In the face of the uncertainty of the epidemic, how do market participants bid farewell to anxiety?

The following article comes from jade big talk digital marketing? , by Zhu Jingyu

The epidemic is repeated, what else can we do?

Recently, the number of newly diagnosed and asymptomatic infections in Shanghai has exceeded 1 10,000 every day, and the whole city of Shanghai with a population of 25 million has been blocked. Since the end of 20 19, the official WeChat account has been written, but the epidemic has not disappeared, and it has recently fallen into an unprecedented serious outbreak, which has to make people feel sad. In an instant, the epidemic has been with us for two and a half years. The epidemic has disrupted the work rhythm of marketers again and again, making everyone think deeply.

Here, I want to share with you my views on the marketing environment this year, and some experiences of how marketers adjust their thinking to meet the new round of challenges. My favorite work thinking is to take challenges as opportunities, think about how to seize opportunities and build my own niche in enterprises and even industries.

Online or offline

First of all, the epidemic has caused the uncertainty of the business environment to exceed expectations, and market participants need to rethink their work priorities.

Why do you say that? Usually the spring of March-April is the time for some exhibitions and offline activities to gather. Due to the epidemic, these activities were forced to be transferred online, some were postponed, and some were even cancelled directly.

A friend of mine told me that the exhibition industry has entered the darkest hour. The whole exhibition industry also hopes for digital transformation, but it has repeatedly hit a wall, and the industry has been hit by digitalization, but it has not yet found a breakthrough. It feels like groping in the dark, but I haven't found a bright way yet.

In many B2B enterprises, the exhibition is still a bridge for industry users to understand brands, brand sales and communication between the market and industry customers. Many brands also hope to further consolidate their position in the industry and develop new customers through the exhibition, so the exhibition was once an important marketing channel for these enterprises to achieve results while making brands.

As the epidemic swept the country again in the first quarter, 2022 is doomed to be unfriendly to marketers who are under great pressure and anxiety. In this case, on the one hand, marketers should keep working from home but have the same communication efficiency and problem-solving ability. On the other hand, the fact that they can't carry out marketing activities as scheduled forces marketers to quickly adjust their marketing strategies, actively adjust their thinking and rethink their business priorities within their capabilities.

Many people may say that the exhibition can't go on, and it's time for live broadcast. Invite technical experts from several enterprises to discuss the development trend of the industry and the advantages of their own products, and cultivate them as brands and customers.

I do see that many companies want to broadcast live from offline activities, but this is not the key issue. I did a lot of live broadcasts, but I found that the number of live broadcasts and the number of viewers were not ideal. It is not recommended to do it for the sake of doing it.

The epidemic situation does not mean that all marketing activities must shift from offline to online. It is more important to think about whether online activities are also worth investing, how to invest, and where the focus is.

Demand? for generations

Demand? Generation is still a concern of all enterprises, but the speed should be slowed down.

Demand mining is an important project for marketing departments to tap users' needs and empower sales to transform customers. It has always been a key project of CMOs. Indicators to measure demand generation are no longer some nihilistic brand marketing indicators, such as brand awareness, penetration rate, health and so on. , but it is more in line with the current trend of digital marketing. The indicator of the effectiveness of demand mining is further related to "business growth".

For example, the number of customer conversions and sales revenue obtained by demand generation projects, and a very important indicator is the future income contribution of potential customers. This indicator is very concerned by B2B enterprises, because in many B2B business models, the customer conversion cycle is very long, and the fundamental reason for the long customer conversion cycle is that the customer project cycle and product development cycle are relatively long, so it can be predicted that a customer will bring income contribution in the future, and the project amount has also become an indicator to measure the demand generation.

But after the epidemic, a CEO friend told his CMO that generating demand is still the focus of marketing, but the pace should be slowed down.

Why? Because the supply chain is under pressure, there is a certain degree of uncertainty in raw material procurement, customer demand prediction, product supply and delivery at the front end of the supply chain. In many cases, customers have demand and placed orders, but the supply chain can't deliver on time.

In this case, if the marketing front-end is pushed too hard, fully tap the needs of users, attract the attention of new users, and old users also have repurchase needs, but the back-end supply chain capacity can't afford it, then it can be said that marketing expenses and efforts are wasted, which is a pity.

It is better to wait and find out what products the enterprise should focus on promoting next quarter. After these products are promoted, customer service ability and delivery ability can keep up with the pace of marketing promotion. The marketing department needs to actively communicate with the management supply chain department and adjust the marketing strategy and promotion objectives on the basis of understanding the situation.

Digital infrastructure

A solid digital infrastructure will help you resist external risks and build a solid marketing moat.

Nowadays, digital camp means emerge one after another, such as short video marketing, live broadcast with goods and community marketing. But whether it is really useful for your brand or just joining in the fun, you can really take this time to think about it.

In my opinion, marketers must pay attention to their digital marketing infrastructure. What is digital marketing infrastructure?

For example, your official website, your official WeChat account, your data platform, your customer experience journey, your content marketing system and your digital marketing work style all belong to the digital marketing infrastructure.

Digital marketing infrastructure definitely refers to not only various digital tools and platforms, but also your strategic architecture design and marketing work style.

These can't bring the increment of effect and the outbreak of users in a short time, but it is precisely because of the solid digital infrastructure that you can help you maintain the continuity of your business at a very low cost, stabilize the mentality of users and maintain or even deliver a better customer experience when your business is facing risks and uncertainties.

What you can do is:

Look at your official website again and see that some contents and functions can be further optimized.

Look at your data center. If yes, analyze the recent project performance and customer data to see what changes have taken place in the customer's concerns and user portraits recently, what information can be passed on to sales and how to empower them?

Increase your content marketing budget, try to keep close communication with customers through more effective digital contact, give them confidence, establish a solid customer relationship and enhance mutual trust.

Now may not be a good time to spend a lot of budget on brand advertising, but it is a good choice to adopt a relatively conservative marketing method.

end

Under the current situation, it will become one of the important abilities of marketers to formulate and implement highly flexible and adaptable marketing strategies.

It's difficult, but it's important and correct.

Jade hopes that everyone can take the initiative to change in difficulties, turn passivity into initiative, turn crisis into business opportunities, and at the same time, be sure to do personal protection. I hope this war without smoke will pass quickly. Come on!