Why your business should keep nurturing its marketing during the pandemic
Brandspace’s Marketing and PR Account Manager, Rachel Wall, gives her advice on why it’s crucial in these unusual times to continue to market your business to current and potential clients.
Everyone knows that the last six months have been unprecedented times that no business has had to face before. A knee jerk reaction in difficult times of crisis is to cut the marketing budget. This is actually the worst thing you can do if your company is struggling. Once you stop promoting your business it takes so much longer to reap the benefits when you start again and makes your clients and potential customers wonder where you have disappeared to. A lot of companies have actually chosen to up their marketing game during the pandemic so that they are ahead in their industry.
Marketing in the usual climate can take at the very least six months before it starts to take effect, it takes time to nurture and grow, so you can imagine what stopping completely will do if your business is experiencing a slow period.
As the world eases out of lockdown and returns to a ‘new normal’ now is the ideal time to kickstart the promotion of your products and services. Normally we recommend that you spend around five per cent of your total, gross revenue on marketing to maintain your current position. If you need to grow or gain a greater market share then naturally your budget would need to increase, usually to around 10 per cent. If your budget has reduced due to the current climate it is still important to use your voice and shout about your business, so look at areas you can afford so that you still maintain a presence.
How your company deals with the current crisis will determine how you fair for the years to come. A study by Bain & Company completed after a recession showed some stark results:
- More than 20% of companies that were previously in the bottom quartile in their industries moved to the top quartile.
- More than 20% of companies considered “leadership companies” in the top quartile of financial performance moved to the bottom quartile.
High and low performers changed positions because of what they did during recessions.
A MarketSense study during the 1989–1991 recession clearly showed that companies that increased ad spending during the downturn saw strong sales growth.
- Kraft salad dressing: Sales growth of 70%
- Jif peanut butter: Sales growth of 50%
- Coors Light: Sales growth of 15%
- Bud Light: Sales growth of 16%
- Pizza Hut: Sales growth of 61%
- Taco Bell: Sales growth of 40%
McDonald’s however, opted to cut back their budget. Their same-store sales dropped 28% while Pizza Hut and Taco Bell grew.
One of my best tips is to always make sure you avoid a scattergun approach with your marketing as this will lead to you throwing your money down the drain. Don’t market in areas just because everyone else does. Learn everything you can about your ideal customer. Where do they ‘hang out’ (is it on Facebook or Instagram, is it offline?), where will they see your message? Once you know where to reach that client that’s where you invest your money so that you can be sure they’ll hear all about you and won’t be able to resist working with you!
If you need help with how to reach your ideal customer contact us for your free discovery session.
