The New Directions that Save Marketing from Quarantine

Marketing has always been subject to controversy. It’s either highly manipulative or one of the pillars of our modern society.

But take a look at all the campaigns that have been rolling out these past years and see how the role of a marketer has evolved. Marketing has never been so deeply intertwined with our day-to-day lives.

Most online campaigns are now tightly connected to worldwide core values: community, diversity, equality, human rights, and many others. Nowadays, brands are not just selling products. Instead, they’ve developed anthropomorphic identities that add value through their activity.

Therefore, products have come to transcend their primary utility. Products now represent ideas. A bottle of Coca-Cola is not just a soft drink anymore. It’s a complex concept of happiness that supports local arts, freedom of expression, and diversity.

That being said, marketers are facing difficult times. The entire world is fighting against an invisible enemy and has put their shopping habits on hold indefinitely.

The race is on to concoct new strategies to keep people connected to their favorite brands. This can only put a strain on marketers’ creative pool.

Let’s find out together how the online world of marketing can rise above the situation and resume its role as a pillar of society.

Marketers’ Challenge in Times of Crisis

Under current circumstances, marketers can no longer get back to their usual workflow. In fact, their best practices, that arsenal of tactics that always saved the day, are now rendered useless.

An entire world secluded itself indoors. But even though they made safety their number one priority, people haven’t forgotten about their taste for a good life overnight.

Our modern society still needs beauty, indulgence, and comfort. Yet marketers have to show consumers how to bypass growing shopping anxiety. A new purchase that doesn’t classify as necessity might be viewed as a sign of promiscuity in times of global crisis.

Marketers’ Revised Job

So now more than ever, the marketing discourse has to change. The old lines are no longer relevant to the world staying home.

Therefore, marketers’ priority right now is to create a new picture of their products. This painting has to show how your products fit in the new era of pandemic risk. How can they help alleviate the physical and psychological effects of self-isolation? How can they join in the solidarity?

In other words, marketers have to keep on doing what they’re good at: aligning their brands with the current events. Only that the world flipped 180 degrees overnight, and product presentations have to adapt to it.

Manage Remote Teams

First of all, the setup at home has to work as one well-oiled machine to make up for the distance between you and your colleagues.

It’s like having a digital volleyball team. Players have the daunting task of passing and receiving the ball just at the right time to maintain the same velocity as in the real field.

Collaboration in times of crisis is vital. Marketing teams have to build a new generation of tactics, and they can’t do it alone. Each member of the team has to understand the new direction and do their part in sync with the others.

The number one danger regarding working at home right now is assuming everybody knows how to manage it. People are always glued to their computer, so of course all apps and tools have become second nature to them. In reality, a concerning majority of online meetings nowadays are wasting their first 15 minutes on setting up a connection.

Therefore, it’s recommended that marketers carry out brainstorming for a couple of hours on what collaboration tools to use and how to mix them.

Google Drive, Slack, Teamviewer, Zoom, and Asana are a good starting kit for remote projects. With these resources, teams can create a workflow that gets them closer together.

Check the New Wind Direction

Once everybody knows how to work at home, it’s time to understand what the new tasks are. Remember, what worked perfectly last year might not render any results today.

As the public is no longer mobile in real life, they use the Internet to travel. In fact, streaming companies are asked to switch off their 4K services due to a massive presence online.

This means one thing. Marketers know without any shred of a doubt where their public is. Thanks to this guarantee, one of the most prominent trends will be businesses moving their marketing strategies online.

Optimize Online Campaigns

Run an audit and see which ones of your active campaigns check off the new list of priorities. Those social media initiatives that completely overlook the current state of affairs should be immediately discontinued.

It goes without saying that seasonal campaigns are in poor taste this year. Encouraging people to make the most of spring when they can’t enjoy it anymore can only hurt the brand.

Another effect of the pandemic on marketing is shifting all the efforts on brand awareness. Even the budgets that went into short-term sales should be redistributed to support the new direction.

That’s due to the interruption of company growth. In times of uncertainty, companies have to prepare resources for any type of scenario. These safety measures often freeze any ambitions and ask for precaution.

That being said, now is the time to push brand exposure further than ever. So make sure your content is present on all channels where your audience is present. The more often people meet certain brands, the more familiar they become to them. This makes sure that competition is left behind and the next time people need your kind of product, they’ll come directly to you.

Redesign Offers

The prerequisite of massive brand exposure brings us to the next point: redesigning your promotions. If your brand is going to be highly active online in the following months, then it has to have a saying in how the world is currently changing to spark conversation and shares. So the entire discourse changes as well.

Some alterations that are now trending resort to laying emphasis on safe product delivery and creating digital versions of services and products. These are mindful of the new indoor lifestyle most consumers are now leading.

Also, with people saving up on their resources worldwide as a precaution, more and more brands manage to make themselves more visible by talking about their low-tier packages.

For instance, the Metropolitan Opera in England is inviting opera lovers to live streams for free. In the meantime, tech companies among which we can name Google and Microsoft are offering their tools for free for the next few months to make working remotely more comfortable.

Suffice to say that these initiatives sparked a lot of brand awareness online. All this time, premium versions are working in the background, waiting for better days.

Turn to Social Media Influencers

Brands are not going to isolate themselves. On the contrary, they seek mobility. Above all, they have to fulfill their primary purpose of making life better and easier.

In contrast, influencers are already on lockdown. And they are open about sharing their experiences while in quarantine.

Besides the fact that people trust their opinions and recommendations, influencers have created the right circumstances to guide their followers through their shared hardships. They are staying home, just like everyone else.

Therefore, it makes sense to appoint the right content creators to speak on behalf of a brand. They know what their community needs in these moments. So they can pick the best feature that can be of real service right now and introduce it to their audience.

Even though they closed themselves at home, social media creators didn’t stop delivering quality content one bit. Instead, their connection to their followers has reached an all-time high.

Instagram, for instance, has witnessed a surge in Live streams where hosts are offering support to their audience in real time.

Final Word

No doubt, marketers have a responsibility to their customers. Beyond everything, they have to listen. And then provide resources to match current needs. It’s definitely not an easy pursuit.

But those brands that are quick to adapt will forge strong loyalty when society resumes its course outdoors. Remember to strengthen brand awareness, and the benefits will follow.