Responding to Coronavirus: A Playbook for Proactive Marketing

These are certainly unusual times with the coronavirus outbreak dominating the news cycle and after hearing a lot of ways to prepare for the health effects, what about the turbulence this virus is causing in the marketing world? Marketers are now feeling the pressure because, well, this is just about the biggest organizational nightmare imaginable. Marketing never stops and even when a crisis such as this seems to be consuming everyone’s attention, we still need to get the message out. With uncertainty and fear having a real-world impact on our industry, we have shared some themes in the response to this novel virus creating an impact on our digital marketing ecosystem. 

Industry Factors 

What are the immediate priorities for all marketing professionals in this climate?
In a global economy, virtually every organization is connected to or dependent upon others. Being in the hospitality market, communication and updating your audience is at an all-time high as concerns have heightened over the past week. The possibility of this pandemic disrupting workforces, supply chains and economic activity in the months ahead, it is important to have remote work policies in place; even if there’s not an immediate concern in your specific area. 

So, it is with a sense of urgency that organizations review and update their business continuity plans to understand the long-term impact this might have on your business. With a major disruption in the digital sides of things, we have also seen across major marketplaces in the e-commerce world that there is a massive increase in online orders because people are now avoiding person-to-person contact. This goes the same for B2B and B2C communication and is a priority for all businesses to take into consideration. The spike in audience reach with the frequency of online touchpoints will result in making sure there is consistent and clear messaging on all online platforms.

What marketing strategies will you adjust? 

With this virus spreading at an alarming rate, many companies are now beginning to implement measures to mitigate its impact. It is unique in ways that it affects both the demand and supply sides of the economy. With the alignment of sales and marketing teams in executing virtual events, digital engagement, and online services, it will make a difference in maintaining growth rates within your organization. Also, with an adjusted messaging strategy on ad spend, be sure to keep a close eye on performance to see if people are opening and clicking on certain communications.

Although, we know this is a hectic time for many of your clients and partners, its time to put an emphasis on analyzing past performance data, current registration trends, and the latest news to adjust your plan and marketing spend accordingly. Rather than just making an announcement on Facebook, use multiple channels to make sure everyone within your organization is aligned around consistent messaging.

Should marketers be thinking about their post-coronavirus planning?

Post-COVID-19 marketing planning and strategy will be essential to attract customers back. To protect your operations and ensure continuity of services or products to your customers, it’s important to identify points of failure and to understand where disruptions might affect your value to be 100% transparent moving forward. Using monitoring tools that track and measure audience response will also better help your brand’s response. Moreover, this is ultimately an opportunity to structure out a complete crisis response plan so that the next time the unexpected comes along, you will be more than ready.

What’s Next?

Whether the coronavirus (COVID-19) will be protruding through the coming months or the outbreak settles soon, no one can truly prepare a foolproof plan to accurately predict when this virus will improve significantly. But we can take ownership in being proactive and put strategies in place that will maintain a customer approach to our marketing. As a digital agency that specializes in all things marketing and events in a city that specializes in hospitality and tourism, we want to remind our audience that we care about your wellbeing. To accommodate our remote workers, postponing events for future dates, and finding other creative solutions, we know this is a crucial time in our industry and we are standing by to help in any way that we can.

Let your business Bloom.

As a digital agency that specializes in all things marketing and events in a city that specializes in hospitality, we want to remind our audience that we care about your wellbeing and your business. We are excited to announce Bloom, a specialized service our agency is offering for businesses who need to get online during this crucial time.

To accommodate the success of your business, click here to learn more about ways to ensure that your business is not only healthy now but later on with Bloom.