Even if your brand does not carry out business online, clients and potential consumers will defiantly look up on the social media to find your services there.  Eventually if they fail to find your traces on social media or digital media platform, you could be missing out on the opportunity to boost your client base and get your brand name known by masses.

In present times, if someone wants to know more about a brand or business, there are major cahnces that they will look up online to find it. Whether they’re precisely finding your brand, or they just want to find any brand that provides the products or services that your brand provides, having an online presence will offer you an advantage of being a potential competitor. Possible customers will not work too hard to look for you, and it should not be like this. By simply searching for their desired service or product on Google should take them to you.

Even if your business was at a standstill, it is essential to continue to communicate with your customers for several reasons:

1. To reassure them that your company is ready for future projects.
2. Listening to your customers’ needs to better meet their expectations.
3. Restoring consumer confidence, highlighting the company’s values.

These three ways, if properly exploited, will be a springboard for a quicker and stronger recovery.

First of all, communication on the solidity of your company is important, because unfortunately many companies will be in difficulty. The crisis is also economic, so you have to adapt to get through it and work on both internal and external communication. Externally, communication with your customers will be essential to reassure them about the continuity of activities. By showing that you are the right partner and that they can entrust you with projects, you will be able to ensure them.  Set up a customer survey. What are their expectations, are they happy with your products/services, how do they see the recovery of activities… ? All these questions will be very useful to adapt to the reality that your customers are living.

Position yourself as a partner and find solutions to meet the needs of your customers. They will have changed after this crisis. Therefore, it’s not useless to review your personas in order to adapt your communication and campaigns.

For the third point, which is more specifically aimed sector like (retail, banking, leisure…), it is important to keep in touch with your consumers to relaunch your activity and sales as quickly as possible. A brand can quickly be “forgotten” if it does not maintain a relationship with its customers, its community. To do this, in times of crisis, you can highlight your values with actions related to it. Words are not enough, action is essential.

Some ideas of marketing actions to boost your sales

We all hope to “recover” from the lockdown as soon as possible. Although it will be gradual, it is now time to start preparing for it. Here are some marketing ideas to help you get your business back on track and generate post-crisis sales:

Be active on social networks. Canadian are spending 40 % more time since the beginning of the crisis on Facebook, Instagram… If a sales pitch is not in place, staying visible is very important or else you will have to redouble your efforts to regain the pre-crisis level of brand awareness. To do so, present a new value proposition that is addressed to all stakeholders in society.

Prepare an editorial calendar for the next 12 months. Indeed, content marketing will be one of the keys to boost your sales by generating leads and traffic on your site. Remember that 70% of brands do not deliver the right content. You can make the difference compared to your competitors. In this perspective, read also our latest blog Why the lockdown is the right time to get your content marketing on point.

Improving the customer experience will be even more important after this crisis, for two reasons.

With this Covid19 crisis, customers, whether they are individuals or professionals, will have discovered a part of the power of digital platforms and other e-commerce sites. Most of these platforms have relied on the customer experience, which is therefore becoming a standard of service. It’s hard for a consumer to go back after having discovered it. After several weeks of confinement, people are going to want to rediscover the freedom and pleasures of life and brands that will manage to provide a nice human contact and a great experience

Prepare a “comeback” offer to encourage your customers to go back to shopping, that’s what Opus Doing …! There is therefore an opportunity to attract this audience to your site by increasing the daily budget. On the other hand, other sectors are almost or completely at a standstill, such as tourism operators. In this case, it is advisable to pause generic search campaigns and keep only the branding to continue communicating to your audience. Adapt your product if it can meet new needs. This is particularly relevant for large companies but could be useful to others too.

Create a free trial period for your product or service, because in this period of accelerated and forced digitalisation, companies with digital offerings can and will have boosted the usage of their tools. For example, Microsoft Teams has more than doubled its number of users in just 3 months. Launch a public awareness campaign to remind the public that you are still out there and to communicate your recovery.

Optimize your local SEO, the next months of deconfinement will be gradual and borders will most likely remain closed, so local business will be boosted. Therefore, it’s important to optimize your presence on search engines locally (Google Maps, Google My Business, Store Locator…). Opus Communication around the world helped many new customers and support local businesses by giving these services on a very low cost.

The crisis of Covid19 will have accelerated the digital transformation and therefore create a change in purchasing behaviour.

In Canada, before the coronavirus crisis, 21% of employees occasionally used teleworking. Today we have exceeded 90% of home working.

Obviously, all this has an impact on the management and functioning of a company. For years now, we have been hearing about digital transformation with a greater or lesser adaptation depending on the sector of activity, the size of the company and above all the strategic choices made by management. It is clear that even the most reluctant are forced to massively adapt the digital tools to continue the activity to some extent.

The behavior of your employees has changed. With teleworking and the use of different digital tools many companies have had to adapt or will have to adapt quickly if they want to survive.

More than ever, human, digital and local will be important in the coming months and years!

Close your eyes and think of your favorite brand. Maybe it’s that company that’s inspired you since you were a kid. Or maybe it is that makeup brand that you have purchased religiously since school. Chances are if you thought of a brand you’re attached to; it took lifestyle marketing to get you there and as a marketer, this is the type of loyalty you want to instill in your customers.

What is lifestyle marketing?

Lifestyle marketing is a marketing technique that positions the product or service to possess ideals, aspirations, and aesthetics that the target audience identifies with. In layman’s terms, it means that brands marketed in this way are a way of life for their audience. They are immersive, encapsulate their customers’ ideas or values, and fit seamlessly into the consumer’s life. Lifestyle marketing goes beyond the product or service being sold it’s selling an ideal. Think of Nike. Sure, they started with and continue to sell athletic shoes. But what makes them a lifestyle brand is their empowerment of the athlete inside everyone. Nike and its products are a way of life for its fans (I mean, you do not see a diehard Nike fan with Adidas on. Ever…….. They eat, live, breathe, and sweat the brand’s ideals.

What makes marketing these brands even more special is the idea that “specific foods, products, and apparel can help us to connect more with our ideal version of ourselves.” When you are marketing to these higher-level needs for a consumer, you’re in a whole new playing field.

Lifestyle marketing criteria 

If only branding were as simple as having a checklist to mark off when you meet certain criteria. Unfortunately, many brands that set out to be in the lifestyle category can miss the mark by not doing their due diligence and research. But you can avoid that but doing the following:

Define your market: The first step to effective lifestyle marketing is deeply understanding your market. And, yes, we mean having a basic idea of demographics and psychographics. But dig deeper. What habits, skills, and hobbies do your audience members have? Why would they be interested in your brand for the long term? Do you know what or who inspires them and what their goals are? Lifestyle brands “dissect every aspect of their audience until they know exactly what makes them tick.”

Know where your audience gets their information: It’s hardly worth marketing to your audience if you don’t know where to find them. Or even what they’re looking for. Where your audience gets their information might depend on age, financial status, relationship status, etc. Are they on social or watching TV more? Do they drive around and look at billboards? Are they using popular apps? From here, you can figure out which channels make the most sense for your brand.

 Position your brand for success: Brand positioning is essential, especially in the digital age. Positioning considers your audience and their habits. It also means you’ve done your research about the brand itself and your competitors and how what you offer is unique and valuable. Plus, brand positioning strategies are directly linked to consumer loyalty, consumer-based brand equity and the willingness to purchase the brand. All of which can contribute to a successful lifestyle brand.

Why lifestyle marketing matters 

The average person might not think about why a brand makes sense with specific audiences or what creates brand loyalty. But you, being savvy, know that creating a brand as immersive as a lifestyle brand takes time. Lifestyle marketing matters because these brands are deeply ingrained in an audience’s psyche. They are also starting to fill the void of failing institutional structures think low church attendance and marriage rates down types of “shared systems of any kind that help us make sense of the world. In other words, as these institutional structures fall, something needs to feel the void. In this case, its certain brands creating meaning in our lives which is a huge responsibility for marketers. Not to mention that lifestyle brands are loyalty-inspiring and consistently earn the respect of consumers. In doing so, they are also meeting their customer’s needs and helping them to not only fill a void but to self-actualize as well. And, from a marketing perspective, lifestyle marketing is amazingly effective and works on a much deeper level than traditional advertising.

How to do it effectively

Becoming a lifestyle brand may be something you do consciously or unconsciously. But lifestyle marketing is a conscious choice that you need to make early on. The process can take years of careful cultivation, authenticity, transparency, and some very intentional marketing choices. After all, “the lifestyle you’re trying to sell needs to be embedded throughout your whole identity. Here are a few steps that can help push you in the right direction.

Step 1: Live your brand story 

We talk a lot about your brand story because it’s so important. For lifestyle brands, customers are looking for a product or service to give them their goal lifestyle. That means your narrative should be one “that convinces your customers that your company resonates with their ultimate version of themselves.” But this isn’t just about telling your audience what they want to hear. You must be authentic about it. Lifestyle marketing works because these brands (and their marketers) genuinely believe and are passionate about what they are offering. Whether that’s a community, achieving personal fitness goals, or living a natural life. Oh yeah and be consistent.

Step 2: Build your following 

This step can only happen if you’ve done your homework for lifestyle marketing criteria. Namely, have you defined, understood, and immersed yourself in your audience? Once you’ve done that, you can work on building a solid and loyal following. One way to do this is with regular, consistent, and engaging social posts. Experiential content on your social helps to “[formulate] a more connected and engaged relationship with consumers.” Another way to do this is with editorial content (think: magazines) and other touchpoints where your ideal audience already is. And keep it fun. Lifestyle brands are touting a goal life, right?

Step 3: Offer something invaluable

This step is admittedly a little more ambiguous, and it will change depending on what type of brand you’re marketing. But offering something invaluable does not necessarily mean that you are marketing the latest and greatest invention. It means that your product or service provides value to consumers, preferably in a way that is fresh, inviting, and convenient. This could be turning an existing concept into a new trend. Like the many wellness or exercise brands that capitalized on the ‘white space’ (i.e. the previously untapped needs) in the industry to create a new perspective. Perhaps your brand is a culture creator like We Work that took a mundane concept and created a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. But whether your brand is working with a forgotten category or one very much alive, the idea is to offer something that your audience does not want to live without.

Step 4: Incorporate your brand everywhere

Repetition, repetition, repetition. We are not suggesting that you nag your audience and pressure them to adopt your lifestyle brand. That defeats the purpose of authenticity. But you should think about how you can integrate your product into multiple aspects of the lives of a niche audience. For example, offering them value on social, continuing the conversation after they have purchased your product, and showing genuine interest in their lives. When you build a relationship with your customers, you can incorporate your brand in more ways than one. The end goal here is to make the purchase just one of the many steps in their brand journey with you.

Opus Gives You Few Examples To follow

We would not be Opus without offering a few incredible examples to get our point across. These lifestyle brands have embedded themselves fully with their respective audiences. They and their marketing strategies are, in a word, goals.

Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencer have established itself fully in the luxury category. Through consistent marketing, they have “convince their customers that they can enjoy a better standard of living when they buy from them. From their iconic logo to quality product and customer experience, M&S offers something invaluable to consumers: delivering special moments to the marketplace.  The distinctly British brand has spent centuries cultivating and growing its audience while keeping up with current trends. They offer not only a lifestyle but a community…

Harley Davidson

The motorcycle manufacturer became a lifestyle brand with its cult following and adventurer identity. Despite being a divisive brand you either love it or hate it, Harley Davidson has stayed relevant and has even become an iconic piece of American culture. The brand has seamlessly woven itself into multiple aspects of its niche audience’s lives. Think of any Harley Davidson owner you know. They likely not only have a bike but all their gear, apparel, and maybe even tattoos come from the brand as well. And the automaker has remained relevant through the decades acquiring an eclectic bunch of fans and riders, ranging from soccer moms to post-ironic hipsters. Those in its cult following live the lifestyle seriously.

Brands as a way of life

It is true that the brands you align yourself with increasingly become extensions of who you are. When pursuing lifestyle marketing, that is your goal. For your customers and for Opus clients to feel as if your brand gets them. That it is fully supportive of their goals and that it offers something valuable they want to be part of. Lifestyle brands are a way of life, which means you are appealing to senses, values, and ideals. The end goal for your brand? Keep them coming back for more.

If we have said it once, we have said it a million times, brands today must go beyond traditional thinking and at the top of this out-of-bounds thinking requirement is optimizing the client experience. At every touchpoint, at every purchase, click and every moment of your brand’s existence.

So, what exactly is a touchpoint?

A brand touchpoint is any point of interaction or exposure your customer has with your brand. These touchpoints are typically “crafted and constructed by the brand in order to engage their customers, giving them the best brand experience, they could possibly have.”  Imagine this. You have a mobile dog grooming brand that serves a large area. Your customers find you through a variety of ways: a billboard ad off the freeway, brochures in local vet clinics and pet stores, or via Facebook, Instagram and Google ads. When a customer books with you, they are greeted most often by you, the owner. When your recognizable grooming van pulls up to their driveway, you continue the personalization and put them at ease with the process. Afterward, you return their dog to them with a branded bandana and goody bag for the owner, complete with a coupon for a return visit.

Within that scenario, there were over half a dozen brand touchpoints. The brand interactions that can turn a two-dimensional brand into a multi-faceted experiential one.

Examples of Touchpoints

Touchpoints run a wide gamut from advertising to direct marketing to live activities and events. Common examples include TV and internet ads, direct mail, email, business cards, brochures, events and tradeshows, and media stories. Touch points are also important when it comes to your brick-and-mortar shop. Within a store, everything from the decals on the front window to your employees’ uniform (and attitude) to your packaging is considered a touchpoint. But don’t forget that word-of-mouth recommendations are also touchpoints that can impact your brand’s legitimacy and loyalty.

Overall, the idea is to keep consumers coming back for more.

Why customer experience matters a lot

Think of your customer experience as the bread and butter of your marketing planning and strategy. After all, if you do not have customers it is only a matter of time before your business dissolves. The fast-paced digital world only increases the need for well-rounded customer experience. Your customers are keeping tabs on changes in trends and technology, so it is your job to make sure “that when the world changes, we move with it.”  Beyond this, having a solid customer experience helps your brand to “stand out from the competition.” Recent statistics show that 91% of companies compete based on customer experience alone. Yet of the 84% of companies believing they deliver a “super experience with the help of Opus” only 9% of customers agreed. This means that brands have room to grow and flourish in the market that is if you work on your customer experience now and from every touchpoint.  Customer experience capitalizes on customer interaction and connection, which in turn increases brand loyalty. In the smartphone era, customers only care that they can connect with you, the way they want to connect with you, and when they want to connect with you.

How to create and optimize the experience

So, what are the best ways to create a customer experience? First, keep in mind that your brand experiences and touchpoints will vary depending on what type of product or service you offer. That said, optimizing your experience involves certain elements that every good brand should have.

Customer experience management

What may be the most essential element of the customer experience is customer experience management? CXM helps to ensure that, at each brand touchpoint, your brand can deliver personalized experiences that drive brand loyalty and increase revenue. For this role, your brand can and should utilize consumer research, marketing technologies and techniques, and behavioral data to manage the customer experience. The key here is to manage, not micro-manage, that’s what we are doing at Opus. The customer experience should still feel authentic and flexible. What worked in the past may not work in the future. And it’s up to your brand to adapt.

Brand purpose and promise

The idea of having a brand purpose should not be a new one for you. But having a purpose beyond profits also contributes to your overall brand experience. Besides, you want to make sure that your customer experience lives up to your brand promise. According to a 2020 Ad Age piece, by investing a portion of your marketing budget in the education and brand alignment of the teams that bring your promises to life, you can enjoy a bit of insurance for your marketing bets. Ensuring that your customer experiences align with your brand promise and purpose can increase brand loyalty and awareness. Brands that live up to their promises via their touchpoints like BMW with Ultimate driving machine and Apple with “Think Different with Opus” are consistently on consumer’s minds.

User-friendly touchpoints

Once you have established your touchpoints, you can optimize them by making sure they are user-friendly and hassle-free. When an online or offline experience is straightforward, consumers are more likely to stick with you and your products to the very end of their journey. If you are integrating an online experience be it an app or your website make sure it is fast, usable, and pleasing both to look at and use. If you are hosting an in-person experience, make sure the process is similarly recognizable (via digital and signage, etc.) and enjoyable. Whichever outlet you choose, make sure to keep the experience consistent with your other brand messaging.

Examples of experiential brands

Experiential brands are becoming the norm. These brands understand that every point of interaction with their customers is important and informs the overall brand experience and perception.

Red Bull 

Red Bull has always been about giving its customers wings. This quirky tagline has carried over from every touchpoint since it began in 1987. From the feeling of flight, the drink itself gives to their work with Red Bull TV, the Red Bull Air Race game, and their use of social media. Perhaps the most incredible example of this is Red Bill Stratos, a campaign that partnered with an Austrian skydiver to set the world record for highest skydive 128,000 feet to be exact. The company is continuously reminding its consumers, through touchpoints, to take flight.

Keeping it dynamic

Optimizing your customer experience takes consistency, time, and keeping up with changes in trends and technologies. To be a competitor in the market today, your brand must be willing to engage your customers through a variety of platforms and experiences.

Remember: keep it dynamic and make it memorable, get help from Opus Communication.

What is lifestyle marketing?

Lifestyle marketing is a marketing technique that positions the product or service to possess ideals, aspirations, and aesthetics that the target audience identifies with. In layman’s terms, it means that brands marketed in this way are a way of life for their audience. They are immersive, encapsulate their customers’ ideas or values, and fit seamlessly into the consumer’s life. Lifestyle marketing goes beyond the product or service being sold it’s selling an ideal. Think of Nike. Sure, they started with and continue to sell athletic shoes. But what makes them a lifestyle brand is their empowerment of the athlete inside everyone. Nike and its products are a way of life for its fans (I mean, you do not see a diehard Nike fan with Adidas on. Ever…….. They eat, live, breathe, and sweat the brand’s ideals.

What makes marketing these brands even more special is the idea that “specific foods, products, and apparel can help us to connect more with our ideal version of ourselves.” When you are marketing to these higher-level needs for a consumer, you’re in a whole new playing field.

Lifestyle marketing criteria 

If only branding were as simple as having a checklist to mark off when you meet certain criteria. Unfortunately, many brands that set out to be in the lifestyle category can miss the mark by not doing their due diligence and research. But you can avoid that but doing the following: 

Define your market: The first step to effective lifestyle marketing is deeply understanding your market. And, yes, we mean having a basic idea of demographics and psychographics. But dig deeper. What habits, skills, and hobbies do your audience members have? Why would they be interested in your brand for the long term? Do you know what or who inspires them and what their goals are? Lifestyle brands “dissect every aspect of their audience until they know exactly what makes them tick.”

 Know where your audience gets their information: It’s hardly worth marketing to your audience if you don’t know where to find them. Or even what they’re looking for. Where your audience gets their information might depend on age, financial status, relationship status, etc. Are they on social or watching TV more? Do they drive around and look at billboards? Are they using popular apps? From here, you can figure out which channels make the most sense for your brand.

 Position your brand for success: Brand positioning is essential, especially in the digital age. Positioning considers your audience and their habits. It also means you’ve done your research about the brand itself and your competitors and how what you offer is unique and valuable. Plus, brand positioning strategies are directly linked to consumer loyalty, consumer-based brand equity and the willingness to purchase the brand. All of which can contribute to a successful lifestyle brand.

Why lifestyle marketing matters 

The average person might not think about why a brand makes sense with specific audiences or what creates brand loyalty. But you, being savvy, know that creating a brand as immersive as a lifestyle brand takes time. Lifestyle marketing matters because these brands are deeply ingrained in an audience’s psyche. They are also starting to fill the void of failing institutional structures think low church attendance and marriage rates down types of “shared systems of any kind that help us make sense of the world. In other words, as these institutional structures fall, something needs to feel the void. In this case, its certain brands creating meaning in our lives which is a huge responsibility for marketers. Not to mention that lifestyle brands are loyalty-inspiring and consistently earn the respect of consumers. In doing so, they are also meeting their customer’s needs and helping them to not only fill a void but to self-actualize as well. And, from a marketing perspective, lifestyle marketing is amazingly effective and works on a much deeper level than traditional advertising.

How to do it effectively

Becoming a lifestyle brand may be something you do consciously or unconsciously. But lifestyle marketing is a conscious choice that you need to make early on. The process can take years of careful cultivation, authenticity, transparency, and some very intentional marketing choices. After all, “the lifestyle you’re trying to sell needs to be embedded throughout your whole identity. Here are a few steps that can help push you in the right direction.

Step 1: Live your brand story 

We talk a lot about your brand story because it’s so important. For lifestyle brands, customers are looking for a product or service to give them their goal lifestyle. That means your narrative should be one “that convinces your customers that your company resonates with their ultimate version of themselves.” But this isn’t just about telling your audience what they want to hear. You must be authentic about it. Lifestyle marketing works because these brands (and their marketers) genuinely believe and are passionate about what they are offering. Whether that’s a community, achieving personal fitness goals, or living a natural life. Oh yeah and be consistent.

Step 2: Build your following 

This step can only happen if you’ve done your homework for lifestyle marketing criteria. Namely, have you defined, understood, and immersed yourself in your audience? Once you’ve done that, you can work on building a solid and loyal following. One way to do this is with regular, consistent, and engaging social posts. Experiential content on your social helps to “[formulate] a more connected and engaged relationship with consumers.” Another way to do this is with editorial content (think: magazines) and other touchpoints where your ideal audience already is. And keep it fun. Lifestyle brands are touting a goal life, right?

Step 3: Offer something invaluable

This step is admittedly a little more ambiguous, and it will change depending on what type of brand you’re marketing. But offering something invaluable does not necessarily mean that you are marketing the latest and greatest invention. It means that your product or service provides value to consumers, preferably in a way that is fresh, inviting, and convenient. This could be turning an existing concept into a new trend. Like the many wellness or exercise brands that capitalized on the ‘white space’ (i.e. the previously untapped needs) in the industry to create a new perspective. Perhaps your brand is a culture creator like We Work that took a mundane concept and created a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. But whether your brand is working with a forgotten category or one very much alive, the idea is to offer something that your audience does not want to live without.

Step 4: Incorporate your brand everywhere

Repetition, repetition, repetition. We are not suggesting that you nag your audience and pressure them to adopt your lifestyle brand. That defeats the purpose of authenticity. But you should think about how you can integrate your product into multiple aspects of the lives of a niche audience. For example, offering them value on social, continuing the conversation after they have purchased your product, and showing genuine interest in their lives. When you build a relationship with your customers, you can incorporate your brand in more ways than one. The end goal here is to make the purchase just one of the many steps in their brand journey with you.

Opus Gives You Few Examples To follow

We would not be Opus without offering a few incredible examples to get our point across. These lifestyle brands have embedded themselves fully with their respective audiences. They and their marketing strategies are, in a word, goals.

Marks and Spencer

Marks and Spencer have established itself fully in the luxury category. Through consistent marketing, they have “convince their customers that they can enjoy a better standard of living when they buy from them. From their iconic logo to quality product and customer experience, M&S offers something invaluable to consumers: delivering special moments to the marketplace.  The distinctly British brand has spent centuries cultivating and growing its audience while keeping up with current trends. They offer not only a lifestyle but a community…

 Harley Davidson

The motorcycle manufacturer became a lifestyle brand with its cult following and adventurer identity. Despite being a divisive brand you either love it or hate it, Harley Davidson has stayed relevant and has even become an iconic piece of American culture. The brand has seamlessly woven itself into multiple aspects of its niche audience’s lives. Think of any Harley Davidson owner you know. They likely not only have a bike but all their gear, apparel, and maybe even tattoos come from the brand as well. And the automaker has remained relevant through the decades acquiring an eclectic bunch of fans and riders, ranging from soccer moms to post-ironic hipsters. Those in its cult following live the lifestyle seriously.

Brands as a way of life

It is true that the brands you align yourself with increasingly become extensions of who you are. When pursuing lifestyle marketing, that is your goal. For your customers and for Opus clients to feel as if your brand gets them. That it is fully supportive of their goals and that it offers something valuable they want to be part of. Lifestyle brands are a way of life, which means you are appealing to senses, values, and ideals. The end goal for your brand? Keep them coming back for more.

So, what exactly is a touchpoint?

A brand touchpoint is any point of interaction or exposure your customer has with your brand. These touchpoints are typically “crafted and constructed by the brand in order to engage their customers, giving them the best brand experience, they could possibly have.”  Imagine this. You have a mobile dog grooming brand that serves a large area. Your customers find you through a variety of ways: a billboard ad off the freeway, brochures in local vet clinics and pet stores, or via Facebook, Instagram and Google ads. When a customer books with you, they are greeted most often by you, the owner. When your recognizable grooming van pulls up to their driveway, you continue the personalization and put them at ease with the process. Afterward, you return their dog to them with a branded bandana and goody bag for the owner, complete with a coupon for a return visit.

Within that scenario, there were over half a dozen brand touchpoints. The brand interactions that can turn a two-dimensional brand into a multi-faceted experiential one.

Examples of Touchpoints

Touchpoints run a wide gamut from advertising to direct marketing to live activities and events. Common examples include TV and internet ads, direct mail, email, business cards, brochures, events and tradeshows, and media stories. Touch points are also important when it comes to your brick-and-mortar shop. Within a store, everything from the decals on the front window to your employees’ uniform (and attitude) to your packaging is considered a touchpoint. But don’t forget that word-of-mouth recommendations are also touchpoints that can impact your brand’s legitimacy and loyalty.

Overall, the idea is to keep consumers coming back for more.

Why customer experience matters a lot

Think of your customer experience as the bread and butter of your marketing planning and strategy. After all, if you do not have customers it is only a matter of time before your business dissolves. The fast-paced digital world only increases the need for well-rounded customer experience. Your customers are keeping tabs on changes in trends and technology, so it is your job to make sure “that when the world changes, we move with it.”  Beyond this, having a solid customer experience helps your brand to “stand out from the competition.” Recent statistics show that 91% of companies compete based on customer experience alone. Yet of the 84% of companies believing they deliver a “super experience with the help of Opus” only 9% of customers agreed. This means that brands have room to grow and flourish in the market that is if you work on your customer experience now and from every touchpoint.  Customer experience capitalizes on customer interaction and connection, which in turn increases brand loyalty. In the smartphone era, customers only care that they can connect with you, the way they want to connect with you, and when they want to connect with you.

How to create and optimize the experience

So, what are the best ways to create a customer experience? First, keep in mind that your brand experiences and touchpoints will vary depending on what type of product or service you offer. That said, optimizing your experience involves certain elements that every good brand should have.

Customer experience management

What may be the most essential element of the customer experience is customer experience management? CXM helps to ensure that, at each brand touchpoint, your brand can deliver personalized experiences that drive brand loyalty and increase revenue. For this role, your brand can and should utilize consumer research, marketing technologies and techniques, and behavioral data to manage the customer experience. The key here is to manage, not micro-manage, that’s what we are doing at Opus. The customer experience should still feel authentic and flexible. What worked in the past may not work in the future. And it’s up to your brand to adapt.

Brand purpose and promise

The idea of having a brand purpose should not be a new one for you. But having a purpose beyond profits also contributes to your overall brand experience. Besides, you want to make sure that your customer experience lives up to your brand promise. According to a 2020 Ad Age piece, by investing a portion of your marketing budget in the education and brand alignment of the teams that bring your promises to life, you can enjoy a bit of insurance for your marketing bets. Ensuring that your customer experiences align with your brand promise and purpose can increase brand loyalty and awareness. Brands that live up to their promises via their touchpoints like BMW with Ultimate driving machine and Apple with “Think Different with Opus” are consistently on consumer’s minds.

User-friendly touchpoints

Once you have established your touchpoints, you can optimize them by making sure they are user-friendly and hassle-free. When an online or offline experience is straightforward, consumers are more likely to stick with you and your products to the very end of their journey. If you are integrating an online experience be it an app or your website make sure it is fast, usable, and pleasing both to look at and use. If you are hosting an in-person experience, make sure the process is similarly recognizable (via digital and signage, etc.) and enjoyable. Whichever outlet you choose, make sure to keep the experience consistent with your other brand messaging.

Examples of experiential brands

Experiential brands are becoming the norm. These brands understand that every point of interaction with their customers is important and informs the overall brand experience and perception. 

Red Bull 

Red Bull has always been about giving its customers wings. This quirky tagline has carried over from every touchpoint since it began in 1987. From the feeling of flight, the drink itself gives to their work with Red Bull TV, the Red Bull Air Race game, and their use of social media. Perhaps the most incredible example of this is Red Bill Stratos, a campaign that partnered with an Austrian skydiver to set the world record for highest skydive 128,000 feet to be exact. The company is continuously reminding its consumers, through touchpoints, to take flight.

Keeping it dynamic

Optimizing your customer experience takes consistency, time, and keeping up with changes in trends and technologies. To be a competitor in the market today, your brand must be willing to engage your customers through a variety of platforms and experiences.

Remember: keep it dynamic and make it memorable, get help from Opus Communication.

1. Audit your website

Performing an SEO audit of your website is a big job. In addition, once it is done, corrections and optimizations must be implemented to improve the visibility of your platform and eliminate the technical factors that block or limit its good indexing.

Slow activity is therefore an opportunity to implement all these optimizations which are sometimes difficult to add to the often-busy schedule of the developer team. Opus Communication is doing free consultation and audits during pandemic to support businesses.

2. Make a mini content inventory

A full content inventory requires some expertise, but you can start it and boost the performance of your content by analyzing some elements. To do this, create an Excel file taking care to identify the different types of content, by separating them by tab for example. Then list each of your content:

• Web pages
• Blog articles
• Whitepapers
• Videos
• Infographics
• Then analyse each element according to a few non-exhaustive criteria’s:
• Is the content up to date?
• The traffic obtained
• The social actions generated by each content
• The positioning of the pages concerned in the search results
• Targeted SEO themes
• What objectives does it meet?

Finally, identify the actions to take and put a schedule in place:

What elements to keep, update, delete or create?

What optimizations can be made to further target your important themes (internal linking, on-page optimizations, deepening of the subject, enriching the content with images, videos, etc.)?

What content can be re-integrated into your content marketing strategy and shared when business will start up normally?

3. Update your ‘Google My Business’ page

If you have one or more physical stores, a showroom or an office with defined opening hours, please modify the information to adapt it to your new schedule. You can also use this channel to communicate temporary changes related to your activity and adapt the description of your business and / or create one or more specific Google Posts. Also make sure that your contact details are correct in case your customers try to reach you.

4. Treat your toxic backlinks

You maybe have identified in your net linking strategy a series of suspicious and potentially toxic backlinks to your SEO. To avoid losing visibility and being penalized by Google for fraudulent practices, it is essential to deal with these links. This work requires contacting each site owner that host these links in order to remove them.

5. Take a step back by interviewing your customers and employees

Slower activity is also an ideal moment to take a step back from your digital strategy. Have a break and take a critical look at your current situation. Where are you in the achievement of your goals? Will the upcoming actions respond to them? How to adapt your strategy once the containment period is over?

This is an opportunity to put your employees and customers to work. Through online questionnaires, video conferences or simple phone calls, ask them about your products, services and corporate culture. These elements will be an extremely rich source to refine your customer knowledge and create the experience that meets their expectations.

We are doing everything we can to support our customers in this difficult period.

Do you need advice to strengthen your SEO during this exceptional period? If yes contact Opus Communication for free Consultation.

Even if your business was at a standstill, it is essential to continue to communicate with your customers for several reasons:

1. To reassure them that your company is ready for future projects.
2. Listening to your customers’ needs to better meet their expectations.
3. Restoring consumer confidence, highlighting the company’s values.

These three ways, if properly exploited, will be a springboard for a quicker and stronger recovery.

First of all, communication on the solidity of your company is important, because unfortunately many companies will be in difficulty. The crisis is also economic, so you have to adapt to get through it and work on both internal and external communication. Externally, communication with your customers will be essential to reassure them about the continuity of activities. By showing that you are the right partner and that they can entrust you with projects, you will be able to ensure them.  Set up a customer survey. What are their expectations, are they happy with your products/services, how do they see the recovery of activities… ? All these questions will be very useful to adapt to the reality that your customers are living.

Position yourself as a partner and find solutions to meet the needs of your customers. They will have changed after this crisis. Therefore, it’s not useless to review your personas in order to adapt your communication and campaigns.

For the third point, which is more specifically aimed sector like (retail, banking, leisure…), it is important to keep in touch with your consumers to relaunch your activity and sales as quickly as possible. A brand can quickly be “forgotten” if it does not maintain a relationship with its customers, its community. To do this, in times of crisis, you can highlight your values with actions related to it. Words are not enough, action is essential.

Some ideas of marketing actions to boost your sales

We all hope to “recover” from the lockdown as soon as possible. Although it will be gradual, it is now time to start preparing for it. Here are some marketing ideas to help you get your business back on track and generate post-crisis sales:

Be active on social networks. Canadian are spending 40 % more time since the beginning of the crisis on Facebook, Instagram… If a sales pitch is not in place, staying visible is very important or else you will have to redouble your efforts to regain the pre-crisis level of brand awareness. To do so, present a new value proposition that is addressed to all stakeholders in society.

Prepare an editorial calendar for the next 12 months. Indeed, content marketing will be one of the keys to boost your sales by generating leads and traffic on your site. Remember that 70% of brands do not deliver the right content. You can make the difference compared to your competitors. In this perspective, read also our latest blog Why the lockdown is the right time to get your content marketing on point.

Improving the customer experience will be even more important after this crisis, for two reasons.

With this Covid19 crisis, customers, whether they are individuals or professionals, will have discovered a part of the power of digital platforms and other e-commerce sites. Most of these platforms have relied on the customer experience, which is therefore becoming a standard of service. It’s hard for a consumer to go back after having discovered it. After several weeks of confinement, people are going to want to rediscover the freedom and pleasures of life and brands that will manage to provide a nice human contact and a great experience

Prepare a “comeback” offer to encourage your customers to go back to shopping, that’s what Opus Doing …! There is therefore an opportunity to attract this audience to your site by increasing the daily budget. On the other hand, other sectors are almost or completely at a standstill, such as tourism operators. In this case, it is advisable to pause generic search campaigns and keep only the branding to continue communicating to your audience. Adapt your product if it can meet new needs. This is particularly relevant for large companies but could be useful to others too.

Create a free trial period for your product or service, because in this period of accelerated and forced digitalisation, companies with digital offerings can and will have boosted the usage of their tools. For example, Microsoft Teams has more than doubled its number of users in just 3 months. Launch a public awareness campaign to remind the public that you are still out there and to communicate your recovery.

Optimize your local SEO, the next months of deconfinement will be gradual and borders will most likely remain closed, so local business will be boosted. Therefore, it’s important to optimize your presence on search engines locally (Google Maps, Google My Business, Store Locator…). Opus Communication around the world helped many new customers and support local businesses by giving these services on a very low cost.

The crisis of Covid19 will have accelerated the digital transformation and therefore create a change in purchasing behaviour.

In Canada, before the coronavirus crisis, 21% of employees occasionally used teleworking. Today we have exceeded 90% of home working.

Obviously, all this has an impact on the management and functioning of a company. For years now, we have been hearing about digital transformation with a greater or lesser adaptation depending on the sector of activity, the size of the company and above all the strategic choices made by management. It is clear that even the most reluctant are forced to massively adapt the digital tools to continue the activity to some extent.

The behavior of your employees has changed. With teleworking and the use of different digital tools many companies have had to adapt or will have to adapt quickly if they want to survive.

More than ever, human, digital and local will be important in the coming months and years!

In the face of a public health crisis, it’s not only important to communicate with your audience, but to ensure you’re communicating the right message to them. Social media is one of the best ways to interact with your clients, since most people are frequently on their computers and mobile devices during self-isolation or quarantine.

As a business, it’s your responsibility to create a social media plan with digital strategy that best contributes to safety and showcases the measures you are taking to help stop the spread of the outbreak and increase your business. To help you navigate the new expectations of social media, we’ve compiled the best tips on how to effectively use social media during COVID-19, Opus Communication help you and your business.

1. Announce Changes On All Social Media Platforms:

Keep your audience informed every step of the way by making constant updates on the status of your business. Announce any changes to your business and communicate them promptly. This includes changes to your business hours, to the services you are offering, to the policies you previously enforced and more.

With the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19, it is of the utmost importance to ensure you use every social channel you have in your arsenal. Consumers need to hear from brands consistently with relevant updates on how to navigate the crisis as it relates to your brand.

2. Use Instagram Live and Facebook Live:

If possible and relevant to your company or brand, shift your social strategy to offer your services online, where applicable. Instagram Live and Facebook Live offer you the means to connect with your audience in a human, genuine way and to answer questions your consumers may have in real time. Live video offers many benefits that pre-recorded videos do not. After all, 85% of audiences prefer live videos to standard social posts. Because of social distancing, social media users will be seeking opportunities to connect with more people and live videos offer human interaction without being face-to-face. If offering services virtually isn’t a viable option for your business, getting online to keep in touch with your consumers on Facebook and Instagram Live and to offer support or relevant updates can still be extremely helpful.

Here are some live video ideas for your business:

• Live workout class or meditation
• Live Q & A
• Live business updates
• Product demonstrations
• Live morning routine during COVID-19

As a reminder, anytime you reach out to your audience live, keep in mind the sensitivity of the current situation. Adopt a mindset of trying to lessen the impacts of the pandemic, rather than making light of it, or avoiding the subject altogether.

3. Social Listening During – COVID-19

When posting on your social media platforms, always ensure your posts are sensitive to the current situation. During this delicate time, it’s important to always double-check that your posts are extremely sensitive. Never make light of the health crisis and never try to evoke fear.

Although there is no shortage of memes and comedic content circulating the Internet, it should not be forgotten that there are people who are struggling to fight the virus or who have lost loved ones to it. This fact should always be kept in mind when publishing social content.

4. Ensure Sensitivity – Don’t Use Fear as a Tactic…!

Social listening is an important part of any social media plan and is more important now than ever before. ‘#Coronavirus’ is currently the second most used hashtag of 2020, with tweets regarding the pandemic being shared every 45 milliseconds.

If you’re using a social listening service, set up keyword tracking for terms related to ‘COVID-19’ or ‘coronavirus’ in relation to your brand, services or products. This will help to identify the questions and concerns of your audience and helps create insightful responses to them.

5. Social Media Content to Support Your Customers:

During this time of self-isolation, social media use is only expected to increase. Audiences seek positive messages that promote good mental health during isolation or content that keeps them engaged. Decide if there is a way for you to provide comfort to your customers during these challenging times. This could mean offering free virtual workout classes to boost morale, self-help guides or tips for struggling businesses.

Here Are a Few Ideas for content:

• Recipes or live-stream cook-alongs
• Posts with lists of at-home activities
• Free live stream at-home workouts
• Features for best self-isolation stories from consumers
• Self-care guides and tips
• Productivity guidelines

It’s important for company and businesses to be aware that the current social media landscape has never before been navigated and is continuously changing. Using social media, as well as other digital marketing strategies effectively during pandemic, requires using a genuine human voice and showing your customers that you care about their personal health, their business and well-being. By following these steps and keeping updated on the state of the outbreak, you can use your social channels to their full potential, while remaining sensitive to the situation.

In the face of a public health crisis, it’s not only important to communicate with your audience, but to ensure you’re communicating the right message to them. Social media is one of the best ways to interact with your clients, since most people are frequently on their computers and mobile devices during self-isolation or quarantine.

As a business, it’s your responsibility to create a social media plan with digital strategy that best contributes to safety and showcases the measures you are taking to help stop the spread of the outbreak and increase your business. To help you navigate the new expectations of social media, we’ve compiled the best tips on how to effectively use social media during COVID-19, Opus Communication help you and your business.

1. Announce Changes On All Social Media Platforms:

Keep your audience informed every step of the way by making constant updates on the status of your business. Announce any changes to your business and communicate them promptly. This includes changes to your business hours, to the services you are offering, to the policies you previously enforced and more.

With the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19, it is of the utmost importance to ensure you use every social channel you have in your arsenal. Consumers need to hear from brands consistently with relevant updates on how to navigate the crisis as it relates to your brand.

2. Use Instagram Live and Facebook Live:

If possible and relevant to your company or brand, shift your social strategy to offer your services online, where applicable. Instagram Live and Facebook Live offer you the means to connect with your audience in a human, genuine way and to answer questions your consumers may have in real time. Live video offers many benefits that pre-recorded videos do not. After all, 85% of audiences prefer live videos to standard social posts. Because of social distancing, social media users will be seeking opportunities to connect with more people and live videos offer human interaction without being face-to-face. If offering services virtually isn’t a viable option for your business, getting online to keep in touch with your consumers on Facebook and Instagram Live and to offer support or relevant updates can still be extremely helpful.

Here are some live video ideas for your business:

• Live workout class or meditation
• Live Q & A
• Live business updates
• Product demonstrations
• Live morning routine during COVID-19

As a reminder, anytime you reach out to your audience live, keep in mind the sensitivity of the current situation. Adopt a mindset of trying to lessen the impacts of the pandemic, rather than making light of it, or avoiding the subject altogether.

3. Social Listening During – COVID-19

When posting on your social media platforms, always ensure your posts are sensitive to the current situation. During this delicate time, it’s important to always double-check that your posts are extremely sensitive. Never make light of the health crisis and never try to evoke fear.

Although there is no shortage of memes and comedic content circulating the Internet, it should not be forgotten that there are people who are struggling to fight the virus or who have lost loved ones to it. This fact should always be kept in mind when publishing social content.

4. Ensure Sensitivity – Don’t Use Fear as a Tactic…!

Social listening is an important part of any social media plan and is more important now than ever before. ‘#Coronavirus’ is currently the second most used hashtag of 2020, with tweets regarding the pandemic being shared every 45 milliseconds.

If you’re using a social listening service, set up keyword tracking for terms related to ‘COVID-19’ or ‘coronavirus’ in relation to your brand, services or products. This will help to identify the questions and concerns of your audience and helps create insightful responses to them.

5. Social Media Content to Support Your Customers:

During this time of self-isolation, social media use is only expected to increase. Audiences seek positive messages that promote good mental health during isolation or content that keeps them engaged. Decide if there is a way for you to provide comfort to your customers during these challenging times. This could mean offering free virtual workout classes to boost morale, self-help guides or tips for struggling businesses.

Here Are a Few Ideas for content:

• Recipes or live-stream cook-alongs
• Posts with lists of at-home activities
• Free live stream at-home workouts
• Features for best self-isolation stories from consumers
• Self-care guides and tips
• Productivity guidelines

It’s important for company and businesses to be aware that the current social media landscape has never before been navigated and is continuously changing. Using social media, as well as other digital marketing strategies effectively during pandemic, requires using a genuine human voice and showing your customers that you care about their personal health, their business and well-being. By following these steps and keeping updated on the state of the outbreak, you can use your social channels to their full potential, while remaining sensitive to the situation.