Many states around the country are in the beginning stages of reopening non-essential businesses after months of restrictions. No one knows exactly what normal will look like after COVID-19, but it’s reasonable to assume that “business as usual” will be anything but usual. Companies are heading into uncharted territory and that means a well-defined marketing strategy is essential.
The fundamentals of marketing matter now more than ever, but many of the tactics leveraged for a successful campaign have changed in response to coronavirus. Instead of thinking in traditional ways, it’s time to consider the media ecosystem and the customer journey. Now, businesses need to have an infrastructure that supports each stage of the journey and engages the customer across the ecosystem. Here’s our “Four Steps for a Successful Reopening” to help inform your post-pandemic marketing decisions.
Email Excellence
With the ubiquitous use of smartphones, email marketing has been resurrected as a viable marketing tool by reinventing itself as a personalized value prop instead of an interruption from a pushy business with a hard sell. Beautifully designed emails with unique, valuable, and useful content delivered to your customer’s inboxes serve up essentially free reach and frequency (as long as you don’t overdo it).
Content Creation
Now more than ever, content is king. Fresh, value-driven content is the bread and butter of brand relationships. Investing in content marketing is one of the most cost-effective and ROI boosting moves you can make in today’s content-obsessed world. As long as your businesses’ social feed offers value to your customers, it will build a deeper brand experience that increases and builds long-term brand affinity.
Media Mix
We are big fans of the media mix, or what we like to call the “stacked media” approach. It’s not the same for everyone, what works for one brand might not make sense for another. Digital and social media are perfect for some, but broadcast might work better for others. The same goes for out-of-home too. It depends on where the audience is and finding the right mix of media to reach them where it’s most effective. For example, an e-commerce brand might benefit from stacking digital and social media with an umbrella strategy around traditional. A retailer who is open and doing deliveries, like a restaurant or a liquor store, might do well with a mix of online and out-of-home media.
Lessons Learned
It was somewhat surprising how quickly the world adapted to a digital-only way of living and working. Now that we’re all in some phase of reopening, it’s important to remember how adaptable we’ve become and not fall back into patterns that could stifle creativity and innovation. Coronavirus has jumpstarted the conversations around marketing trends, algorithm changes, and social media updates designed to help your business succeed as you look to reopen. Don’t get left behind!
Before you head back into the office, here are a few simple lessons learned from the past seven weeks of working remotely that might ease the transition: utilize technology for maintaining social distance, protect your time, make an effort to control noise and distractions, and establish breaks.
We’re excited to help businesses enjoy continued and future success as we all move into phased reopening. Ready to talk strategy? Give us a call at 781-247-0730 or send an email to info@mittcom.com.