Marketing During a Crisis
Wow. What a week! Many of us wer about to embark on Spring Break adventures in Europe, Mexico and Caribbean cruises. Instead, we are locked up in our homes watching developing news and trying to continue moving our businesses forward.
Many things have stopped. And for all the right reasons. Social distancing is our quickest path to getting things back to normal and I hope you’ve been able to exact measures with minimal disruption.
This post is about marketing during a crisis. And yes, I have vested interest in maintaining marketing budgets for my clients.
That said, don’t you dare spend a dollar if you aren’t sure if you can make payroll, source deductions, rent, server costs or any other key business expense. Please. Don’t let the potential upside of a competitive move hurt you’re here and now.
With that out of the way, some companies are very well positioned to take advantage of this slow down if they have some cash on hand. Here are some ways to make smart moves during a crisis:
Attractive Content
Optimized content takes time to create and even more time to start getting traction. Hire a writer (or The Connective!) and get a subscription to SEMRush and create a bunch of blog posts that will start yielding results in 30-60 days when things start picking up. It’s more science than art these days and there are a lot of online tools that can help create the results you want.
Top of Funnel Advertising
Advertising that is brand-building or educational can set the stage for the future when your prospects actually want to buy. The key to this type of advertising is low-friction. Whatever you are asking them to do, make it free, easy, simple, and cheap. Don’t gate it. Don’t tit-for-tat. That comes later. Now, just tell your story and when the time is right in a few weeks, ask your high-intent prospects (that you can now retarget) to buy.
Tradeshows
Haha. Jk.
Newsletters
If you have the clients’ email address, consider a high-value newsletter, if you aren’t already. This keeps them warm during a time of uncertainty. Consider including subtle refer-a-friend messages later in the Spring. But for now, the focus is care, support, and ultimately top-of-mind-awareness.
Brand Review
If you have some time, some high-quality design resources, and access to users/customers, maybe now is time to do a brand review. Maybe you’ve been going flat out for five years and you know you should do something but never had the time. Well now you do! Consider a review of your voice and tone, brand attributes, style guide and even your logo.
Persona Development
Many business owners know their customers, but don’t know their customer. Consider a comprehensive Persona Development that ensures when you kick up your marketing and sales those efforts laser focused on your ideal customers.
Strategize
With a bit of margin, now may be the perfect time to restrategize your business and marketing strategies. With all of this upheaval, you as a business owner may never get another chance to just sit down with your people and do it. I suggest having a third-party walk you through a process that will help suss out opportunities and strategies. Just be sure you walk out with a plan the entire team is behind!
The Connective team is here to support small-medium sized business owners during this difficult time. We look forward to having some fascinating conversations over the coming weeks!