Four principles for campaign planning during COVID-19

Whether your business is continuing as usual, adjusting your offering, or ceasing to trade for a period of time, in the current climate it is important to continue to put your customer first when planning your campaigns. Make sure they can easily access information about your business and are exposed to positive messages from your brand in these uncertain times.

To help you craft a suitable response we are sharing 4 principles to consider when creating your marketing communications in the coming weeks and months.

1. Ensure your response is clear and prominent

Make it easy for your customers to find your response and current status in relation to COVID-19. Your messaging should be clear and prominent across all of your owned and earned channels; website, social and email.

2. Make a plan but be prepared to change it

The response to COVID-19 is changing rapidly. You should remain tapped in to updates that affect your business and your customers so you can respond accordingly. It is worthwhile taking the time to create a scenario plan to document the activity you would undertake in various circumstances. You can then refer to this as the situation changes but remain flexible and adaptive, altering your plan as needed.

3. Focus on people and be authentic

It is essential in a crisis of this nature that your approach is aligned to protecting your customers, your teams and where suitable your wider community. Your communications should focus on these aspects in an authentic and relatable way. Insincere sentiments and sales focused messages won’t be well received.

4. Look for opportunities to engage with your audience in new ways

The situation is resulting in significant lifestyle changes for most people. Take some time to think about how your customers’ lives will change and whether there are opportunities to engage with them in new ways or new messages that will resonate well with them. There is a real opportunity to be creative and innovative in your approach.

To help businesses work through their plans we are making our senior team available for free consultations on a first come first served basis. We think it's the right thing to do to help in this situation. We have extensive experience in crisis management, digital marketing, and campaign management so please contact our MD, Paul Honey on paul.honey@strangecorp.com for details.