Like many B2B marketers, I’ve spent the last three weeks adapting to the COVID-19 quarantine. Working from home, and coming to terms with the fact that my carefully constructed 2020 marketing plans (and personal goals this year) are out the window.
But now that we marketers have written our perfunctory “COVID-19 Response” email newsletter, and sent it out to our industry subscribers…what do we do next?
If you happen to be in the building materials industry like me, or any of the other “essential” industries – like food production, healthcare, utilities, transportation, or news media – you are lucky enough to continue working through this quarantine (albeit remotely).
But that blessing might also seem like a curse in these uncertain marketing conditions.
For instance, industry Trade Shows were probably 40% of your marketing budget, and a top source for new leads. Now that all major exhibitions are canceled, what do you do with nearly half your unspent marketing budget?
Your beloved Outside Salesperson – whose sparkling personality, shiny shoes and firm handshake were major drivers of our business – will now have to sit things out at home.
Maybe your C-suite is kicking themselves (and rightly so) for not investing in that CRM, ERP, website re-design, eCommerce store, or EDI/VMI system when times were good (“we were just so busy at the time…”). Now you’ll have to wait until the next bull market comes around.
Meanwhile, as we struggle to adapt to this sudden recession, Amazon, Walmart and large distributors like Grainger are poised to fill the gap. Amazon recently put out the call to hire 100,000 warehouse and delivery workers amid the Coronavirus shutdowns.
Your colleagues are probably throwing around a lot of ideas right now. As the B2B marketer, your job is to be the “clearing house” for these ideas: sales promotions, hot deals, clever sales activation, more email marketing, and live video feeds on Instagram and YouTube.
My advice: thank each and every colleague who contributed. Put their ideas in a spreadsheet, and really consider those ideas (this ain’t the time to be territorial or argumentative). At this early stage, however, most of the random ideas you hear will be “tactics”.
Any of those tactics could work. They just need a “Crisis Strategy” to bind them together.
I challenge you, dear marketer, to discover your company’s Crisis Strategy. It will take every ounce of your marketing brain power; you’ll have to sell it to colleagues and make compromises…but it must be done. You can’t afford to market as if it’s business as usual. Nor can you afford to go radio silent.
Last weekend, I read a lot of articles on marketing during the Coronavirus, as well as marketing during a recession. Many of the authors contradicted each other on “tactics”. For instance, some argued to “offer deals where possible”, while others argue “no amount of hot deals can stimulate a market that is currently terrified.” However, almost every article agreed on a few big picture “strategies”, including:
“Now is the time to get really close to your customers.”
It seems bloody obvious, right? I know. As marketers, we’ve seen this mantra come up in articles, how-to books, and seminars. “It’s all about the customer. Customer-centric. Customer-first.”
But in actual practice, we tend to be much more excited by BIG campaigns that generate thousands of responses from a single post, email, or ad placement. We’re less interested in talking to one customer about their kids, their hobbies, their hopes, their fears…without some kind of hidden agenda behind our call.
And sadly, that’s the attitude of most businesses people!
So, to really stand out during the COVID-19 epidemic, I believe companies that truly get close to customers (and don’t merely “say it” in an empty ad campaign) will be taking a bold step that most businesses in their category are not taking.
Yes, it may seem highly inefficient to call each customer one-by-one. To strike up a conversation…and not expect any business transaction.
To be their shoulder to cry on…or a punching bag for someone who’s had no outlet for their frustration.
But I think 1-to-1 contact could be the most powerful tool for keeping good customers tied to your hip…and invite stray customers back into the good graces of your brand.
Best of all, you only need a phone, an email server, and a contact list to do it!
Whether you adopt my “customer care” strategy…or find your own course of action…you must “commit” to it and see it through. In a recent episode of NAED’s DistributED podcast, guest Dirk Beveridge highlighted that most businesses are seeking the “confidence” of a clear ROI. However, we can only hope to achieve that confidence after we’ve shown the “courage” and “commitment” to take the first step.
In short, you have to be courageous first before you can gain confidence.
In his opinion piece “What 9/11 Can Teach Us About Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus”, Bradley Johnson makes the comparison between the post 9/11 attacks and our current epidemic.
Just 10 days after 9/11, at a time when all other advertisers went radio silent, General Motors released its controversial “Keep America Rolling” commercials. Critics roasted GM for its blatant sales promotion (no interest for two years), calling it “insensitive” and “immoral”. But in GMs defense, they were heeding President Bush’s call for patriotic Americans to “keep shopping” in order to keep the US economy strong (“don’t let the terrorists win”). Most importantly, GM acted boldly and swiftly before they had the “confidence” to know if their commercials would be a success.
“I hope we will see marketers…willing to take bold risks to keep this economy rolling.”
Bradley Johnson, “What 9/11 Can Teach Us About Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus”, courtesy of AdAge.com
So, get up close and personal with your customers. Act boldly, even if you don’t have the confidence yet. If you read this blog post looking for COVID-19 marketing “tactics” or “hacks”, then I’m sorry-not-sorry. However, if you’re looking for other great resources for Marketing in the Time of Coronavirus, take a look at:
- A Regularly Updated List Tracking Marketing Responses to Coronavirus – AdAge.
- Coronavirus Champions: A Running List of Brands Getting It Right – Forbes.
- Corporate Goodwill Efforts During COVID-19 Outbreak – Courtesy of Scott Monty. Running tally of companies making extended efforts during the novel coronavirus outbreak.
- Responding to Coronavirus: A Playbook for Marketing and Communications – Forrester Research, Inc. Julie Ogilvie talks about how to market with transparency and compassion. You can also download a free “B2B Crisis Preparation” eBook.
- What Marketers Can Do Right Now in the Age of Coronavirus – Marketingprofs LLC. In her motivational letter, author Ann Handley says sometimes companies “need to slow down now to speed up later on,” and how crisis moments can have the positive effect of forcing that necessary slowdown.
- Marketing in the Time of COVID-19 – Marketing Week. Mark Ritson’s take on what really matters when marketing crisis is compelling, simple, and contradictory to most articles out there.
- B2B turns to digital marketing in the wake of Coronavirus outbreak – ClickZ. One Dan Gerstenfeld’s of most poignant takeaways is “This is not 2008”. A must-read for B2B marketers.