How to Pivot your Business Message During Crisis

Today's topic is this: pivoting and adjusting your messaging. 

So in the wake of everything that's going on, there's something that has really surprised me, and sadly not in a good way. And what surprised me is a lot of local businesses are still committed to communicating via the same methods that they've been using. It's almost like it's business as usual. 

When I look at, what do you need to pivot? There's obviously a lot of things. And I've given you a fair amount over the last couple of days. But something that I want you to take a look at today is what is the languaging that is being put out on social media. What is the languaging that is being put out via email, via landing pages, Facebook ads, Google ads, direct mail, anything that you were doing over the last couple of weeks, candidly needs to be paused. And the language needs to be adjusted. 

Let me give you a couple of examples. 

I'm a huge fan of cold email cold outreach, where if you know who you're trying to target, you can craft some pretty compelling emails and use them as ways to start conversations. Now, a couple years ago, you could leverage cold email, for example, and it was a really good tactic to drive conversions and you could be a little bit more salesy. 

But in today's kind of economy, not even just the last couple of weeks, but the last year or so, I typically will say and have said that a conversation is the new conversion. And I've been getting a lot of emails over the last couple of days. Obviously, there's lots and lots of emails about the whole Covid-19. But I'm also getting emails that are the same kind of emails that I've been getting for the last six months.

• Can I ask you a quick question? 
• If I could help you generate XYZ in your business would you be interested? 

While that might have worked a month ago, that type of languaging is not working today, and it's going to turn people off much faster than you would ever expect. 

I want you to go through and really look at the automation that you have set up, the automated emails, the once a week or once a month newsletters, different things like that. 

• What is all the marketing automation that you have triggering? 
• What are all the different campaigns that you have set up to go out over the next couple of weeks? 
• What is the stuff that's being put out on social media more in the background on autopilot, all of that stuff needs to be paused and rewritten because it's not going to resonate. 

I'm seeing posts left and right, anything that people are writing on Facebook for example, even if it has any inclination You're trying to profit off of the corona virus and all this craziness that's going on. People are like jumping down these different businesses throats. 

For example, I was looking at buying a first aid kit, and there's a company that has been in my newsfeed for six to 12 months. They've got great products. And obviously they're going to turn up their advertising a little bit, but they haven't adjusted their pricing. Nothing else has been adjusted other than now they're investing a little bit more in advertising because everyone is going and buying up things to prep and to make sure that they're prepared in case things continue to change, not for the better. It was crazy because people were going on there posting and commenting. I can't believe you're selling this now. I can't believe your prices, you raised everything. And the fact of the matter is the pricing was and has been exactly the same for like a year and a half, there is a higher price. Good because the quality is much higher. 

And then I've seen a lot of other local businesses that are just absolutely getting destroyed on social media. Absolutely getting destroyed. There is a local indoor waterpark that sent out an email the other day that said something like, are you getting cabin fever. And it was an automated email that they probably had set up a month or so ago. And they then got completely destroyed on social media. 

You have to go in and look at all the different marketing automation that you have set up and you have to be insanely cautious on the languaging that you're using. 

Let me give you an example of some of the languaging that we're using. If I were sending an email out, for example, I would very, very quickly announce something like “With all of the stuff going on around us, things are very uncertain. However, I still also see some potential opportunities in today's climate.” 

Something like that would be the email that I would be sending versus, “Hey, if I could get you three to five new clients every single month, would you be happy? Respond back with yes and I'll give you a call”

I've used that letter, email and with different phrasing for years and it works extremely well. But we had to very instantly stop that and pivot to meeting people where they are. Also just not ignoring everything that's going around us. Like you can't just ignore it. 

What I want you to do, regardless of what business you're in, I want you to start changing your messaging to make sure that you're sympathizing with people, you're meeting them at their level, you're playing out more to the emotional aspect. And again, you're not leveraging this to your capitalistic endeavors, for example, and calling that out. Behind the scenes, you might be doing that stuff. And obviously, again, I'm encouraging you to pivot as much as you can. But language matters. Now more than ever. 

So step one, go through and pause all of your marketing automation on social media on emails. I would pause all of your ads that you've been running. And I don't want you to pause them forever. I want you to pause the current languaging and then I want you to go platform by platform tactic by tactic I update the language, branding ads are working much better. 

Positive ads, for example, are working much better now, showing some signs of hope and things like that. That's what your customers, your businesses, if you're doing business to business, that's what people need right now with some positivity. And I promise you that just having that out there, that brand, that message will be in the back of their minds. And when things get better in the coming weeks, you will be much higher on their list than someone else. Get out there. Take some action on your languaging today.