Getting people to part with their money is challenging enough in regular times. But during the middle of a recession combined with a pandemic, it’s next to impossible. The majority is holding onto their cash and worrying that if they spend it, they’ll be out of pocket for good. It’s a classic deflation.
As a business or blogger, what are you supposed to do in a situation like this? Are there any tools you can use to drum up demand?
Play The Normality Card
The first tactic you might want to try has to do with your messaging. A lot of companies know that their industries are in the doldrums right now (especially hospitality). But many believe (perhaps naively) that things will soon return to normal. The current narrative is that once vaccines roll out, we’ll be in the clear, and public health officials will take a backseat.
Whether this plays out or not is immaterial to the business situation right now. What matters for marketers is the story. Things, you can tell your customers, aren’t okay right now, but they soon will be again. And that’s why they should buy your products.
Start Using Print Advertising In Grocery Stores
All of a sudden, grocery stores have become a kind of social hub where you get to see other people moving around on their legs in the flesh. In the past, we all took this sort of thing for granted. But today, it’s become a novelty.
It’s also an opportunity for marketers. Most grocery stores will allow you to put up posters and printed banners on their property for a fee.
Write More Future-Focused Content
People are locked down right now across the world. And that’s making it difficult for anyone to live their lives.
For marketers, this is actually an opportunity. In normal times, people don’t have time to pine about what their lives could be like. But now, it’s an epidemic (if you’ll pardon the expression). And people want to think more about how they’ll enjoy themselves in the future.
Creating content that appeals to these emotions is, therefore, a strategy that you might want to try. Talk about how clients can benefit from your products in the future and why they should start preparing now. You get the idea.
Talk About The Importance Of New Experiences
All good marketers know that people don’t buy products, they purchase experiences.
For that reason, you might want to focus your messaging more on why it’s critical to start new hobbies or try new things, especially for keeping your mind active.
Launch A Big SEO Push
With so many people now buying online, making yourself more visible on the internet is a great way to jump-start demand for your products. But how do you do it?
Perhaps the best strategy is to launch a big SEO push. Ideally, you want people arriving at your site organically, instead of having to pay for each click individually. Write content, post on social media and hire an agency to sort out all the backlinks for you.