Crisis marketing guidelines for movers

In times of crisis, growing the online presence of a business can be equivalent to maintaining its strength through it all. When faced with challenging obstacles on a local, national, or even global scale – a lot of companies struggle to get through it. One of the ways to weather the storm is by adapting modern marketing tactics to the circumstances surrounding a business. Given the impact of COVID-19 and the role moving companies are to play in it, there will be a need to make such a change now. Movers Development offers the following crisis marketing guidelines for movers to help prepare businesses for what is to come.

Five ways to approach your marketing efforts during a crisis

1. Assemble a crisis management team

Anticipating a crisis is practically impossible, especially one on a global scale. However, once it does happen, the first order of business should be to form a separate crisis management team. That team will be responsible for handling the public image of your company during the crisis. And since moving companies have proven to be one of the more relevant businesses during a crisis, it is essential for them to maintain a trustworthy public image. For example, some of the crisis marketing guidelines that have proven to be desirable during the COVID-19 pandemic include:

• Creating informational banners on homepages or separate pages to address the crisis at hand. People don’t expect companies to ignore issues but rather to offer assurances that they are aware of the problem and what they are doing about it.
• Creating insightful and useful crisis-related content. Moving companies need to promote safety during a crisis – how to approach the process of relocation, how it is influencing the industry, migration flows, security, etc. Your website blog needs to be the voice of reason and source of information for customers and other business owners.
• Introducing moving company software solutions to make the entire crisis more bearable. Among the many crisis marketing guidelines for movers, one can find the need to help through technology. Therefore, a lot of moving companies are now focusing on offering online moving quote estimators and/or virtual moving quotes via video surveys.

The team you assemble should be in charge of tackling all these activities, as well as promoting them on social media accounts, via email marketing campaigns, etc.

2. Put the safety of your employees first

During the early stages of any crisis, it can be difficult to assess the risks and ascertain relevant information. Therefore, until you get all the facts straight, you need to ensure that your employees are safe from any potential risks. And the obvious steps to secure that would be:

• Implementing remote working conditions. Many companies today don’t require the physical presence of their employees to get all the work done. Even with moving companies, there is plenty of administrative staff that sits in the office, scheduling moves or consulting with customers. Instead, you can ensure their safety by offering them the option of working from home, having online meetings over Zoom, Skype, or other video conference apps.
• Reduce working hours. For those companies that need to have people out on the field, such as moving crews – modifying their work hours can provide more safety for them. Less exposure translates to fewer chances of being exposed to a crisis, be it a pandemic or a natural disaster.
• Keep your staff informed. Whether you will create a page on your website or a link towards a third party website with constant news updates regarding the crisis, your employees should have all the facts. That way, you can avoid conflicting rumors and uncertified information spreading around and spreading panic.

3. Prepare contingency plans for your marketing strategies

Having a crisis management team and an established communication network is all good, but it is still basic in terms of crisis marketing guidelines for movers. You need to consider that a global crisis can affect the economy, local markets, stock exchange, employment, etc. Therefore, you need to be prepared to adapt to all the fluctuations that come with the crisis at hand.

• Certainly, when it comes to moving company SEO, the results are long-term and can withstand a crisis, so long as companies remain vigilant in their daily efforts.
• In terms of PPC advertising solutions, moving companies need to assess the demand for their services in the current market. Based on it, they should make educated predictions and invest a proper budget.
• Email marketing campaigns should be less focused on sales and more oriented towards raising awareness among customers and maintaining your public image in the face of crisis. 
• You should also make use of your social media posts to support crisis control efforts, donations, and charities, etc.

4. Prevent the spread of misinformation

Whenever crisis strikes, be it local or global – panic tends to spread like a forest fire. As a certified and well-established business in your community and niche, it is your duty to maintain public peace. And how you advertise has a lot of bearing on that matter. Use the different ways in which you advertise your business to offer the public the proper information regarding the crisis at hand.

Take into consideration how Google is cracking down on unreliable sources. Google has been working to curb phishing attempts, conspiracy theories, malware, and misinformation and removing YouTube videos and ads.

5. Focus on the post-crisis stage as well

Staying optimistic is an important trait to have during a crisis. A company shouldn’t go as far as presenting itself as oblivious to the severity of a given crisis, or naive in how long it will take to end and the effects it will have. Instead, maintain an optimistic attitude backed up by facts. Safeguard the credibility of your brand as a whole by focusing your marketing efforts on three things:

1. Adapting to the business interruption that the situation causes and continuing to triage the unexpected.
2. Working through the crisis and connecting with customers on a long-term basis.
3. Mitigating any potential risks to the customers with transparent crisis marketing tactics.

We all need to do our part during harsh times and stand united

At the end of the day during a crisis, the most important thing for all of us to do is to stay safe. Take all these steps under consideration and learn how best to manage your business efforts in face of challenging trials such as this one. These crisis marketing guidelines for movers are our way of raising awareness and helping the industry cope with the current risks involved in conducting everyday business. Stay safe and consult with Movers Development on other relevant matters for growing your business.