Biz expert cites ways to effectively manage brand communications amid pandemic
As the world transitions to the so-called "new normal", measures are put in place to ensure public safety as well as the rebooting of the economy.
However, the disruption of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on social and professional lives has been enormous, with many businesses shaken and grounding their operations to a halt, letting go of workers, and scrambling to establish emergency contingency programs to deal with financial woes.
With travel bans and safe social distancing in place, people at home have increased their online activity.
Raz Biton, an entrepreneur and co-founder of Social Influence, a full-service digital marketing agency based in Los Angeles specializing in online brand development for consumer packaged goods (CPGs), cited the need for entrepreneurs to shift their marketing spend from events and in-store merchandise to digital advertisement.
Reassess brand messaging, review campaigns
With the transition in company strategies, Raz said it is imperative for business owners and entrepreneurs to lay down their two to three-year plan to assess which campaigns and programs to push through, and which ones to shelve due to restrictions brought about by the pandemic.
"Well, most brands have opted to decrease spending, and have transitioned their offline spend like flyers to online marketing and advertisement. We should rethink, especially with ongoing restrictions. It might not be suitable, for instance, to launch an expensive beauty product when people scramble to earn money," Raz, touted as a business development powerhouse said in a recent interview.
Companies, he said, should also understand the local and global contexts and be empathetic.
"Businesses can use, for instance, a company value to highlight in your brand messaging, the context of the crisis brought by COVID-19. This can go a long way, like the value of commitment to customers," Raz, a first-generation American, said.
Interactive content is key
"Due to rising fears of attending and sponsoring large events, businesses should shift gears to content marketing delivered directly to subscribers online to stay on top of client engagement," he said.
He said evolving from being just editorial strategies and blog posts, content writing, for instance, now requires a holistic approach heavily relying on a wide array of digital marketing strategies tactics.
Raz said these include the utilisation of social media, e-mail, search engine optimisation (SEO), and paid media.
"It is important to extend and expand your digital content marketing efforts to stay afloat and ensure that the connection with your customers is alive and well," he said.
Many companies, Raz said, can pound on interactive content to sustain a brand or an event's values and missions.
Raz, who has been working in sales since he was 19 years old, worked for an office supply company before taking the path to entrepreneurship.
The young entrepreneur partnered up with a company to begin his first venture, while still figuring out the ins and outs of owning his own business.
Building a portfolio of large fortune 500 companies, among them Union Bank, Viacom, and Paramount Pictures, he left Apex Systems to begin a venture in the world of Digital Marketing and co-founded Social Influence with his partner Jonathan Amir.
Raz has called on businesses to pound on strategies that will work for them, especially utilising the power of digital marketing to boost their brands.
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