How to Adapt Your Digital Marketing During a Natural Disaster

When it comes to prepping for a natural disaster, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Evacuate and/or load up on water, batteries, canned food, gas, and sand bags… ASAP.

Hurricane hack: assuming you don’t wait too long, order emergency supplies (including water) on Amazon Prime. 

But you’re not here to read about prepping your house for a hurricane from an internet marketing company blog. There are plenty of thorough blog posts on the topic.

You’re here because you already prepped your house and want to know about how to pivot your digital marketing for a natural disaster.

If your target audience happens to be in an affected area, you need to…

Audience Engagement

Keep your social media accounts active so your consumers and audience know what’s happening at your company:

• Share a useful article about how to prepare for the storm
• Share a link where you can donate to help those affected
• Share updated weather forecasts
• Post something that reflects that you’re hoping/praying for those in the midst of the disaster

Find ways to help the relief efforts

You’re asking for a negative backlash if you begin sharing promo codes or sales that try to piggyback off a natural disaster. Again, it’s just not nice and shows zero empathy for your target consumer.

Consider offering a portion of your profits to natural disaster relief. Here are some other things you can do:

• Donate a lump sum to a non-profit that helps with disaster relief
• Get your staff to volunteer with storm relief efforts
• Donate your products (if it makes sense) to relief efforts
• Utilize your extra space or equipment to relief efforts

A good example of the latter is what the Anheuser-Busch brewery in Cartersville, Georgia did after Harvey. They paused beer production so that they could produce 50,000 cans of emergency water to send to the Red Cross.

Create useful content (emphasis on ‘useful’)

Need an example of (hopefully) useful content related to a natural disaster? You’re reading one now.

We’re pretty good at digital marketing (patting ourselves on the back), and we just happen to be headquartered in hurricane territory (South Florida). Our target audience (you) is interested in digital marketing resources and is likely also in a natural disaster-prone area.

Mark yourself safe on Facebook

The team at Facebook has done a great job of adding features to the social network that aid natural disaster relief efforts, namely their improved donation features and the Safety Check.

The Safety Check allows you to publicly mark yourself safe after a disaster. After a natural disaster strikes, it’s important to let your family, friends, and staff know that you’re safe.

Be safe

If you’re facing a hurricane or other natural disaster, please please please be safe. If you have any questions about preparing your digital marketing for natural disasters, feel free to comment below or reach out.

To learn more about how Exults can help adapt your business’s marketing strategies during a pandemic, such as COVID-19, please read our How to Adapt Your Business and Digital Marketing Presence During a Disaster or Pandemic blog.