Adapt your Marketing Strategy now. Don't stop or freeze.

Amidst lockdowns, work from home directives, uncertainty and many industries being hit hard, it is time to be prepared for the long haul. But this is not the time to stop, it's the time to adapt. You can't build a long term future on short term thinking.

1. Digital Strategy: Given the increased amount of time that people are spending online, building the right digital strategy is as important as ever. Do the deep thinking now. Strengthen areas that have been neglected.

2. Brand building should not stop. Or it should start if it was tactical. Spend time on crafting brand messaging that highlights core values & demonstrates empathy. Not opportunism. Like this article by Mark Ritson suggests: "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."

3. Content is critical. Talk about how your company is handling the situation, in terms of the welfare of customers and employees. This is the time to live upto the lofty brand purposes and employee well-being initiatives. Being good to employees will resonate with customers. As much as not being good will have negative effects. Nothing stays hidden. Content can also build positivity. There is a downturn and the impact is massive. But people have more time, attention and may want positivity to alleviate the harshness of distancing and quarantine. It is important to stay connected with them.

Shedd Aquarium Chicago is posting videos of penguins wandering around at the now closed facility, looking at all the other fish. Check out their tweets.

Fitness First Middle East closer home, is posting home workout routines on social media everyday as gyms are closed. (I maybe slightly biased here since I worked with them!)

Chipotle Mexican Grill is offering “Chipotle Together” virtual hangouts on Zoom. Each day this week, 3,000 fans will be able to mingle virtually with celebrities in online chats that will also include codes for free entrées.

4. Build your Data Strategy which is usually difficult to do when running many campaigns and consistently optimising for performance. Understand how your first, second and third party data is currently structured, and what changes you need to make. Can you work on building data accuracy now when campaigns have reduced? Now that many companies have instituted Work From Home, it will be immediately visible the challenges of remote access to data for different teams are. It is important to set a strategy in place improve the ways in which you acquire, store, manage, share and use data.

5. CX: Understand the change in customer journeys and reorient the CX. It needs to adapt. Customer service teams are much more on the frontline right now. Digital channels are in the spotlight. E-commerce is going to be key to many industries. Strengthening these areas by reallocating resources and budgets from cancelled events and other activities is an immediate action point.

6. UX: Change your UX to ensure that customers get the most important info right upfront or able to take the most common action right upfront. Don’t bury a change in hours of operation on an inside page for example. Think about what they immediately would look for and make it easy for them to find it. Using the same website homepage as earlier will not resonate when everyone’s mind is only on one thing.

7. Change your orchestration and automation communication. Today, I received a message from a gym. The first three words - "we miss you" with a link to their website. But all the gyms are closed officially so there's no relevance to "we miss you". A better message would have been - Want to workout from home? Here's a set of workouts you can do. Many messages seem tone deaf right now, when there's only one thing on everyone's mind. Personalisation needs context, always. If you've switched, "shop in-store this weekend" to "shop online this weekend", it is still tone deaf. Instead you could talk about how you've made online delivery safer.

8. Upskilling teams on remote working, online events, and any others areas for development would be a good way for teams to use their time and also have the potential to put new skills to use.

9. Any other goals that you had put off to later because tactical stuff took budget and time should be re-evaluated and brought forward if it serves long term strategic purpose and some budget is available. For e.g. is this the time to build that additional functionality that you thought didn't serve the goal of driving transactions, but enabled better engagement? It maybe time to prioritise that now.

10. Put Safety First when planning any change. Safety of teams comes first!