How bad is it, really?

We all have one thing in common right now. We’re all victims of a very bad car crash. If you’re reading this, it means you’re one of the lucky survivors. You get to walk away from the wreckage and start all over again.

The first step in any rebuild is to evaluate your starting point. Likewise, as we barrel towards crisis, it’s important to pause, take a deep breath and assess your baseline.

To ask, “How bad is it, really?”

You might not like the outcome of this exercise, but you must not let today’s bad news deter you from tomorrow’s good news.

The tool I would like to propose to you is what I like to call the marketing impact analysis (MIA, if you like acronyms).

Wordstream reviewed 15,759 accounts and found some interesting trends, following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the average cost-per-click (CPC) declined across industries and verticals, the average click-thru rate (CTR) increased. Food and groceries, as well non-profit and charities saw a higher CTR. Legal, financials and other similar industries also enjoyed some SEO gains.

Would you have expected those outcomes? Exactly. The point of context is to help us gain perspective.

The idea is to understand your marketing impact, so you can plan for the path forward.

Here are some helpful questions to ponder:

• How much did the downturn impact your business? 

• Which marketing channels were most affected? 

• In practical terms, how do you compare with competitors?

Start by assessing your pre-pandemic performance, using March 2020 as the baseline. Review your marketing across all channels: social media, email, offline, etc.

Create a list of channels and grade your performance across them.

Be honest.

You’re only going to get better, so there’s no wrong way to do this.