Marketing Moves You Need to Make Now in a COVID-19 World

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to change the world, we’re all navigating through a time of uncertainty.  Given the current situation, your marketing team can no longer rely on trade shows and live events for lead generation and your sales team’s plan for in-person meetings is no longer viable.  No matter the case, many companies have been forced to change the tactics they’ve fine-tuned over the years, seemingly overnight.

Hopefully, this crisis will calm down soon, but no matter how long it takes, strengthening your marketing focus will enable you to maintain some level of normality in these crazy days, as well as give you a competitive edge over competitors who are slow to react.  I recommend you put the following moves into action.

1. Take Care of Your Current Customers

One of the first things you want to do is to reestablish your connection with current customers.  You do have to keep your social distance, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stay in close contact with them.  Reach out to them to stay in touch.

At this point, your goal is not as much to sell, but to show your support.  When you speak with them, find out how you can help them.  Successful businesses center around solving customers’ problems.  See what you can do to reset your business around providing solutions for those problems through your educational content, products and services.  Your customers will appreciate being supported in this time of uncertainty.

2. Ramp Up Your B2B Online Marketing

For decades, online marketing was always an important part of business success, but now it is more critical than ever.  With the travel restrictions and canceled events, your website is now truly the most public face of your company.  Now, this doesn’t mean you have to make a huge investment and there are tactics you should start (or continue) focusing on how to maintain your competitive advantage and continue generating leads and sales. 

• Give your website some TLC. If you haven’t given your website much attention, now is the time to do so.  If your website appears obsolete and outdated, it’s time to recreate it.  If your website’s goals focus on lead generation, take a look at cost-effective solutions like WordPress.  If E-commerce is your goal, take a look at hosted solutions like BigCommerce or Shopify.  In either case, make sure your website content focuses on helping customers with the needs and problems they are facing, leveraging blog posts, articles and videos. 
• Get in front of new customers with search engine marketing. With many people working from home or remotely, they are online literally all day.  To get your B2B company in front of new customers, make sure you’re integrating search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click advertising (PPC) into your online marketing mix.  If you approach these methods strategically, you can get in front of prospects that have a need for your solutions, even though you can’t meet them face-to-face.
• Make sure your email marketing is personalized. Email is not a prospecting tool; it’s a nurturing tool.  To be most effective, it needs to be personalized based on a customer’s interests and needs.  Sure, there is a place for broadcast email marketing, but for more targeted email marketing methods start using marketing automation solutions like HubSpot.  These tools will allow you to send personalized one-to-one messages to people based on how they interacted with your online content.  And, the good news is that you can begin using many advanced features for free. 

3. Teach Your Sales Team to Sell Virtually

Social selling is the art and science of using social media to find, connect with, and nurture sales prospects. As tech-savvy millennials are taking over buying positions, it is the contemporary way to build profitable relationships with prospects.  And, with the current health crisis, it’s one of the best ways to establish new business connections and make a “virtual handshake.”

Teach your salespeople how to make connections with prospects virtually, so they can nurture these connections to an ultimate sale.  However, the key to social selling is not about “selling.”  It’s about “educating.”  Salespeople need to share relevant and engaging content to position themselves as problem solvers and thought leaders.  To get started in social selling, I recommend you invest in quality LinkedIn training.  LinkedIn is the most prominent business-to-business social network used by sales professionals to find, engage and connect with prospects to start conversations and build relationships.  It’s all about creating a strong professional brand, researching prospects effectively, building a network of quality connections and sharing valuable content on a regular basis to remain top of mind.

Also, since Coronavirus is forcing a lot of businesses to cut back on travel and in-person meetings, web-based presentations are more important than ever.  Train your sales team on how to use tools like GoToMeeting, Zoom and other web-based communication platforms.  This will allow them to make an educational, face-to-face connection with prospects – even though they may be hunkered down at home.

It is certainly true that in the coming weeks, months or however long this situation lasts, it will be a challenging time for any B2B company.  However, by embracing these ideas you will be in a position to succeed now, as well as in the coronavirus-free future.

It might sound cliché, but we truly are all in this together.  If you need help with any of the recommended marketing tactics detailed above, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly by calling 732-868-8600 x234 or by filling out our contact form online. I have 25 years of experience helping B2B and industrial companies leverage online marketing to produce bottom-line results. And, I even have a social selling course if you are interested in training your salesforce on how to sell virtually leveraging LinkedIn. Simply request a quote utilizing our contact form.

I wish everyone safety and health during this unusual time.