Brand awareness: Importance of balancing sensitivity with digital marketing

Covid-19 has taken the whole world by storm. Businesses across the globe are scrambling to manage the emerging crisis. The present scenario has shifted not only business trends but also consumer priorities and the entire marketing landscape. 

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From a business perspective, one has to be sensitive to the moment and yet discerning enough to begin to see the marketplace via a long-term lens. For some marketing departments, the solution has been to cut back. They deliver some essential communications about operations during the pandemic and limit digital marketing spend—both to avoid seeming insensitive and to free up financial resources to keep the business up.

But this might not be the best method. Now is the time to get more aggressive with your digital marketing to uphold brand awareness. The real challenge lies within figuring out how to do that without harming your reputation.

The purpose of digital marketing is to build brand awareness. With digital marketing, the positive brand sentiment is what creates long-term value. Having negative social sentiment around your brand can have severe business implications. Moreover, it’s more important than ever to ensure your brand is front and centre for customers—not just to captivate short-term e-commerce activity, but to maintain brand awareness without coming across as insensitive:

So, let’s discuss the smart approach to balance sensitivity with digital marketing which will be helpful for brand awareness.

Embrace the recent context

First of all, you need to embrace the newest context that we’re residing in. Thoroughly audit your complete marketing, promotions, and advertising calendar and strategies. Decide on where you need to pause and where you need to pivot.

Sensitivity matters on both a macro and a micro-scale. In other words, it’s not enough to pivot on primary strategic goals and campaigns. You also have to just take all of the smaller details under consideration – just like the verbiage you utilise in your articles and copy. If sensitivity can be your goal, it is possible to no longer use words like killer, contagious, and viral – even though you’re with them in another context. This requires putting a hang on content that talks about “killer content,” “contagious marketing,” or “viral social media posts.” There may come an occasion when we can resurrect these terms, but we aren’t there yet.

Know the difference in tones

Tonality is everything. It’s crucial for brands to be serious, but this doesn’t mean you need to be sombre. The goal would be to avoid being humorous, witty, or laid-back. But you can be positive, inspiring, and helpful. 

People are seeking hope and good news. (In fact, Google searches for the keyword “good news” are at an all-time high.) 

Listen, it’s important

Before planning anything, first and foremost, you have to listen to your customers and understand what they need at this time. Providing transparent communications that match the language your customers are using and offers help appropriately is crucial. Your brand voice can make or break awareness right now. Get it done right, and you could stand out among competitors, building goodwill for the long term.

Maintain flexibility 

Getting more aggressive with digital marketing does not just mean blasting out more messages on social media or working on the same ad campaign more frequently. Your messaging needs to evolve alongside the current situation. Your motive should not be to get more business but to continue offering value to your audience. People are trying to say afloat right now, so focus on contribution, not conversion.

Invest in shorter-term demand generation efforts

Businesses require brand marketing to create demand in the long term, and activation to convert that demand efficiently into revenue in the short term. That’s why it’s advisable to invest in shorter-term demand generation efforts and longer-term brand campaigns. When the balance is right, each shot enhances the other. Apply the 50/50 rule as you consider the divide between brand and investment demand. But remember to measure ROI over the full length of the sales cycle to hold investment impact most accurately.

Ensuring accuracy

Taking the extra steps to stay accurate will help you to sustain the trust you’ve worked so hard to build with your audience. Also, it will help you to keep up with changing search trends and even filter out any unreliable resources of your own. Just make sure to modify your strategies accordingly so that calls to action are appropriate.

Include advocacy and human bonding

One of the best things you can do to increase brand awareness—both during the pandemic and when we return to business-as-usual—is to enlarge your strategy beyond the marketing department. Especially now, costumers crave human connection. Even the best digital marketing still leaves consumers to engage with a faceless brand image. Getting your employees to engage with the marketing strategy can be the solution. When buying into the digital marketing plan, they can distribute your messages to customers in ways that may feel more genuine than a typical advertisement. Your employees have their own set of audiences on social media (even if they’re small) and an advocacy program can help you broaden the reach of your messaging to them.

Conclusion 

Adapting your marketing and strategies during the ever-shifting current situation is tricky. However, while your messaging and offers may vary, your digital marketing standards should be the same. At the end of the day, you are still providing information, adding value, and conveying to the audience that you are in tune with their needs.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authr. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of BestMediaInfo.com and we do not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)

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