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3 Mistakes Marketers Are Making During the Pandemic

The global pandemic has created particular challenges for marketing organizations. Firms have been in the difficult spot between trying to be genuinely empathetic toward current and potential customers during this truly unprecedented time, while still keeping business considerations in mind.

ear 2973126 640smallAnd while everyone is searching for that sweet spot—the right balance between achieving business objectives while also not looking opportunistic—there are clears takeaways of what not to do.

1 – New Times, Old Approach

Boilerplate emails have never been the high water mark for marketers, but in today’s environment they can do significant damage to your brand. They can make your company seem extremely tone deaf and may look even more like spam than normal.

2 – Just Sending Something
It can be difficult to stay quiet when business is suffering. However, many firms are joining the rush to communicate something… anything amid the pandemic, without really having a clear message.
“A lot of companies are sending out messaging that hasn’t been thought through,” Ann Noder told Forbes recently. She is the CEO of Pitch Public Relations and a former TV anchor. Nodor says she has received emails that start off with ‘Have you been affected by COVID-19?’ “I mean, really? Who hasn’t? Companies can do better than that in trying to attach relevancy.”

Make sure your messaging is well thought out and is adding value to both the customer and your brand. Be clear what you want to accomplish and recognize that the wrong message is worse than no message.

3 – Overcommunicating

Many firms have trouble seeing beyond their own walls. This can lead to a belief by some organizations that their customers want to know about every policy change and every safety measure update, on an ongoing basis. While there is a value in communicating saftey measures, its important to strike the right balance and understand context. For example, a car dealership in an area under lockdown continually talking about the cleanliness of its showroom may strike the wrong chord when the majority of its potential customers are sheltering in place and worrying about essentials like food and medicine. The timing and frequency of the messaging are extremely important.

Not only can overcommunicating get annoying to customers quickly, it can also make your brand seem like every other brand. Remember, many other companies are doing the same thing, to the same people you are communicating with. If you overcommunicate—no matter how well intentioned—in this environment, you may quickly find that customers are increasingly opting out of your mailings or directing your messages to the dreaded spam folder. 

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