It goes without saying that these are unprecedented times. Everyday, companies are forced to either lay-off employees or furlough them or reduce their wages. Those that are fortunate enough to keep the doors open have to make tough decisions on what’s most important to keep the business running.
Rand Fishkin, founder of Moz and Sparktoro summed it best in a recent White Board Friday,
“I think one of the important points is not to cut [marketing efforts] with a chainsaw. Not to take a big whack to, ‘Let’s look at all of our content marketing investments and drop them completely.’ Instead, we should be looking to cut with a scalpel, and that means examining each channel and the individual contributors inside channels as individuals and looking at whether they are ROI-positive.”
-Rand Fishkin
Things will eventually go back to normal. We can’t say when, but once it does, “we will want to have messaging and content and keyword demands serving,” Fiskin goes on. “Anything that is in our marketing inventory that can be helpful to people, not just during this time, but over the course of these, because if we make these investments now, we will be better set up than our competitors who are pulling back to execute on this. And that is what that research shows, right, that essentially folks who invest in marketing, in sales during a recession tend to outperform and more quickly outperform their competition as markets resume. You don’t even have to wait for them to get good — just as they start to pick up again.”
Key takeaway: Now it a good time to invest in marketing, lay the groundwork for when things go back to normal, because, eventually they will, and you don’t want to be starting from behind because you pushed the pause button on everything.
A Time of Helpfulness and Sensitivity
You don’t want to stop all of your digital efforts, and you certainly do not want to stop creating content. But, you don’t want to keep creating the same type of content that you were before the pandemic started. That will make you come off as tone deaf.
“The best type of marketing you can create right now across any channel, any platform is stuff that helps first. I also think it’s okay to talk about content or subjects that are not necessarily related to the virus,” says Fishkin.
I just created a piece of blog content for a med spa client about cosmetic procedures being great for one’s confidence. Right after it was finalized, a government order forced all clinics that provide elective procedures to close their doors for now. Naturally, I have tabled that piece and am working to create pieces that are much more sensitive to the times.
It’s a fine line. Fishkin explained in his video that businesses cannot ignore what is going on, but they need to be sensitive when addressing it. Aviary Wine & Kitchen, a local wine bar in Austin is advertising that they’re offering discounted lunches for those in the service industry. Austin Eastciders is advertising service industry appreciation weeks were workers can receive a free six-pack of cider. Amazon Prime is going to be streaming SXSW films for free, even to non-prime members.
What Can You Do?
I can’t speak in-depth to your paid search opportunities, but there are still plenty of things you can do for your website, SEO and social media. Here are just a few things to consider:
- Restructure Your Content Calendar: Create content that is industry adjacent that will provide benefits to your audience during this time. For my med spa client, I’m creating health and wellness-related pieces.
- Analyze Your On-Page Content: Now is a great time to dive into Google Analytics and analyze unde- performing core pages of content as well as blog articles to see if any could be re-optimized.
- Conversion Rate Optimization: If you have a tool that tracks user experience and interaction on your website, such as SessionCam, this is a good time to look at how users are interacting with your website and if any improvements can be made.
- Structured Data: Structured data is code in a specific format written in such a way that search engines understand it. Google recently added structured data to COVID-19 announcements. It’s currently in beta, but worth exploring.
- COVID-19 Update: Add a page to your website that provides updates from your organization. Things are changing so fast, so make sure you are keeping your customers up-to-date. Make sure that page is easily accessible. For one of my clients, we created a banner from the homepage as well as a sticky bar that appears in the footer of all pages of their website.
- Google My Business: Google also added the ability to add a COVID-19 update to a GMB listing. I’ve done it for a few of my clients, and even walked a few of them through how to do it on their own.
- Share Social Media Updates: Don’t lose touch with your customers, but don’t try to sell to them either, or pretend that nothing is happening. Share how you, your employees and company are helping during COVID-19. Share how you are staying safe, how you are keeping your employees safe. Share news that people want to hear.
I think Fishkin summed it up best in his closing thoughts, “Make sure that you’re either not ignoring the crisis or speaking effectively to it. I don’t think every page on a website needs to change right now. I don’t think every marketing message has to change. But I think that in many cases it’s the right thing to do to conduct an audit and to make sure that you are not being insensitive or perceived as insincere.”
Remember, this too shall pass. Until then, stay safe, stay inside and wash your hands!