once a customer has engaged with your content, post or website give them a clear set of steps to take purchase or make a contact. How are customers going to buy your product? What will your call to action be? Do they need to make a call to book a service? Do they download an item?
Step 6: Make your Marketing Message Consistent
Once you’ve crafted your marketing messages, you need to make sure it's consistent throughout your marketing. Go through your website and add in your new messaging, do the same for any automated email sequences you have. You want your communication to be clear and don't want to communicate confusion.