Small Business Marketing: Lessons Learned From COVID-19
2020 will go down in history as the year that brought the world to its knees with COVID-19 and the millions that fell to the virus. As a direct result, the global economic recession, cultural social distancing, and remote education and employment ensued. 2020 — heralded as a year of promise — will be a painful stain on our eternal memories.
uctFor small business owners and entrepreneurs, 2020 emerged as a new learning curve. With the world tightening its economic belt, local businesses had to evolve rapidly as endangered species. The threat of extinction loomed overhead as the local marketplace skidded to a halt. And, as the dust settled over everything and everyone, supply chains were interrupted, panic followed, and cash flow dried up.
Marketing and Advertising
The first budget expense cut was marketing and advertising. But should a business’s marketing campaign cease in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? The answer is ‘No’. Being present and responsive during periods of crisis is a great strategy. Consumer behaviours during the pandemic have shown that automatic lifetime loyalty to a brand is a thing of the past, and sending the right message is crucial to a successful creative campaign.
Branding
Branding is essential to a winning creative strategy but is often overlooked in the small business model. A brand’s worth is measured by its consumers’ trust and loyalty. In 2020, conscientious consumers remained loyal to businesses conveying a message echoing the values of the brand and responded favourably to solutions-focused, ethical marketing that supports the community. The way to retain trust is through an image of togetherness.
“Brand. Choosing one product over another is ultimately powered by the consumer’s emotional relationship with the brand.”
Failing to recognise that trust is a two-way street has meant certain death to local, small businesses. Hence, we need to trust our consumers to stay loyal by continuing to trade through uncertain times, but halting our marketing and advertising strategies to save money is tantamount to silencing our brand’s voice and abandoning our faithful supporters.
Creative Message
To be strong in the market is to be present with a message of good faith. Not ‘sell, sell, sell!’ That is the self-centric model, and the customer-centric business model has proven wiser and more successful. Instead try ‘support, salvage, survive, and reinvent, revive, recover.’
“Research demonstrates that firms who maintain or accelerate customer-centric philosophies consistently outperform firms that do not.” — Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
Our words must represent the identified values of our brand, raise a genuine concern, and be support- and solutions-focused because everyone has suffered in the community. Fighting back together is the best way to move forward.
Strategy
Since COVID-19 decimated the world economy, local economies have all but shut down. The small business owner must fight against the urge to bury our heads in the sand or hunker down into our shells to wait out the pandemic storm. Don’t be ostriches and turtles.
Instead, be a mustang that charges fearlessly into the wind. Recessions are driven by silence and fear. Messages must go out, and money must circulate. A currency’s value is only that of tin and paper if it is not spread around, and a brand’s power is diminished if its voice cannot be heard.
Adaptation
Being able to adapt in times of trouble ensures the continuation of a species, and the small business must be resilient to survive in this icy climate. We must adjust our strategy by pivoting around the obstacles. Refresh our thinking with new or modified products that fit the needs of the current climate and consumer.
Collaboration
Consider collaborating with established networks and suppliers in a bid to cater to the new needs of our clientele. According to Forbes, resilient businesses and successful entrepreneurs have rethought their offerings for the current market, such as Texas-based theatre, EVO Entertainment.
Or, imagine this movie theatre scenario: ‘The Show Must Go On’. A collaboration with movie studios, online movie streaming services, and concessions suppliers. An innovative idea is better than closing doors, more lucrative than no revenue. The home cinema experience, boxed up and delivered to the consumer’s door.
Complete with an online movie streaming voucher, instructional guide for constructing a DIY backyard theatre, pre-packaged or microwavable popcorn, bottled sodas, packaged sweets, and even movie merch? This would be a nice entertainment option for the consumer and local cinemas alike, much better than shutting its doors, stopping supply chains, putting film reels on ice, and losing all revenue.
Action
Taking action is key to marketing strategy. Actively give back by putting resources into the community. A racehorse of any worth must be in the race to win. Being cautious is one thing, but being startled back into the trailer is suicide. Pave the way, and be the first to run the course.
Leadership
A leader who shows us what to do and how to do it provides safety and security. The consumer expects the brand to lead the way, give advice, respond to the emergency, offer solutions, and promote safety on an open, honest platform.
Consider Harvard Business Review’s article, ‘What Good Leadership Looks Like During This Pandemic’, in praising Adam Silver. One leader in the corporate arena, acted swiftly with an overt, caring agenda, showing that he was right there in the fray with everyone else.
The corporate entity cannot exist in the boardroom sequestered from its customers and the frontline. It must come down from the high-rise to street level and help the community or the brand will no longer be trusted or sustainable.
Consumers want to know that their local businesses and favourite brands are still here for them. In times of uncertainty, people cling to any normalcy they can. Routines might be in upheaval, but creatures of habit want their creature comforts.
The bottom line
Consumers see their favorite brands as extensions of their family and home, of which the cornerstone is trust. When consumers see a brand giving back to the community, trust is strengthened. The foundation of the business-to-consumer relationship is not based on a product, a gimmick, or a product review. A brand’s legitimacy, our face value, is reliant on ethics and goodwill, on community outreach and follow-through.
The consumer has said no more to playing fast and loose, one-way advantages, celebrity luxe lifestyles, and profiteering. People expect brands to be responsible leaders and philanthropists who give back, take positive action. Trust and togetherness are the brand ambassadors now.
A business cannot survive without staying active with consumers and present in the community. A recession is not the time to squirrel away our pocket money, and it is not the time to allow communication to fall silent. Marketing strategies should be adjusted but not axed. The new campaign must be driven by acknowledgement and understanding with a solution focus, adaptive, and responsive to the immediate concern.
Author bio: Alex Thomas is the co-founder and managing director of Breakline, a UK reputable SEO Agency. His work has been featured in many online publications such as business.com, Inc, HBR and more.
