This year, a large number of people have had to adapt to, what is for many, an entirely new work atmosphere: working from home. A lot of articles have been written about the impacts sudden remote work is having on individuals, the companies they work for and our society in general. However, I haven't seen as many discussions about how this changing work environment is affecting consumer behavior and how marketers should adapt their strategies and messaging to compensate in both the near and long term.
While we don't know how much longer many of us will continue working from home, even after restrictions are lifted, it is safe to assume that some companies may adopt a more open-minded approach to having people work from home in the future. So, for some people, this may indeed be the new normal for the long term.
Here are a few work-from-home impacts for marketers to consider when thinking about strategy and messaging now and in the future.
Work Vs. Personal Time
People's daily commute to and from work has tended to reinforce the concept of the 8-to-5 workday. While many people spend more time than this at work, it has still held up as a good rule of thumb for the hours people tend to spend at work each day. Add in some time for that physical commute before and after work, and marketers had a general idea of where their audience was located during the workweek.
With so many people working from home, those routines have been completely changed in many cases. That commute to work is now the time it takes to walk from the kitchen to the home "office," whether it is an actual office, the dining table or living room couch. Once people get to their home workspace, the transition to and from work and personal time can be fluid throughout the day.
While this varies, depending on the demands of each person's work-from-home situation, it is almost certainly distinctly different than when they went to work previously. This fluidity means that a lot of people might be more active on their personal email and social media accounts during the day, and they may be "at work" both earlier and later than they were previously.
Marketers need to consider all these changes when planning the timing of marketing campaigns, like email, along with the messaging itself. If people are both simultaneously at work and at home, what does that mean for your marketing strategy?
The Desire For Social Engagement
While many people are enjoying the benefits of working from home, they may also be missing at least one aspect of working in an office environment: social interactions. With fewer opportunities for real-world social engagements, I'm finding that people are looking to fill that void with as many digital options as possible. Digital interactions with co-workers over email, Slack or Zoom are helping to replace some of those social aspects for remote workers, but many might be looking for more.
This is a great opportunity for companies to help provide a higher level of engagement with their audiences by coming up with innovative ways to leverage social interaction within their marketing programs. Whether it's creating interactive contests, virtual networking events or other conversational and interactive communications with your audience, think about some ways you can help fill some of that missing social engagement.
Digital First
Throughout the growth of the digital ecosystem in the past decades, the online world has taken market share from the real world. It's easy to see, in the rise of e-commerce, that consumers have become increasingly comfortable with making purchase decisions entirely online. With more people working and spending more time at home than ever before, this trend seems to be accelerating.
For many advertisers, this provides the opportunity to shift more of their business online. As more business shifts online, the marketing and communications focused on those consumers will necessarily follow suit. Email marketing has played a leading role in the growth of the digital marketplace and should continue to drive both customer acquisition and retention initiatives for companies in what is increasingly a digital-first world. Now is a great time to reassess your email marketing programs and make sure they are as dialed-in as possible to engage with your audiences and drive performance.
Our work environment and society itself is always changing — increasingly so in the past few decades as we've grown more digitally oriented. The recent and sudden shift, with many people now working from home, will likely accelerate that adaptation to the online world. Now it's up to marketers to continue to evolve and meet the changing needs of consumers as their work and home lives continue to overlap.
