How Can Brands Actively Engage with Customers During Quarantine?

Marketing strategies are crucial when it comes to establishing brand awareness. However, with brands in quarantine, your campaigns and strategies cannot function in the same manner. It is only fit that you step back and analyze where they fit in the present context. It doesn’t mean that you neglect them completely rather tweak them to suit the present needs, like Uber. While most people are forced to work from home, mobility service provider companies like Uber and Lyft have taken a direct hit. So, instead of moaning its losses, Uber is trying to raise brand awareness by allowing its drivers to earn alternative gigs like food delivery and customer service. This innovative approach not only adds to the brand’s reputation but also sets an example for other creative brands to put similar strategies in place.

It’s not surprising to know that quarantine has made our lives more digitally evolved. For some, work from home requires dabbling digitally while others are happily cruising the digital tide. With your customers at home, you can easily approach them on digital platforms and develop your brand’s community. So, check out how you can offer them an awesome user experience that beats the boredom of your customers and keep them engaged.

• Contests – With brands in quarantine, addressing your customers’ needs can be difficult. Brands can then use this time to not only engage their customers but also keep them entertained. Imploring customers to join in contests, your brand can also gain points for user-generated content. Making your customers participate in friendly games, competitions, and photo contests, you can take customer engagement to a whole new level. One such contest that went viral on Instagram is Domino’s superfan contest where fans proved their love by posting photos.
• Coupons – Nothing makes your day like winning a coupon or gift voucher. As practicing social distance regulations can become quite tedious, surprise sales and vouchers can lift your customers’ spirits. Such initiatives will not only make them flock to you but also supply them with some semblance of normalcy. Successfully implementing this strategy, creative brands like Nordstrom and Reebok are offering discounts to their customers who are making the most of these deals despite the limited delivery options.
• Community donations – With the Coronavirus infections on the rise, community-oriented initiatives have become aggressively effective to curb the outbreak. Brands, both big and small are coming together to give back to the community and raise awareness about the pandemic and for those who are affected by it. Interestingly, creative brands like Diageo and Anheuser-Busch that primarily deal with beers and spirits are now lending a helping hand by manufacturing and donating hand-sanitizers. Such novel initiatives are not only perceived as supportive but also raise awareness about Covid19 and your brand.

While coronavirus infections have certainly thrown a curveball when it comes to your marketing campaigns, the mark of a proactive brand is to improvise. Although circumstances may not be in our hands when it comes to brand recall, your content can put the odds in your favor. With most of the people glued to their televisions and mobile screens, you have your audience right where you want them, so all that’s left is proper messaging. For marketing to go right, you need some real-time communication and a coherent message that relates to your customers with positive vibes. Nike once again gets major points for its uplifting message of playing it safe to relate to its audience and the present situation.

With brands in quarantine, physically engaging your customers is out of the question but not digital engagement. You now have the time and opportunity to execute your brand awareness strategies with entertaining content that will captivate them. Regardless of your niche, you can still command your customer’s attention by offering free courses to learn something new, DIY videos, and several out of the box ideas. Also, you can take notes for both fitness and marketing with free workout videos uploaded by several creative brands and celebrities like Chris Hemsworth to address your customers’ needs.

While the battle against Coronavirus infections continues with innovative and creative strategies, we also need to form and execute plans once this pandemic ends. While you evaluate the current marketing strategies and create new ones for your brand, keeping your hands clean during the Covid19 outbreak won’t be enough. So, strategic foresight in what brands need to achieve. With the extra time at hand, you can study customer patterns and trends that are likely to alter once the lockdown gets lifted and create innovative marketing strategies. Also, analyzing customer behavior can give you the insight to plan your strategies and anticipate their needs. Leveraging technology like AI to your benefit, you can also gain an edge over competitors. Above all, more and more brands need to become human to deliver an enriching customer experience. While all the uncertainty that surrounds us, being passive is not an option, nor is shooting in the dark. Your brand strategy then needs to be grounded in data, driven by purpose, and thrive in adversity to win the brand battle against Covid19.