How to communicate your ‘new normal’

17 Jun 2020 How to


What is the new normal?

2020 has been a year of chaos and new terminology, and just like ‘furlough’, ‘unprecedented’ and ‘bounce-back’, the ‘new normal’ is going to be a phrase that will undoubtedly get overused. But what exactly is ‘the new normal’? I guess the truth is, we don’t know for certain. And herein lies the problem.

Because of the high levels of uncertainty, we as the business community are going to have to redefine the rules. We’re going to have to ease the fears, concerns and misconceptions of the public. Whether we like it or not, we’re going to have to communicate, ‘the new normal’!


Why bother?


It’s actually important from a revenue standpoint to communicate the new norms. The reason for this is that uncertainty builds friction.

This friction reduces our ability to make a decision, because as a species we are very risk-averse. So, by shining a light on how you’re going to do business safely, you’re reducing the friction involved in the decision-making process.

More likely than not, that decision is about whether or not they should do business with you in the first place.


How to communicate this through video


Of course, there are lots of ways to communicate the new normal. Graphics, infographics, written signs and stickers… but for more complex venues or businesses, a video is going to be a perfect way to communicate the precautions and new procedures you have in place.

This is especially true if you need visitors or staff to be aware of the new procedures before they actually turn up. 

We’ve been producing a few of these videos already, and they’ve been used in a variety of ways; one for an engineering company in Bristol, created for their staff and visitors. Another for a private baby scanning clinic in Gloucester, who wanted to ease fears of their potential customers. 

These organisations wanted to use video to communicate their new ways of working; however, I would argue that even if the way you work hasn’t changed (perhaps because it’s always either been done online or with minimal human interaction), then where appropriate, I would still communicate exactly that.

In a world where we now assume that most things are closed, people need to know that your doors are open!

A good example of this would be Kinherit, a firm who specialise in wills and trusts. Their USP is that they are online, and only require one additional phone call to deal with their clients, where the majority of their industry still run on face-to-face meetings. So the initial misconception is that you can’t get a will or sort out your estate during lockdown. Despite the fact that for Kinherit it was business as usual, they would still benefit from telling the world “Hey, we’re operating like normal, and here’s how we do it and how we’ve always done it!”.

Once you have your new process video outlining what your new normal is, or indeed what has always been your normal, you’ll need to use your marketing channels to get it out there!

There’s 4 simple ways in which that can happen;

1) Embed the video into a blog post. Have the video transcribed and gain that sweet SEO content.

2) Push the video out through an email campaign to both leads and customers.

3) Leverage your social platforms to distribute the video. Always upload to the social platform natively.

4) Use a well thought out PR strategy, especially if you have a more innovative way of doing business now. Journalists are loving that type of inspirational and creative content.

In conclusion, communicate the new normal because it will speed up the buying decision and remove friction. Communicate if you have a new process and communicate even if you don’t! Distribute the video as much as you can to spread the word.

If you’re ready to get back to business, want to speak with us about how we can help you do this, get in touch here. If you want to know more about health and safety videos, then why not check out this article.