COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc across the globe, with people practicing “social distancing” and staying home as much as possible. Let’s take a look at how this will affect your B2B marketing strategies.

PR AND MARKETING NEED TO WORK TOGETHER

As businesses, we need to know how to properly communicate with our customers based on our individual strategies. We must recognize that our PR and marketing efforts need to adapt and work together during this time.

Stay Relevant to your Audience: Look for ways to address the needs and concerns of your audience, including how you can support the workforce which is now suddenly almost exclusively remote. For example, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Slack have tripled their ad spend promoting their remote communications tools*.

Cease Nonessential Press Releases and Launches: Press releases and launches are a key part of any B2B strategy. But now is not the time for your latest announcement. People are focused on the current situation, not your company news. So put off that launch for now.

Examples: There have been several examples of companies changing their manufacturing plants, distribution, etc. to help during this time. Last week Dropbox issued a press release that they’ve joined with 25 Silicon Valley tech firms to donate $22M to various organizations helping during the crisis. SAP Ariba published an article on how they helped a customer find 500 hospital beds in just 30 minutes for a temporary media facility. The billboard pictured here was updated by Poly to show their support for their customer and the community, maintaining their brand presence while being relevant to the current situation.

Focus Online

With in-person events off-limits, look for ways to do things online to support your B2B marketing strategies. Create virtual events and webinars that people can log into from the comfort of their home. Do a live video on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to engage your audience. Take time to produce videos that will benefit your strategy even after COVID-19 dissipates.

Build up your Social Media: Social media is a mainstay for everybody staying at home during this time. And it’s something that you can work on and improve in the background. Make sure all of your information is up to date. Look for ways to spice up your social profiles and feeds. Upload pertinent content that keeps you and your brand top of mind, but also speaks to the needs of your audience.

Optimize your Digital Spaces: Clean up and refine your blogs and websites, as well as SEO, to ensure your current content is as visible as possible. Update old information. Analyze your strategy and adjust your tactics and budget accordingly.

EMAIL VS. TELEMARKETING

The odds stacked against telemarketing have escalated in 2020 with the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, declared a state of emergency, unsolicited telemarketing calls during the period were also prohibited, stating that telemarketing during emergencies could hinder the state’s resident’s ability to access safety information. Even in states where telemarketing is not banned, it is difficult to reach your target audience when many are working from home.

Roadblocks for telemarketing open the door for email marketing as B2B marketers begin to review their ad spending. Email already has many advantages, including:

• Targeted and personalized emails have a 74% high chance of customer engagement
• Customers respond more positively to personalized emails than telemarketing
• With email, there is the potential for follow up when the initial response bears no fruit

Personalize your emails, content, and website to enhance customer loyalty, experience, and engagement.

With COVID-19, marketing teams have more challenges than ever before in maintaining their sales pipelines, mitigating business impact, and continuing growth during this health and logistical crisis. The good news is ad spending is actually up in some industries, including tech.

Here are some tips to help the B2B tech market continue to grow, and so other industries can bounce back as quickly as possible.

LESSEN THE IMPACT ON PIPELINE

Start with LinkedIn: 95% of B2B marketers are already using LinkedIn to grow their businesses. Find your dream customers and connect with them on LinkedIn.

Convert your existing communications into video: Video will drive engagement on social media while also offering an alternative to in-person communications.

Start a podcast: Podcasts are the fastest growing content in B2B. 74% of people say they listen to podcasts to learn new things. Create podcasts to teach your prospects more about your products and services while connecting remotely.

Bring back the Webinar: 73% of B2B marketers now say webinars are the best way to generate high-quality leads.

Implement ChatBots: We’re moving toward a place where 85% of customer interactions take place without a human conversation. Chatbots use artificial intelligence and make sure your sales and marketing operation is staffed 24/7.

IMPACT OF REMOTE WORKERS ON ABM CAMPAIGNS

B2B marketers have become much more efficient by executing targeted account based marketing programs. These programs rely on being able to reach potential customers at targeted companies using data partners to drive promotions. In many cases, data partners can also gauge intent and identify surging accounts and prospective customers. So if those targeted people are now working remote, can they still be reached? The short answer is “yes”. Most data partners use a variety of data points when determining a target’s domain including:

• IP Address (which will be the same for a remote working dialing into their company’s VPN)
• Publisher Registration Databases
• Offline Partners

Some vendors are seeing a slight decline in being able to hyper-target specific targeted accounts, mostly SMB’s. However, due to the increase in online users, vendors are seeing in increase in digital activity of up to 50%. You can also be more efficient with your dollars by focusing on industries that are seeing growth during this time (healthcare, biotech, etc.), and avoiding slower industries (travel, hospitality, food/restaurants).

WHAT WE ARE SEEING FOR OUR CLIENTS

Here are some trends we’ve seen for our B2B client during the last 2 weeks of March:

• Due to increased activity in social, our campaigns on Facebook saw almost a 20% drop in CPM, with a lift in click-thru rate and engagement
• After an initial bump in CPM, LinkedIn rates started to level off with click-thru and engagements performing almost 20% better
• Our targeted account campaigns have also seen a lift of about 20% inactivity
• Some clients have seen a large bump in web traffic, including about 26% increase in new sessions

Author: Kim Chrystie, Sr. Director of Strategy at Media Matters Worldwide

Marketers usually thrive on new phenomena - but when “social distancing” and “stay in place” have become global realities seemingly overnight, what does this mean for Marketers?  How do we persevere?  How do we stay connected and keep moving forward?

Here are some insights and tips about how marketers can be smart and efficient during uncertain times.

Learn from the past

In the weeks after 9/11, the ad industry responded with uplifting messages. GM’s campaign is the most memorable from that period, offering up “Keep America Rolling,” combining a pro-America pitch with zero percent financing. GM’s president of North American operations said, “We know this is a difficult time to talk about an incentive program, but GM has a responsibility to help stimulate the economy by encouraging Americans to purchase vehicles, to support our dealers and suppliers and to keep our plants operating and our employees working.” GM acted forcefully with a marketing campaign and financial incentives at a time when many marketers were tentative and uncertain. And GM’s campaign worked. U.S. auto sales broke a record in October 2001, with the second-best year ever despite the recession.

Now is the Time to be Strategic

Think long-term and keep building your brand, protecting your staff, honoring your values, and being there for your customers. Focus more on your long-term brand-building mission, because this virus shall pass and consumers will return. Keep the brand light burning, because the cost of snuffing it out for the rest of 2020 and then trying to reignite it next year is gigantic.

Great brands build their equity during crises like this. They stand out by exemplifying their brand values in the face of the crisis that surrounds it. They invest in brand-building media because, with many of their competitors cutting their budgets and losing their share of voice, there is a rare opportunity to come out of the crisis not just alive, but ahead.

HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN THIS CLIMATE

Twitter has a word of caution for brands: “This is not a ‘marketing opportunity’ for brands to opportunistically link themselves to a health scare. What we are facing is unprecedented. This is global, this is open-ended, and this could affect every brand, every business, and every individual. In times of crisis, people look to leaders and institutions for guidance, reassurance and information. Increasingly, they also look to brands.” Brands need to be thoughtful about their message, and step up as responsible voices. Companies in the travel industry, for instance, need to update consumers about the status of flights, cruises and hotels. Retailers need to inform the public about buying high-demand products. Home-cleaning brands need to communicate about the effectiveness of their products in a health crisis. It’s about understanding the unique role their brand plays in people’s lives, how that has changed, and how your brand can help or be useful during this crisis. It’s also about looking for opportunities to lead by example, do the right thing where it makes sense for your business, and drive thoughts and action with authenticity and empathy.

In challenging times and a fast-changing global landscape, communicating brand identity and values remains important. COVID-19 provides a new challenge for marketers that shines a light on the importance of relying on strategies outside of traditional channels, while remaining agile during ever changing times. As cases of COVID-19 increase internationally, brands have begun scrambling to navigate the pandemic – both internally and externally. Marketing teams are forced to switch gears and think of alternative outlets to accelerate pipeline while keeping the health of others in mind.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing can be an effective way to keep in touch with customers and increase pipeline during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the right content marketing strategy, communication and engagement with your audience can remain undisrupted.

With notable conferences being canceled due to COVID-19 concerns, many marketing teams are focusing on digital lead generation channels as alternative outlets to accelerate pipeline. Brand leaders like IBM have adapted their plans to include digital events. In doing so, they can scale their events globally while increasing engagement. Digital events allow brands to become storytellers to the masses, and provide valuable content, thus increasing brand awareness and engagement. Customers and prospects seek out content that entertains, inspires, educates, and informs – and a strong content strategy will give you the opportunity to leverage important elements from experiential marketing online.

USE INFLUENCERS AS PART OF YOUR BRAND

By investing in influencers, brands can increase favorability, consideration, product usage, and customer loyalty.

Education is important - Responsibly associate appropriate and authentic influencers with your brand
Entertain & inspire - Find subtle ways to address the new “at home” behavior
Promote philanthropic efforts - Spotlight your brand’s contributions, ethics, and social responsibility
Maintain consistency - Continue to message brand benefits in the same manner

HOW COVID-19 HAS IMPACTED GLOBAL MEDIA

According to eMarketer, in 2020, total media ad spending worldwide is expected to reach $691.7 billion, up by 7.0% from 2019. That’s a decrease from the previous forecast when we expected worldwide ad spending to rise by 7.4% to $712.02 billion this year. Note: that forecast was completed on March 6, 2020, before President Trump announced a 30-day ban on the entry of most Europeans into the US, which temporarily halted the stock market.

Out-of-home (OOH) broad spending could feel the most impact from social distancing. However, through programmatic OOH, brands can invest dollars in units where they may want to drive direct actions or traffic, such as grocery stores.

Digital media is likely to experience a boost across the board as people spend more time at home and communicate less in person. We expect digital consumption to increase across social media, over-the-top video and online gaming.

Social networks could be a major beneficiary, as people turn to these platforms to connect with friends and family or to access news content. Despite the concerns many have about social platforms as reliable information sources, more than half (55%) of US adults got news from social media often or sometimes in 2019, up from 47% in 2018 (Pew Research Center). eMarketer estimates that US adults will spend 55 minutes per day on social networks in 2020.

Streaming video services are also likely to benefit as people seek out more entertainment or news content. The biggest bumps in usage and time spent are likely to go to dominant SVODs, like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, and could even drive subscriber additions. Ad-supported VOD services like Roku Channel and Pluto TV could also see sizable lifts in usage and streaming hours, as these services can lend themselves to more lean-back viewing and feature some live national and local news programming options that aren't available on most SVOD services.

Sensitive Content Categories (Display, YouTube)

Historically, Google offered the below category options that advertisers could exclude:

• Tragedy and conflict
• Sensational and shocking
• Profanity and rough language
• Sexually suggestive content

Most advertisers don’t want to appear alongside Sensitive Content Categories, and if they do, they can leave unexcluded.

Inventory Types (YouTube)

While Sensitive Content Categories will continue for Display, they are being replaced on YouTube by Inventory Types, which instead of offering control over individual potentially sensitive categories, offers a high-medium-low tolerance option termed Expanded, Standard, and Limited Inventory. Learn more about the specifics in Google’s documentation.

Digital Content Labels (Display, YouTube)

Similar to movie ratings, YouTube videos and sites in the Google Display Network are assigned one of the following ratings based on their suitability for various audiences: G, PG, T, MA, or Not Yet Labeled. And similar to Inventory types, these settings offer a way for advertisers to set their comfort level by the age-appropriateness of the content they appear alongside.

While Sensitive Content Categories, Inventory Types, and Digital Content Labels help advertisers avoid this type of content, most want to go a step further using additional exclusions, keywords, and other brand safety enhancements:

Topics Exclusions (Display, YouTube)

Within Google Ads’ Topics targeting, there are a number of categories that many but not all brands might want to avoid appearing alongside. These include News, Politics, Medical Issues, Horror, etc. Keep in mind, these exclusions are in addition to any Sensitive Content Categories, Inventory Types, and Digital Content Labels already in place.

Negative Keywords (Display, YouTube, Search)

Getting one step more granular beyond Topics is Keyword exclusions. If the above still results in objectionable content, negative keywords can be added to avoid ads appearing next to videos or on pages with those keywords. This is also where Search comes in. Any negative keywords should be added here after filtering through your keyword search terms report.

Placement Exclusions (Display, YouTube)

Lastly, if there is one particular troublesome page, domain, YouTube channel or video that is slipping through all the filters you’ve put in place, you can block a specific entity by URL.

Third-Party Monitoring (Display, YouTube)

While Google does provide some ability to analyze what content your ads appear alongside, if advertising at scale, it can be nearly impossible to verify ads are appearing in brand-safe environments. This is where third-party monitoring platforms such as DoubleVerify and Moat become valuable. Both are a means of validating brand safety results, as well as identifying opportunities for improvement.

What does this all mean?

Taken together, these measures provide a high level of brand safety when advertising on Google. We expect both Google and third-party monitoring platforms will, at some point, use data analytics to become more sophisticated in helping advertisers understand the types of content their ads run alongside, especially at scale given every video and site cannot be manually reviewed. Moreover, as the most recent YouTube struggles exhibit, providing a window into comments placed alongside ads would also be a particularly welcome change.

As always, brand safety requires vigilance and a watchful eye on potential threats and looking for ways to improve using available preventative tools.