The term coronavirus was as rare as hen’s teeth when it first entered our lives. Before we knew it, the pandemic was all over the planet. Almost every aspect of our life is now affected by this rare thing and marketing isn’t any exception. For every marketing manager, a slow and careful approach is an essential part of the game, when the COVID-19 looks like uncontrollable mayhem.
For instance, even if your business has nothing to do with the health industry — this is such a time that you must incorporate information about coronavirus (symptoms, precautions & more) into your content. But, at the same time, you have to take care, if this content is for real and relevantly presented to your audience.
Hang in there, if you are left with no clue on this. Firstly, it is important to understand here that consumers have necessarily shifted their focus, consequently, businesses have to act accordingly. We are writing this post to help you with that — believe us it’s not really rocket science — you’ll just need to take care of a few trivial things. Just be careful of the tone and how you are conveying your message. Let’s read what should be your copywriting standards during COVID-19. Here we go:
Communicate Empathetically:
While you are writing a copy, cautiously be aware of the current situation. Think as a careful, mindful, smart, well-informed, and tactful communicator. Before you are writing anything, know that COVID-19 has not just affected our finances, but it has made people (consumers) emotionally vulnerable too. That said, it makes out that in such a sensitive time, chances of sounding rude, disgraceful, and selfish is more. Therefore, you have to be way more careful about the tone than in normal times. While you are writing a copy for social media, incorporate the effect of COVID-19 with what you’re selling, into your thoughts. This will further help in building your brand image for a longer period.
Tweak the Tone of Your Copy:
Amidst the ruckus of COVID-19 when everything is talked about around the pandemic, consumers are frustrated. Everyone today is looking for some kind of inspiration, positivity & emotional support. No one is ready to take any humor or wit! While in a normal situation, a casual approach can work, in the situation, we are in, this may look off-putting. When you are writing your copy during COVID-19, keep the tone a little serious, even if it looks dull. The best way is — to keep the tone of the copy inspirational, helpful & optimistic. But a serious tone does not mean somber. It’s just that you have to avoid using a casual, witty, or humorous tone as long as we are fighting this menace.
Be careful of the insensitive terms in your Copy:
You already know how your copy could communicate sensitively but there is another important thing, you must take care of. You must have been using many words and phrases that looked cool before COVID-19, but now you must note the different meanings these words might have taken. These words can look like a dog and pony show. We have created this list of words that you should avoid using in your copy. Some of these words include Contagious, Viral, Killer, Infectious, gather, and any term that invokes the poignant sense of sadness for being in the situation, we are in.
Make your Copy sound Supportive:
Given the gravity of the situation, offer respect and security to your consumers with the use of new deals and your creatively supportive copies. Find ways to take advantage of the situation making your business sustain in the midst of this crisis. If you are selling apparel and are still operating, keep your consumers in the loop with offers relevant to the situation and to their uses. Convey your message in a way to make it look supportive, do not sound too eager to sell your product.
Here’s an example to illustrate this:
“Choose our products to Avail BIG Discounts.” — this sounds too desperate and gives an impression of being insensitive to the situation.
Alternatively, you can use.
“Let us Help you with LOW PRICES to fight the coronavirus crisis TOGETHER.” — This makes your audience convinced to believe that you are as sensitive to the situation as everyone else is.
Making use of terms like cope, contribute, help, connect, navigate, and respond will make a difference to business growth & visibility in the long run.
Conversion should be Trivial for now:
Do not sweat the small stuff — conversion for now! Focus on contribution instead of conversion. The world is not over yet, it’s going to flourish all over again. Take advantage of this time, building your brand. Don’t worry! Even if you are not an essential services provider, your business can stay relevant to the audience. But, you have to bring about changes to how you used to sell. With COVID-19 making everyone feel vulnerable, the only way to communicate your brand to your consumer is to assure them help and support. Your business can remain relevant only when your focus is shifted to contribution from conversion. Think about offering your consumer support of any type you can, and not about how to bring more business. Be a contributor!!
Convey accurate information accurately:
You are going to be noticed more subtly than ever! In this scenario, you can keep the trust you have built over the years only by conveying accurate information accurately. There are small but important points that will help you with this.
The foremost requirement is using only credible sources of information on COVID-19. To filter out any irrelevant and careless information while designing your copy for a social media post or a banner, you must refer legitimate sources like the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, and The Department of Public Health for your state. Help yourself from being listed among those spreading irrelevant information on coronavirus.
The second important part of the game is grammar & language in particular. For a copywriter, checking a copy for grammatical mistakes is a no-brainer, but it is essentially crucial when conveying a sensitive piece of information or it may convey a wrong message to your audience & confuse them. Consequently, losing the trust & reliability of your brand. This content is going to remain relevant for quite some time as the effects of coronavirus. So be careful before it’s too long.
Rework to Tweak CTAs & Offers:
Make sure that you have reworked your CTA’s & offers to look relevant as per the current situation. Tweak your copywriting with what’s going around. Keeping your message versatile and relevant to your audience will save you from making changes every day. There are certain aspects to keep in mind when writing your copy with respect to COVID-19. Let’s have a look.
- Tweak around the urgency evoking copies like, “Book now”, “call now”, and alike. They will surely not resonate with your audience. These copies will only make you sound ignorant, unaware, and insensitive to the crisis.
- Go through all your offerings and remove or tweak the irrelevant ones. Keep only the ones that align with the COVID-19 lifestyle changes and safety measures. Like you should remove offers like, “visit our store to know more about our latest collections.”
- Make use of words and phrases that instigate a sense of safety for your audience. Suggested words here are virtual, online delivery, in-home, remote, work from home, and more such.
Don’t forget going through the scheduled Content
Don’t be lax on checking your scheduled posts, mailers, newsletters, and other forms of content that may look insensitive & irrelevant given the COVID-19 pandemic. For instance, if you have scheduled posts for birthdays & anniversary offers, and any such offers, make changes to your copy and align it with the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this process, you must keep in mind important things. To make yourself feel safe and motivated, keep a track of this work. Creating a spreadsheet to maintain the copies where you need to make changes is an awesome idea. Make sure that you are not deleting anything. In fact, keep the copies & those wonderful ideas safe in the spreadsheet. The most performing campaigns can be used again when the world restores to normal after COVID-19.
Wrapping Up:
The idea is to keep the ball on by communicating with the customers relevantly. The idea is to maintain the standard of your copy even in an adverse situation like coronavirus pandemic. You have built this trust with perseverance, and a lot of grit, so why lose it. Convey information that reinforces this trust by adding value to your audiences’ life (in tune with what’s important for them in a given situation). Maintain your copywriting standards to reach customers through mobile devices, laptops, desktops, or any other means.