Digital Recap: Preparing Your Marketing Plan for Economic Downturn

Is Your Marketing Plan Ready for the COVID-19 Economy?

Few events in history have forced the digital marketing industry to pivot like the COVID-19 pandemic. While marketers are known for being on their toes, the commercial and social implications of the global emergency have left plenty of heads spinning. Susan Hallam of The Drum Network, thankfully, has shared her practical guide to managing the coming economic downturn. Here are a few of her tips:

1. Retain your existing customer base through marketing automation, content production, and engaging in conversations with your customers at all touchpoints.
2. Ramp up plays for brand awareness, including employing the Mere Exposure Effect, updating evergreen content, and promote any endorsements from respected experts in your industry.
3. Focus on driving conversions through social proof, investing in improving customer experience, and leveraging artificial intelligence.
4. Hold yourself accountable through data measurement, including configuring Google Analytics and measuring social media ROI.
5. As always, keep learning through testing.

For more details, read Hallam’s post in its entirety: “Preparing your marketing plans for the Coronavirus downturn.”

Authentic Messaging During Pandemic a Complicated Matter

It’s always been important that your brand uses the right tone and tact in its messaging, but in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, brands must be surer than ever that they’re hitting the right notes. Ryan Phelan of Marketing Land shares a few quick tips for finding authenticity in business communications.

1. Show, don’t tell. Instead of telling customers that your brand cares, show them. How is your business taking care of employees, customers, or the community? Showcasing your commitment to those around you is much more important than sending out an empty tweet.
2. Support work-from-home employees. Remote workforces are more common than ever, but that doesn’t mean everyone is equipped to work from home. Connecting on a personal level with employees who prefer to be at the office is essential in inspiring confidence, production, and emotional wellness.
3. Reassess email communications. Do your email campaigns still make sense given the shift to social distancing? Can your potential customers still use your promotions or sales if they’ve been told to stay at home? Put all of your messaging into this new perspective, or risk losing touch with loyal customers.

For more tips on conveying authenticity in these sensitive times, including video conferencing and thinking outside your box, read  Phelan’s full post, “Authenticity is now more important than ever during the coronavirus”.

3 Good News Stories

Given all of the anxiety of and focus on the COVID-19 pandemic, here are a few stories of good news that might’ve gone unnoticed.

Mice have been cured of diabetes. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have created a temporary cure for diabetes in mice using human stem cells. The discovery gives hope that similar methods can be used to cure humans of the same disease. The stem cells were engineered to produce insulin in the mice, which responded for 9 months to a year before relapse.

Green energy gets boost from hydrogen fuel. A team in Tokyo had a breakthrough in producing hydrogen fuel, refining the process to increase yields by 25% while cutting costs, which had cast doubt on the practicality of using the sustainable resource. This adds yet another tool to an expanding kit of green resources that can help get us to a zero-emission world.

Ok, so maybe this isn’t news, but it will make you smile. Twitter content machine, @RexChapman, shared this video of a father teaching the alphabet to his daughter through beatboxing.

This daddy beatboxing and teaching his baby girl the alphabet and numbers during self-isolation is the Twitter content I’m here for…🌎❤️🎶 pic.twitter.com/tFHpVoSwpg

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) March 20, 2020

Hang in there.