- An inbound approach helps encourage people to trust your company and make purchases.
- Digital tools can empower innovative marketing strategies such as virtual experiences.
- Combining these innovations can help boost sales even during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected businesses of all sizes and types around the world.
As doors shutter and many businesses expand (or launch) their online counterparts, marketers need to find new ways to reach consumers while optimizing their operations. Is your business struggling in the face of the novel coronavirus? Let’s take a deep dive into some strategies and re- sources that can help.
Marketing Strategies for the New Normal
As more shopping and services become online-only, digital marketing is poised to become ever more important to businesses. While digital marketing is nothing new, the way that marketers go about it needs to change as they attempt to reach homebound consumers. The difference comes down to the basic approach. In traditional marketing, outbound strategies such as ads and emails attempt to convince consumers to make a purchase. Now, as people are sheltered at home and trying to minimize their spending, is not the time to push sales. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make sales. The key is to build interest in your brand through an inbound approach. Few people are willing to take risks in an already risky world, so they’re going to more suspicious of “sales-y” content that comes their way. Let customers come to you and encourage them to trust your brand. Here are a couple of ways to do this:
User-Generated Content (UGC)
Ask your audience to share their content on social media and tag you. It could be a selfie with your product or an activity that’s tangentially related to your brand. As people are bored in quarantine, they’re more likely to do this. The key to a successful UGC campaign is to invite people to participate in a virtual event. Generic requests for content won’t cut. Make the request part of a larger conversation and offer incentives for people to participate. For example, you could offer a discount code to people who participate, which encourages them to make purchases.
Virtual Experiences
Experiential marketing was just starting to take off when shelter-in-place orders swept the world. Thankfully, you can still create special events for your customers. Just do it virtually! Many businesses are offering free online classes, seminars, concerts, and other virtual events for people. This tactic is a great way to get people fired up about your brand. Use these events as a way to build interest in what you offer, then seal the deal with ticketed virtual events to create a new income stream.
Resources to Help Boost Your Business
Whether you had a robust digital presence or you’re in the process of building one, the right tools can help save you time and money. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to use automation, social media, and other digital tools to streamline your operations. It’s important to reevaluate some of your existing campaigns. For example, campaigns that focus on gatherings or real-world experiences won’t resonate. You may also need to ramp up your content to connect with people who are spending more time online. After you’ve re-envisioned your marketing strategy, draw upon the resources you need to cost-effectively put it into action.
Social Media Managers
HootSuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, and other social media managers can help you level up your content marketing. It’s easy enough to post three times per week and check the notifications once per day. But once you start posting more often, your numbers will rise — and so will your hours spent managing comments and replies. One or more of these tools can help you do this more efficiently.
Email Marketing Providers
Email marketing is the bread-and-butter of digital marketing, and MailChimp, Constant Contact, and other providers have been around for years. Even though emails are an outbound approach, it’s still important to maintain contact with your audience. What’s
neat about these tools is that they also offer landing page, social media integration, and other tools that are crucial to an inbound approach. It’s well worth your time and investment to expand your email strategy.
Livestream Platforms
Remember those virtual events we talked about? They’re often done through livestreams. The good news is that you usually don’t need expensive livestream software to do them. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all offer “live post” functionalities, and you can also do a live video via YouTube. For private events, you can use Zoom or other teleconferencing platforms. Just be sure to face your camera the right way!
Wrapping Up
Businesses are nervous about their future should look for ways to expand their marketing strategy into new digital realms. Carving out innovative virtual spaces might be the key to connecting with otherwise absent customers. However, developing a new market- ing strategy with an inbound approach is only part of the equation. Virtual communication/automation tools are essential to putting these new strategies into action and helping businesses boost their sales during the pandemic.