Making Your Marketing New-Normal-Proof

by Andrew Schulkind

Many of us are focused on how drastically things have changed in our worlds. Enormous numbers of people have lost income, or jobs, or even companies they’ve built over decades, to say nothing of the loss of life.

And yet, when it comes to marketing, there are ways that the “new normal” won’t have changed anything at all, no matter what shape it takes.

two-lane road headed into the mountains

Most specifically, I mean that marketing works best when it connects on a human level. When we drop the jargon, the meaningless marketing fluff, and the hard sell and instead focus on being clear and being helpful to those we seek to reach.

Perhaps you’re among the many marketers who have made the switch from trying to sell to their audience to trying to support those same people. I hope so, because helpfulness may not translate to bottom line dollars today — not much will in many industries. But it is how you grow the critical pool of prospects who know and like you and will consider you when they are ready to buy at some point in the future.

Which isn’t to say there isn’t a place for strong calls to action or opportunities to ask for the sale, even under current conditions. Before you move in that direction, be sure you have a strong understanding of what has changed in your prospect’s world over the past two months.

That will depend on their business, of course. I don’t imagine there’s much you can sell to an airline or a hotel today. Industries less fully eviscerated may still be buying, though not the same items, ideas, (or quantities) as they were in January and February. You won’t get far if you don’t know what has changed.

Pandemic or not, if the focus of your marketing is supporting and helping those you hope to work with, closing the sale becomes a whole lot easier.

--- Strategy, Research & Planning ---

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