With June having seen living costs in the UK soar by 11% on a year-by-year basis, a fifth of UK households have been left with an average weekly shortfall of £60 between what they earn and what they need to spend on essentials like energy bills, rent and food.
However, as a marketer, you can assist your brand’s customers in navigating this crisis. Here are some steps you can take to make sure your company is genuinely useful to people currently facing financial hardship.
Don’t simply serve up more of the same
Just after emerging from one crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK has landed into another. Your marketing therefore needs to acknowledge and reflect this rather than simply act as though your target audience’s bills haven’t recently shot up.
Taking a ‘business as usual’ stance with your marketing can potentially be insulting to your customers’ intelligence, as your prices and fees are bound to be a much larger issue than they were before.
See the cost-of-living crisis as a promotional opportunity
There isn’t just a cost-of-living crisis; there is also a cost-of-doing-business crisis, with 38% of small business owners reporting in a recent survey that they expected their firms to financially suffer.
You could therefore be tempted to temporarily rein in your spending on marketing. However, you should remember that businesses reaching out to customers during a crisis like this have tended to consequently benefit in the long term – as we saw during the pandemic.
Remove some of the element of risk
Given the financial instability currently rocking the UK, it would be understandable if many of your customers have suddenly turned very risk-averse, perhaps holding off buying decisions – even relatively small ones – for as long as practically possible out of fear of making a mistake.
This is why it can pay for you to really emphasise how people are capable of buying from you while still cushioning themselves against the danger of financial shocks potentially springing up later down the line. For example, you could underline money-back guarantees or extended warranties.
Increase the appeal of long-time purchasing decisions
Some items, like laptops, washing machines and refrigerators, are the kind that people generally prefer to buy only once every few years. So, when they do buy something intended for long-term use, they will want to be confident that it is truly built to stay the course.
Fortunately, the digital marketing specialists here at Webahead know how to promote existing products in a way that makes them especially compelling.
Instil trust by clearly conveying your brand’s plus points
What advantages does your company have over the competition when it comes to serving customers? Perhaps you have been in the industry for much longer than rivals, and picked up a number of impressive accolades along the way.
If so, your marketing should draw more attention to these achievements. We can provide you with tailored advice on how to make this happen; just use this online contact form to enquire with our Darlington-based web development studio.
