The importance of marketing and brand messaging in uncertain times and how to get it right

Throughout these hard times, businesses have to adapt quicker than they ever  have before to ensure key stakeholders are supported and engaged. Plus, marketing teams are under much more pressure to find new ways to communicate even with the necessary budget cuts many companies have to make.

If your business or brand is struggling to get the right words out to your customers and clients, this article will offer some strategies that can help put out the right brand message.

Establishing trust between you and your customers is an integral part to running a successful business and this has never been more obvious until this year.

Focus Less on Selling

Having good relationships with both your customers and your prospects is necessary to keep your business operating well and can even accelerate your upswing when the pandemic finally becomes a thing of the past.

You should focus on how you can provide value to your customers in these uncertain times when many people could use that extra value.

Try to post or send out content about helping your customers and clients. Think more about giving them advice by providing them helpful information that only your business can give. Most importantly, do this without putting a price tag on it or have an obvious ulterior motive behind it.

Ideally, this trust that you establish with them now will make it much easier to sell to them later down the road. For now, it is less about what you can sell and more about how you can serve.

Be Kind and Helpful

Now more than ever you should focus on your relationship with your clients and customers and be as helpful and giving as possible.

If your business has slowed to a halt because of the pandemic, practice some empathy and think about how it has affected your customers. You do not want to be yet another business that they believe just unfortunately got lost in the hard times of 2020.

Reach out to your customers in a non-intrusive way and try to get their message out there. Let the world know that your business is not only still here, but here to help those that are struggling.

Also, try to keep a kind tone in the messages or posts you put out there. You do not want to sound bitter or angry at the pandemic for causing financial strain on the world, rather try to instill hope and togetherness that people will remember when the world makes it through these uncertain times.

Prioritize Your Brand’s Needs

Focus completely on what the most important services or products you have and figure out what can be cut out. Almost all businesses will have to make the tough decision in cutting some things out this year and it is important to figure out what should continue and what should stop.

Some services or products may only need to stop temporarily, so if you have trouble letting some things go, think about just putting these on hold for the time being and pick them back up when the time is right.

Plus, when these products hopefully make their triumphant return, you can market them in that light and garner some solid interest as something that has survived despite the pandemic taking it off the market for a while.

Of course, be as transparent as possible with your employees and customers about what your brand needs are and why some things have to go. If possible make it less about money and more about safety and take a long look at what is truly necessary for your business going forward.

Harden Your Brand Values

Now is a more important time than ever to show you are committed to your brand’s values. Treat your employees and customers like they are your guiding light out of the hard times because that is exactly what they are right now.

Performance marketing is not going to show a lot of success now because your consumers are, of course, focused on themselves and their loved ones staying healthy rather than how you are performing.

Focusing on the values and standards your business upholds is how you want to market it right now. Those that see you trusting in your core values will believe in them as well and, when things begin to settle down, that trust will come back and make recovery much more smooth.

In Summary

 In short, here are 3 points that you should take away from this article in marketing well and putting out the right brand message in these difficult times.

#1 Empathize With Your Customers – Try to realize that your customers miss you too. Reach out to them and look for ways to gain feedback effectively from your consumers. In the long term, you can use these methods for later ideas to communicate with your customers more efficiently down the road.

#2 Set Your Priorities – Put short-term promotions on hold and focus on the long-term initiatives that will keep your brand in customers minds when things begin to reopen. Figure out what needs to stay, what needs to be put on hold, and what can be cut.

#3 Communicate – Find safe ways to keep your customers, clients, and employees in the loop so people do not forget about your brand. It is easy for these people to lose sight of your business in these uncertain times and it is up to you to keep these relationships steady.

The ongoing pandemic has forced many businesses to change quickly and move in a direction none of us could have anticipated. However, it is still important to continue marketing and put out the proper brand message to keep afloat and, hopefully, come out of these times better than before.