Marketing to a World Living and Working at Home

In response to the global pandemic, the world remains at home. So, how can marketers adapt their strategy to these new circumstances?

There has been a lot of changes in recent times, primarily as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Some of the effects of this virus’s arrival have been incredibly dramatic. Stay-at-home orders, remote working conditions, and adjustments into a life fully in the home are just a small part of this. Nevertheless, these may be some of the most noticeable changes to most people’s daily routines. A population working and living solely within the home is also a particularly notable change for marketers. In this constantly-changing world, marketers still have a job to do, but it may be difficult to figure out what it means to market in these stay-at-home times.

What’s Changed?

In the world impacted by coronavirus, a lot has changed, especially in regards to getting marketing done. Stuck in their own homes, the way people interact with businesses has changed. And the way businesses interact with their customers has had to change too.

Many brands have already had to rethink planned advertising campaigns in order to be sensitive to the reason behind everyone working remotely and otherwise staying at home. This is just not the time to be selfish in your marketing. Rather, marketers must walk a delicate tightrope of promoting their brand while everyone stays at home, together. You can also check Top 75 Geek Blogs and Websites To Follow in 2020.

How Can Marketers Adapt to This Change?

This is a difficult time. There’s no denying that. Everyone is facing new challenges. Yet, that can’t mean that you give up.

Marketing is obviously going to be different right now. Changes have to be made in response to any drastically new situation. Through any necessary adjustments though, marketing will go on, and, in fact, may be more important now than at any other time. This is a crucial moment and how your company adapts its marketing to fit the circumstances will be crucial to its success.

Decide on Situation-Specific Goals

The first step in figuring out how to market to a world at home will be making the actual plan. Your course of action cannot just be thrown together haphazardly, but as with any marketing efforts, should be based on suitable, achievable goals. Just keep in mind, your goals right now may be a bit different than your goals under typical circumstances.

There are many different factors at play in whether a marketing goal is the right one for a brand or even reliably achievable. You can consider all of these factors shaken up in our current circumstances. The fact is, a world at home will not behave in the same way as the active world we all know. People in their homes do not have the same habits and different marketing tactics are going to be required to reach these populations.

Rethink the Target Audience

Your target audience, as always, is key to planning out your message and getting your marketing right. However, the target audience that you’re used to may not exactly be the one that you’re dealing with now. Sure, it’s possible that these are the exact same people, but, living a life at home, they may no longer fit perfectly into the image that you’ve crafted of them.

For example, if you are a brand within the tourism industry, your target audience may be “frequent travelers” who are “currently planning a vacation in the near future.” Now, the people that normally respond to your marketing are still out there. They haven’t gone anywhere, but that’s precisely the problem. They haven’t gone anywhere. Doesn’t quite fit the target persona, does it?

But those most loyal of customers, they are still your customers, whether they’re behaving in their typical ways or not. And those dedicated customers, they’re the ones that matter most right now. Focus on the ones that would never abandon your brand, and you’ll have them flocking to your store as soon as the time comes for them to leave the home.

Create What Resonates

These are different circumstances, and for reasons other than just people being at home. There are things that you need to adapt your marketing to though. The kind of content that you need to put out at this moment may not be what has always worked for you, but it will still have to continue being what works for your audience. The crucial fact to remember is that that audience is thinking different things, feeling different things, and motivated in different ways than they usually would be.

As you continue putting out content, really consider your target audience and their state of mind in the current circumstances. You don’t want to just use the situation as a win for your company by making social distancing equate to buying your products. This is likely not quite what your audience wants to hear right now. In general, reaching that at-home audience will be no easy task, as you’ll want to get the message just right.

Still, there is plenty of room for good content and great marketing. It just may take some extra effort to focus your marketing on more meaningful connections. With an authentic social media message, you can connect with your audience without pushing anyone away during this sensitive time.

Reach Them Where They Are

Right now, that social media post may also be a perfect example of the current ideal marketing medium. After all, in a world at home, nobody’s driving, so nobody’s seeing your billboard ad on the side of the highway. Of constant importance in marketing is reaching your customers where they are, and right now, that’s online. This may mean a shift of marketing strategy for you. Essentially, you want to be looking at social media, your SEO strategy, and your investment in PPC advertising.

A world at home is a world on social media. Right now, more people than ever are scrolling on the various social media platforms. Getting some well-timed and well thought-out posts onto those feeds would therefore be a pretty smart move. Since everyone’s checking their social channels much more frequently, you’ll also want to increase the frequency of your postings to provide new content for your audience’s repeat visits.

There also couldn’t be a better time to get your website and overall online presence to where it should be. If you’re not reaching all these people that have gone online, you’re missing out, so it’s crucial that you consider the state of your website and the search engine optimization efforts that have been made. Some of the crucial elements to consider are: an update to your Google My Business listing, an online shopping option for customers if you have a product-oriented business, and, of course, your SEO strategies to actually get potential customers on your site.

Another good way to draw customers in is pay-per-click advertising. Currently, everyone is online, but not so many companies are paying for PPC advertising. This means PPC is a cheaper strategy than usual, and you’ve got a great chance of reaching the audience you want with your ads. If you don’t already invest in PPC, now may be the time to do so.

In the End, Remember the Basics

Marketing is different right now, but it’s still marketing. Things change, but the principles are always the same. Adapt as you need to, and you’ll see the potential for success as we come to the other side of a time when everyone stayed at home.