With the coronavirus pandemic hitting the world hard, the way products and services are bought and sold will never be the same again. In such a scenario, brands will have to adapt their marketing and budgeting strategies to keep up with the changing times.
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down and left long-lasting psychological and economic impact. On one hand, consumers are facing severe health and job crisis. According to BloombergOpens a new window , just when the first round of job cuts were over, there could already be a second wave with about 6 million white-collar jobs on the line. On the other hand, most businesses are hit with many of them forced to take steps such as shutting shop or laying off their workforce. Many companies have also resorted to budget cuts, especially when it comes to marketing.
The Current State of Marketing and Budget Spends
According to The CMO SurveyOpens a new window in June, marketers reported a major loss in terms of revenues, profits, and customer acquisition during the pandemic. Company budgets too have witnessed a decline during this period. The biggest losses were to sales revenues with an average drop of 17.8%. Interestingly, while companies across several industries have cut marketing budgets as a consequence, others have increased it. According to Merkle‘s Customer Engagement ReportOpens a new window , about 52% of marketers across various industries have increased budgets.
The pandemic has also changed the way consumers buy and make purchase decisions. A significant percentage of consumers are placing preference on making online purchases. While health and safety concerns may be the primary drivers of this behavior, convenience is another major contributing factor. People are also placing more emphasis on the companies’ intent on making a positive impact on the society. Even in the post-pandemic era, many things may not go ‘back to normal’. With changing trends and consumer behaviors, brands and marketers will have to proactively evolve their marketing strategies and make budget allocations accordingly.
Here in this article, we cover a few marketing and budgeting strategies, and what eight experts have to say about them in these rapidly changing times.
Learn More: 10 Expert Tips on Marketing During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) CrisisOpens a new window
1. Evolve With the Changing Customer Behavior
The markets and consumer behavior over the next few months and years will continue to change. This will have a direct effect on how businesses will develop their marketing and sales plan. For example, marketers may have to start targeting online events as there will still be restrictions imposed on large gatherings for some time. Brands will also have to focus on delivering high quality content. Further, they will have to be the early bird in securing media. The bottom line is, brands will have to adapt their marketing plans to focus where consumers spend most of their time.
Lynne ClementOpens a new window , client success specialist, ApexDropOpens a new window saysOpens a new window :
“Consumer attitudes and behaviors are changing. Marketers must start there. Life before COVID-19 revolved around going to work, grocery stores, malls, gyms, restaurants, movies, and schools. During COVID-19, we will adapt to working, shopping, exercising, entertainment, and learning at home. Digital experiences will replace in-person experiences. Some of the new habits will become the new normal – even after the crisis passes. Looking ahead, the best companies in the world will prepare now for how to meet the needs of consumers (where they are at) when the recovery period begins. Don’t expect consumers will return to the same place.â€
2. Stay Connected to Customers With Online Platforms
As people spend more time at home due to the lockdown and restrictions imposed on movements, consumption of mobile devices and digital platforms are on the rise. People are spending more time-consuming various forms of content. Further, ever since the lockdown began, streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have witnessed massive increase in their consumption. It is only logical that businesses to move online to stay connected to their customers.
Andrew WalkerOpens a new window , CEO, Shift7 DigitalOpens a new window saysOpens a new window :
“Moving your brand even more online will keep you connected to your customers and enable a unified customer experience. Three key areas to focus on: your story, website, and data. Second, revisit your current content marketing and keyword strategy. Leverage keyword research and social listening tools for topics that provide insight into specific information they are seeking. Check your PPC, too. Keywords targeted yesterday may not be the most relevant today, as search volume and term trends could be fluctuating.â€
3. Invest in Technology to Serve Your Customers Better
With the lockdown and restrictions making it challenging for many businesses to meet the needs of their customers, it is time to think about how you can invest in technology and innovations to better serve your customers. Merkle’s reportOpens a new window showed that several companies had increased their investments in mobile and website chat, site and app functionality enhancements, email channels, digital asset and content management.
Paula HansenOpens a new window , chief revenue officer, SAPOpens a new window Customer Experience saysOpens a new window :
“All marketing efforts must now be reframed through the lens of COVID-19 and its broader business impact…many products can still play a role in this new reality. Focus on increased personalized connectivity and ways to keep services running. You may not be able to visit your favorite retail store or restaurant, but the virtual community created online mixed with creative new delivery and commerce services may be a realistic alternative. Technology should then serve as the backbone to deliver these ideas quickly.â€
Leveraging marketing technologies (or Martech) can help brands in their marketing efforts in a significant way. Marketing technologies help in making difficult marketing processes easier and measuring the impact of their activities so that brands and marketers can optimize their spending.
James JC RameyOpens a new window , CEO, DeviceBitsOpens a new window saysOpens a new window :
“Marketing technology plans a huge role during this time. Brands can roll out new programs, innovative approaches, and products but without getting the message to the customers, they will have low adoption and frustrated customers. Marketers can show how their brand is here during this challenge and can best deliver the customer value to consume. Marketing technology will drive the shift that we are seeing in every business through what has traditionally been lagging. Things like self-service, chatbots and asynchronous messaging will now take a front seat in the technology roadmap.â€
Learn more: How Will Marketing Strategies Evolve in Times of Coronavirus (COVID-19)?Opens a new window
4. Strengthen Your Relationship With Your Customers
Engaging with your customers on a regular basis and assuring them that their concerns are on the top of your mind when you do business is more necessary than ever during these times. This is the perfect time to let them know how much you appreciate them for sticking with you through these testing times. This is also the perfect opportunity for you to build a personalized relationship with your customers if you have not already done it. Further, ensure that your campaigns are more customer-centric. In fact, according to The CMO SurveyOpens a new window , about 10% of marketing budgets is being spent on building customer relationship.
Tony KavanaghOpens a new window , CMO of InsightlyOpens a new window saysOpens a new window :
“First, you must communicate regularly. Customers today want a relationship with the companies with whom they do business and to go beyond the transaction to a more engaging, human place. If you do not already have a regular cadence of communication to your customers, now is the time to build one. Second, shelve the ‘hard sell.’ COVID-19 is an unprecedented pandemic. Be empathetic. Focus on strengthening your relationship with your customers but for reasons that are genuine and thoughtful, ask how they are doing, exchange life stories of caution and triumph.â€
5. Eliminate Waste From Your Marketing Efforts
As marketers increase their budgets, the pandemic also provides them a good opportunity to reassess their existing practices. Look back into your historical marketing efforts, and eliminate activities and campaigns that are either under-performing or not relevant anymore. This will require access to historical data. As this is a new practice for several organizations, they may face challenges using existing data efficiently. Hence, look at developing new models and programs that can help in leveraging existing data to measure and replace non-performing activities.
6. Implement a Disciplined and Agile Strategic Pricing Model
This is a time when there is a shift in demand curve. As such, businesses and marketers need to maintain discipline and have an agile yet disciplined pricing strategy to stay relevant to customers. Lowering prices or offering discounts may help and attract customers in the short term but may not be a sustainable policy over the long term. Hence, companies should build pricing discipline into their marketing and sales activities.
Simultaneously, gaining insights in real-time into what customers are really expecting as part of your offerings and reviewing your pricing policies frequently will help you in creating the right pricing strategy.
Richard BlatcherOpens a new window , director of industry marketing and business intelligence at PROSOpens a new window statesOpens a new window :
“Focusing on short-term strategic planning by implementing tools to enable valuable insight gains from vast amounts of customer and market data will enable marketers to make rapid changes, protecting revenue.
“Marketers must also implement an agile strategic pricing model, which is the most effective way to quickly improve margins. Working in real-time and offering products or services at the most profitable price is imperative for short-term profitability.â€
7. Increase Your Budget for Online Marketing and Advertising
With more people spending quality time online than before, it only makes sense for businesses to increase their online marketing budget to increase brand awareness as well as attract and retain customers. The CMO Survey from May 2020 informs  that spending on social media went up by 74% during the pandemic. Together with mobile marketing spends, it comprised about 23% of the marketing budgets. The survey also reported that these spends were seen to have a positive impact on the companies’ performance.
Robert RothschildOpens a new window , VP, global head of marketing, Smartly.ioOpens a new window saysOpens a new window :
“We’re in the beginning of a major behavioral shift, and as a result, some merchants may see e-commerce sales like the rates of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That said, brands must reallocate budgets to ad campaigns accordingly, and reach consumers where they are most active – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. According to November researchOpens a new window from Smartly.io, 52% of retail marketers said they will spend more on social advertising than they did in 2019, and 50% were planning to spend at least half of their annual marketing budget on social media advertising this year. We anticipate this number will only increase as people stay indoors and social media advertising becomes a primary focus for retail brands.â€
Learn more: How Marketing Leaders Can Manage the Impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on RevenueOpens a new window
8.Show Empathy in Your Communications With Your Customers
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, people had started developing distrust toward several brands and advertisements. During the pandemic, the way they trust people, businesses and organizations has further changed. Customers have started placing more emphasis on relationships compared to lower price points during the pandemic. Brands must understand this customer pulse and show genuine empathy in their communications to gain back their trust.
Tara KellyOpens a new window , president and CEO, SPLICE SoftwareOpens a new window saysOpens a new window :
“Marketers, now more than ever, need to ensure they are using empathy in their marketing communications. Without that, communication is seen as “taking advantage of the situationâ€, and no one wants that label. Marketing technology can still support the automated distribution of messages and provides invaluable insights to how people are engaging with new messaging.â€
9.Stand for a Cause to Build Trust With Your Customers
Revenues and profits are on the top of the mind for most businesses. However, this is the time when everyone, as a human being, is grappling with some sort of challenge. While kids may be unable to go to school or play with their friends, adults may be restricted to their homes without much scope for staying fit. Many may be facing financial challenges. Hence, it is important to go beyond selling your product and position yourself as a brand that stands for a cause so that you can build visibility and trust among your customers. Clement statesOpens a new window ,
“The immediate marketing challenge for companies is building a relationship beyond what they sell and focusing on helping, not selling. The focus changes from the product to how you can support users in getting through this. Cause-related options can be used to build visibility. Acknowledging changing consumer behavior and offering help is relevant. Empathy is an important toneâ€.
To Conclude
The coronavirus pandemic has made a huge impact on the life of both consumers and businesses. There is a huge change in what consumers expect from businesses. Many of the marketing strategies businesses had in place earlier to the pandemic will not cut it anymore. Marketers need to change their strategies to understand their customers better and stay relevant while protecting their bottom line.
What do you think is an important marketing or budgeting strategy during these times? We would love to hear from you. Tell us on FacebookOpens a new window ,TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .