How to Adapt Your Smart & Responsible Marketing during the Coronavirus

It has been almost a couple of months now that we are all into lockdown and the pandemic has literally turned our lives topsy-turvy.

From social distancing to quarantining we have all gone through a lot in the past few months and businesses, too have not been able to be immune from the tremendous impact of Covid 19.

Apart from postponement and cancellation of events, millions have resorted to working from home and complete sanitization of any and every office and facility has become the new norm.

At this time of crisis businesses in almost every sector has taken a hit. With layoffs and order cancellations at large, it has become a challenge for all to survive and sustain in this industry right now.

But panicking is not going to help you out. For assisting you, here are some of the tips for marketing protocols at Covid times.

Empathetic Marketing Protocols during Coronavirus

Though each and every business is different, here are some tips that can come to the aid of brands of all sizes and help them avoid mistakes.

Adjust Content Timelines and Marketing Campaigns

There are certain brands that are able to give rise to quick-turn marketing campaigns created for a specific time.  For example, many brands like Ford changed their vehicle ads to Covid response campaigns. These are almost always great but prohibitive risks are still there and they have proven to be unrealistic for most brands. Hence you should first audit your existing and upcoming campaigns and this is especially the case with pre-scheduled contents that are awaiting their launch.

Decide What Should be Paused Immediately

You should push the timelines on major campaigns that are likely to be eclipsed if released now. You can also stop the campaigns immediately if you are unsure about the content. Also take into account that if your content consists of elements that may not be appropriate right now, it does not mean that you have to scrap them away altogether. Once the outbreak subsides, it is likely that many things will fall into place.

Consider What to Pivot or Prioritise

You have to look out for ways to pivot some messaging or move things up in the interim. For example, you can change a particular campaign theme from “Meet Your Potential Clients” to “Support Your Customers”. Also transform your campaign visuals.

This content break is likely to benefit you as normalcy resumes. Keep an eye on the advertisements for quarantine in local or nearby business areas as every region is on a different timeline. This way you can be proactive in communicating once things get back to work.

Cease All Non-Essential Releases and Launches

The press releases and launches are the key to PR strategy. But understand that now is not the ideal time for your announcement. Right now nobody cares. Each and everyone is in a state of panic and is trying their best to adopt to the new ways of life. So you should put the product launch and press release off until things calm down.

Judge Your Language and Imagery

The visual communication is empowering as it is essential to think about the brand messages that the brand is sending.

Avoid Visuals of People Touching or Crowds

This includes people working at social gatherings or in offices out of the house.

Swap the Visual Out

If you have upcoming or current campaign visuals that can be tricky. Revise the images now or postpone it till a later period.

Edit the Marketing Language that Describes Close Interaction

Avoid the figurative languages like “work hand in hand”, “get in touch” etc. The message that encourages immediate contact can be scrutinised deeply.

The contents talked about here are push contents specifically that you are using right now for promoting your business which include everything like social posts, email subject lines, current campaign taglines, blogs and contents.

As the quarantine period is bound to be over soon, audience is likely to show forgiveness towards your pre-existing contents. The permanent elements of brand like your home page or logo can remain intact until they are actively promoting people touching or large crowds.

Transform the Event-based Marketing

The large gathering prohibition is cutting into businesses that serve events and marketers that theme the campaigns around events. You should develop alternative ideas for marketing for the physical event planned during the summer and spring. The conference expos must go online, the sports events move to streaming delivery and so on. You should not wait till the cancellation of the event for developing a plan. Try conducting your scheduled event virtually.

Don’t Capitalise on People’s Crisis

This applies to any crisis or tragedy. It is especially essential to remember this in today’s situation –

Keep the People Informed

Brands must communicate and share a response to the crisis as it is essential for the business. For example, you must tell your audience about the measures you are taking to contain the crisis like policy updates related to Coronavirus and store closures. Even if the messages are memed in social media, they are essential for improving your customer relationships as they are informative.

Do Not Brag

You should know that many people are not working during this time and are genuinely disturbed. So always make sure that the spirit of empathy and humility must be the filter for anything you say or do in future.

Don’t be an Alarmist

You can share information about the condition, but you must not add to the panic. You should be wary of overly dramatized language or added info that you are sharing.

Avoid Insensitive Words and Watch Your Tone

You should pay heed to the tone of communication like “Hot Coronavirus Sale” should be avoided. There are few words that were previously harmless, but can hurt people’s emotions now like –

• Contagious (like How to Create Contagious Copies)
• Killer 
• Checkup or health related terms like (Did your heart miss a beat!)
• Infectious
• Viral
• Spread
• Gather

Apart from the above, the experts of a reputed digital marketing company insist that you should also use this time to strengthen your digital presence as the future will depend more and more on that. One more thing that you should consider is to extend maximum assistance possible to people of your community including both the employees and customers who are affected by the virus in anyway possible through technology, resources or skill-set. This is the right thing to do and it will be appreciated and remembered by your community.