Keep Your Marketing Engine Running
By now, you’re more than overwhelmed with everything related to the coronavirus (COVID-19). It dominates the news and nearly every conversation we have. If we all continue to do our part to protect ourselves from it, we’ll hopefully soon see better days.
This pandemic has made an impact on businesses in a way most of us have never seen before. In a lot of cases, it’s difficult to even know what steps to take that make sense for your business. It also brings to mind the challenge of keeping your marketing momentum going. Let’s be clear: Do NOT shut off your marketing engine. This is not the time to do that. Instead, consider the areas of your marketing that require refocusing.
Thankfully, there are things you can do now to keep your marketing engine running strong. Here are a few recommendations in key areas where you can invest time and energy:
- WEBSITE – Take this time as an opportunity to review your site and overall messaging. Refine the areas that need it where your site receives the most visits. You can make these enhancements without rebuilding the entire site.
- SOCIAL MEDIA – With nearly everyone working from home right now, social media platforms are busy. Use this to your advantage by developing a posting strategy that provides useful, insightful and beneficial information for your market. Create links to your website and downloads to engage your audience.
- DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS – Stay in touch with your customers and prospects. Going “radio silence” on them now is a mistake. They need to hear from you. Offer them information about things that will help their business as it relates to your expertise. You may want to consider having more webinars and increase virtual meeting opportunities.
- TOOLKIT – Review your marketing toolkit and determine what collateral, success stories, digital brochures, eBooks and other tools need to be updated. Consider any tools that may be missing that you need to add and remove those that are no longer relevant. With heavy emphasis now on digital communications, this is a great time to revamp the contents of your toolkit.
- OVERALL – As you have time to do so, take a look at your branding, messaging and market position. Use this time to evaluate whether your company is connecting well to your intended market. Identify areas that need to be improved and develop a plan to address them proactively.
It’s worth repeating: this is NOT the time to shut off your marketing engine. If you do, the challenge to regain your marketing momentum will be an exponentially difficult task. We saw this after the eCommerce and dotcom bubble burst 20 years ago and again in the 2008-2009 downturn.
Smart, resourceful companies with tenacity will adjust the course of their marketing efforts to benefit their business. When we get over this hump, those companies will be in the driver’s seat ready to forge ahead. Be one of those guys! Meanwhile, follow the guidelines of the CDC to stay safe and healthy!
Feel free to share this on your favorite social media sites and email it to a colleague or friend.