It’s time to face reality: your business is likely not a priority purchase during COVID-19, so how do you break through to prospects when everyone is feeling a bit anxious and burnt-out?
It starts with compassion, understanding, and a bit of creativity.
You’ve probably already re-worked your marketing programs in previous weeks (if you haven’t, we should talk), but being realistic as to where your technology or product sits in the list of priorities for your ideal buyer is critical to understand. From there understanding how you can break through to get your (relevant) message across should become a bit easier.
For example (and very dependent on what you are selling): if an account you’re targeting already has a legacy solution that you are trying to replace – part of your campaign should focus touting that you can easily demonstrate the results they seek (via a trial or POC) that requires very little effort from them. Now, this may require far more intensive resources on your part, but acquiring customers during this time needs to be focused (don’t offer this to everyone) and will cost more. So be smart about your targeting strategy.
Ok, so once you determine your message, what channels can you leverage to reach your target audience?
This is where you can be a bit creative.
Get through by demonstrating you care
The idea here is to brighten someone’s day. I’m well aware that branded goods (and printing) will be difficult to come by, but a handwritten note
- Self care kits – face masks, hand lotion, lip balm.
- Food care kits – coffee beans, mug, (shelf stable) Oat milk or healthy snacks to supplement dwindling supplies.
- Gift cards to food delivery services, or a favorite restaurant for delivery/take-out – supporting small businesses are important at this time (I highly recommend going direct versus via a service such as Grubhub or Caviar as they take deep cuts from the restaurant).
- Subscription to a meditation app – my favorite is Insight Timer, but Calm and Headspace are great too!
- Subscription to an on demand workout program – think: Exhale, Physique57, Daily Burn.
Give some help for parents
Parents seem to be struggling to keep their kids busy (I’m not a parent, but have talked to a few friends who are a bit exhausted). This goes along with the idea above – show them you care – and gift them with something that could help with keeping their sanity.
- Activity care kit for kids – coloring books, kids activities (of course, you should know if they have kids first).
- Zoom story time for kids – hire on a reputable person who can read stories via Zoom and entertain kids – this is random, but like the Disney Bedtime Hotline, these gimmicks could possibly keep kids distracted for a short period of time.
Share some favorite activities from your team
There’s nothing like saying “we’re going stir crazy too” than by sending along handpicked favorites from members of your team.
- Puzzles – These are hard to come by as they are seeing a resurgence, but if you can find some, these can be great to send along.
- Games – Selecting a few favorite board games to share with a personal note as to why and some tips on how to win may be a fun way to win someone over.
- Crafting projects – It’s ever been a better time to pick up a craft – knitting, jewelry making, beer making (which, I know, is not a craft) can be fun to send.
- Baking kit – who says you can’t get flour and yeast (ok, it’s really hard), but the scrappy business will be able to find some and send it off!
- Membership to an e-learning service – Think Skillshare or Coursera.
Host virtual events
These are all too common these days, but you can go outside of the box.
- Work-related webinar – Break out of standard “decision making during COVID-19” topics and offer workshops that help advance your prospect’s knowledge. Use experts outside of your business – bring on an expert in simple things like Excel, data visualization, or more advanced such as coding or negotiation.
- Learning workshops – Create a series of workshops where an expert can teach something simple like Excel, SQL, or how to code. It would replace something like a CodeAcademy, but you would get a captive audience for a bit.
- Inspirational talks – Invite someone who can speak about a topic unrelated to work. Perhaps about science, philosophy, or some TED Talk-esque topic.
Some other ideas
- Resume review services – This may not advance your business, but wherever your prospects go, they will appreciate you for their help, so maybe they’ll be a prospect elsewhere?
- Offer complimentary services – This could be something you may offer already, but you can be more explicit. This could mean helping audit, code, create, etc. You get the idea.
- Digital treasure hunt – Difficult to pull off, but might be something fun to do during the day.
- Remote hackathon – Why not? It can be related to a topic in your business but all about creativity.
The thing to remember here is to be human and treat your prospects with care. This is a tough time for all of us and instead of aggressively selling, maybe give them a break and be a friend.
Header Photo by Nikita Kachanovsky on Unsplash