How marketing strategies have evolved for various industries amidst COVID-19

The biggest lesson COVID-19 has taught us is that “Change is the only constant in life.”

COVID-19 has changed everything right from the consumer’s behaviour to the in and out of the enterprises and businesses.

Hardly any industry remains unaffected. But life is not about how hard you fall, it’s about the bounce back and several businesses have proved it right. 

In the last 8 months, we have witnessed one kind of event in our lives. No one was prepared for it, but it had made deep changes in our lives both as a consumer and business.

A common question that marketers were asking along with “When this pandemic will end?” is that “What should we do to bring the business back on track?”

So let’s dive into the marketing strategies that businesses have adopted to survive this pandemic.

1. Conversation – The pandemic has left everyone unprecedented and scared, no matter whether you are a customer or an organization. When things go wrong, it is the conversation that saves a lot of things.

 Several brands acted upon the same strategy of communication with their audience with a positive and warm message. Such a crisis is the time to show what a brand stands for. It is the best time to show empathy to your audience with the right messaging. 

For example, the recent campaign by JK Cement, called #YehPuccaHai. The campaign became an instant hit showing the brand’s sensitivity towards their audience. 

Also, the recent video campaign of Facebook, “Pooja Milk Centre,” has gone viral within a week of its launch, it left the viewers in tears in just 7 mins. 

2. Building the new Marketing Funnel – Neither businesses nor the customers remained the same amidst the pandemic. Thus, accepting the new normal is the only solution left with the marketers and building the marketing funnel accordingly. 

Maybe Customers are not buying right now but they will do so in the future. Therefore many brands are attracting customers by offering free trials and waiving their current plans to keep their audience engaged. 

For example, Zoom had lifted the 40 minutes call limit from their basic plan for some time. Google is waiving monthly fees on Gsuite. 

Industries like travel and hospitality are utilizing this time to build their future customers by offering special offers for the year 2021 and other strategies. A lot of service-based companies are shifting towards customized solutions as per the different needs of customers due to COVID. 

3. Leveraging the online marketing – There was a world that exists beyond your screen before this pandemic. Some businesses had no online presence and had nothing to do with the digital world. 

But the world was restricted to go out of their house, due to COVID, the retail businesses have suffered a huge setback. Therefore they came online. Now just like the normal market, a new market lies on the internet, and SEO, listings, Social Media have become a crucial part of the marketing strategies. 

As per Statista, a whopping 4.57 billion people were using the Internet in April 2020 which is 59% of the world population.

Therefore some brands have shifted from traditional to online marketing and leveraging the power of the online business market. The demand for website pages, eCommerce stores, influencer marketing, and digital marketing has seen a surge in the last 2 quarters. 

Also, brands like Shopify, which is an E-commerce site-building platform are offering 90 days of free trials to help the small businesses. Facebook and Instagram had also come up with several features to help these small businesses grow. 

The retails industry would have vanished without the online business world. It has survived and now flourishes only because of the internet. 

4. Virtual events and Virtual Tours – Though we are stuck at our houses but thanks to the technology we can still meet the people, conduct workshops, meetups, networking sessions, etc. Conducting networking events and attending them is a great marketing strategy that several brands have leveraged and are leveraging. Especially for B2B businesses networking events are important to bring in more clients. 

Virtuals tours are the only thing that is keeping the tourism industry alive. Keeping the audience engaged through these virtual tours will help the tourism industry to recover fast after the pandemic. It is also helping the brands to generate revenues through their virtual tools. 

5. Video Streaming – There is no better way to connect with your customers than a Face-to-Face connection. Video Streaming is one such way that brands have leveraged in the pandemic times to increase brand visibility and build trust with their audience.  

The number of people watching live streamings and videos has increased by 50% since January. Video streaming through social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram is seeing exponential growth. It has become a great marketing strategy for influencers, the fitness industry, and the coaching industry. Shifting from traditional marketing methods to live streamings proved to be business changing strategy for the fitness and coaching industries. 

6. Video Marketing – Video content has become people’s favourite as everything is digital. No matter which industry you are into, Videos can do wonders for your business. Several brands are using a lot of videos as a part of their content marketing strategies. As the videos have the highest engagement amongst all forms of content, brands are investing big in the video content to leverage it for marketing.  

7. Empathy towards the people – Many brands are helping the affected people in various ways. Some of the brands are distributing the healthcare kits, some of them are adding volunteering help and others are offering special discounts on services, free resources, and new services. Because of their empathetic response to this pandemic, their brand visibility and awareness has seen a surge amongst the people. 

A recent study by the American Association of Advertising Agencies reveals that 56% of consumers are happy that brands are helping in the Covid-19 pandemic.

For example, Sisense is helping its customers through its free analytics services to support their businesses in the pandemic. They are also providing free analytics, relief packages, free analytics, professional services, and strategic consulting to its customers. 

There is no form of marketing better than word of mouth and when you help your customers, your word of mouth spread like fire. 

Similarly, Hubspot has also offered several paid and premium services and content for free to its customers.  

COVID-19 has taught marketers that time is uncertain in this highly changing world. A virus, competitor, or new technology can be the catalyst of this change. As a marketer, you always have to come up with unique marketing strategies to keep growing. Accepting the conditions and coming up with solutions to the problems is the only solution to run the businesses in the long run.