Coronavirus Marketing: 15 Tips For Small Business & Career Survival

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,…”

Reducing The Economic Impact With Marketing

Coronavirus marketing may be a new and temporary way we need to approach our careers and businesses. The largest economy in the world has been brought to a standstill by a micro-organism much smaller than the tip of a needle. The mouse has paused the elephant. It’s never happened before. It’s history in the making. New territory. We are boldly going where we’ve never been before and it’s not a suspense-thriller movie. Among many other tools, I say we use marketing to help fight this virus. It’s only one small way to battle, but it has its place that can help. In fact, good marketing is built for tough times and works well when applied properly.

Hold on to your seat, your business, and your career. With a blend of fear, anticipatory uncertainty, and hope we all need to embrace these times.

How Can We Help Each Other?

With all this in mind, I’m asking myself what I can do to help small businesses and individuals navigate the new world of the Coronavirus or COVID-19. I’m concerned about my agency’s business but I’m also concerned about my associate partners, employees, independent contractors, clients, and their customers. Without them we would not have businesses. We’re all in this together and the “trickle down” impact could be significant. There are many unknowns. I wish I had a crystal ball to help navigate this new challenge of Coronavirus marketing.

2008 & The Coronavirus Marketing Environment

The Coronavirus and all the health, medical, and economic implications has reminded me of the 2008 financial crisis. Both are unique and different, yet things learned from past financial crises can still help. It’s not an apples to apples comparison but there are similarities. There are tried and true principles of wise marketing and business – both personal and professional – that apply to most times, places, and events.

Recession Startup

I founded my marketing agency in 2008 after being laid off three times in three years. That was after 20 successful years in two large global corporations plus two smaller companies. It was hard. And now that I look back on those years, they had the most significant impact on driving my success today. Sure I’ve made my mistakes and had my failures but I have no regrets starting my own business. It’s the best thing I ever did in my 35 years of doing marketing.

15 Tips For Business & Career Survival

Below are my Coronavirus marketing tips as they apply to our uncertain times. These are not necessarily in order of priority because some may or may not apply to your business and career:

1. Be flexible with your clients and customers, especially the ones you know are taking a hard Coronavirus economic hit. A long-term, faithful client just called me. Due to the industry he serves, he had to lay off employees and hunker down with hope and a prayer. I’m working out a payment plan on invoicing. I know he’s good for it. If you can, show them you care. Offer some value. They need it now more than ever.
2. Understand and know your numbers. Your P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statements mean something. Take a hard look and educate yourself as to what they mean. This past year I’m taking more time to better understand the ratios, percentages, and numbers that give me the actual health of my business. There are tons of resources to learn these basics. In the pre and post COVID-19 marketing world, this could mean the difference between success or failure.
3. Work on rather than just in your business. We often get so busy with customers, clients, and the day-to-day we tend to neglect how our business is actually doing. Your client can only be as strong as the businesses that services them. Make sure you take the time for maintenance. For example, take one day or a half-day a week to work just on your business. It will pay off, I promise you. And now, given that many of us have some extra time, make sure you take the time tune up your business. Once we no longer have to do Corona virus marketing, a roaring economy could leave less time for business maintenance.
4. Improve your skills. Learn from what’s occurring. Take the time to stay sharp. Read more. Ask those you respect for their top 2 book recommendations. Here are my recommendations: The Business of Expertise by David Baker; Zero to One by Peter Thiel.
5. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You know what I mean. There are some things we just, can’t, control.
6. Innovate. Think out of the box. “Do something nobody else has ever done before,” as Peter Thiel says. I just heard the story of one M.D. who created a ventilator with $100 in raw materials that kept a pig breathing for one hour. This could be used on humans. Now that’s innovation. Mr. medical MacGyver. Even Ford is using fans from their F-150 trucks to install in medical ventilators. In short, how can you do things differently that helps your customers and clients? Perhaps you need to rethink your business from scratch. Innovate for your clients and customers by adding value. For some of our agency clients, we actually increased account performance during the virus onset by making some data-driven advertising adjustments.
7. Remember that even good employees get laid off, fired, or leave their companies. Let me say it one more time: even good employees get laid off, fired, or leave their companies. You’re not alone if this happens. And, if you’re a business owner you may need to make that hard decision. If you have to furlough or lay off employees, do it with grace and kindness.
8. See this as an opportunity to reinvent yourself, your business, or both. Had I never been laid off, I would not be writing this blog post. It was one of the hardest but best things that ever happened to me. In fact, it was that final lay off that lead to the founding of my company. It was also that lay off that got me back in to teaching marketing as a professor. I’ve taught part-time now for 12 years. It’s my way to give back what my business teaches me. Those all were life-changing events that came out just fine in hindsight.
9. Fear not a recession. I founded my agency during a recession in 2008. Not a great time to launch. We’re a growing business with 2019 being a our leading sales year. GE, GM, IBM, Disney, Tollhouse Cookies, Burger King, and Microsoft were all founded during recessions.
10. Kindness matters. In an age of real-time analytics data, remember the human element. Big data is amazing, but so is human intuition and instinctive decisions. Use both. Listen to your clients, customers and instincts.
11. Avoid debt if at all possible. Being held captive to historical financial obligations could sink your business. Stay strong and cherish liquidity. A rainy-day fund applies to a business and a family. Also note that there are now small business government loan options with a forgiveness factor which needs no repayment. It’s a grant but you have to qualify. This is a safer form of financial help worth looking in to. See this SBA link for details. See these small business resources and a fantastic article by McKinsey & Company on the short and long-term business implications and strategy related to the coronavirus .
12. Keep advertising. See advertising as a cost of doing business that’s an investment in your brand. Major studies have proven that companies which actually increased advertising budgets from the great depression through all subsequent recessions, did better than their competitors that cut back (See Great by Choice and How the Mighty Fall & Why some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins). What better time to gain market share. There’s less static in the market. Your voice can be heard easier. Your business and our clients can’t conduct face-to-face sales meeting or hold trade shows or events due to the Coronavirus, however we can still get them warm, relevant leads through capturing intent with online searches. It’s rewarding to know that even in tough economic times we can still help fill their sales funnel.
13. See the opportunities. Remember, you can still engage and connect with clients and customers. Webinars, online meetings, email marketing, social media, organic relevant content development in the form of blog posts and more can still retain the connection your customers seek. Most of all, don’t forget the power of a simple phone call, which is often more powerful than any email or text.
14. Be thankful. When the stress and uncertainty of our careers, lives, and businesses is at risk, sit down a make a list of everything you are thankful for. It puts things in perspective. We take much for granted and to whom much is given, much is expected. Hug your family. Tell them you love them. Forgive. Eat chocolate. Lots of it.
15. Give back. Help your elderly relatives and neighbors; give blood; find opportunities to be a part of something far bigger than yourself. We need to replace selfies with selflessness. And, take it to the next level: expect nothing in return.

Corona virus marketing is a reality now in the world of marketing, our businesses, and careers. I hope this helps in some small ways. Stay strong and stay healthy.

Stuart Atkins