Don’t be like everyone else

Coronavirus is affecting everyone and we all want to show our customers we care. But that doesn’t mean you should spam them with irrelevant meaningless platitudes, your office social distancing, or that your employees wash their hands.

Did they not wash their hands before??!?!

How many of you have received an email from a company you forgot you even gave your email address to? How many emails like those have you received? Five? Ten? Fifty?

How many did you read? One? two?

How many did you mark as spam? All of them?

There are countless examples of meaningless emails about the steps these companies are taking. Now we’re starting to get dubious claims of how they’re helping solve the COVID-19 problem. Quantum Computing??

Take this opportunity to do something that is likely quite different to what you normally do.

Take this opportunity to do what you really should have been doing before.

Celebrate your customers

Don’t talk about yourself – chances are no one cares. Honestly.

Instead, highlight how your customers are continuing to succeed in this tough market. Subtly include a short piece about how you’ve helped them do this.

Example One – Keeping your kids safe and entertained

For example, a startup I have been advising has Roblox as a customer – a large video game platform. The Economist reports that gaming traffic has increased by over 75% since restrictions were put in place and Roblox specifically has seen an increase of at least 40% alone.

This massive increase in users recently is because so many children are home for either the holidays or school cancellations. Not only has Roblox easily handled this increase in users, they’ve done so cost effectively. While their growth has been significant, their additional costs have not grown at the same rate.

Great news to share right? YES! It is. That’s a huge win.

Bonus: Run a demand generation campaign targeting your primary business buying persona and offer a discount coupon. Not only are you promoting your customer and the benefits you’ve delivered, but you’re also helping other prospective customers occupy their kids during this time and driving new customers and revenue to your customer.

Which customer wouldn’t want that?

Example Two – Solving the Track and Trace of COVID-19

That same startup I have been advising has ESRI, the largest GIS spatial visualization platform, as a headline customer. They’ve been working to help serve medical organizations like Johns Hopkins with keeping track of case data and displaying it in beautiful and insightful maps.

They’ve even blogged about it here.

Example Three – Keeping people fed and staff employed

Thirdly, that very same startup has a name brand retailer in the UK as a recent customer.

The original project they were brought in for has been placed on hold due to the economic shutdown in the United Kingdom. They have also been forced to close their grocery stores.

Because of the product and expert advisory of this startup the retailer was not only able to rapidly build and deploy an entirely new digital ecommerce platform for fresh produce, but also partner with a gig economy delivery provider to get fresh food to people.

What can you do?

Next time you receive an email from someone you once gave your email address to, would you want it to be the same old same old everyone has been sending?

Or would you like to be pleasantly surprised by one of the above examples where they highlight the very real things their customers are able to achieve – and in many cases help address the Coronavirus craziness?

Be the change you want to see in the world.

It’s important to remember – it’s never about you. It’s what you can do for others.

Stop sending meaningless platitudes that fade into the background.

Be different.

Be a leader.

Be the one to send an email celebrating others.

You never know, you may actually win a new customer or two.

If you would like advice on how to get started yourself, feel free to reach out to me