Marketing Amidst Covid-19: Adjust, Stay Positive and Connect

As the days go by, COVID-19 is undoubtedly taking its toll on many businesses we love so much. It has left many of us with a feeling of, what next? How do we set, reach, and hit our goals amidst such an uncertain time? For our team, the answer is to adjust, stay positive, and to connect creatively. To share some ideas of what you can do for your businesses, I am sharing some tips/ideas for what I have seen work for our clients over the last few weeks. 1. Adjust: Many businesses are closed, left with the only option to sell their items online or through curbside pick-up. Here are three great examples of how we're helping our clients work through this -

Culinary Inspirations: Ross is a caterer for events and private parties. With social distancing in effect, he lost almost 100% of his business. Ross worked quickly to adjust his services and now provides weekly meals for clients, such as chicken parm, turkey dinner, and even Easter Dinner. You can order a meal from Ross here.
Mystic Wine Shoppe: Deemed as essential, this quaint wine and liquor store shifted how it serves its customers. While customers are still allowed into the store, Eric and his team worked quickly to offer curbside pick-up for safer orders.
Helena's: Katherine is the owner of Helena's, a women's boutique with two locations in Belmont and Arlington. Once she couldn't allow customers into the shop, she set out to get her e-commerce website completed. We are currently finishing her shop, but she has added the option to purchase gift cards on her current site. Buy one now!

2. Stay Positive: What's the sense of being doom and gloom right now? Many of our clients haven't been drastically affected, but we wanted to keep messaging positive but also current. We worked with various clients to adjust messaging and create new ways to be a light during this dark time.

Oceanwood: Summer camps open in just two months, and as of right now, camps are still on schedule. To encourage and inspire their followers, we launched a 30-day social media campaign entitled #OceanwoodInspires. Former campers and followers are sharing their experiences from summer camp, while their own content provokes happiness and inspires all.
NuImage Entertainment: Peter and his team plan, execute, and provide music for numerous events and weddings throughout the year. They are feeling the pain from COVID. Peter decided to bring fun to so many when he launched his weekly DJ party on FB Live. He has gotten so much fantastic feedback, and its been such fun to follow!
Creative TK: This month, we're launching "Let's Ride This Out Together," provoking stories, ideas, and inspirations to get through this together, one day at a time!

3. Connect Creatively: This is KEY in the current climate. What once made sense for marketing, suddenly doesn't, but it doesn't mean you should stop marketing altogether, but maybe think about how you could be connecting MORE your consumers.

Partnerships: This is probably my favorite form of marketing. Not only does partnering and aligning yourself with another business feel right; it feels good! As a small business owner, I feel passionate that we stick together more than ever.
Invest in your online presence: Whether consumers are online for a zoom call, shopping, watching youtube, searching for COVID stats, or browsing on social media, people are relying on the internet for almost everything. Every age demo has seen an increase of use over the last few weeks; 27% among Gen Z, 30% among Millennials, 29% among Gen X, 15% among baby boomers.
Why not use this time to target your consumer and promote your services? Here's a few ways you can do this -
Promote your business using creative videos and photos
Increase or start investing in pay per click ads
Host an online event or class (something I have been wanting to do for so long)
Launch a video series