These are remarkably challenging times, and what makes them more difficult are the uncharted waters full of speculation, self-appointed gurus and hypothetical forecasts, leaving business owners unclear on what they should or shouldn't be doing with their companies.  

In order to effectively navigate these trying times, we advise: considering your marketing efforts in terms of the short, medium and long-term objectives. Ensure that you know where to make changes and where not to within your marketing strategies. Of course, there isn't one solution that fits all businesses; however, there are several principles that any business should consider during this pandemic.  

Short-term marketing solutions. 

Short-term marketing should be defined in terms of one to three months, and it's here where the current crisis will have the most significant and drastic effects.  Depending on your business's industry, the impacts could be positive or negative, and it might be minor or major. The important thing to do is to take control of factors which are easily changeable, including, social media advertising, search engine ads, video ads and several other types of digital marketing tools which are easily monitored and adjustable. 

Let's use a hypothetical restaurant chain as an example, which had to close it's doors to sit-down customers. They've started offering free delivery on cook-at-home burger kits. It's here where we would recommend updating all social media advertising and search advertising, as well as website content and information.  The said restaurant's end results could be positive as they could potentially see an increase in sales and revenue. 

Likewise, a manufacturing business might see a sharp decline in web traffic and ad clicks. They've seen their cost per acquisition (CPA) increase drastically. We would recommend a brief pause for 10-14 days until the dust starts to settle, and things return at least to the new normal. Now, this could injure them from a revenue standpoint in the short term; however, it shields them from misusing funds on ads that are currently inefficient due to external forces, being a crisis or pandemic.

Medium-term marketing solutions. 

Medium-term marketing should be defined in terms of three to nine months. While any external forces prompting changes might not be as severe as opposed to the short-term, your business might still require some strategic adjustments to succeed.  We recommend that all businesses evaluate the tactics they're considering in the medium-term, as well as their predicted performance during this time. Ensure your most crucial product lines and services that will remain in demand during a brief downturn are the ones you are putting medium-term emphasis on. Moreover, this is also a great time to concentrate on volume at a likely lower ROI. 

When economies are strong, clients tend to become more stringent in demanding higher ROI. Of course, when demand is noticeable high, it's a luxury and as demand drops, commonly ROI will plunge as well. If your business can break even or even be slightly profitable at certain times, then up the ante on your advertising and marketing to ensure volume is kept up, even if it means less profit in the medium term. The core goal for any business during times of crisis to stay above water.

Long-term marketing solutions. 

Long-term marketing is defined as one to three years.  Due to nobody having a crystal clear vision of the current circumstances, we recommend that businesses not make any long-term adjustments at this point.  As the conditions are sure to change, businesses need to adapt their strategies accordingly, but for now, our advice is to sit tight and not make any dramatic changes that could hurt in the long run. 

Conclusion

It's of vital importance to not make any impulse decisions, instead make calculated decisions, use your data and metrics to drive decisions and most importantly, try not to panic. Your competition, friends and enemies, partners are all in the same boat. Ensure that you keep your business as best positioned during this pandemic and you'll surely come out more than okay. Always remember that your marketing efforts can make a colossal difference between future success and failure.