Your Post-COVID-19 Marketing Plan Can’t Wait

Posted by Rena Vysnionis

Apr 8, 2020 5:58:36 PM

Just a few months ago you were on track with your 2020 marketing plan, but then that all changed with the coronavirus (COVID-19). While the focus right now is dealing with COVID-19’s immediate impact on business, don’t lose sight of the pandemic’s long-term implications.

Think about these key questions in positioning your business now for a new way of operating and marketing:

  • How have others viewed you during the crisis? What have you do to create a positive impression? While you’ve been addressing the crisis, you’ve been sending messages—knowingly or not—to your clients, customers, residents, and others. They’ve been watching how you treat both residents and employees and how you protect them, how you manage and respond to customer/client issues and concerns, and how you’re using organizational assets to help people and your community. They’ve been watching the messaging (or lack thereof) that you’ve been sending.
  • What will your brand mean to you and others post-crisis? Start now to revisit your brand—is it still relevant? Did you stay true to it during the crisis? If not, why not?
  • What’s ahead post-crisis—are you ahead of or behind the eight ball? Make sure you are there for people who need you now and prepare for how you will continue to support them moving forward. Consider how you will maintain any momentum you’ve built up or how you will rebuild any you’ve lost.
  • How can you ensure that you’re agile enough to adjust to the uncertainties waiting ahead? Plan for different likely scenarios; and for the time being don’t count on anything returning to normal. Set and work on short-term goals with your teams; and align them for maximum productivity during this constantly changing, unpredictable time. Consider training, education, and exercises to help employees and managers to be more flexible anWxgePFJHTNAQRBuP3g5hoM-320-80d adaptive.
  • If your digital foundation strong enough to build on? Conference/video calls, remote work, and virtual meetings/conferences are likely to be the norm for the unseen future. Work with your IT teams and vendors to ensure your infrastructure, bandwidth, and fiber optics are up to the task.

Now is the time to revisit your marketing strategies and plan.Enlist your partners to draw on their experience working with market disruptions and crisis scenarios to adjust your strategies, so you are poised for business post-COVID-19.