Is your marketing messaging COVID-friendly?
Coronavirus is impacting the words and sentiments we use to communicate
Just as Coronavirus has changed the way we work, how we do business and carry on with our daily lives, it has also impacted how we communicate as businesses.
Now that we’re easy out of lockdown, your messaging needs to be empathetic to the current situation, relevant, appropriate and supportive.
This is no time for the hard sell
Over the past 15 months, the familiar and comfortable have been replaced by anxiety and confusion. Employees have been furloughed, companies have closed, others have shut down. People worry about their health and that of their nearest and dearest daily and fret about their futures. This is not the time for a hard sell.
Instead, businesses must reassure customers and audiences that they care. They need to validate their concerns, sympathise with their situations, cooperate with requests and show warmth, empathy and a willingness to understand.
As a business, you must help them feel safe in dealing with you, and above all, demonstrate adaptability in this unbending world situation.
Currently, customers don’t care about your ‘unique selling proposition’. They’re unconcerned about your product being the ‘cheapest’, ‘best’, ‘number one best-seller’ or that you have ‘drive’, ‘ambition’ or ‘dynamism’. It’s of little interest whether you’re the ‘market leader’, ‘best-known brand’. They don’t care how many followers you have, 5-star reviews or how well-known your connections are. Life is tough.
People have other things to worry about
The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) released figures from research that highlighted almost 70% of adults agreed that Coronavirus is having a negative effect on their life. 63% are worried about the future, citing employment and the economy as eliciting the most anxiety. 56% are feeling stressed or anxious.
GfK’s Coronavirus Consumer Pulse backs this up by stating that 85% of US consumers feel the way brands behave during the crisis will affect their desire to do business with those companies in the future. Only 14% of consumers feel that big brands are taking positive action during the Coronavirus crisis and big brands rank among the top five groups that “could do more to help in the crisis”.
So, what’s needed?
Tips on how to communicate during the COVID crisis
Review your sales and marketing literature and channels. Change any messaging that is (what could be termed) “brag marketing” i.e., market-leading, number one best seller and so on, to a promise – such as:
We aim to earn high regard in our sector by promising to [support our community/help our customers/support people in crisis/bolstering the mental health of our employees……etc.
Our purpose is to address our customers’ challenges by [insert as appropriate] (this is for B2B solution-based businesses).
We intend to offer the best value to our customers by [insert].
What you write depends on the type of business you’re in, whether it’s product, service or solution-based, what type of market you cater to and whether it’s consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B).
Go with your gut instinct, in terms of aligning your marketing messaging with the current situation, while highlighting your values and answering the question as to why customers should do business with you (or continue to do business with you) during this crisis? Why are you relevant right now?
Don’t forget to take into account places like Google MyBusiness and other directory listings where you might appear, plus social media profiles.
10 Tips to ensure your marketing messaging is COVID-friendly:
Communicate your values – it’s better to talk about what your business stands for in terms of your values and mission – such as integrity, transparency, safety etc., than any accolades you’ve won.
Communicate promises – your promises will be based on your values. For example, for a value of integrity, your promises could be: customers can rest-assured we will always be honest, open and ethical in our communication and the way we do business.
You can also demonstrate this by talking about any policies you have that ensure you adhere to these values.
Reassure customers that you can deliver on your promises – the measures, processes and procedures you’ve put in place to ensure you can deliver them. The more specific you can be the better (such as if you’ve changed your product packaging so they can be more easily posted and delivered during the pandemic), say so.
Show customers that you understand their concerns – by listing them. For example, we know you’re concerned about safety right now so we’ve put the following measures in place to address those concerns…………….
Show empathy – show that you understand what they’re going through by giving examples such as: we understand life is uncertain right now, but we want you to know that we’re doing everything we can to deal with that uncertainty, such as [insert].
Show them you understand their needs – we understand you’re looking for a product/solution that meets your needs in [the following ways – insert].
Communicate your pandemic health & safety policies and tell them what changes you’ve made to accommodate these. If people are going to visit your premises it’s important they know that you’ve taken measures to ensure their safety. Specify exactly what those measures are and how you’re reviewing them to stay on top of requirements, legislation and rules as they change.
Tell people how you’ve adapted throughout COVID. Talk to them, in a positive way, about your COVID journey and how you’ve modified things along the way. Don’t be scared to tell your own personal story; rather than making you look weak, it’ll help create empathy
It’s okay to say that you don’t know. It’s fine to own up to what you don’t know. These are uncertain times and none of us has a crystal ball. We don’t know when the pandemic will be over, when things will return to normal (or if they ever will), or whether we can now stick to our original product development schedule. But what we can be sure about, as businesses people, is our intentions. Don’t be afraid to be honest about what you don’t know but set your intention to do the right thing as soon as you can and communicate this to customers.
For a free, impartial conversation about your own marketing messaging strategy, click the button below (connects you to my contacts page):