These days, it’s hard to escape the conversation of COVID-19. It’s all over the news, social media, advertising, and worst of all, our daily thoughts and concerns. As a brand, it’s important to be sensitive to the current topic while also giving your customers a positive escape. As you might imagine, it’s a difficult balancing act. To ensure your brand is sending the right messages to its audience now.
Reevaluate your customers’ content needs
The first step in refocusing your brand’s content is taking a deeper look at what kinds of content your customers are looking for. You may have had a firm grasp on this before, but the pandemic has changed many people’s outlooks and reactions to consumer-facing brands.
Start social listening, surveys, and data analysis to discover your customers’ attitudes toward particular messages. Listen to your audience during this time and use their feedback to reshape your content strategy.
Provide positive, non-crisis content
One thing all brands can do is to share more positive, uplifting content that has nothing to do with COVID-19. Sharing funny memes or heartfelt stories can give consumers a break from the overwhelming amount of news and social media coverage of the pandemic. Keep your brand’s voice positive, inspirational, and uplifting, but stray away from sass that might be inappropriate for the current situation.
Market sensitively
The key to navigating marketing during the pandemic is to stay sensitive. Find ways to position your business sensitively and helpfully. If you’re a small, local brand, share messages that encourage the support of local businesses—not only yours but also others in the community. Pay close attention to the words your ads, social posts, and other marketing campaigns use.
Expand your content horizons
Every brand’s content strategy has been disrupted in some way. Now might be a great time to try new content types you might not normally do.
While you want to keep topics relevant to your industry and your customer’s expectations, try something different. Test new content ideas and see how customers respond to them.
Try testing new content formats and gauge audience response. Perhaps your customers would be interested in reading more blog posts or watching informative YouTube videos about your brand and products.
Show your positive impact
Customers want to know the brands they love are giving back and doing good in the world. It’s somewhat expected that a brand’s profits take a backseat in favor of charitable acts and support.
Share acts of community service by your team, whether they’ve volunteered time at a homeless shelter, or sewed masks for hospital staff. If your business donated food or money to a charity, share that. You could even host a fundraiser with your followers to show that you’re interested in doing good while making the biggest possible impact.
Positive branding can result in brand loyalty and trust
Consumers are paying closer attention to marketing efforts than they normally do. Staying positive humanizes your brand and lets customers know you care about them. By sending a message, you can strengthen the trust your customers have in your brand and position your business as one of immense value.
