Marketing During Crisis

I’ve seen numerous posts about whether or not marketers should continue marketing during this time, or if it just comes across as tacky and disingenuous. For sure, automated emails need to be stopped and reevaluated. But all marketing shouldn’t stop – it can’t, or you’ll be doing your company and your team a huge disservice when they need your skills more than ever. However, it is time to reassess.

Revisit Your Personas

In the face of crisis, your personas are no longer correct. Before COVID-19, your personas cared about different things than they care about now. Consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – before, most consumers were likely in one of the Psychological Needs tiers, perhaps a few were even in the Self-fulfillment tier. Now, however, folks are back down to the Basic Needs – they want to feel safe and they want their basic needs (food, medicine, toilet paper) met. Trying to appeal to consumers at the Psychological or Self-fulfillment level is missing the mark. You need to show how your product or service will help them meet their basic needs at this time – more than ever, you need to reframe your messaging to provide comfort and security to your customer.

Revisit Your Short- and Long-Term Plans

The plan you so carefully crafted at year-end for 2020 is no longer relevant. You need a new plan – and fast. In fact, you need a short-term plan to get you through the crisis, and a long-term plan to get you through the recession that is likely to follow COVID-19. We’ve had a great run for the past several years, but it’s going to take awhile for the economy to rebound from the effects of the pandemic. Your short-term plan should help get your company, clients, and team through these tough times – cut costs, get creative with the resources you have, and, above all, provide value.

Your long-term plan should be written in pencil – and keep that eraser handy. First, we don’t know how long we will be in the thick of the pandemic. Second, news and markets are fluctuating daily. Third, it’s an election year. You need to be nimble and ready to adjust to change. Think through your best and worst case scenarios, and be ready to act.

Which Side of Karma Do You Want to Be On?

Now is the time to be generous, compassionate, and deliberate. Weigh the benefits of offering a piece of content with no strings attached versus including a landing page. How will that make your customer feel – like a person you want to help or like an email address for a database?

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
~Maya Angelou

More than ever, with emotions and nerves running high, people are going to remember how you made them feel during this time. Make it your job to make them feel seen and heard.

• Call your clients and prospects just to ask how they (and their families) are doing.
• Connect people who may be able to help each other.
• Offer pro bono services.  
• Donate to your local food bank.

Now is the time to build a reservoir of good will. The people who’s lives you touch may repay you over time, but the actions you do now should be altruistic or it will only seem like a publicity stunt or worse. 

What is your Marketing department or agency doing to let your customers know you care?