Marketers are Applying Lessons Learned from the Pandemic Era

To say that the past 18 months has brought about unprecedented learning opportunities for marketers is an inarguable understatement. Before the Pandemic era it was inconceivable that anyone in the marketing world could have imagined that the world’s economy and millions of businesses worldwide would be mandated to cease operations, close-up shop and turn out the lights, literally overnight and without prior warning. To make the situation even worse, those who were exercising the right to impose the closures could not or would not predict how long the stoppage would remain in effect. For even the most inexperienced of business professionals it has long been known that the most dangerous obstacles to sustaining a successful business are the events that one is unable to control. As the pandemic erupted and spread across the landscape that truism became shockingly apparent to all business sectors.

As the virus continues to mutate and infect the recovery to normal, marketers across the spectrum of commerce are revisiting the experiences of past months and applying lessons learned to planning the future. Perhaps the most interesting take on how basic principles of marketing have changed post-pandemic is the realization of how little the most important factors have changed. Brands that understood the importance of exercising agility in implementing marketing strategies prior to the pandemic, are even more certain of the importance of developing an ability to duck and weave to affect positive business sustainability and growth in the post-pandemic era. The pace of change in consumer behaviors accelerated dramatically since early 2020 and will continue at an advanced pace for the foreseeable future. “The future of marketing is going to be about finding a fine balance between what worked before and what needs to happen now in a world altered by the pandemic,” says Sumit Virmani, chief marketing officer at Infosys.

The importance of developing and maintaining a mobile, multi-device-capable website and digital strategy that drives personalized consumer conversations and provides an easy and fluid pathway to consumer purchases became very obvious to businesses as customers turned to online shopping in larger numbers during the pandemic. The digital, multi-channel experience and approach will remain an important part of any strategy for success going forward. The purposes of any campaign will need to focus on meeting the customer where they are listening.

With increased pressure to better-manage an organization’s marketing spend, optimizing the utilization of digital channels and other marketing collateral is critical. Fine-tune segmentation and employ the channels most likely to connect with the targeted audience in a personal and customer-relevant manner. The new strategic approach will demand a long-term and consistent commitment to purpose-driven principles.

The use of voice search by consumers can be expected to increase through 2022 as voice enabled entertainment continues to increase in popularity as consumers tire of the proliferation of pitch and persuade advertising. Tomorrow’s savvy consumer will be interested in doing business with trustworthy, reliable, and authentic providers. Writing impactful website blogs, personalized messages, producing how-to videos, and utilizing sharp images to demonstrate a brand’s purpose and promise is a content strategy that can elevate a brand’s authority in the field, promote increased customer interactions, and foster a better understanding of the needs of the audience.

Many challenges remain ahead as supply chain disruptions, rising costs and increased expectations from a pent-up marketplace continue to plague marketers’ ability to learn from the past and provide creative and dynamic solutions to the advancement towards a new and promising normal.