3 marketing strategies to invest in during a crisis

Crises are generally unpredictable, which is why it’s vital for your business to do some level of crisis preparation in advance. When it comes to the market crash of 2008, or the current pandemic situation, it is those businesses that have built adaptability into their processes that were, and are, most likely to survive and even thrive in a crisis.

That said, if you find your business facing a crisis situation and you haven’t done any advance preparation, all is not lost. Even in the midst of difficult times, a great business can look to adapt their strategies in order to make it through or even turn a bad situation into a good one.

An essential aspect of being prepared is making sure your marketing team is capable of capitalizing on the opportunities at hand to avoid missing out on a potentially significant ROI.

The 3 strategies we’ll discuss here are Analytics and Data, Content Creation, and SEO. We’ll look at why these strategies matter for crisis preparedness, how to utilize them and what you should do to be ready.

Analytics and Data

Information is power. As such, Analytics and Data are the backbones of a strong marketing team. Their value is present in everyday marketing life, and even more so during a crisis.

The ability to find out what products people are buying during the quarantine, for example, can put a lot of information into the hands of your marketing team and empower you to make critical decisions that are rooted in data in order to further profit the company.

You may think you can just watch the media for trends, but those trends get reported after they take off. Good knowledge of Analytics and Data can give you that information much earlier on so that you can take optimal advantage. It can also tell you about new search terms gaining in popularity, changes to how people interact with your site, and what types of content people are responding to most during the crisis.

During a crisis, “new” types of data should also be recorded and analyzed because of the different buying circumstances customers are in, which lead to different purchasing outcomes.

Essentially, the more information you have about your clients, the more you can target your content to serve its purpose better and strengthen your business.

How to take advantage:

• Enroll your marketing team in Data and Analytics courses;
• Consider investing in Data and Analytics consulting to ensure you are taking full advantage of what’s available;
• Ensure your Analytics reporting is set up to alert you, as soon as possible, of any changes in visitor behavior.

Content Creation

During regular, non-crisis times, Content Creation is one of the most important marketing strategies. You have the power to control how your business portrays itself in the real world in terms of what you put out there, how you interact publicly with your clients, and how you respond to what others put out there.

Blog posts, articles, website content, answering questions, social media posts, instructional videos, and more… These are all elements of content marketing and are crucial for brand building, customer acquisition, and customer retention.

The ability to create content really makes it so that your clients have a voice within your marketing ecosystem. During a crisis, the importance is almost doubled because the amount of exposure you are getting with clients is even greater as people are spending more time on the internet searching for things that will help them navigate the crisis as well.

As a business, this is a great time to maximize profits by properly investing in effective, data-driven content creation, as there is a lot to gain if you play your cards right. Being able to keep engaging with your clients during a time of unrest is a sure-fire way to keep customers happy and appreciative of your business, so that they purchase from you now, or return to you down the road when they are able. Creating quality content during a crisis is a great way to stay close to clients and helps solidify you as a business they can trust at any time.

How to take advantage:

• Ensure your marketing team knows how to use Data and Analytics to drive Content Creation;
• Ensure you have well-established content channels (social media, blogs, regular articles or videos, etc.);
• Invest in building your audience to ensure your content is actually reaching people.

SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the pillars of digital marketing and investing in it is a must for any business, regardless of crisis preparedness.

A good SEO strategy is particularly valuable because of its ability to adapt to its surroundings. No matter the time or context of what is going on outside, a good SEO strategy is always working in the background to build your search rankings and bring in new (and returning) visitors.

But, to be able to get the most out of your business’s SEO strategy, it’s extremely important to be able to update it to whatever situation you’re facing. A crisis will always bring up new needs, wants and questions in the public. These can be incorporated into your overall marketing strategy, thereby increasing the likelihood of your business showing up on Google organically, but only if you have the Data and Analytics and Content Creation know-how to adapt!

Adjusting keywords and content to better match what people are searching for can really help your Google rankings. It synergizes extremely well with Analytics and Content Creation, making it a crucial investment point.

All that said, SEO is a long-term strategy. Unlike SEM (search engine marketing, or paid search), you can’t expect to pay a lot of money to achieve results quickly. The reason it takes longer is that Google has to verify that what you’re putting out matches what clients are looking for. This is why SEO is something you must focus on before a crisis hits to reap the full benefits.

If you find yourself in a crisis without having invested in SEO, you can look to SEM to get you through in the short term, but start working on SEO ASAP, so you aren’t caught in the same situation again.

How to take advantage:

• Enroll your marketing team in SEO courses;
• If you and your team have no SEO knowledge, consider enlisting a trusted consulting agency to get you set up and help you build a long-term strategy;
• Recognize that SEO is both long-term and continuous, meaning it is something you continually work on, analyze, adjust and repeat… but it is also hugely beneficial and well worth the investment.

Investing in these strategies during a crisis will take time and effort, but the payoff can be massive. Applying these strategies correctly can help make the most out of your investment, not only for monetary purposes but in terms of the lasting positive effect it can have with existing and new clients. Ensuring your business and marketing team are well versed in these 3 strategies will also ensure you are prepared for any crisis - big or small - that comes your way, and that you have the knowledge and flexibility to adapt, survive and thrive quickly.

Learn more about Tarek Riman’s online workshops, such as Introduction to SEM, Introduction to Digital Marketing, Introduction to Social Media Marketing, Introduction to SEO and Introduction to Google Analytics.