Yes. The last few years have not been the easiest. The crises continued. And we have learned to promote brands online in recessionary conditions. In the following, we tell you from experience how to do crisis marketing so that it works without fail.

Crisis Marketing and SEO

Before implementing your marketing plan, think strategically and coldly: every crisis has an acute phase, of maximum panic when sales drop dramatically, that is if you are not marketing essential products or services. In this phase, naturally, all expenses are reduced and activities are restricted.

Now it is difficult to convert even the highest quality leads into paying customers, but the option remains open to optimize the activity, expenses, and the way of operation. In other words, periods of economic recession are moments of calm, so that you have time to reconfigure your plans, and when economic activity resumes, you can win new customers without major efforts. Although consumption behavior may change a lot during these times, the economy will not stop and people will continue to consume. And you, as a brand, need to be there, confident and empathetic, for when the economy picks up.

So, here is the list of recommendations that will help you do crisis marketing:

1. Be a responsible brand – showing empathy to both customers and employees, as well as showing humanity as a brand, matters a lot in times of crisis. Responsible brands show a civic attitude, especially in moments of restriction. If you have the opportunity, to get involved in humanitarian campaigns or make donations, they will lead to strengthen the value of the brand.
2. Don't give up on promotion - whatever it is, in crises you must not be forgotten, but more than ever you must have a visible brand. If the circumstances so dictate, you can take into account a decrease/correction of the invested budget. Thus, you can redistribute budgets following changes in consumption.
3. Try to be visionary and anticipate some changes in consumer behavior – you can try to analyze how things have evolved in previous crises and guess people's needs for the coming period, so you can keep interest in your company alive. A good idea would be to carefully check what is being searched for online both in the Google keyword planner and the search terms section of your Google Ads reports. Thus, you will know what is being searched for and you will be able to take advantage of new opportunities, making your advertising budgets as efficient as possible. You should also see a drop in costs during times of crisis, which can also work in your favor now that many companies are tightening their budgets.
4. Choose a non-intrusive marketing strategy – the search engine cannot be ignored, it is a rescue when the advertisement cannot be given on Social Media, Google Ads, or even on TV. You can invest time in On-page SEO optimizations (creating mega tags, optimizing site loading speed, placing breadcrumbs, etc.) specifically now when you have some respite to fortify the site optimization part of yours, once the marketing department's priorities have changed. It is the right time to solve the technical SEO part of your website: to get rid of all its problems and errors. By getting a good position in the search results, they can also ensure a steady flow of leads just in time for when the economy picks up. Equally appropriate is content marketing, which only comes to inform the consumer during this period.
5. Follow your interests, but with deep consideration for the situation in society - use retargeting campaigns, closely monitor costs, and change operating strategies on the fly, if necessary. Remarketing campaigns have to be special: with special promotions, discounts, vouchers, and testers, because everyone weighs their every expenditure better than ever.
6. A crisis may not be the best time for aggressive marketing messages, but rather the time for informational communication – you need to constantly inform them of news relevant to them, maybe it's time to add a question and answer page, or to update its content, in case it already exists. Work on your website content and branding, this will help you keep your traffic steady or even increase.
7. Learn to sell through partners – for example: by email marketing promotion, mutual mentions on social networks, partnering courses, and events – the secret is to collaborate with niches complementary, (which are not direct competitors for you), to provide you with mutual help.
8. Choose reorientation, if appropriate – the focus can be on developing or designing from scratch those services and products with applicability in the crisis, so you could go on developing new related services or products offered as a bonus to buyers.
9. Current customers should become even more important to you – maintain a warm relationship with them, give them useful newsletters more often, make posts that keep their interest alive, and give them more attention than ever.
10. Constantly analyze what competitors are doing - look for the resources to maintain what you have already achieved so that you are not overtaken by competitors in a moment of weakness, even if the effort required to make it is greater now.
11. Fix your website's UX issues – now is probably the time to get your online presence in order, identify usability and user experience issues, and breathe new life into your digital presence.

Finally, we urge you to be strong, and full of inner resources, creativity, and resilience, they will help you to have more advantages after this period than at the beginning, a better image on the market and more confidence in your team. However bleak the outlook may seem now, humanity always tends towards normality, and you can withstand the crisis by adjusting and adapting your marketing strategies to the times in which we live. Don't forget to have your recovery plan ready: generating interest with unique offers, multi-channel ads, and awareness.

Don't have the time or energy to do crisis marketing? We can help you. We have qualified experts and a portfolio of more than 400 satisfied customers. Call us at +373 69 809 235 (Moldova), +40 721 536 067 (Romania) or leave us a message at info{@}seolitte.com.