1. Buyer personas and buyer’s journey: now more than ever
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One of the reasons that lead to the success of the different online strategies implemented by a company is its ability to know its customers. If you haven’t heard of these concepts before, you should know that:
- The buyer personas are the representations (or descriptions if you prefer) of your different types of customers. You are probably more than familiar with the concept of target audience or niche market; however, working on buyer persona profiles involves further refining the definition of what these customers are like. It is especially interesting to know what their needs and reluctance are when purchasing your products or services so that, when implementing different online strategies, you can make a much more accurate segmentation to ensure the achievement of your goals.
- The buyer’s journey, on the other hand, consists of defining what the buying cycle is like for each type of buyer persona. This is a fundamental step to establish what types of strategies can be effective at different points in the cycle of each potential customer. Depending on your type of business and how complex it is for your customer to decide to purchase your product or service, this cycle may be longer or shorter. In either case, it is necessary to consider which strategies are appropriate at each moment, as the idea is to get a return on the investment.
You should think, especially if you are an SME or entrepreneur, that during and after a crisis, new opportunities arise. Leaving aside the positivity of this statement, the reality is that in times of crisis, both companies and consumers must adapt. Until now, strategies may have been developed taking into account consumption patterns and behaviours that will be altered and, for this reason, opportunities arise to align themselves with the needs of potential consumers.
And of course, in order to align with them, you must first understand how their behaviour can change. And, in this case, thanks to the use of different tools that provide knowledge about the performance of online marketing strategies and about the behaviour of each segment, it is possible to know your customers, their changes in consumption and the evolution of your actions.
2. Content marketing: the key to staying active
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When we talk about staying active, what we really mean is that now is the best time to keep your brand’s online presence active. In times of crisis, when supply is greater than demand (in today’s case excluding toilet paper producers and distributors) it is essential to maintain and improve your online presence.
Generating new content (improving web content and creating content for your blog, especially if you didn’t have any) is vital to improve your online visibility as well as to improve the positioning of your pages in search engines. Content marketing is a multi-benefit strategy for your business, especially if the buying cycle of your customers is relatively more complex.
Content marketing is a multi-benefit strategy for your business, especially if the buying cycle of your customers is relatively more complex.
2.1. Think about your customers
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If your business is B2C and your end customers do their research on Google before purchasing your products or services, it is essential that you generate content to satisfy their curiosity. As mentioned above, it is possible that their consumption behaviour may change during and after an economic downturn and, in this case, the content you generate can help you stabilise the impact this change has on your business.
On the other hand, if your business is B2B, your customers may also need help at this time. You can generate articles whose content solves many of their doubts at any stage of their buying cycle, before and after the purchase of your products or services. They may be stressed by a possible lack of customer service, and with the content you generate you can not only provide it, but also cement your relationship with your customers. So what better time to create a content strategy if you haven’t thought about it before?
What better time to create a content strategy if you haven’t thought about it before?
2.2. Establish some objectives
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As we have already mentioned, content has several advantages:
Content has several advantages:
Content has many advantages:
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And in accordance with these advantages, it is essential that in the generation of content you establish clear objectives of positioning, traffic, conversion and loyalty. For each objective, it is possible that you may need to plan a specific content and determine the best distribution channels for it.
2.3. Do some planning
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It is also essential that you are realistic when it comes to generating and publishing this content. You may have more time to create it now, but you may not later. For this reason, you must prioritise which are the main objectives given the current circumstances. In this case, assess what your current customer needs are and what kind of content you should generate.
3. Social networks: where your consumers are
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At a time of crisis like the present, social networks have become a balm for users. That is why we say that it is where your consumers are today. The generation of creative content on these platforms has no limits and its flow is continuous.
3.1. Look for opportunities
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There is no better time than the present to look for new business opportunities on social media. If content is essential now, social media is the distribution channel par excellence. Look at the case of companies like Oysho (a sub-brand of Inditex), which has taken advantage of the moment to launch campaigns for comfortable clothes to wear at home, and to collaborate with yoga influencers by providing content of interest to their buyer personas.
Take this example to your field and adapt it. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter can establish themselves as indispensable marketing tools to help your customers if your business is B2B. On the other hand, Instagram, Facebook and even TikTok are platforms where B2C customers are present and where it is possible to generate content that connects with them.
3.2. Take it with humour
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There are times to be serious and times when you can liven up your content to maintain the complicity with your customers. You probably know that a multitude of memes have appeared, but the truth is that many companies, instead of blocking themselves with the current situation, are taking advantage of current information to generate creative, fun and informative content. One example is the content generated by the company Mr. Wonderful on social networks such as Instagram:
Mr. Wonderful is a company that has been using the information to generate creative, fun and informative content.
4. Analysis and optimisation: confidence in the results
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The analysis of the performance of each action carried out is fundamental to guarantee the achievement of the objectives of the strategies you have decided to implement. Monitor the positioning of your pages, the most consulted search terms, the visibility of your domain, the traffic by segments that reaches your website, the most viewed pages, those with the most conversions; assess the reach of your publications on social networks, their conversion capacity, etc.
Only in this way can you optimise your content, improve your planning, invest in the best converting channels. Remember that this is a time to monetise the time and resources you invest in online marketing and that only with the
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Images: Petr Kratochvil
Pictures: Petr Kratochvil
