It’s difficult to know the full impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our world in the coming months and years, but it’s necessary for businesses to focus on what they can do right now to survive.

For the B2B industry especially, this unprecedented halt on in-person meetings and the conference and trade show circuit will be a challenge to navigate. However, this also means that budgets typically allocated to these cancelled B2B events and travel will need to be reallocated to other areas. And this is where a focus on digital marketing should really come into play.

With more employees grounded and working from home, facing a computer instead of another person, and with unexpected losses in the sales pipeline or projected revenues, a company’s typical sales and marketing process may have no choice but to adapt. Here are a few suggestions to help businesses improve their adaptability, and maximize their digital marketing investments during such an uncertain time.

Connect in a New Way

Now is the opportunity to try new channels or platforms that have been ignored or only dabbled in in the past. To make up for the loss of face-to-face interactions, try connecting in a new way: there are a number of great video conferencing apps available for hosting remote meetings, or find ways to connect through social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Use keywords relevant to your business or industry to search for trending posts where you can contribute in a valuable way and get conversations started.

Who needs a conference when we can all network from the comfort of our own homes (and in our pajamas)! Get creative and find new platforms to reach your target market: we’re all in the same boat right now, so your clients and partners will likely be using these new platforms to conduct their business too.

Take Advantage of Paid Search Opportunities

If your business isn’t offering an “essential” product or service right now, then you may have already seen that search demand for it is down, and you should be taking the appropriate response to your paid search campaigns.

However, if your offerings are on high demand, this may be a good opportunity to take advantage of lower bids as other companies are reducing their paid search spend. This could fluctuate, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your campaign performance on a daily basis, or have someone experienced in paid search to manage your campaigns for you.

Increase Your Social Media Presence

People are on their phones now more than ever, and they’ll be looking at your social media pages for updates on your business and offerings, services or hours of operation during the pandemic. Additionally, this will also give you more opportunity to increase reach across your audiences with targeted social content or social ad campaigns, and engage with your followers. It might also make sense to look into hosting your first influencer marketing campaign, if it makes sense for your product or service, and you find the right influencer to do so.

It’s also the perfect spot to post words of community and support while we all navigate through this trying time.

Host Remote Events

In addition to increasing your general presence on social media platforms, you can also use these platforms to help replace some of what you lose through all of the cancelled trade shows and events.

Schedule live video broadcasts through your LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook accounts and offer product demos, free training sessions, Q&A sessions, etc. You can also make use of a relevant influencer to schedule remote “events” as well, such as Instagram take-overs or product reviews.

Increase Email Campaigns

If you aren’t able to increase search demand through paid advertising or increased social media strategies, then maximizing your email campaigns is an affordable and effective alternative. Sending an email is a great way to remind your customers that you’re still open for business online, and in doing so, you could also offer some purchase incentives. This could benefit your business by directly increasing sales and brand awareness, and also your client, by offering them a discount or free trial on a product or service that they need.

But tread lightly here: it’s very important to make sure your emails are written with compassion and empathy, and not just pushing a sale or discount specifically because of COVID-19. Rather, make it clear that you realize it’s a tough time for everyone and you want to offer an incentive to help your customers out.

Prepare for a Rebound

As time typically spent preparing for conferences and trade shows is now relatively free, use this time to make changes or complete projects that have been on your to-do list for a while. There will be a rebound in search traffic and regular sales cycles once this is all over, so now is the time to make any improvements to your website, your content or your technical SEO while you have the extra time.

Keep an Eye on Analytics

This is important for business owners and marketing teams to take note of: with the majority of employees now working remotely, it may impact your Analytics data. Filters previously set up within your Analytics tool may not catch all of your employee’s home IP addresses accessing your site or pages, potentially skewing the data. Make sure you keep this in mind when reviewing and reporting on your Analytics results in a few weeks or months from now.

…And Stay Safe

Most importantly, and more than ever, focus on the safety of your families, employees, and customers during this time.

The team at Umami Marketing have always worked remotely, and we will continue to work from the safety of our homes while supporting our clients and their projects through this challenging time. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by COVID-19.

Image Credit: Ray Fragapane on Unsplash