The world has been rocked by the Coronavirus pandemic and right now in the UK there are still many uncertainties about when restrictions will be lifted and what shape they will take. For many businesses marketing planning during the current situation and after Coronavirus restrictions are lifted will be key to their survival.
At Sixth Sense Marketing we have been working with clients helping them to plan their recovery strategy and wanted to share our model, to help you plan. Whether you are marketing your services to other businesses or to consumers, this may help you consider how you will approach the different stages to ensure your business emerges from the current situation focused and stronger.
Crisis
Many businesses were, and still are, operating in crisis mode, ensuring their business can survive, while possibly also worrying about their own or their family’s health or the safety of their employees and customers. A few businesses, the Innovators have been quick to adapt through vision or necessity but many businesses have been focusing on immediate activity including furloughing staff and applying for government grants. For many businesses, once this funding becomes available they may find they feel able to start planning the future.
Lockdown is the new normal
Right now it is not known how long the lockdown currently in place will continue. Many companies are starting to respond to this ‘new normal’
From a marketing perspective, if business has slowed this is the time to focus on your brand and demonstrate what your business stands for. When the world is in turmoil, people turn towards others who can provide reassurance, direction and leadership. That is what your business can do. Your customers may not be buying but they will be listening (they’ve got time on their hands like never before). What you do and you behave today will influence what kind of business you are left with tomorrow.
Can you offer guidance, advice and entertainment to your customers to demonstrate your expertise and make sure they don’t forget about you? Are you or your employees doing great work in the community that you can celebrate? Can you alter your business model and continue to trade?
If you are unable to trade, this is a great time to generate reviews or client testimonials, review your marketing material, update your website or do some marketing planning. You may also want to take this time to review your business model to identify new products or services you could develop for new or existing markets.
Once restrictions are lifted
As a business you may need to map a number of scenarios for lockdown being lifted and how you will adapt in each circumstance. Reviewing your customer segments and where to focus your marketing efforts to identify businesses who will need your products or services first or the consumers who spend regardless will be a beneficial activity.
Demonstrating your brand values will remain important and how you use technology and data in your business will also help you build future resilience.
The future
Right now we don’t know what the future will look like. Economies may recover quickly or may enter recession. Businesses may not survive the current crisis and will close and some may shrink as they need fewer people to meet customer demand. Local businesses are likely to become more important if values such as community and sustainability emerge. High streets may change significantly with a different mix of businesses or possibly many closures.
If web conferencing becomes the new norm this could lead to increased productivity as people aren’t travelling and people may decide they don’t want to continue the daily commute with many new businesses emerging.
While we cannot predict the future what we do know is that business owners are adaptable, determined and able to identify opportunities even when everything looks bleak.
At Sixth Sense Marketing we have developed our marketing toolkit with our library of articles and guides on ideas that you can take away and use to for marketing planning during and after coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Find out more here.
