Marketing During The Coronavirus – Should We Just Throw In The Towel?

6 minute read

HURRY! Stop All Marketing Operations & Completely Shut Down All Actions To Generate Leads & Acquire New Customers

Now that I have your attention…

I decided to write this article to address the anxieties and concerns of my own current marketing clients and the challenges and pain points that you as a small to medium sized business owner may be facing during the coronavirus outbreak.

Let’s dive into this.

The knee-jerk reaction to a crisis such as the coronavirus is to shut down all marketing operations but it will set your business up for a long-term, uphill struggle that you may never recover from. While you may experience revenue losses over the coming months and you are bracing yourselves for the future economic impacts of COVID-19, one thing is certain: WE WILL RECOVER! If you were a successful business before the devastating impacts, you will remain a successful business following this uncertain time.

Organic SEO and inbound marketing is a zero-sum game. Your gains and losses are balanced by the gains and losses of your competitors on Google. If you are not actively moving ahead and creating new content and campaigns, you will fall behind and eventually get crushed.

It’s Time To Slim Down!

Cut The Fat Out Of Your Marketing Strategy That Isn’t Producing Results In The Coronavirus Landscape

Be proactive, not reactionary. What if you can’t service your clients and customers during the pandemic? It may make sense to cut out paid ads such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads. Those types of activities are “small-ball,” instantaneous types of marketing. You spend that ad dollar today, you instantly see it convert, and then the benefits fade away.

However, we are talking about SEO, campaigns and inbound marketing which is a “long-ball” game just like the economy. You spend the same dollar amount on these strategies and it:

1. Builds over time
2. Continues to generate leads
3. Acquires new customers in the future

Reap The Chaos Of Panic

You can count on the fact that your competitors are panicking and underestimating the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak. Anxiety is high among most businesses right now and small businesses are no exception. This is the time to HOLD THE LINE. While your competitors are freaking out and doing nothing, their engagements will drop, their marketing deliverables will slow and they will lose traction. NOW is the time to take advantage of the situation and power through.

Marketing Deliverables To Concentrate On RIGHT NOW That Will Outmaneuver The Competition

First of all, be helpful to clients and considerate of the situation at hand. Now is the time to position yourself as an authority and thought leader in your industry. Dive into your client’s pain points and challenges stemming from the pandemic. Connect with your customers to discuss their experiences. Use these experiences and messaging in your content for the upcoming months.

Use What You Got. Audit Your Content Strategy & Assets

Look at the performance of current content, update and leverage it with customer pain points and coronavirus messaging. Audit webpages, blogs, emails, ebooks, marketing workflows, past webinars, and presentations. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel; you can simply repurpose your most successful pieces.

Be The Host With The Most: Host Webinars

Think of your webinar attendees during this time as a special little seedling that will flourish into a mighty oak. Make those connections now while people are twiddling about online, consuming “how-to” videos on how to master in-home haircuts. Feed the top of your sales funnel with pre-leads that you can nurture and pounce on when the time is right.

Download COVID-19 Marketing Strategy Survival eBook FREE

What Other Marketing Objectives Can You Use To Avoid Flattening Your Own Curve?

• Clean-up blog posts and call-to-actions
• Reformat your best content into videos and SlideShares
• SEO tune-up your site
• Manage your database, segment, and prune ill-fitting or un-engaged contacts and opportunities
• Diversify your marketing strategy and channels
• Build your audience on social media. Go where the people are. Everyone is on social media right now.
• Review your reviews. Your online presence and reviews play an important role in the decision-making process, as well as converting in search engine results.
• Prepare to go the social distance; we’re in this for the long haul. Your goods and services need to fit into the new social landscape.
• Evaluate your outreach strategy. Consider the type of business you run and your relationship with your customers. How does it fit into the new norm?
• Get creative, offer reassurance and behave in a helpful way instead of a sale-driven way
• Dive right into your Google Analytics, CRM, marketing and sales data

At the end of the day, getting through this difficult time and knowing what to do will make the most impact on your small-medium sized business.

Would you like to review your current marketing strategy or do you need help coming up with a marketing game plan during and after the coronavirus outbreak? You can book time with me on my calendar here in between learning how to make you own PURELL® in the bathtub and binge-watching Tiger King on Netflix for the third time.

Let’s Discuss What Thrive Mode Looks Like

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• Remote Marketing Agency Vs In-House Or Brick & Mortar Amid Coronavirus