Why You Must Change Your Marketing Message Now

The Coronvirus (COVID-19) and subsequent calls to avoid unnecessary trips away from home and social distancing have small businesses reeling. Plain and simple, your business is going to have to adapt to this situation. So, what have you done to adapt your marketing message? Where do you even begin? It is easy to just close for a while or do what everyone else is doing and offer curbside service. But is that really what your customers want from you? And that really is the essence marketing- finding out what your customers want from you and giving it to them.

Your customers buy from you because they have a problem and you solve it.

And you do it in a unique way that makes them choose you over your competitors. They want or need something from you and you deliver it. It’s this relationship that you and your customers have that makes them loyal to your business. You don’t do what everybody else does. Now here comes the Coronavirus and suddenly this relationship changes. That’s because your customer’s needs have changed. The marketing message that you had two weeks ago proved to your customers that you were the ones who were uniquely qualified to solve their problem.

Your customers’ needs have changed, but has your marketing message changed with it?

All that stuff about the best price or a large selection may no longer matter to them because they are staying home and not going into your store. So, the challenge for you is to determine what your customers now want from you. Is it a promise to deliver what you sell to their home? Or, to take this even further, have you made an effort to protect them from interaction with your delivery staff during those deliveries? Is that they want from you? Or maybe your customer can find a solution to their need or problem online. Have you addressed this on your website- and even more importantly, have your communicated this to your customer?

Your business has changed, and your marketing has got to change with it.

So, take a moment to think about the unique ways you solve the needs and problems of your customers and how their needs have changed because of the virus restrictions and then craft a new message that solves their new problem in a unique way that no one else can. If you can do this, you’ll keep their loyalty to your business and you’ll make it through this crisis. You just have to shift.