Marketing in an Economic Crisis; do you or don’t you?
I am writing this blog as a marketing professional that has been through a number of economic and company-specific financial crises.
In most cases, the role of marketing has been the first to go – prior to going freelance, I’d been made redundant twice, the first time as a result of the 2007 financial crash (I was working for a company backed by Merrill Lynch), however, the effects of Coronavirus have made different business owners react in more positive ways and this blog may make you rethink the benefits of marketing during a crisis.
The first to go
Most marketers will frustratedly tell you that their role or sometimes the entire marketing department is the first to go when their company is facing challenging times or looking to restructure.
Since March 2020, as Coronavirus has had more of an impact on B2B businesses causing a slowdown in sales, whilst many maximised the opportunity to keep marketing staff on board using the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), unfortunately, smaller businesses outsourcing their marketing have felt they’ve had no choice but to stop marketing activity. A major reason for this has been to reduce overheads whilst turnover is low – understandably, a number of my clients have had to “pause” their marketing, suggesting that once they feel business is back open and running, they will want me to come back on board.
Speaking with my colleague Patrick McLean, Managing Director of Hatch Recruitment specialising in marketing hires, although companies have used the CJRS, there have been a number of redundancies since March 2020 and the fear is that as soon as the scheme starts changing from 1st August, companies will start making more redundancies. He comments “A lot of companies are waiting to see what is going to happen – is there going to be a vaccine and life as normal or are we going to have to adjust to living with Covid19 for the long haul? This lack of clarity is impacting decision making for many. Marketing is often viewed as a cost centre so is often the first to go and last back, and clients are indicating they will go down the interim hires route.”
Those that have stuck it out
There are certain sectors that have chosen to increase their marketing efforts – not to directly generate sales, but predominantly from a customer-service point if view. You may have noticed regular emails from supermarkets setting out in-store social distancing guidelines or keeping you in the loop on delivery-slot availability or whether self-raising flour is back in stock.
Some professional services firms have used their communications channels to ensure clients are aware of how Government funding and grants could benefit them, and the ones that have, in clear, user-friendly language, have unintentionally but graciously taken on new clients over this period.
One such firm is accountancy practice Leavitt Walmsley Associates Ltd (LWA) who asked me to increase the monthly work I undertake for them, with the sole intention of providing vital information to their clients as and when the Government made announcements, helping as many businesses across the North West come through the economic uncertainty. Managing Director, Les Leavitt comments “We need to support each other now more than ever in order for us to protect and safeguard as many businesses for the future. We all need businesses to be successful; this drives the need for all of our services and generates wealth and taxes for the country.”
As a result of the extra marketing communications activity since March 2020, the number of social media interactions and email opens has massively increased – for the latter, from an average 26.8% open rate to a staggering 42.4% open rate (against an industry average of 21.5%).
Whilst I have kept in contact with my clients that have paused their marketing, the hope is that at least 50% will want to kickstart activity in the next few weeks as businesses follow Government guidelines on lifting lockdown.
Strategize and schedule
For company owners that have had to take a back seat whilst Covid19 continues to have a hold on our lives and businesses, it may be a good idea to use this time to plan your marketing activity for when sales will start to pick up.
- Create a library of as many social media posts as possible for each and every one of your products (or ranges) and use scheduling software ready to send out
- Write a series of blogs which you can base on factors that are relevant to your business, for example seasonality, legislative updates, etc.
- Get your customer databases cleansed and in order ready to communicate directly with
- Update website content and/or design
- Draft content for your quarterly newsletters, creating sections you can add to before you need to send them
- Get in touch with customers via email to keep in touch, see how they’re getting on, and ask them to leave a rating review by providing links to your Google Business page, LinkedIn Recommendations page and Facebook page – you’ll be able to use their testimonials as marketing content.
There are a number of free resources you can use to be creative with your marketing activity (with paid-for options dependent on the size of your customer base or your marketing needs) such as Canva, Hootsuite, MailChimp as well as royalty-free image sites including Pexels, Pixabay and Unsplash.