The marketing impact analysis
The first step in any journey is to evaluate your starting point. Likewise, it’s important to assess your baseline during a crisis in order to define the logical next steps.
When marketing during a downturn, you need to first conduct what I call a marketing impact analysis. I can’t guarantee that you’ll like the outcome of the exercise, especially if the assessment reveals some bad news. But, the goal is to not let today’s bad news deter you from tomorrow’s good news.
This is where a marketing impact analysis can help.
What is a Marketing Impact Analysis?
So, what do I mean by a marketing impact analysis. A marketing impact analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of your marketing program following a period of crisis or economic downturn. This is critical because it can quickly identify what’s important and where to direct your resources.
Why do you need a Marketing Impact Analysis in times of crisis?
Here are just a few reasons why you need a marketing impact analysis:
M.I.A. helps contextualize your new realities
To understand your marketing baseline
To understand your external, industry-wide realities
To properly segment customers based on their financial situation
To design a plan of attack that actually works in the new environment
How to Conduct a Marketing Impact Analysis
Begin by reviewing your pre-crisis performance. In the case of the coronavirus, March 2020 is a good baseline. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on March 11, 2020. Many parts of the world enacted stay-home orders throughout March and the months that followed. So, March is a good place to start when assessing the damage.
Evaluate your marketing activities across all channels and tactics: social media, email, website, digital advertising, print, etc. Then, consult external sources to validate the trends.
Internal Analysis
Create a list of your marketing channels and record your performance across them before and after COVID-19. Be honest. There’s no wrong way to do this.
To better quantify the impact, ask the following questions:
How are my marketing channels performing?
How is my website performing? Did we see a spike in traffic? How did the crisis affect my lead volume?
What’s the impact on marketing-generated revenue?
External Analysis
As you go through the exercise, consider obtaining external data through a research firm or the associations within your industry.
External sources can help you understand the following:
How much did the downturn impact my industry at large?
Which marketing channels were most affected?
What new customer behaviors are emerging? Why?
In practical terms, how do I compare with the industry?
A marketing impact analysis will prepare your business, giving you clarity on where you need to adapt. Note your observations as you analyze the data (for example, take note of any seasonal drivers that preceded the crisis). Armed with the data and knowledge of the impact, you are now better positioned to focus on the right marketing activities.
This can help you implement quick-hit campaigns (that is, low effort, high-value initiatives to generate momentum). You want to track your progress, so you can compare the results with what you’ve measured prior to the crisis.
Here are some metrics to consider for your benchmarking:
Website metrics
Social media performance (e.g. audience size, engagement rates)
Email marketing engagement (e.g. click-thru rates, conversion rates)
Lead volume
Conversion rates
Revenue from marketing activities