We have seen how COVID-19 pandemic affected all aspects of our lives, including marketing. Nowadays, most businesses try to incorporate pandemic-related content in their marketing efforts. However, you may be wondering how to stay relevant while being appropriate during these unprecedented time. These guides will help you lead your marketing efforts to have quality and communication with your audience while standing strong with them.
Be Sensitive
COVID-19 has impacted all lives worldwide, so it makes sense that the risk of coming off as insensitive or even exploitative is higher than ever right now. With increasing use of social media these days, one small mistake could mean long-term consequences for you and your business.
To be safe, steer clear of using humor or wit to keep a conversational tone. As much as you want to be casual, it can be off-putting. Your current content may not be as aligned with your brand personality, it is far better to be a bit serious than you want to be than to be more sorry than you can express. The most effective way is to keep a positive, inspirational, and helpful tone.
Ensure Accuracy
Take the extra steps to stay accurate to help you maintain the trust you have worked so hard to build with your audience. One important thing to look at is to use credible COVID-19 sources. Inaccurate information is everywhere, so make sure to research well enough about the information you have, especially for social media captions or ads that can be shared. Proper grammar should not be taken for granted as well. Improper grammar can undermine the validity of your facts, and it can alter your message. This can consume extra time, so this is something to be serious about. COVID-19 is not a trending topic and relevant content is a must.
Modify Your Offers
Modify your copywriting so that calls to action are appropriate. You also need to keep in mind that things are evolving fast so make sure to keep your messages as versatile as possible to minimize or even eliminate the constant updating of your copy. Additionally, you can try to revisit your scheduled content or automated emails for relevance and appropriateness. You might have scheduled your emails a year ahead and it still includes gathering-related content or humor that is not appropriate with the current situation.
Staying on Track
Remember that everybody is making the necessary adjustments too. Try to think that you are not alone in this. Prioritize top-trafficked content to update and try to modify new content moving forward. Do not try to update everything all at once because it can overwhelm you. You can also make a spreadsheet to track your changes and you can use it as an outline of the things you want to change back when things start to settle down. Lastly, save your good ideas and well-performing campaigns for the future when everything goes back to normal, or even to a new normal.