B2B marketers know that planning effective marketing campaigns take time and run long. So, what happens in terms of uncertainty? A pivot of course, but the big question remains: how?
If you’ve planned properly, you should only need to do a few stress checks. Is your messaging appropriate and relevant? What do you have in your (immediate) pipeline and does anything need to be stopped or adjusted?
Note: If you’ve suddenly found yourself scrambling to adjust your ENTIRE marketing program as crisis hits, you may also need to address how you do planning. Marketers who have build a solid marketing mix should not be editing their entire plan (feel free to reach out to me if you suddenly are setting your old plans on fire and need some feedback).
For those who have planned properly and need to just check over their plan for adjustments, here are some things you’ll need to do:
Determine and understand what you believe customers are best trying to accomplish right now.
And be realistic about where your product and/or business sits within the priority list for your customers. In uncertain times (such as during a global pandemic), everyone will be in some variation of a crisis mode, which means decisions on third-party vendors, especially those that aren’t crucial in keeping the lights on are not on their minds. (Just make sure you’re honest with yourself on whether your business is critical to theirs (e.g.: if it is, they will likely already have a solution, or if not, they may got with a cheaper solution).
If you get a better understanding of where their heads are at and where you sit in the priority – are you able say what their new Jobs To Be Done are? Have they changed? If so, does your product / service / business resonate and does your messaging reflect that?
Review all of your messaging.
By all, I really do mean all. Anything currently in flight or planned to go out will need to be addressed for the following:
- Is your message still relevant?
- Does your message have the right tone during this environment?
- Could your message be taken as offensive or insensitive?
- Is your message being distributed with sensitivity to where and quantity (e.g.: is your message in brand safe environment and do you have caps on your messages – such as limiting automated emails from SDRs or retargeting someone every 2 seconds).
You’ll likely find yourself saying yes to at least one of these. The next step is to start editing or creating. Create messaging that hits home, but still stays true to your positioning. Remember, the environment has changed, not your product or positioning. Depending on what customers may be prioritizing, you may need to take a step back from persistent selling and build a long term strategy of building a relationship.
Note: Back up your words with action. Meaningless words will hurt you more if you do nothing to demonstrate what you intend.
Review your lead acquisition and nurture strategies.
Your lead acquisition strategy will likely be most affected, but those with a diversified marketing channel mix should be able to shift as needed. Those who have weighted heavily in one may have found themselves with the age old problem of putting too many eggs in one basket. So what to do?
For the obvious major change: event strategies must be adjusted. With anything in-person out of the question, determine if it’s possible to do digital events.
For other items, determine how your updated messaging works best. The other thing to keep in mind is whether the prospects you are going after are ideal prospects. Shift your resources and dollars to where you think you’ll have the most impact and keep focus. This isn’t the time to spread yourself thin. Break down big goals into smaller ones so that you can start measuring impact quickly and adjust as needed.
Try to avoid shifting all of your content to time constrained content, such as writing exclusively about COVID-19. While you should address the elephant in the room, this is a great time to write evergreen content related to uncertainty, rather than about a specific moment in time.
Be creative.
It’s a great time to be creative! Just don’t be clever. Humor is nice, but can translated poorly if it isn’t well thought out – especially when we’re in a globally agreed upon scary time. Remember that almost everyone is in for the long haul during Covid 19’s quarantine. Creating engaging content that may be a bit more out of the box, or sensitive to everyone’s current situation will be welcomed. Examples include free help for anxiety offered by Headspace and Calm, Disney’s Bedtime Hotline to help parents with small children, and home fitness classes offered by major health clubs such as Equinox and Planet Fitness.
Quickly pivoting marketing programs isn’t easy, but take a deep breath, do your checks, adjust your strategy, and watch from there. Good luck!
Header Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash