Our lives have changed - so should your messaging
Our world has flipped on its side in the last six-months. Everyone is wearing masks, social distancing is a buzz phrase and my two-year old asks for sanitizer whenever we’re out in public.
Social norms have changed and with that, your ideal audience profile likely has evolved as well.
Pre-covid, your employee or customer could look something like this.
Meet Jason. Jason is 40-years-old with two kids, drives an SUV, enjoys beer after work at the pub with friends and plays hockey one night a week.
What has changed? Well everything. Jason now works from home. One kid is in daycare and the other is back to school. Every few weeks, one of them has a cough or runny nose and needs to get a covid test. Hockey didn’t make the “bubble cut” and after work pub catch ups have shifted to backyard visits with friends.
So while his interests haven’t changed, his behaviour has. Maybe he listened to podcasts every day on the commute to work. That commute isn’t happening, so podcast listening is likely depleted. Instead of going to the gym or playing hockey, he’s purchasing at-home fitness equipment or looking for outside workout options. Yard work has increased, which means more trips to the hardware store.
Whether Jason is your customer or your employee, it’s important to re-evaluate your communication strategy and messaging to ensure it’s hitting the mark.
Re-assessing your audience
If you haven’t already, it’s time to take a closer look at your product and your target audience. Take your existing customer or employee, figure out their needs and how you can support them. Who are they? What are their challenges? How do they make their decisions?
Determining where our friend Jason is getting his information also becomes an important part of this process. Is he social media connected? Or is he getting all of his intel from word of mouth? Find a way to connect with your customers on their preferred platforms.
COVID has presented us with case study upon case study of customer loyalty. We stick with the brands we know and trust and if the service isn’t meeting our expectations, we move on. Does your messaging make sense for Jason? If you’re not offering a realistic option that fits into his current lifestyle, the odds are slim that Jason is going to maneuver out of his way to support your business. Make your service work for him, not the other way around. By earning Jason’s loyalty through effective messaging, he is more likely to stay in your tribe and become an advocate for your brand.