Companies and industries have tried to adapt their messages to the new normal. Many transitioned to e-commerce, while others focused on social media marketing campaigns. But as for the marketing message as a whole, how impactful has the pandemic become? How critical is the new work-from-home setup to the marketing strategy and messaging?
A large number of people needed to adapt to the new normal. They have to work from home, hold teleconferences with their team, and close deals without ever meeting the clients. They toured warehouses virtually and dealt with the c of new product lines. No one knows how much longer this new work setup will be, although some companies are starting to reopen their offices. What is known is that work-from-home setups will be a part of all industries, regardless of the level of importance.
The Marketing Strategy and Messaging
The marketing message definitely needs to change now that your market is working from home. If they are at home, what are the things they need? What are the problems that they encounter? One of the main challenges of the work-from-home environment is the quality of air indoors. Commercial buildings make it a habit to call an HVAC cleaning company, but that’s not the same for residential properties.
That’s why HVAC companies have to realign their marketing goals and start targeting work-from-home employees with their HVAC marketing campaigns. They have to change their strategies since the demands of their market have changed. No longer are they focus on signing that contract agreement with big commercial plazas. Now, the regular joe working in his kitchen counter needs to be reminded that the HVAC needs cleaning, too.
Understanding the WFH Struggles
Marketers have to understand the unique struggles of the work-from-home culture. They have to sit down and discuss what challenges and risks work-from-home employees face. While remote working is not new and has been around for quite some time, the past year presented new challenges for the industry. Workers, for example, have to change the way they work. They have to adjust to a whole new environment—mostly a place where their kids run around and a dog can literally eat their accounting report.
Personal vs. Work Time
This is the working environment of your market now. Whatever you are selling, this is how most of your marketing is doing—they’re working from a place where they used to cook meals and eat with their families while craving the once dreaded monotony of the office environment. The change has been stressful for them, and they have little to no control over the current situation.
Do they want this setup to last? That’s for them to find out in the future. But in the meantime, marketers have to figure out how to sell products and services to this new face of the work-from-home market. Should they send an email marketing in the morning? Should they call at lunchtime? When is the right time of the day to make a move?
People are simultaneously at work and home throughout the day. Normally, marketers will try reaching out to their audience early in the morning before they go to work and at lunchtime while they take their break. But as the work-from-home setup becomes the norm, these time frames will change.
Social Interaction
There’s one aspect of the working environment that employees sorely miss: social engagement. They don’t have co-workers to get annoyed at. Neither do they have co-workers that they can buy a drink with at the end of a long day. They have digital interactions with employees via Zoom, Slack, email, Viber, and other social media platforms. But that’s it.
Marketers have a great opportunity to provide the social interaction lacking in the work-from-home setup. They have to leverage social engagement to attract their market. How can they do that? Marketers have to create interactive contests, virtual networking events, online music concerts, and many other interactive communications that will fill in the gaps in the work-from-home setups.
In today’s digital-first world, marketers have to be creative. They aren’t only competing amongst themselves, but they’re competing with their own market, too. People have become savvier with the internet. They can design a website, run a blog, interpret product reviews, learn directly from experts, and receive feedback from past and present customers. Marketers don’t only have to be on their toes, but they have to come up with creative ways to meet the emerging demands. They need to understand that these are different times and that the new normal isn’t the old pre-pandemic normal.