Marketing philosophies.
In the musical “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown,” two of the characters argue over what makes a good philosophy.
Have you thought about your marketing philosophies?
You should.
You are about to enter a post Covid-19 Age in which other marketers will be evaluating their marketing direction.
Market trends change over time normally. They will certainly change as a result of a global crisis like a pandemic.
Will you be ready?
Positioning in marketing, in other words, your branding, depends on making sure you have firmly established marketing philosophies now.
You may have to pivot away from the same marketing philosophies you’ve always used.
This post will present five marketing philosophies belonging to a consultant, the founder of Small Business Trends, an entrepreneur, the founders of Mostly Blogging Academy, and Instagram.
These are all extremely different businesses.
By the end of the post, you will be able to evaluate your marketing philosophies in the event you want to switch your marketing direction after Covid-19 passes or at any time.
What are Marketing Philosophies?
When people are given the job of overseeing a company, they must establish the business’s marketing philosophies.
This could include management decisions like how to market the business’s products or services.
This post focuses on these types of decisions involving the direction of your business.
Are you ready to see examples of extremely different marketing philosophies?
As you read, see which philosophy yours mostly closely matches.
How to Change Your Marketing Direction
Other marketers agree that now is the time to evaluate your marketing philosophies.
Consider these comments from consultant Nancy Seeger:
Don’t keep your marketing the same as before. Now is the time for some great karmic marketing messages.
One of the car companies in Canada changed TV ads – to say “This is where we normally would show you our great new models, but instead we want to thank the doctors and nurses for……”
Anita Campbell from Small Business Trends agrees you should change your marketing philosophies:
Send a message just saying “How are you doing? Is everyone well there?” No pressure. No selling. Just a friendly “I care about you enough to check in” message.
I’ve had a couple of these. One from the owner of the virtual assistant agency we use. Another from a consultant we have used from time to time. Usually the only time I hear from them is when they send an invoice. So it’s nice to get a friendly “human” message.
More Marketing Philosophies
According to entrepreneur Anil Chauhan,
If you want to bring visitors to your website, you have to come up with measures that appeal to the customer.
The old rule applies here in particular that the bait must taste good to the fish and not to the angler.
When you are providing what your target market wants, then you have to find where they can be reached and how you can generate the lead and send them to your service.
Anil goes on to recommend an actionable tip, adding bonuses to lure people to your website.
We know from our experience that bonus is on the list of the most successful campaigns. A website that is advertised with a bonus usually receives significantly more new visitors than an offer without.
Anil offers the example of how you would use a bonus to generate a lead to a gambling service:
There are many bonuses like free spins, free entry into the tournaments, cashback, and many more. It is important that such bonuses are clearly advertised.
Our Marketing Direction
Recently, my business partner and I discussed our marketing philosophies.
We agreed that trying to profit during the Coronavirus is one of the acceptable marketing philosophies, and we continued to market our Mostly Blogging Academy through the crisis.
There is just one caveat: People should not feel exploited. Many people are out of work due to the virus and can’t afford food let alone a blogging course.
You can still market. There is a difference between marketing and selling. For instance, you can begin your marketing emails by expressing concern about the email list member and their family members. End by expressing wishes they stay safe and healthy.
You might even get happy customers to offer testimonials. Instagram’s Vanessa Lau does this consistently and has been offering customer testimonials all through the Coronavirus. This practice of offering customer testimonials is a helpful marketing method whether a pandemic is raging or not.
Marketing Philosophies of Social Media Sites
Social media websites are now important marketing channels.
One of the advantages of social media sites is the ability to reach mass numbers of people.
Facebook and Instagram, for instance, reach four billion people combined.
This popular social media site definitely made a change at the outset of the Coronavirus and has continued to do so during the pandemic.
Look:
Instagram included these Stickers after the Coronavirus started to help small businesses. Due to the shelter-in-place restrictions, consumers couldn’t frequent small businesses like salons and local restaurants.
When you add the first sticker to a Story, Instagram asks which small business you want to support financially.
When you add the second sticker to your Story, Instagram puts a ring around your profile picture to show you are supporting social distancing needed to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.
When you add the third sticker, you partner with a 3rd-party to send a gift card.
Here is another way Instagram changed one of their marketing philosophies:
Do you want to know an Instagram secret?
When you use an Instagram Coronavirus Sticker, your Story gets priority visibility according to the Instagram Marketing Secrets podcast.
Wrapping Up: Marketing Philosophies
Takeaways:
You saw 5 marketing philosophies belonging to a wide range of businesses compared: a consulting firm, a popular business blog, an entrepreneur, a blogging academy, and a social media site.
Did any of these strategies resonate with you?
This post also discussed pivoting your marketing philosophies to adapt to a post Covid-19 world. However, you don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel if the marketing direction you were headed in before Covid-19 was successful for you.
For instance, if you successfully used affiliates to market for you, you can continue to do so. You don’t need to stop this successful strategy. Because the affiliates are also interested in the campaign’s success, their motivation is particularly high.
In closing, do you know of any brands that changed their marketing philosophies since the Coronavirus started or as the restrictions ease? I look forward to your examples in the comments section.
Readers, please share so businesses discover these 5 examples of ways to change your marketing philosophies in 2020 and beyond.
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
