We’ve experienced many crises in our lifetime, but none as impactful as the current coronavirus situation. COVID-19 is unique in that it’s the first time any of us has seen a crisis with such a massive humanitarian and financial impact across the globe.
Today, businesses are reeling from the global pandemic and the enforced quarantine. Unemployment is at an all-time high, people have to work from home, and companies are cutting operation and marketing budgets to stay afloat. It’s not news anymore that the marketing budget is usually the first to go whenever a company struggles.
Digital marketing is arguably where brands and marketers have had to make the most adjustment. Marketers have to study data and customers afresh to pick up on changes in trends, browsing behavior, ad elements, and more. This is necessary as marketers have to be ahead of the curve, providing solutions to consumers’ needs.
So as the quarantine period measures continue being relaxed, how will digital marketing look in a post-quarantine world? Here are a few online marketing ideas that we believe will become a mainstay moving forward.
More empathy in marketing copy.
Showing empathy in marketing copy is not a novel digital marketing idea. But after the tragedies we have suffered as a collective people, humans need more of an emotional connection. We all need reassurance, understanding, and encouragement like never before.
The workings of empathy can be traced to the mirror neurons. These neurons can be seen acting in the areas of empathy and imitation. This neuron is activated when we experience something or see someone experience the same thing. That’s why a man is likely to flinch if he sees another guy kicked in between the legs, even when there is no possibility of him being hurt. It is also the way babies learn to behave and react to situations by imitating what adults do.
The tendency for imitation and empathy can and has been used in marketing and advertising. That’s why people will want to imitate their heroes and celebrities because of their status and the fact that they’re great at what they do.
Consider these classic headline examples:
- Teach your 7-year-old to play golf like Tiger Woods
- Bag your first movie gig in a week like Chadwick Boseman.
These two headlines follow the empathy-triggering formula:
[Do this/be this] like [world-class example].
That’s the power of empathy and emulation at work.
The truth is that to empathize with someone genuinely, you have to experience what they are going through. From the instances given above, this is what the mirror neurons help us achieve; they help our minds to feel without having to experience.
Empathetic copy makes sense, especially given the pandemic has given us something that we can all relate to, no matter where we are on the planet. Tap into your audience’s emotions with character-driven stories using the right words and imagery. Empathy done right will help boost engagement and conversion as well. It doesn’t matter if it’s a landing page, ad copy, or blog post, empathy has already started to see an uptick in marketing implementation. This is only going to grow in acceptance.
More online engagement with customers/clients.
If there’s one thing that coronavirus and the lockdown have done to perfection, it’s to significantly slow down our mobility. Freeways are scantier than they’ve ever been, and people are staying indoors much more than ever.
On the one hand, it’s a good thing because many who usually work multiple jobs or multiple shifts can finally slow down and catch up with their families. But after a few months of being confined to the house, people start to get a little crazy.
They begin to seek a kind of escape, and with going out to the movies or going to see a game no longer viable options—at least while the quarantine persists—the internet is the next best thing. People already spend a ton of their time on the internet—millennials alone spend 5.7 hours daily on their devices—and this is only going to grow given the post-quarantine first impressions.
Kristin Savage of Writing Judge, a writing recommendation outfit, says, “one month into the lockdown, our customer experience team started posting consistently higher numbers in terms of current and potential client interaction. The quarantine seems to have freed up a lot of people’s time, opening up new avenues for customer interaction for us.”
It makes sense to deduce that the more time people spend surfing the net, the more they can be exposed to advertisements, brand messaging, and other marketing materials. This isn’t good or bad; it’s merely a trend that every marketer should learn to utilize wisely.
There is no better time than now for brands and marketers to start engaging their audience, building relationships, and priming them for lead generation and, eventually, conversion. The lockdown has made more people available online for more extended periods. Many people are now available during the hours that they would usually spend at work pre-COVID-19.
The possibilities for consumer engagement have never looked this good. This is the time to categorize and split-test your audience with different marketing scenarios and digital marketing ideas.
The role of digital marketers will grow in demand.
For businesses that have long since treated digital marketing as a secondary marketing route, now would be a good time to rethink their strategy. Traditional forms of marketing—while they still have their place in the growing digital revolution—are simply not going to stand the test of time and change.
Brands that have stayed traditional ostensibly to maintain authenticity and, well, tradition, would have had it bad during this pandemic. With businesses going completely remote or shut down until further notice, digital marketing has had to carry the entire weight of marketing efforts for brands worldwide. And it has done so effortlessly too.
During this lockdown, the success of online marketing has thrust digital marketers to the forefront of an emerging business status quo. Many companies will take most, if not all, of their marketing online. They’ll outsource a considerable chunk of their marketing to third-party digital marketing agencies, while others will invest more in building a robust in-house marketing team.
This is going to look different on a case-by-case basis. But the common thread here is that digital marketing and marketers will sit at the helm of marketing affairs as lockdown measures continue to be relaxed.
Companies will seek innovative ways to save on their marketing budget.
The lockdown and social distancing measures have limited how creative marketers can be with their brand messaging and ad campaigns’ visual elements. For instance, if you were planning to shoot a beach party-themed video or one of a ton of people lounging on the beach, you can’t do any of those right now.
But marketing has to go on, so what to do? You probably already have a lot of visuals and creatives from marketing campaigns before the lockdown. These can be repurposed smartly. Sift through your existing creative for your best-performing ad elements from past campaigns. Nicole Garrison of essay writing service review company, Pick The Writer, advocates this strategy. “If your audience/customers loved your visuals and creative before, they’d love it again—as long as you don’t present it the same way,” she says.
Be sure that the selected creative can work to capture your current audience’s sentiments and needs. This may require you chopping up old ad videos and using sections of them. It may mean switching up a call to action or adjusting the filter on an old photo. Sometimes, for your new ad, you’ll need to take inspiration from more than a few old visuals from different ads in your arsenal.
Whatever the case, this means that you’ll be able to stay on track with your marketing goals with consistently fresh creative. And you won’t need to spend any extra money to create new visual elements (videos, imagery, etc.), so you’re saving money on your marketing budget too.
Final Words.
The lockdown was as tough for businesses as it was weird. These are really strange times that have been felt across industries. It has forced everyone to go back to the drawing board to see how they can empathize with their customers while bringing them the solutions they need.
As stated earlier, all these digital ideas are an excellent place to start your post-quarantine marketing. But don’t forget that all the above digital ideas for marketing all hinge on one pertinent thing: customer data. Take the time to relearn your customer’s new behaviors and patterns, and you can implement the strategies above better.
About the author
John Edwards is a writing specialist who is looking for ways of self-development in the field of writing and blogging.
New horizons in his beloved business always attract with their varieties of opportunities. Therefore, it is so important for him to do the writing.
To know more about John’s work, you can visit Writing Judge and Pick The Writer
