Pivoting: the key to Marketing in the era of COVID-19

The word ‘pivot’ is probably the most trending word for businesses in the era of COVID-19.  Businesses both small and large are encouraged to pivot i.e. change the way they do business to serve their current customers, attract new ones and increase their business visibility and ultimately profits.  For pivoting to be effective, marketing plays an important role in crafting an effective message. 

In the era of COVID and beyond marketing must be part of any business’s significant plan to identify, target, reach, attain and retain customers.  After all, customers are the lifeblood of business.  In the era of COVID, marketing must meet some simple criteria to be effective.  The following are my suggested ten:

1.    Agile – focus your teams’ and marketing efforts to ensure that you deliver value to the end customer.

2.    Responsive – Identify current trends, events or activities and create relevant solutions that ties your brand to the activity while becoming a champion for your customers.

3.    Solutions-oriented – Aim to highlight the ‘how’ of your products and services.  How does this benefit the customer? How can it improve the customer’s life or a regular activity? Highlight benefits instead of features.

4.    Differentiable – Innovation is as important in marketing as it is in business.  Differentiate your marketing tactics by embracing new ideas.  Remember, your business is not for you, it’s for your customers and they will reward your attempts to please them.

5.    Out-of-the-box – Out of the box thinking in marketing will get your everywhere, especially with customer groups who are unafraid to explore, try new experiences and go outside of the box themselves.

6.    Strategic – Ensure your marketing plan incorporates an overall game plan with short, medium and long-term goals.  Planning must be included in the process, taking into consideration customer responses, budget and realistic expectations.

7.    Logical – Customers make buying decisions based on emotion and logic. While emotions may rule for small or not so significant purchases, large purchases are most often than not based on logics.  Highlight features for logical marketing --- in buying a house, a customer will always go for all the features that the house offers, emotions will seal the deal.

8.    Structured – Your marketing should take into consideration your current position, the direction of the organization and a plan to achieve your goals. Place your plan into easy, manageable steps, evaluate as you go along and pivot i.e. make changes when necessary.

9.    Cost-effective – Marketing is not an expense, it is an investment but it can be an expensive investment.  Identify cost-effective ways to reach your target audience without breaking the bank.  Tried and true marketing tactics such as networking, referral marketing and customer engagement tactics must always be included.

10.  Inclusive – Inclusive marketing requires that all of your stakeholders, not just your customers feel part of the conversation.  Ensure that your marketing messages leaves none of your publics out of the loop or without important information.