As Governments and businesses open up during these times of crisis, there’s a sense that things will be returning to normal soon. However, the reality is that it’s far from over.
COVID-19 is a pandemic that has cost millions of lives and steep declines in business revenues for both large and small-scale organizations. In these trying times, when the economy is reeling, and a vaccine is yet to be mass-produced and released, businesses are gearing up to adapt and prepare for the upcoming months.
Consumer demand is also rising, and that means marketers have to work harder and keep up. Here’s a list of thoughts and implications that are worth considering when it comes to reimagining sales in a post-COVID world.
1. Using Videos For Marketing
As everybody is stuck in their homes and societies are practicing physical distancing, we are beginning to lose the element of human touch and connection. Isolation for long periods of time can take a toll on mental health and emotional wellbeing.
For brands that care about their consumers, it’s important to understand this and establish a breakthrough in their digital marketing strategy. Working towards creating content that’s meaningful, helpful, and one that emotionally connects with audiences is key.
Over 13 million people in Latin America alone have made their first financial transaction online after the lockdown was initiated, and these numbers are continuing to rise. As consumers turn towards businesses to fulfill their various online shopping requirements, it’s a wise move to work on gaining their trust by creating videos and showing the fact that they truly matter.
2. Create Interactive & Engaging Content
The purpose of a video is to tell a story and also to engage. Creating content that encourages your viewers to reach out, ask questions about your products and services, and tell you what they think – this is how you make your content interactive.
Simple videos that involve unboxing reviews or showcasing video testimonials of online customers on your website are some of the ways to go about this. Add your email and contact details at the end of your videos so that your customers can reach out to you whenever they feel like it. Vidyard makes it easy to do this and has many other exciting features.
3. Using Analytics To Track Consumer Behavior
Marketers will have to think about tracking consumer behavior, shopping preferences, and how to better adapt the business workflow in order to meet rising demands.
Using marketing analytics software to track buying trends, analyze industry competition on a granular level, and making sure business models rapidly respond to new opportunities or threats are some of the elements to take into consideration.
Business models are data-driven, and the data used in a post-COVID-19 world will be wildly different due to the drastic changes in lifestyles. Using a combination of feedback, sentiment studies, and insights derived from careful analysis of video email data, marketers can provide personalized offers and redesign user shopping journeys in a way that benefits them and their remote-life schedules.
4. Build Good Relationships Through Digital Channels
While most of us will continue working remotely from indoors, it’s important for brands to make sure they build good online relationships with their customers. Sharing content and delivering personalized user experiences that are just as powerful as real-life meetups will be pivotal towards driving business growth.
Doing live streams on the business YouTube account and connecting with viewers through online discussions will help in building a solid community. There are various scheduling tools and features that businesses can use to automatically send alerts to audiences about when the next stream or live workshop is going to be held.
5. Create Recovery Programs & Get Back Lost Revenue
There will be many first-time customers who backed out of orders from the past. There also could be visitors who simply visited and bounced off the website for no reason. Before the crisis, it was difficult to track them, but since we’re now spending more time online, it’s good to work with Agile teams and implement cross-functional technology stacks.
Campaigns that would take up to 3 weeks for launch can now be released in just 2 to 3 days. And analytics software can make it easy to track customer behaviors on different parts of websites. Recovery programs involve sending customers reminders about upcoming sales and reconnecting with first-time visitors.
You can reassure your clients about the steps your brand is taking to help the industry in this COVID-19 era and what measures you’ll be taking moving forward to adapt to a post-COVID-world.
6. Improving Business Operations & Making Vlogs
Vlogging your brand’s journey and how it’s working through the times of COVID is a good way to take customers behind the scenes. It gives reassurance to them and is a good way to build a larger online following. But when it comes to the shipping and supply chain logistics, there are many businesses who are refining their existing procedures.
Successful companies are partnering with the best suppliers and revamping the teams they work with. Most companies are automating various internal processes and are looking into outsourcing to expand their business operations. To survive and thrive in this era, companies are shifting from ‘fixed service business models’ to ‘as a service’ business models.
There’s also workforce training and upskilling, which isn’t being talked about much. However, successful brands are always working on this and making sure their employees stay up-to-date with the latest technology, customer care support, and various other business practices.
Conclusion
These are some of the steps CEOs and entrepreneurs are taking in this COVID-19 era. The pandemic has made it clear that our world is changing in ways we have never imagined. Although it’s true that the digitization of businesses was expected to be the future, now it’s become glaringly apparent and being sped up.
Speed is of the essence, and it’s no surprise that brands will be moving really fast when it comes to scaling up and designing better customer experiences.