Keep calm and carry on marketing

Posted by Kate Betts on 6th April 2020

Nearly all organisations have been hit hard by the coronavirus situation. Many have furloughed staff, stopped production, sent people home to work or made them redundant. It is certainly not business as usual.

And one thing everyone is doing is looking around for where you can cut out-goings. And areas that are so often hit are marketing/ PR/ communications. Those roles are expendable, right? No, actually those roles are vital to an organisation.

Of course you have to have the people who make the product or offer the service, but if you suddenly stop all communication, no website updates, no social media posts, no word on radio or TV, I am going to think your business has gone under and I will buy from elsewhere, now and in the future. And if you are a charity, I will be hearing loudly from the other thousands that are talking about loss of income and I will give to them.

By all means adapt your PR and marketing. Make changes, make cuts, but don’t furlough all your marketing team. Look at your customer base, change your tactics, change your focus. But be visible, be seen. Then once you have survived this time, be ready to crank up again.

Right now people’s buying habits have changed and they may not even be buying your product or service, but that doesn’t mean you have to furlough yourself. Keep out there, keep on giving out useful advice. People are turning more than ever to online media and broadcast media. LinkedIn or a blog on your website are great places to inform and entertain. Radio and TV need content that isn’t all gloom and doom.

Harvard Business School has carried out a lot of research into marketing behaviour in a recession and its benefits. And one thing they have found is that those organisations that carry on with PR and marketing when times are bad, will cope better during the bad times - and the good when they finally come.