Why you should keep marketing your business during a pandemic

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic has taught all of us so much about running and marketing a business.

At times we’ve all been tempted to pull the covers back over our heads but there’s always hope on the horizon so most of us have soldiered on. For those whose businesses were adversely affected, it’s also been tempting to pull down the shutters, but a crisis is often a time to recalibrate or change direction.

We’ve all read inspiring stories about business owners pivoting and taking their business in a new direction. For some, they’ll never return to their old way of doing business, for others they’ll incorporate some of the new with the old.

Marketing during a pandemic

Whatever happens in your business you should still maintain a presence in your market during a long crisis like the COVID pandemic and be poised ready when the pandemic subsides.

At Icon Visual Marketing we’ve learnt to continue to work with our clients on innovative marketing projects. Here are a few things we’d recommend:

Know your market

Knowing your market was important before the pandemic, but it’s even more important now. Understanding who your customers and potential customers are, and what you can offer them has been highlighted over the past 18 months.

Think about a popular local restaurant that was overflowing with customers before the pandemic. When lockdowns meant they could no longer have in-restaurant dining, they had to quickly move to a take-away or meal-kit model. Those who already knew their customers well were ready to use their database, and already established communication channels like social media to instantly reach out to them. Those who didn’t have any marketing channels in place were disadvantaged.

Communicate with customers

Communicating with your customers and potential customers has never been more important. How you communicate and what you need to say will depend on your individual circumstances.

For example, if you run a previously thriving travel business and you cannot book and plan new trips for customers, you can still communicate what you’re doing behind the scenes. You might be working hard to cancel and rebook for some customers and be researching future trips. All of this can be communicated to ensure you’re not forgotten when the pandemic subsides.

Alternatively, you might run a business that is booming like a fitness products retailer. You still need to let customers know what stock is available, when new products will be arriving, and more. When the tide shifts and you’re no longer in high demand you don’t want to be forgotten either.

Re-strategise your marketing program

A time of prolonged crisis can also be an excellent time to re-strategise and make sure your marketing is working for you.

Once again, the focus will depend on the status of your industry or business. If you’re unable to operate as normal you might have additional time on your hands that you can use to formulate your post-pandemic

 marketing strategy.

If you’re crazy busy you shouldn’t drop the marketing ball altogether. You might find you’ve got the opportunity to find new markets for an existing product or to broaden your geographic spread.

For example, you might operate a retail store that usually sells to local people, but the pandemic has meant you’re now selling online. Once you move online you can sell to a much larger geographic area, and you need to recalibrate your marketing efforts to reflect this.

Review your automated marketing activities

Automated marketing activities

 can be a great way to save time and reach your market cost-effectively but they shouldn’t be ‘set and forget’. Some methods or messages you used before the pandemic might now be inappropriate or even offensive so make sure you review them.

Maintain your current marketing budget

In times of crisis and particularly prolonged periods like the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s really tempting to cut budgets, but it can be very short-sighted.

It can actually be a good time to increase your marketing spend, particularly if your competitors are cutting their budgets. Use their lack of marketing presence to show that you’re still in business, innovating and growing.

Keep creating content

If your business is adversely affected by the pandemic, it’s tempting to stop sharing content. However, it’s important to keep creating and posting fresh information. You want your customers to know that you’re still in business and they want to know the relevant information about the pandemic. This could be centred around hygiene, deliveries, product availability, product changes, and much more.

It could also be a great time to start a blog where you begin to establish yourself as a thought leader or ramp up your use of a neglected social channel like LinkedIn.

How has Icon Visual Marketing fared?

Like many businesses, at Icon Visual Marketing we’ve had to adapt to the changing environment during the pandemic. Our people are working from home but are still productive and able to meet with our clients via video.

We’ve encouraged our clients to keep their marketing activities in place and guided them to change direction where required. We’ve also started working with new clients during the pandemic, and plan to continue well after it has faded away.

Read more about the work we do for our clients, or call us on 1300 138 984 for a chat.