4 steps to keep your customers engaged through the crisis and beyond | The Giles Agency

One of the biggest challenges our clients face today is how to successfully engage with customers, striking a balance between acknowledging the current COVID-19 situation and continuing to deliver the brand experience fans know and love.

It’s certainly a fine line to walk and each individual brand needs its own approach. For example, our insurance clients are in full reassurance mode. There’s a pressing need for clear communication outlining current policy coverage and offering extensions to products that weren’t designed for coverage of global pandemics. On the other hand, our leisure and lifestyle clients who are used to focusing on customer experience and physical events have had to shift their focus to digital interactions.

One thing’s for sure – the worst thing a brand can do at this time is go dark, allowing customers to forget who they are and how they interacted with them BC (Before Coronavirus). It might not seem like it at the moment, but we will get through this pandemic and in the “new norm” on the other side, it’ll be the brands that stuck with their customers and stayed true to their values that come out on top.

So, here are our top tips for keeping your customers engaged:

“Our competitor has said X so we want to do something similar” is a common request at Giles HQ.  However, you don’t have to look too far to see that consumers are getting annoyed by the barrage of “here’s what we’re doing during COVID-19” brand emails. There’s nothing wrong with an update per se, but is it the number 1 thing that’s going to keep you connected to your audience? Unless your news is about something for the greater good, like Ralph Lauren making scrubs and face masks, then it’s best to stick to what customers really need to know right now.

With a big chunk of the world’s population stuck indoors, digital channels are being tested like never before, and with that comes a raft of new data. Take advantage of this unprecedented situation by putting that data to good use. You can start by looking at:

• Website and app stats: how long are people staying on your site, where are they dropping off, what content are they not engaging with – or worst still, not finding!

• Social content: use this time to try out different content formats and different copy to see what your reader finds most engaging.

And don’t forget to look at the opportunities you might be missing. How many of you have sat in meetings brainstorming e-commerce or partner opportunities only to get distracted by business as usual. Now’s the time to dust off and polish up those ideas, ready for AC (After Coronavirus).

While consumer spending may be down, that doesn’t mean communications should be. In fact, you should be talking to your customers more than ever before, PROVIDING you’re saying things they actually want to hear.  Now’s the time to shift your focus from sales to brand awareness and creating content that reminds audiences who you are, what you stand for, and what you bring to their lives. A carefully crafted content strategy could be the make or break of brands over the next 6 months.

Chances are your ad spend has ground to a halt and FY2020-21 marketing plans are on hold. What to do now? Why not use this time to engage your audience in shaping the new norm for your brand? It’s likely you have a very valuable resource at your fingertips – loyal customers. Now’s a great time to get feedback, whether it’s on a new product you launched, elements of your customer experience that need a revamp or simply asking “what next?”. You’ll need to plan this carefully so that only areas that can actually be changed in the current climate are addressed, but there’s no better way of getting loyal customers to feel close to your brand than involving them in its evolution.

Whatever your plans are over the coming months, we’re here to help. Why not talk to us about revamping your site, creating content or a marketing audit? Contact us on enquiries.hk@gilesagency.com to see how we can help you keep your audience engaged.