Courtesy of 3Sixty Interactive
Question number one that you’re probably having is “should I continue my marketing plans, in this environment.” Based on the fact that we are a marketing agency, my answer may seem biased, but we advocate for continuing to keep a market presence. However, we also recommend a re-evaluation of your strategy.
Consider what the market was when you developed your marketing strategy for this year. Before the end of March, the chances are that your business was doing well, and you had a lot of optimism for this year. That optimism fueled by strong sales most likely lead you to a pretty aggressive marketing strategy. However, as the year has turned out, there is a lot of reason for re-evaluating.
Re-evaluate rather than stop
The first mistake that many businesses make is to stop rather than re-evaluate. Let me make a case that I think will be beneficial.
Reasons To Not Stop:
- Visibility: If you stop all of your marketing efforts, your customers won’t know if you’re still in business.
- Safety:Use your marketing messaging to let people know what you are doing to keep your employees and your customers safe.
- Increase Share: In times like these, your competitors are likely pulling back on their marketing efforts. It’s a good time to fill the void that they are leaving.
If you agree then how
So, if I’ve made somewhat of a compelling argument for not stopping your marketing efforts, then the next logical question would be how to re-evaluate and change your marketing strategy from what you were going to do this year.
- Focus Long-term: During the financial crisis of 2008, overall advertising spend held pretty steady. However, there was a shift to short-term activation or calls to action. This proved to be devastating. Long-term brand building in tough times is the better investment.
- Demonstrate Humanity: Use marketing to let the community know about all that you’re doing to help people. This will be a better tone during a time that people are concerned about the future.
- Know More: Now is a great time to increase your knowledge about your customers and your market. Deepen your customer insights to find any unmet needs, new pain points or new market niches that may be emerging.
- Focus On Core Competencies: In business, oftentimes risk = reward. Times like these are not a good time to determine if that equation will work out.
- Stay On Offense:If you think about it, marketing is the only offense you get to play during tough times. Eliminating overhead, reducing staff, shuttering offices, all of this is defense. Strategically re-evaluating your marketing is your chance to stay on offense.
- Consider Digital:Now more than ever digital marketing channels are crucial for your company’s health. Digital is faster to implement, better to personalize, quicker to adjust, and can target niche groups bringing a higher ROI.