Who Are You Marketing To Now?

Marketing in the “New Normal” Requires a Fresh Look at Your Audience

If your marketing plan is anything like ours, you’ve clearly identified your target audiences and personas. You know who needs or wants your products and/or services. You know their purchasing behaviors, when they make buying decisions, and where they go to do research. You probably even know who they are as people, and where they consume marketing content and see advertising messages.

Has any of that changed over the past three months? I’d bet yes!

It’s worth considering, and making changes to your marketing plan as needed.

Take Stock of Your Current Customers

The changes in the way we live and work now – depending on online resources, delivery services, outdoor entertainment – mean that consumers may not need what you’re selling anymore. Or they need it in a different way. Or they need something entirely new that you could potentially provide.

Take the collective temperature of your current customers with a survey. Throw in an incentive, like a gift card, to get a better response rate.

Ask them questions like:

-How have your needs for our products/services changed over the past few months?

-How can we better serve you going forward?

-What new product/service would you like to see from us?

And then do the uncomfortable work of truly considering the feedback. It may mean that you focus on a different, and maybe even entirely new, revenue stream. It may require a nimble about-face – like the distilleries here in the Hudson Valley that went from making whiskey and bourbon to making hand sanitizers and other alcohol-based cleaning products.

Look Out for New Customers

With all these changes upending our personal and professional lives, it’s very possible that there are new markets needing your products or services that didn’t before.

If you are making new products, like the hand sanitizer example above, it means there’s a wider audience to sell to. But you might have a wider audience now for your older products. For example, a business creating homeschooling resources is in an enviable position, as parents everywhere seriously consider homeschooling their kids as an alternative to sending them back to school in September.

What’s the Same for All

Regardless of whether you’re marketing to new clients or the tried-and-true, some “new normal” buyer behaviors are applicable across the board.

-Price is an even more important consideration as the economy continues its downward spiral. Essentials prevail over luxuries.

- Convenience is a given. You should be able to provide what you’re selling immediately online, or within a short delivery window to their front door.

- We’re all spending a lot more time in front of a screen; whether it’s on a computer, TV, or mobile device. That’s where we’re seeing a lot of advertising; so if you don’t have a digital ad campaign, you should think about it.

Want help with a customer survey? Let us know.

By Traci, Marketing Manager & Content Strategist | July 13, 2020