The coronavirus pandemic is forcing the whole world to face unexpected challenges and adapt to the new conditions. Millions of people working in different industries including marketing are looking for ways to succeed or at least remain stable in such a volatile climate. In a recent interview Kathy Bachmann, General Manager of Americas in a global consultancy company, Analytic Partners Inc., shared her opinion on a few strategic problems that suddenly appeared on marketers’ agenda.

The trend of growing online sales and lower offline sales, that had been around before the pandemic, has strengthened even further over the last month. Even though customers will return to regular shops once everything gets back to normal, the increasing shift to e-commerce will not go away, so it makes sense to focus on developing this capability.

Taking into account the impact on media consumption, consumer mobility and supply chains, it’s necessary to review and adjust some marketing mixes companies currently use. Marketers need to wisely, but quickly plan every next move to benefit from any arising opportunities or mitigate losses. There is no universal strategy, so changes will vary from business to business: some advertisers need to boost spends while others should keep their cash reserves for the future. But one advice can be applied to everybody without exception: “Adapt to the new landscape and don’t try to wait it out!”  It’s possible with advanced analytical tools that can provide real-time data-driven insights like AdoptoMedia platform. It runs what-if scenarios and allows for mid-campaign optimization, which is relevant more than ever in this dynamic situation.

Here are some measures that marketers are already taking or probably will to cope with the circumstances:

• Reallocating budgets to online sales drivers.

• Reducing spends on campaigns aimed at short-term sales, but maintaining brand-building campaigns at the same level. We have already discussed why brand strength is important and how marketing drives enterprise value in 18 ways.

• Focusing on promotion of at-home and delivery-based goods.

• More heavily promoting everyday items rather than premium segment of products.

• Making new plans to spend or keeping for later investments the money that was supposed to be spent on advertising at cancelled sports events.

• Monitoring local data in regions with different impact level.

• Adjusting media allocations and careful management of digital channels with updated ROIs on new cost levels. Various channels cost will be affected by changes in media supply and demand.

• Basing marketing actions on trends and relevant keywords.

• Implementing tools for quick response and budget optimization.

• Measuring the effectiveness of custom creatives addressing the pandemic.

If you want to make reasonable alterations to your marketing strategy as a response to consumer behavior change caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, find the most effective ways to engage with customers and use appropriate messaging. Analyze data on consumer behavior, channel effectiveness, spending trends as well as crisis specific information to better understand and meet people’s needs.

Even though it’s difficult to forecast anything under the current conditions, and many companies are just trying to take the right tactical steps every day, you shouldn’t give up on building a strategy. High-performing marketers use advanced analytics to distinguish between a temporary short-term sales surge and a long-term trend, reduce risk and make strategic decisions. If you already have a Marketing Mix Modeling tool in your measurement kit, you can adjust the models to pandemic-related changes for better results. With AdoptoMedia you can weather the storm of COVID-19 by optimizing media budget allocation by product, region or channel and eliminating efficient ones. It’s a software that can be smoothly integrated into existing IT infrastructure. Our platform solves tasks on both tactical and strategic level, provides real-time ROMI measurement and forecast and ensures best-in-class marketing accountability. We helped our clients to increase ROMI by 15-30%.