Why businesses should keep moving forward with their marketing plans during COVID...
Amid the millions of people in the United States who have been affected by COVID-19 over the last several weeks and between the states and companies that are grinding to a halt, consistency has been hard to find. The only industry that can weather this storm with a degree of success are the most sturdy pillars of commerce, marketing and advertising. Why & How is this possible while other industries crumble? Ratings are going through the roof as people sit at home is the short answer. CBS was the week's most popular network, averaging 6.2 million viewers in prime time; ABC was second with 5.2 million, NBC had 3.7 million, Fox had 3 million according to US News. Online, the top sites for news are of course Yahoo, Google, The Huff and NBC to name a few and these sites are seeing as much as double their average traffic to their news properties. If you want to capture a larger audience the time is now!
What do successful marketers need to focus on first and foremost in order to be successful? An Audience would be the number one answer and since we know exactly where to find the right audience for each of our clients, noted above, then we have the commodity.
The point that people can’t simply run out and buy items such as cars or new furniture means that marketing firms like yours or mine, we need to focus on new client accounts that can benefit from the ongoing quarantine and economic catastrophe that will follow. Web based services and publicly traded companies are a great place to start. Food products and entertainment accounts are also going to be highly productive for advertisers the country over.
For me, COVID -19 and the market collapse means that almost all of the 35,000 publicly traded companies in the US have felt the massive negative impact of this media driven viral panic and will therefore be looking to regain market support and positive sentiment as quickly as possible. At some point those companies will need to attract new investors and there's no other way to do that then marketing. The likelihood that companies will not want to attract new investors when the markets finally do level off is preposterous and that means helping these prospective clients get prepared for when the “Lights come on” so to speak. Think hard on what will make you stand out amount your peers and lean on it in your marketing message.
Certain steps companies can take right right now to prepare for an upcoming period of aggressive marketing should go something like this;
- Website overhaul to include data funnel features.
- Setting up re-marketing automation processes.
- Content creation is key to making a lasting impact on your audience.
My advice to small and medium size businesses is to use this time to upgrade or at least update your websites, e-commerce and marketing content. People are going to resume their lives and when they do will you be ready to re-introduce yourself?
Call me, I’ll help you in anyway that I can:)