A chance to hit reset
I’m reading about it every day. How businesses are kicking their agile wheels into full gear to adapt as fast as possible during this crisis—from how teams approach marketing to selling to customer service. But, once the initial shock of this pandemic’s effect on business’ previous day-to-day begins to fade away (which, right now, seems like it may never), there are some valuable lessons that shouldn’t fade away with it. We need to set the standards for our new normal.
When it comes to marketing: Let’s use this time to reset, refresh, reassess. Let’s build the foundation to do things right, effectively, compassionately. Let’s lead with empathy, not big box messaging, and let’s add some razzle and dazzle to remember the world won’t be like this forever.
Reset the fancy bells and whistles
One morning, a couple of weeks out from when cases began in New York, I turned on the tv, grabbed a coffee, picked up my phone, and began my typical scroll through news feeds. Feeds were overflowing with crisis-related content. How brands were pivoting to meet the needs of now and thank those on the frontlines. Ding. Alice + Olivia emailed about “buy one, give one” face masks. Ding. Perdue thanks everyone from farmers to shelf stockers. Ding. Zappos’ creates a “Customer Service for All” initiative to help with any possible question you may have (or be there if you just want to talk to someone). These brands got agile quick. They got scrappy. They got a message across when it needed to come across. All without over-production. And, their messages resonated.
In my experience with big businesses, it typically takes weeks, if not what feels like years, to launch even turnkey campaigns. But, we’re seeing these huge shifts from brands so much faster. Although I clearly wasn’t involved in creating them, I’d bet these efforts used less production time, costs, and resources to get to market. And, they’re having a big impact! A survey found 62% of people believe companies addressing the crisis in their ads are doing so with good intentions. There’s an allure to being raw, to being “organic.”
Reset the “me, me, me”
The above tactics highlight a big shift. Marketing went from a plethora of “selfie” content to showcasing how they can actually help. From here on out, any outbound marketing is probably going to need to go through some intense reviews to see if its messaging makes the cut or not. The criteria being: Does this help my customer?
This “review process” does beg the question, why were those marketing messages planned to begin with? It seems crazy to not lead with “how we help fill-in-the-blank pain point” to begin with—but, it is often the case that those key points get lost somewhere along the way. We have to open our eyes to make sure we were getting it right. And, getting it right every time. We needed to refocus back to what’s at every marketers core: To resonate with the person we’re connecting with, and let them know we’re here to make their lives easier.
The question a lot of us will need to remember to ask ourselves is: How can we build a relationship past the product or service we’re actually selling? A focus on creating the connection vs. the sale. It’s not going to be easy. A survey from Sirkin & NewsCred reported that 42% of senior leaders believe their teams lack the bandwidth to adapt quickly enough to meet new criteria set for marketing. But, I think it can be done, and most of us have already taken the first (or third) step forward.