Marketing budgets of firms are now getting transferred to online marketing with all marketing events getting canceled in the wake of the Coronavirus outbreak.
With major marketing fairs, seminars and events getting canceled due to the coronavirus fear, B2B firms need to re-allocate and re-work on distributing their budget over different online marketing channels. As per the study conducted by the leading data intelligence company PredictHQ, in February alone, concerns and worry about the coronavirus led to a 500% surge in postponements and cancellations of significant global events.
Coronavirus Misinformation Take On – Facebook Ensures Free Ads to WHO
The company confirmed that over 225 events ranked high impact were canceled last minute in the past two months. The total cost of canceling them has been estimated to be over billions of dollars. The Center for Exhibition Industry Research in 2018 has confirmed that almost 40% of the marketing budgets of B2B firms are focused on marketing events and exhibitions, which is around five times the 8% budget the firms have for online marketing. But, the virus has definitely reversed this entire situation and calculations. Even if a very small fraction of the budgets for events is shifted to online marketing, it will translate into a massive growth in the online marketing landscape.
The major advantage of web marketing in the situation of the pandemic is that it doesn’t require face-to-face interaction. B2B marketers can quite rely on this to get a good return on investment (ROI), creating the highest number of leads. Assuming that with work from home applicable for most marketers in the current situation, most of them have extra time in home isolation to review their online marketing strategy to redefine their marketing messages.
This is also the perfect time to reset goals for the marketing campaigns and to take an in-depth look into the results and performance of the past strategies – refining the future marketing goals and strategies. The home isolation time due to the coronavirus outbreak is a great opportunity to fine-tune the company’s marketing vision:
- Content marketing– Focus on generating ideas for new blog posts and drafting newsletters for customers.
- Press releases and articles– The audience has more time now sitting at home to read press releases and articles online, so firms should focus on publishing more press releases and articles for this period.
- Website content– It’s the best time to focus on redesigning the website with the right marketing messages and the right call to action.
- SEO– With marketing events getting canceled, it is important to gain more traction online. Check the website’s organic search rankings and optimize it to improve the quality and quantity of the web traffic.
- Marketing materials– Preparing brochures, presentations, and other marketing materials.
- Video– Drafting a compelling storyline for the next video marketing campaign.
- Webinars and Social media engagement– Strategize and focus on improving social media engagement by writing white papers, new case studies, and professional articles. Also, focus on conducting the maximum number of webinars in this period of crisis.
How will the Net Neutrality Debate Impact Marketers?
Strengthening the focus on web marketing will help firms maintain normality in this crisis, giving a competitive edge over competitors who are unable to react promptly. Hopefully, this coronavirus outbreak will end soon, but in this period strengthening the online marketing efforts will minimize the associated risks and improve the overall market position.
