Managing Your Brand In Crisis Mode
3/20/2020
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It's an extremely vulnerable time for Americans as we try to balance maintaining our businesses and economy with social distancing and other preventative measures. It's safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic will cause some major changes in the way we do business over the course of the next few months as we try to navigate best practices for both our business and the safety of our fellow employees.
While working remotely from home, online meetings, adjusted delivery solutions and other accommodations are working for many, for other businesses the lack of consumer activity is having major impact on their bottom line, and finding new means and methods of engagement and commerce are paramount. I looked for a few ideas on how to shift marketing strategy in a crisis, and here is a summary of a few of the ideas I found:
Update
As more and more companies are looking for remote or work-from-home solutions, they are finding their infrastructure or technology lacking the required support. Perhaps you've wanted to set up an online store, or maybe you've never even finished setting up a website. Now is possibly the best time to make those adjustments and keep your business up to date so that you're poised for regrowth.
Refresh
Along with updating your technology and online presence, this is an ideal time to do any overhauls to your branding or building. Whether that's redesigning your company logo or finally cleaning and organizing the thing's you've been putting off for a while - not only will it help keep you busy in the interim but once the quarantine period is over, you'll be able to bounce back with a fresh outlook. (This is good advice for anyone stuck at home too - I'm choosing to think of it as a mandated Spring Cleaning!)
Outreach
By far the most important thing you can do at the moment is maintain communication with your customers, prospects and employees. This is a strange time for many service and retail industries, but engagement and outreach is how we let our community know that we are still dedicated to serving our customers in the safest ways possible. As the situation here in Indiana continues to change, maintaining open lines of communication both online over social media, web or email as well as more tactile forms like mailings, postcards and signage will help keep you connected.
The good news is that there is still some light at the end of this tunnel. As long as we are working together as a community to help support local businesses and committed to keeping one another safe, American history has proven that we can persevere.