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How Can Businesses Manage or Continue Targeting Clients During the COVID-19 Crisis?

By: Get News

The unpredictable crisis of Covid-19 have affected businesses, families, and individuals worldwide. The supply chain is being disrupted to a great extent as the government has advised people to maintain social distancing measures or face serious health implications.

Business owners are suffering huge losses around the world due to the huge economic fallout from these crises. On the other side, buyers are not able to find reliable sources to meet their everyday requirements as they cannot step out of their home. It is high time that they should find new ways of targeting clients during COVID-19 crisis.

Amidst all these problems, some big brands are doing a great job of building solid relationships with their potential audience. It is important to learn such tactics for all growing and small-scale businesses to sustain themselves in this time of crisis. Taking the right decisions at the right time while spreading a valuable message in the community can boost your reputation in the market.

Marketing has become the greatest challenge for businesses as customer expectations, needs, wants, and purchasing decisions have been affected by these crises. Marketers need to make some solid action plans and strong decisions regarding how to monitor customers, define scenarios, and plan for changes. They need to develop the theoretical worst, moderate, and best case scenarios to play out during a crisis. It is important to drill down and identify specific challenges faced by the customers. At the same time, they need to cope with the new policies applied by the government to deal with the coronavirus.

In order to assist small businesses with the new marketing strategy development, we had a conversation with some market leaders, and we asked a few important questions of them:

Q. Customer behaviors have been highly affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. How can businesses listen to customer sentiment and monitor changed behavior during this crisis?

A. Business owners need to realize that COVID-19 has changed the landscape for some time to come, and maybe even permanently. Customer sentiment has shifted dramatically since the outbreak. Nearly 3 out of 4 consumers across the US, the UK, France, and Italy now feel there will be an economic recession, and that the crisis is still be getting worse. Customers have anxiety about visiting a business location, purchasing a product, and hesitant about making commitments. Customers are also cancelling or delaying purchases. We understand the importance of listening to our customers and helping them get through this time, and have made this a priority internally. Businesses need to be proactive in their approach to customers, address their concerns, show that the customer is in goodhands, and ultimately earn the customer’s trust. This will not only build the relationship even further, but will resonate with customers for the long run. This is especially important during this crisis, when the customer needs and sensitivities are increased. By making decisions with a focus on protecting customers, businesses can help decrease customer concerns and help solve problems before they develop.

To monitor changed behavior, businesses should be in constant contact with their customers to proactively ensure customer satisfaction, and business owners and employees need to go the extra mile to show customers that their satisfaction is paramount.

Q. When buyers are not able to step out of their homes to make a purchase, which technologies and platforms can help businesses develop an effective marketing plan?

A. It is now more important than ever to have a digital presence and be able to perform all operational tasks remotely. To impactfully interact with customers and have a successful marketing plan, businesses should place a heavy emphasis on social media, email newsletters, and webinars. Businesses should use these avenues to reach out to customers and reply to their queries, complaints, and feedback. Companies need to carefully assess their marketing plans, and be ready to make drastic changes and reallocations of assets to conform to the situation.

Technologies that are essential during this time include a safe and protected IT infrastructure (encrypted data network and cloud), Big Data, supply chain analytics, and efficient remote collaboration. Many companies which were not ready to go “all digital” will encounter road blocks and hurdles within their operations, and it is extremely important that they implement digital solutions immediately to avoid long term implications.

Q. Do you think digital interactions and email communication can help businesses engage the audience in the market? 

A. I believe a digital marketing presence is crucial and if done properly, effective. With everyone working from home for the unforeseen future, companies have a great opportunity to capitalize on the enormous online audience that is constantly on social media, webinars, and websites. People are looking for updates on the crisis, business impacts, and help with issues they are encountering. Businesses can take this opportunity to be seen as thought leaders during this time. This includes providing insightful articles, videos, and email marketing campaigns.

Q. How can big brands maintain sustainability during this crisis? Which media platforms are the most effective marketing channels during crises?

A. Big brands that want to maintain sustainability need to ensure they are taking the time to treat the customer as an individual with unique needs, and not forego a personal relationship. Big brands should make sure each customer is in touch with an employee who carefully listens to the customer’s needs and provide a customized personal solution.

The most effective marketing channels during this time are social media/website articles and videos, and webinars. Social media, especially LinkedIn, provides a fantastic and free avenue for businesses to reach thousands of people with just one effort. Webinars are also very useful, as everyone is at home behind their computers, and looking for guidance and solutions. However, companies must drill down to identify the specific challenges that customers are encountering, and identify solutions. Companies should also create informative and positive content to people looking for encouragement. This is also a very good time to relaunch or try digital experiments, as surveys on a large audience can now be conducted to identify what a company is doing correctly and what needs to be changed.

Q. Most people are sitting at home during the COVID-19 crisis, and many of them don’t have anything creative to do. How can businesses make a person’s self-quarantine time more valuable?

A. Businesses should offer individuals the opportunity to participate digitally. This can be done by asking individuals for feedback and comments on a company’s offerings, website, and articles. Businesses can create contests with prizes for individuals who can provide insightful commentary or ideas on how a business can improve its digital presence. Typically, companies would not look to the customer or client for such advice, but now is a more important time than ever to hear criticisms, complaints, and compliments to better serve the public. Allowing a customer to engage with a company this way shows that the business is open to change, learn, and grow during this crisis. Companies need to show their human side more than ever, and allowing customers to relay their feelings or thoughts will help change a company’s image positively.

Media Contact
Company Name: NMS Consulting, Inc.
Contact Person: Lili Swanson
Email: Send Email
Phone: +1 310-855-0020
Address:433 North Camden Drive, Suite 725
City: Beverly Hills
State: CA
Country: United States
Website: nmsconsulting.com

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