These days, there is a lot of anxiety, fear, and frustration going around. This is a highly precarious time for businesses all across the globe since there is not a single correct answer for how they should react to the situation.
So, when things get tense and impossible to predict like this, it is only natural to turtle up and try to weather the storm.
“Turtling up,” in a business sense, signifies pulling in on yourself and not exploring fresh prospects. It means cutting as many expenses as possible, including the marketing budget, and hoping that you can stick it out until something returns to normal on its own.
This seems sensible on the surface, and, in a few scenarios, the regulations and orders of the local authorities may force you into this tactic. However, even if it looks secure – or predictable – it may not be the correct strategy at the moment.
To be clear: we aren’t advocating that any company overlook the health and safety measures that have been put in place. We are, however, going to recommend some tactics, options, and prospects that may prove more effectual than the typical turtle approach.
What should your marketing team do?
Now is the time to exercise some flexibility and adapt the marketing endeavours to deal with the current situation.
We aren’t here to tell you how you should utilize the budget in such challenging times. However, we’re here to suggest that cutting out your marketing endeavours wholesale at this time could prove to be highly unfavourable for your long-term business health.
SEO has always been a long game, and productivity through extreme cost-cutting measures conventionally provides a short-term gain. So, the question we would like to pose is: when this challenging time is behind us, will you find yourself in a good place within the industry or rebuilding your digital marketing base all over again?
Of course, that does not mean you should keep doing the same things you have always done. The times and trends are revolutionizing every day, and a great part of digital marketing is the capability to pivot and modify strategies to keep up with them.
So, what can you do to keep the marketing on track during uncertain times?
- Double Down on Content Marketing
People would like to know that somewhere out there, things are continuing normally. They would like to hear about more than simply how the virus is affecting the world. Now, more than ever, clients and customers need connection points to their favourite companies. You can create such contact points by offering the most helpful, fun, intriguing content you can.
As you shift the content marketing strategies to meet this demand, mull over utilizing different kinds of content and keep your messages empathetic and on-point. Newsletters, infographics, podcasts, presentations, eBooks, and videos, anything is valid right now.
This is even an excellent time to look back at some of the previous content and find the most valuable and popular pieces and consider ways to repurpose them and put them back into circulation.
- Relationships Over Links
This may be an ideal time to switch away from the traditional link-building strategy. After all, approaching another website with the request for a link on their blog may not seem very sensitive – particularly if that website owner is presently struggling to stay in business.
Their 1st priority will not involve editing a year-old blog post to send some link authority your way. However, if you approach those same websites with the intent to build a relationship – as in, you would like to create a mutually beneficial association in which you can send real traffic or leads back and forth – then now is the time to dive into that sort of “link building”.
- Retool the Website
There is a good chance that your website is not ready to contend with the current crisis. Now, this is not to say that you need to change the website to include a statement about the effects of the pandemic and what your business is doing about it.
However, this may be an ideal time to update the “About Us” page with pertinent information or add disclaimers to the “Contact Us” page regarding working with a smaller staff or information on any service or product page that may be pertinent to people’s needs.
This is a beautiful time to go through the website and eliminate things that may not be suitable or to bring those services or products to light that are in very high demand right now.
Getting Through This
As worried as you regard your business, in this uncertain time, an essential thing you can do is steer clear of the “business is business” attitude and be as compassionate as possible to the needs of your customers and clients.
And while there’s no doubt that modifications in marketing strategies and budgets are predictable, we encourage every business to think strategically and not pull down an entire marketing strategy when a little precision pruning may be sufficient.
It can be hard to expect the time when the markets resume and start resembling regular activity. Still, if you continue to invest in yourself and your marketing efforts, you’ll have a better prospect of getting back on track and even outperforming the competition when it’s all over.
Call SEO and digital marketing specialists at Dwarika Web Solutions at 1(855) 561-4557 to get professional solutions!