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4 Things Marketers Should Keep in Mind During Coronavirus Downturn

We’re all experiencing massive disruption.

I’m not just talking about disruption in our jobs and in our marketing campaigns, but in the very fabric of our personal lives, and the lives of our loved ones.

It’s undoubtedly a scary time — businesses are struggling, employment is dubious, and the future is unclear. We’re all in the same boat.

One thing is certain:

“This too shall pass.”

Our lives will regain a sense of normalcy. The economy will pick back up. Our businesses will flourish once again.

Just a few days ago, China reported that there were no new cases of Coronavirus detected in Wuhan. Travel restrictions are being lifted, people are returning to their lives.

It’s only a matter of time before we start seeing the same thing happen here in the United States.

This is similar to what we’ve seen in the past. Our CMDS offices are located in Colts Neck, NJ — an area that was highly affected by the events of September 11, as well as the 2008 financial crisis.

We’ve seen businesses close and we’ve seen marketing dollars dry up. We’ve seen the businesses that rose from tough times stronger than before, and we know what those businesses did.

Here are four things that all marketers should keep in mind during these trying times:

1. Don’t Pause Your Marketing Initiatives

There isn’t a marketer alive who hasn’t considered pausing all of their campaigns over the past week. Most marketers will pause. For this reason, it’s even more important for you and your team to resist this temptation.

Comparing the week of March 8th to the week of March 16th, our own campaigns are seeing the results of marketers dropping out of the marketplace:

• In paid social, we’ve seen a 17% decrease in CPM’s and a 10% decrease in CPC’s.
• In paid search, we’ve seen a 41% drop in CPM’s and an 8% decrease in CPC’s.

These are significant drops that don’t happen often.

Are less people clicking? Yes, CTR’s did drop — but only by 3%. And being that we’re now getting in front of far more eyeballs at a much cheaper rate (and getting them to click at a far lower rate), I don’t see any reason to stop advertising.

The opposite, in fact. Much like the stock market, it’s moments like these that you should consider increasing your budgets.

2. Increase Your Marketing Budgets and Capitalize on Lower CPC’s & CPM’s

With the advertising landscape being as crowded as it is, low CPM’s and CPC’s are incredibly hard to come by nowadays.

Given the low costs that currently exist in the marketplace, consider increasing your marketing budgets.

Particularly with paid search, remember that you only pay for the clicks that you get — so in these campaigns specifically, you only stand to benefit.

3. Keep Your Marketing Strategy Mixed

Although we’ve seen drops in CPC’s and CPM’s in our paid search and social, other campaigns may not fare as well. These are unique strategies and may affect different platforms differently.

That being said, although we certainly recommend keeping your campaigns running (and increasing budgets, depending on the type of campaign), it’s also important to be active in more than one place.

Say you’re in an industry that is actually seeing increases in CPC’s in your paid search campaigns. Maybe it’s time to start testing that programmatic campaign you’ve been holding off on. Better yet, maybe it’s time to put increased effort into your website’s SEO strategy or your organic social strategy.

Things will be back to normal before you know it, so be sure to use this opportunity to broaden your marketing mix and try those things that you’ve been holding off on!

4. Explore The Marketing Potential of All Elements of Your Business

It goes without saying, but given the current circumstances, some businesses are going to be affected far more than others.

Hair salons are going to have a harder time pivoting than movie theaters, for example.

That being said, there is opportunity for every (and I mean every) business.

Now is the time to think about your business, what you offer, what your differentiator is, and how you can provide service to your past and future customers.

I’ve seen some amazing things over the past week — smaller pivots like Yoga studios going virtual and sit-down restaurants pivoting to delivery services, to larger pivots like distilleries switching from the production of gin to hand-sanitizer gel.

Remember, just because you can’t continue with business as usual, doesn’t mean that you can’t continue with business. Think outside of the box and get business moving again!

Conclusion

After the 2008 financial crisis, we saw those that remained in the game, continued spending, and remained adaptable were the ones who came out on top. Once things recovered, they were the new industry leaders. Those that stopped their marketing initiatives never fully recovered.

As tough as the circumstances might currently be, there is also a massive opportunity to use this time to your advantage.

Interested in learning more?

Contact us to learn more about how we can help your business!