Getting Back to a Normal we Never Knew: Post-COVID Re-engagement

Figuring out the most important objective of your mobile engagement strategy in 2021.

Getting Back to Business?

It’s 2021, a pandemic is still raging all around the world and economies are still struggling, but one thing is clear; the end is on the horizon. Governments, communities and also businesses can, and should start planning for the ‘day after’. How will that day look? What will we return to? And what have we left forever behind? In other words, how has consumer behavior changed, where will we encounter these changes and how will we know if they are temporary or permanent?

Consumer behavior has changed throughout the pandemic and will likely change when emerging from it. But in which ways has it changed? Who is feeling the change the most? And how do those changes affect their perception of your company, your product, your service? If you expected a concrete prediction, prepare for disappointment (or in other words “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future”). We believe that the practical approach is to anticipate, observe and respond.

Anyone can see that different countries and industries are at different stages of COVID recovery. There is no reason to think that this will not be even more diverse for consumers. Many will still be concerned about health risks, others will be preoccupied with financial issues and some may be re-examining many aspects of their lifestyles. Their circumstances have changed and you may need to communicate differently as a result. The question then arises “What should we communicate and to whom?” and the answer is anything but straightforward. Everything you thought you knew about your customers, how they interact with your product and how they value your brand needs to be reevaluated. And all your customer personas need to be reshuffled as you consider where each customer is on the ‘return to normal’ continuum. 

Given all that, many companies will need to dramatically improve their engagement strategy. They will want to leverage what they previously knew about their customers with fresh insights into their recent circumstances. They will need to micro-target customers based on those differences in behavior and design the right engagement for each diverse audience segment. They will seek to have the capability to choose their ‘moments’ carefully, in order to be ultra-sensitive to context. The role of the mobile device in this strategy, as the device that is most likely to be within arm’s reach at any moment, becomes crucial. 

Invest Wisely – 

We believe that the mobile phone can also provide the solution. By adding AI to your app, you gain all these capabilities and more. Our JedAI Marketing Assistant helps generate the micro-campaigns and run them on each individual’s device, ensuring that every consumer gets a truly personalized user experience. And since the AI resides and operates on the phone itself (Edge AI), you don’t have to spend money on cloud infrastructure or worry about privacy, removing two major issues from your list of worries.

And finally, your mobile engagement strategy in 2021 should have one key objective; to reestablish a trusted relationship with your consumers. These are stressful times for businesses and many may be tempted to consider an aggressive marketing strategy that will recapture market share and drive much needed revenues. Remember that your consumers have been through a challenging time as well and the first thing you can do for your customers is to be there for them. Sometimes it means you will offer a product, sometimes you will offer a service and sometimes you will simply offer some sound advice or words of encouragement. This is where your personalized mobile engagement strategy will be able to deliver the most value, now and in the future.

In 2021, let’s make sure our customer relationships get healthier too.