4 Effective Marketing Strategies For The Covid-19 Era
Effective marketing strategies are essential tools for a business to strive and grow.
Good marketing includes having an in-depth understanding of your target consumers, lifestyle, perspective, challenges, and much more.
Unfortunately, the Covid-19 era has influenced your target consumers’ lifestyle, behaviors, and feelings due to the recent imposed social distancing and lockdown.
In an era like this, as an entrepreneur, you must develop yourself to respond to change.
Even though your business is essential, don’t forget to focus on your health, which is another primary reason to change your marketing strategies.
Presently, you need to evaluate and adopt new effective marketing strategies that will meet your target segment and affect your business positively.
To help you grow your business, we have this impressive list of effective marketing strategies for the Covid-19 era.
Keep reading to find out about the secrets to escape financial distress during this pandemic crisis.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a powerful space to maximize and get your business going even in a time like this.
Since the lockdown has shifted many people’s attention to social media, it now becomes the best place to market your business effectively.
If you have accounts on social media, in the likes of Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, you should go back there right now.
They are not just meant to search for friends, hookups, and find love; you can also promote your business there.
Most importantly, if you want to cut back on ad expenses, take advantage of your social media platforms-all of them.
Have a business account
A business account is a better way of saying, “this is me, and this is what I sell.”
You will showcase your products or services to your target consumers on your social media business account and get their attention in return.
You will realize you are promoting your business faster and easier by using this simple tool.
Be available and be active.
One of the effective marketing strategies that you can apply to social media is compassion. Everyone is involved in this crisis, including you.
Therefore, you must let your target audience know that you feel for them and that more than making sales, you care about them.
You can do this by posting quotes, words of encouragement, and more on your social media timelines.
What everyone needs right now is care, love, empathy, and compassion.
Therefore, your target consumers will not only appreciate you, but they will also trust and build a relationship with you.
Email Marketing
It is very crucial for you to keep communicating with your clients to retain them.
Every entrepreneur must know this secret, as it’s an effective marketing strategy for this era.
You wouldn’t have the chance to see your consumers face-to-face, but you can keep up with them via email.
59% of people say that email marketing helps them decide their purchases. This statistic means that this is one of the most effective marketing strategies for the Covid-19 era.
Asides this, it’s a long-term strategy to market and keeps up with your consumers.
Now that almost everyone stays at home, your consumers may think that your business is locked down too.
However, let them know you are still actively in business by communicating with them about the adjustments in the way you run your business now.
Also, let them know when you have new stock and how you can get your products or services to them. Remember, their health is at stake so put that into consideration.
Here are the steps to take to make a goal-based communication through email marketing;
Be focused on a goal.
You must have a goal in mind for your email marketing. You can’t just start by sending random or any mail to your customers.
Having a goal will enable you to measure the result of your marketing endeavors.
Asides, it will be a guide to your target consumers to know your expectations from them.
You can also use email marketing to turn the attention of your consumers to your social media platforms.
With this strategy, you can excite your consumers, get feedback from them, and get them satisfied without putting their health at risk.
You will definitely make sales, which should be your number one goal for using this marketing strategy.
While you frequently update them, never ignore the importance of mentioning special services or outstanding designs to them.
When you do that, you will get the full attention of your target clients and make more money.
Operate with the flow
What this means is that you should work with automated email flows. When you use automation, then nailing the primary goal of your email marketing will be easy.
Look at these methods of an automated email flow;
If before the COVID-19 pandemic, a consumer has a pending purchase with you, for instance, if they leave a cart without completing it.
The communication should not stop there; it will be great to use the email marketing strategy to complete this action.
Use this marketing strategy to remind them of their pending shopping and offer them help on how to get it across to them.
Use the email flow to send them discount sales. With this, you are encouraging them to make a purchase.
Automated email flows such as win-back flows, happy birthday campaigns, and abandoned cart mails. These messages are all good means of marketing strategies in this era.
Another automated email flow is a reminder mail. This method allows you to re-engage the consumers that have not patronized you for about two months or more.
You can as well add GIFs to your mails to make your emails stand out and encourage your customers to patronize you again.
Incentivize your consumer’s loyalty
You may think using email marketing and your loyalty program together is not necessary for this COVID-19 era.
The truth is that it will not only retain market cash flow; it will also get your business through this challenging time.
We can’t emphasize this better. People will seek a loyal marketer first in this era, specifically because it’s an online business.
Hence, be loyal.
Paid Advertising
During this pandemic, so many business owners pulled back on paid advertisements to reduce their expenses.
They are not very wrong for making that decision, but it’s not a good idea at all.
Currently, to keep your business growing and relevant you still need to invest in paid advertisements.
If you have been using paid ads as a marketing strategy before the beginning of coronavirus, now is not the time to put an end to it.
This is the right time to intensify it. If you use this marketing tool now, your customers will not forget your business, and you will continue to make sales.
Remember – out of sight, out of mind.
Reduce your budget, but don’t kill it
Yes! If you can’t afford a paid advertisement anymore due to low sales, don’t stop it entirely. Instead of stopping it, keep it running by reducing your budget for it.
For instance, if you spend $150 on paid ads before, you can now cut it to $70. If you still can’t afford that, you can reduce it to whatever amount that won’t affect your cash flow.
Nevertheless, if your previous $150 budget will not affect your cash flow in this present situation, then keep running it.
Make it count
Your primary concern now should be that your money would count for your business. Remember, it’s a paid advertisement.
Get the value for what you are paying for. The best way to get this value is to ensure you are not only displaying your product. Above all, let your targets know your identity and values.
When they realize this fact, you will not only make sales; you will also gain their trust.
Offer Discounts
In situations like this, people may not be interested in purchasing some items such as fancy shoes or suits. Blame it on the lockdown.
Therefore, if what you sell is clothes or shoes, the best way to make sales right now is by offering discounts.
The good side is that you will encourage old clients to shop, and you will attract new consumers.
When you offer a fair discount, you will drive traffic to your website and increase your income too.
You can try these types of discount:
Discount two or more products to give your target consumers the chance to try new products.
Make use of volume discounts to increase your consumers’ shopping value.
Another method is to offer free or discounted shipping when your customers reach a particular order level. Let’s say you will offer them free or discounted shipping on five products ordered.
You can add other ways to offer a discount and use them for marketing your business effectively.
Conclusion
Covid-19 era should not be a factor to lock down your business; it should also not be a reason for you to stop marketing your products.
Apply a few or all the effective marketing strategies for the COVID-19 era listed above to make your business relevant and grow.