HOW MARKETING AUTOMATION STRATEGY MIGHT RESPOND TO CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
While there are still many important open questions about the Covid-19 pandemic, it is clear human behaviours have changed extraordinarily, primarily, due to sudden lockdowns and limitations imposed by almost all nations. In a time when some countries are trying to ease the restrictions, while being fully aware that new waves of the virus might occur, Brands are questioning how to re-establish interrupted relationships with customers in this perceived new normal.
How have consumer behaviours changed? What and how do Brands need to communicate? How have consumer expectations changed? On which elements should Brands leverage and focus on?
With the purpose of finding key points to address those questions, we can structure our response using two clear post-lockdown consumer categories: “I prefer to stay home” vs “I prefer to go out”.
Government constraints and limitations on the individual liberty to move have affected all of us. Every generation has experienced new and unexpected ways to interact with both big Brands and brick and mortar stores. eCommerce has been the only way to buy (and deliver) a gift to someone, orders have been sent via WhatsApp to the greengrocer and hair dye kits have been promoted (and ordered) through Instagram, by the trusted hairdresser.
Suddenly, online channels came to us as the only option, in a mass digital adaptation. Need and will, encouraged by increased free time, have pushed Late-majority and Laggards to use smartphones for new purposes. In recent years, how much money has been spent by Brands with the scope to increase the adoption of digital touch-points? This global adaptation is an asset on which Brands must leverage, especially towards audiences and targets historically considered unfamiliar with digital.
The “I prefer to stay home” category proves to be more demanding towards Brands. They expect to be able to communicate, evaluate and buy in a fully-digital mode, without being forced to leave home. Attention to social distancing, the precautions to be taken and the rules to be followed is very high for this category. For Brands, this represents an opportunity for differentiation by communicating the methods of contact, evaluation, assistance, tutorials, returns and remote assistance.
The "I prefer to go out" category is equally attentive towards social distancing and the rules of coexistence with the virus but at the same time they want to return to contact with traditional, physical points of sale.
The desire for contact is accompanied by a fair amount of caution that pushes this category to go to the shop only if well informed about the rules and methods of entry. The opportunities for Brands are:
• communicate the data of the less crowded time slots (e.g. by integrating Google My Business data into their campaign tools and sending it via text messages / push notifications);
• communicate booking systems to ensure entry into the store "at a safe distance" (e.g. “choose the time and book your ticket”);
• communicate the waiting times to enter into the shop (for example, retrieving the data by dovefila.it);
• communicate the reopening of the stores following geographical-based rules (e.g. local and dynamic campaigns "We are about to reopen");
• communicate new forms of product evaluation (e.g. video calls with the shop assistant) plus pick-up-in-store in order to limit waiting time and physical proximity.
This can be an opportunity to gradually recover contact with the store.