The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect people and businesses worldwide. It has led to many entrepreneurs cutting back on teams and employees and, in extreme cases, closing down the business, whether temporarily or permanently.
For event planning companies to survive, waiting out the pandemic is not an option. You need to make adjustments to continue operations while keeping you, your staff, and event attendees safe.
Digital marketing is a key tool to add to your business arsenal. With the right online strategies, your event planning company can keep your customers engaged with their business while staying safe.
Here is how digital marketing can help you thrive despite the present-day challenges.
Increase Digital Presence
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Since health and government protocols continue to discourage social interaction, consumers heavily rely on the internet for various transactions. This also means that more people are using social media.
To remain relevant, event planners should look into increasing their digital presence to effectively connect and transact with their target audience.
While retail shops and restaurants use POS systems designed to minimize contact, they also give their customers the ability to order online through an e-commerce website or social media. As event planners, you can follow their example.
Use your website and social media to promote your products and services while sharing valuable and engaging content.
More people shop and do business online, so companies need SEO services to improve their search engine rankings. With the help of top SEO agencies, you can apply SEO strategies to effectively gain organic web traffic and capture your audience’s attention.
Show Empathy and Compassion
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Most consumers are struggling with the demands of daily life and adjusting to the continually changing regulations. Take this opportunity to stay relevant and establish a connection by showing empathy through your social media posts and comments.
Showing that you care and have compassion is integral in building a loyal and long-lasting relationship between you and your clients.
To set an example, an alcohol company has shifted production to provide ethanol and to produce hand sanitizers. Using their online presence, they raised money and used it to support local establishments that had a hard time coping due to the pandemic.
However, you shouldn’t do this just for clout. Consumers can tell if a company is sincere in its efforts or if they’re only doing it for publicity.
Any effort you make in this direction should be done in a genuine manner aimed first at truly helping others. If you go into it only for the sake of gaining promotional value, it could have the opposite impact. People will see through it and call you out. This can be devastating for your business as it can cause you to lose the trust of your audience.
Be Relevant to the Present Situation
Rapid changes in both market dynamics and consumer behavior are bound to happen during global crises such as this.
The products brands offer might not be what everyone deems as essential. This is especially true for event planners, as people aren’t very open right now to attending events in person.
To combat the issue of your clients deeming your business to not be essential, your brand must adapt to these changes to remain relevant to your consumers.
One way to do it is by providing additional services or new products. A tech company, for example, shifted their production goals to produce 15,000 ventilators as a way to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. They observed the situation altered their stance by providing products that are currently more valuable to society.
For your event business, you could look at producing virtual events, helping companies execute digital events like webinars or providing other online solutions to keep the revenue flowing in.
Being timely is imperative. Assess the situation and identify the key factors that determine the significance of a product or service. Exhibiting self-awareness and remaining relevant can influence whether you succeed or not.
Support Causes
Since fewer people are going outside, businesses relying heavily on their physical presence may be slow, even in highly populated areas.
Event planners should take this chance to reach out to their customers online and start new and meaningful conversations. Through these, you can find out what your clients expect from you and how you can deliver on those expectations.
Additionally, people like to associate with projects that they think are making a difference. It can increase consumer confidence in the brand.
Fashion brands have started donating a percentage of their online sales to support a cause. Fitness studios and leading gyms are offering free workouts, video tutorials, and exercise guides, so their patrons can continue staying fit at home.
Perhaps you could offer free assistance to help schools get set up to host live events online, like graduation or other major events.
Walk the Walk
Companies need to communicate often and effectively express how they are helping their customers deal with difficulties. They can do all of this by posting on social media and their website.
However, without action, you can end up being branded as “insincere”. To show your clients that you’re walking the walk, you should provide tangible solutions.
For example, people are still discouraged from eating out in restaurants. To solve this issue, restaurants are offering no-contact doorstep delivery to keep their customers safe. Meanwhile, some stores have allocated special hours dedicated to senior citizens, so they purchase essentials without risking themselves.
If you do decide to host events in person, make your follow all protocol necessary to keep your attendees safe. Consider taking these precautions.
- Require a negative COVID test before someone enters the event
- Take temperature checks each time someone arrives at the venue
- Encourage social distancing and cancel any networking portions
- Make attendees wear masks the entire time they’re at the event
- Have hand sanitizers stations easily accessible throughout the venue
These are just a few of the things you can put in place to ensure the safety of your attendees.
Wrapping it Up
Follow suit with your own set of innovations and ideas. Offer services to amplify virtual parties, provide connections with catering services, or offer discounts for those booking your services X months in advance.
While it can be challenging, event planners can continue to thrive in the current market. Take advantage of digital marketing so your business continues to profit in the long-run.
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