When I say so, I mean paying attention to the consumers’ changing behavior and buying patterns. You will see more of online shopping, panic buying, preference for home-cooked food, and doing everything from home.
In short, digital experiences will replace physical experiences. And marketers must take it from there.
1. Fit into Your Consumers’ Pipeline
Listening to social media posts and asking your customers what they want is the best way to adapt your strategy to their demands. For example; people are looking for lesser or free deliveries for their online purchases.
Build your business model in a way to cater to their wants. That’s how you spread the word.
2. Get Your Social Media Marketing Right
If you do not have a social media page for your business yet, get it now. Send invites to your friends, relatives and acquaintances and let them know about your business. You can even share your business page in your personal profile and announce the availability of the good and services. Let’ say you serve home-cooked foods and offer free delivery, then share the menu on the page and request your friends and followers to share your business profile on their page. A video of the kitchen is worth sharing too.
Join social media marketplaces and engage with a pool of other businesses and customers. Market your business there and make the maximum use of your online presence. This is a great way to establish a mutually benefited online business ecosystem.
3. Digi-payment is the Need of the Hour
Do not be rigid about the payment method as in the time of social distancing people are hesitant to pay cash. Keep all the payment methods open for your customers, like bank transfers, and e-wallets, etc.
4. Get Your Online Store Model, Now!
World Trade Organization survey says merchandise trade will drop up to 32% in 2020 and estimates of recovery in 2021 is highly uncertain, with results depending on the duration of COVID-19 and responsiveness of the economic policy.
As customers are getting more involved in panic buying of food and essential items during lockdown, they are shifting to online purchases.
Retailers who do not have an online store model, they must implement or turn to doorstep delivery over a phone call or open their store on online marketplaces such as Amazon and hire a delivery van for deliveries during the lockdown period.
5. No Hard Selling, Please!
When people are dealing with anxiety and are full of doubt, let’s not hard sell our products. Instead transform your business into a more meaningful brand. You focus should be to build a rapport with your customers beyond what you sell.
Seek creative ideas to help your customers reach you. For example; these days, you will find many influencers partnering with various fitness apps to ensure people stay healthy at home. In fact, Vogue is offering three months free digital access to support its consumers.
These ideas will only give you loyal customers who will keep coming back to you even when this pandemic ends.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson rightly said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
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