In 2020, we all found ourselves in a harsh new reality and few were so adversely affected during the pandemic than companies reliant on customers who rarely – or can’t – shop online.
The global crisis associated with the coronavirus caused many companies to shut down before the end of the lockdown. However, even in the most difficult times, if you’re in business, you need to stay connected with consumers, and one way of doing that is to create fresh and updated online content.
If a company drops out of the information flow for a long time, people simply forget about it, but if it stays in touch with its customers, loyalty is retained or even increased. So it’s a case of using these tough times to communicate better online. Here are at least eight good reasons to do so:
1. Expanded information field
The information field has greatly expanded recently. New channels for providing information are emerging, the number of participants in these are growing, new content formats are emerging, and competition for consumer attention is getting more aggressive. All of these are contributing to new ways of capturing the attention of potential customers. If a company fails to be part of this active stream, it will inevitably lose out big time.
It used to take 2.5 touchpoints to convey information to a user, but now this figure has increased to 3.5.
Touchpoints are interactions between businesses and customers. A reminder, if you like, taken by a company to draw in potential clients by encouraging them to use its products or services.
Intensive communication and more quality content on the Internet are essential at this present time.
Don’t stop communicating even if you feel you have little to share. With a bit of creative thinking, there’s always a topic to come up with for a message, such as showing your team members in a gallery form, maybe some little known facts about your business, conducting some market analysis, highlighting business forecasts and sharing latest statistics. All of these things help to sustain target audience loyalty, demonstrates your expertise in the marketplace, and once again reminds everyone about your brand.
2. Preparing clients for changes
Give some forewarning about up and coming events and changes within the company. Then when it happens, it won’t be a big shock or surprise. Followers will be informed and will understand why you are doing things in certain ways so they can appreciate your reasons for making necessary changes.
For example, if a company plans to raise its prices during a crisis, consumers may react badly if no clear reasons for doing so are given. But if the company provides a chain of explanatory posts prior to the rises, it can smooth the way before they actually happen and so avoid any shocks. Announce the news in stages and to certain consumer groups one by one, so you can deal with each response separately and bring some satisfaction to the proceedings. This will reduce the negative backlash from forced price increases about which consumers had not been forewarned.
3. Customer retention
The information must be in constant flow. This rule is followed by reliable companies that want to inspire confidence among their online audience. Always keep your information relevant across all your social media outlets: website, social networks, blogs, etc.
Suppose that the last time you posted news on your website was a year ago or that your prices haven’t been updated since you created your page. In that case, the target audience can get confused and feel that the company is not pulling its weight in keeping such information up to date. They might think that the company operates poorly or even that it doesn’t exist anymore. Constant presence online and keeping information bang up to date reduces the risks of your customers being poached by competitors.
Did you know that if a company stops posting on social networks, competitors can move in and take over its audience? Like a cuckoo chick in a nest, it kicks outs the nestling birds. What actually happens is that social media platforms’ algorithms start suggesting company’s followers to have a look at the posts of its more active competitors to keep the audience entertained.
4. Attract potential audience
Basic psychology dictates that a person trusts a brand that he has heard something about. Publications on independent, reliable Internet platforms build trust and knowledge about the brand among the audience.
Article marketing comes to the aid of the marketer. Simultaneously, the target audience gets an idea of the brand in the right way and in advance. With article marketing, you can handle objections and reduce the number of clicks before the conversion occurs.
Conversion is the transformation of a potential customer into a buyer (consumer).
5. Lowering marketing costs
Communication with the audience on the Internet is much cheaper than using conventional advertising tools. In the general expense terms, this is only one to two per cent of actual returns, while the efficiency of the communications mechanism is very high.
6. Processing the negative
If your company has not received a single negative review during its work on the market, this can arouse suspicion in itself. It’s impossible to please all the customers all of the time. But it’s essential to process the negative in a timely fashion. The primary tool of a marketer is the formation of background images of a company on the Internet. Positive and neutral messages reinforce a positive image of the target audience, which cannot change dramatically in a negative situation. It’s like four people standing at each corner of a raft. It’s balanced and holds steady on the water. But if one or two change position and cross to another side, the whole can tip over.
7. Ideas for optimisation in times of crisis
A company’s silence during a crisis could well signal that the brand is out of the game. That read, the consumer starts looking for new suppliers. Dialogue during a crisis prompts feedback from the audience, which allows identifying new directions for reformatting, development and optimisation.
8. Pandemic crisis will end
One day, when the crisis comes to an end, workforces will return to normal, and companies get back to familiar schedules. But to restore the offline activity of an audience, it is necessary not to lose it in the first place online. If you do not work with clients during the hard times, they will simply cold-shoulder you and go elsewhere for their needs.
While offline contacts have been reduced to a minimum, people still need to feel in a comfortable state when it comes to purchases. They do not want to feel like reclusive souls while lacking the benefits of a civilisation geared to online purchasing. However, you can help them if you offer a new option for interaction – and that’s by understanding their problems and dealing with them.
Valuable tips from ADVES on how to behave in the information space during the crisis
At this time, more than any other, digital marketing is essential to maintain customer relationships. But ask yourself, how did you work on the Internet before the Covid-19 crisis? Perhaps the tools you used then should be expanded. Maybe start hosting webinars, organising email and messenger campaigns, shoot videos, virtual host conferences, and so on to get things moving again.
Analyse how the needs of the target audience have changed. Customise your online presence and use versatile and robust customer-friendly channels.
For example, during lockdown, sports clubs and restaurants have lost their point of personal contact with customers, but they should not carry on as if they didn’t exist or never happened! Remind clients of yourself on social media and change the way you connect with the consumer. Think out of the box, start offering home delivery of meals or develop an online workout using home surrounding as training gear.
Check how your business is presented in search engine queries. Work with SEO, study the top 10 competitors in search results, and, if necessary, modify the corporate website. Explore how your brand is presented on social media and ask yourself, is it still relevant to your consumers?
Feel free to experiment. Try new formats and tools to help you communicate effectively with your customers.
During a crisis, it is important not to abandon your clients but to step up the information flow to them on the actions you’re taking, making their lives more comfortable because you are still here, looking out for them.
Quarantine and restriction measures are no reason to give up
For many companies, the pandemic hasn’t automatically meant losses, and in several cases, it’s actually brought an increase in income. These fortunate ones saw it as essential to establish proper online communication with consumers.
For example, there’s been a huge increase in book sales online. The market’s grown by an average of 130 per cent. Goods for DIY also grew in demand. Their sales increased by almost 300 per cent. Purchases of sporting products have doubled. Food delivery companies have increased profits by an average of 50 per cent, pharmacies by 44 per cent, and health clinics by 27 per cent. IT companies developing and selling games have received 30 per cent more revenue, 50 per cent more in the movies subscription business, and 33 per cent more in online training and education systems.
Demand for lending, pet supplies, telemedicine, logistics, video communications, and other market areas continue to grow as the coronavirus remains with us.
If your competitor is doing something positive and rewarding to customers right now and you’re not, where are their loyalties going? Not to you, that’s for sure. Therefore, don’t lose contact with your audience in the information space, but instead explore every which way to create new avenues of contact.