Companies of every size have found themselves scrambling to adjust to this new economic climate and changes in consumer behavior. Marketing teams have the opportunity to take the lead in helping their employees, customers, and company get through turbulent economic times. Below are a few things you need to know and ways you can consider adjusting digital marketing tactics as we navigate these unique times.
Let Customers Know If You've Made Changes to Your Daily Operations
Has your business model changed? Restaurants are shifting to in-home, contactless delivery, auto dealerships are scheduling and coordinating test drives remotely, and retailers are moving the shopping experience online.
If your business has been impacted, update your Google My Business, landing pages, and website to ensure customers know when and how they can reach you. If it hasn’t changed, make sure people know you’re 100% operational and how they can obtain your products and services.
If you need help with updates to your Google My Business account, let us know.
Consider How You Craft Your Ad Messaging
This is a critical time where what you say and how you say it matters. Don’t add to the noise with another corporate reminder to wash your hands. Get creative with offers and promotions, such as providing discounts and incentives to buy now and have it shipped, or redeem later.
Check your campaigns and ensure messaging is adjusted to the change in consumer behavior. More people are flocking online (see below) in search of goods, services, and answers. Make sure you are present and top of mind when consumer spending and in-store traffic rebounds.
Accurate information is also important. Facebook, Google, and Twitter have all said they are trying to block ads from their platforms that take advantage of the situation, while offering free ad space to health agencies like the World Health Organization.
If you need help with ideas and your digital strategy, set up a strategy call, and we’ll walk you through best practices.
Make Every Dollar Count
During times of uncertainty, spending every dollar wisely and knowing what every dollar gives you in return matters more than ever. Every business has different cycles, and for you, this could mean shifting your budget from upper funnel to lower-funnel activities to ensure your greatest ROI.
Other times, it means maintaining brand awareness and consideration as more people are at home and online, while easing off on lower-funnel activities (especially if you’ve been forced to temporarily close your physical location). Right now the majority of our customers are watching and waiting to see what happens and keeping their digital campaigns up and running. We’ve heard traditional media, such as radio, being paused as less people are commuting and driving around in their cars.
Digital marketing has always been uniquely positioned to better show return on investment, and now more than ever, people are hunkering down and spending time online:
- Insights platform Contentsquare found that consumers are spending more time consuming digital media, with the sales of healthcare products (+27%) and grocery products (+7%) up, and visits to media (+22%) and retail tech sites (+11.5%) up as well.
- In China, the daily time spent with mobile internet rose from 6.1 hours in early January to 6.8 hours during Lunar New Year. It rose even further to 7.3 hours after the holidays when workers were placed in self-quarantine, according to data from analytics company QuestMobile.
Regardless of site-specific traffic, people are turning online for answers, which provides an opportunity for businesses looking to evolve their business models to weather the storm. Before this, consumer spending has been strong and pent-up demand through the next quarter could show itself in strong Q3 and Q4. You want to be top of mind when consumer spending does bounce back.
While strategies will differ for every marketer and industry, marketing teams can play a lead role in guiding their company through these tough times, whether that entails leaning in, staying the course, or pulling back to weather the storm.
There is no one size fits all approach and if you have questions or want to talk through the right digital strategy for you, let us know.
Erin Martin
Erin leads the marketing organization at Netsertive. She has over twenty years of experience in the marketing technology space, most recently at Mixpo, an ad tech company acquired by Netsertive in 2017, where she had leadership roles in marketing, client services, and operations. Her happy place is where marketing and operations collide, and is passionate about creating systems that put the right people, process, and technology together to do extraordinary things. She applies the same type of analytical thinking to her personal life and enjoys finding areas where work and life principles coincide. Erin has a BS in Marketing from Colorado State University where she graduated with honors. She lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and son, where she enjoys anything that involves the outdoors.
