Should my company continue marketing through the Coronavirus crisis? This is a valid question as the COVID-19 continues its global grip. We want to share some thoughts on the importance of maintaining your company’s communications with customers at a high level during this challenging time in the world.
The coronavirus is impacting our daily way of life throughout the globe. Our typical day has drastically changed at work as we limit our physical contact with business associates and customers.
Currently, many of our usual ways of communicating with our customers are not available. Worldwide air travel stopped, trade shows have ceased everywhere, and customers are postponing sales calls.
Many companies are now having their employees working from home and connecting with customers electronically. We are practicing “social distancing,” which is good. We endorse all the ways the experts and society have recommended we limit our interactions with each other until this health challenge is under control.
How Inbound Marketing Helps Brands Through Coronavirus?
We would like to suggest you switch your efforts towards using inbound marketing/communications. Under the current business environment, it makes more sense than ever to maintain relationships with your customers to ensure they know about your company’s latest products and services.
Your customers are still looking to engage your company through the digital world. And, under the critical world conditions, the internet is empowering customers more than ever to be aggressive in gathering information about a company’s products and services.
Paraphrasing HubSpot, Inbound marketing is a customer-focused marketing approach that brings customers to your products and services through timely, strategic delivery of online content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and smart branding positioning.
Why is Inbound Marketing Effective Through Coronavirus?
As today’s businesses continue to work under the threat of the coronavirus, customers know that company web sites, social media, and blogs provide pathways to attaining information and data about a company’s products and services. Customers are doing internet research to find answers to solve their business problems. Securing this information builds their base of understanding about the products and services they wish to purchase. Customers will make a buy decision based on what they learn from your inbound marketing communications.
You can use inbound marketing to position your company to attract, convert, and even delight the customers with your brand. Inbound marketing is an active ongoing strategy for educating your customers regarding your industry expertise and your ability to resolve their business challenges.
Your online content must always be fresh and engaging. Content should be there for them to access at their convenience and when they are actively searching for products and services.
What Are the Elements of a Solid Strategic Inbound Marketing Program?
Identify Your Target Audience
Construct your upfront strategy and communications plan, so you identify your key prospects that allow alignment of your communications with the targeted audiences you wish to reach with your messages. Identifying your audience is a significant first step that you need to take by interviewing your internal folks that interact regularly with customers to ensure your producing communications that address their business needs.
Work hard to produce relevant and exciting content for the targeted audiences coming to your company’s web site for information.
Produce Fresh and Relevant Content
Develop content that engages your customers and creates a relationship with them. Use content to inform, educate, and even entertain prospects as they search the web for resources to solve their business problems. The content should meet the needs of your buyer personas and help them move along the buyer’s journey to connect with your brand.
Maximize search engine optimization to ensure your company’s information appears at the top of web inquiries received from your customers.
Program Management
A comprehensive inbound marketing strategy integrates the multiple communications elements of your plan to produce consistent and relevant information. As you identify your customer’s pain points, continue to monitor their needs as your relationship evolves so that your communications are responding in step with their changing requirements. Customers will provide you with the roadmap for your interactions – follow the path that they suggest for you. Commit to posting communications that resonate with them, and you will be on the way for success.
Communicate With Energy
Producing intranet content that is relevant to your customers is not easy. It takes a dedicated strategic plan to make it work successfully for your company and increase awareness of your brand. Provide your customers with relevant information that answers their questions about the business challenges they are struggling to solve.
Your company will be well-served by attacking this step with energy and a focused plan. Get to understand your customer’s requirements and put the resources in place to manage the customer information you receive to produce relevant, quality communications your customers will relish.
Final Thought
Our world is in the grip of a global pandemic that is impacting our everyday way of life. Many things have changed in the business landscape, and we may see further repercussions due to the pandemic. In this changing business landscape, inbound marketing enables your company to stay in contact with your customers using consistent and relevant information.
These are challenging times for global businesses, and maintaining communications with your customers during this critical time is essential. But even more important is for us to focus on our family and the people we love. Be healthy, be safe, and be kind. We can all use some kindness right now, and I’m confident we will come out safely on the other side. Take care, and we’ll talk again with you soon.
