Wow, what a Spring it has been! Here at AdEdge, we hope you are doing well in spite of all that’s going on – our health crisis, the economy, and the inconveniences you face of being quarantined. A friend of mine put it well, “It’s like being in a Sci-Fi movie!” I don’t know about you, but I prefer watching them, not being in them!

I wanted to let you know that here at AdEdge, we’re operating at “full strength”. In fact, being a remote company to begin with, we are fully unaffected by the “stay home” rule. Or should I say, nearly unaffected? After all, our kids and teens are home too, doing their best to get under our skin.

As with any major social or economic shifts, the Coronavirus presents various business threats and opportunities. As a highly awarded digital marketing agency, I feel it’s our job to research and share marketing strategies with our circle of SMBs. A shift in strategy and digital marketing tactics, even if temporary, is a good way to speak to clients in a way that is sensitive to, and directly addresses, our challenging business environment.

Tell me, how is Coronavirus impacting your business?

Every industry is different and the impact ranges from severe to not at all. Here at AdEdge, we are watching our accounts very carefully and optimizing accordingly. We’ve also spent time hashing out ideas to keep our clients out of trouble and their digital marketing performance strong. Here are a few ideas we’ve shared, and implemented with our clients and I wanted to share this with you as well, whether you are managing your website and digital marketing in house, through an agency, or if you are an agency yourself.

The key here is to communicate with your customers and clients in a clear, and confident way so they understand how your business is impacted by the virus and how the products or services you are providing, are impacted. Or, if they are not impacted. The unknown can lead to fear so take the mystery out of what is going on and communicate with confidence. Long story short, talk about it!
Here are some things you can do:

1) Encourage and communicate business as usual, whenever reasonable and possible. These messages should go in a callout box on your website’s home page.
2) Address concerns that your customers are likely to have and allay those fears with specific solutions and safety protocols. These messages can go on your home page, landing pages, and on product/service pages.
3) Shift your marketing efforts and communications but keep them going for three reasons.
i) Pitch products and services, or new ways of doing business that are more likely to appeal, given our current market.
ii) Lots of decision makers are at home right now paying close attention to social media, and even snail mail. Talk to them!
iii) This will pass and by June-July we will be in full recovery mode. Depending on your industry, there will be pent up demand. Be ready for it, and keep your brand out there to capture recovery business.
4) To help struggling small businesses, Google plans to offer a certain amount of free advertising to be offered as credits. So if you’ve been thinking about advertising on Google’s network, now could be a great time. To stay abreast of this opportunity, give us a call or sign up for our newsletter. Here’s what we know: https://wersm.com/google-announces-340-million-in-ads-credits-available-to-all-smbs/
5) Take a look at the new CARES act. This is the 2 Trillion dollar zero-interest small business loan program that in many cases, converts to a grant after one year. Here’s what we know: https://blueprintbenefit.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ea861735f531e60728f298427&id=2a7980b1bd&e=a522df1d45

Do you have questions about how to adjust your marketing strategies or tactics in this challenging marketscape? If you would like to talk about it, please schedule 15 minutes with us here at AdEdge, contact us or give us a call at 203-682-4585 and we’ll be happy to share some ideas specific to your industry. We can also offer an evaluation of your current digital marketing efforts because while it may not be a good time to begin throwing a bunch of money at a new campaign, it’s certainly a good time to begin planning one.

PS Stay healthy, follow the safety guidelines and most importantly, try to have some fun too. I’m encouraging our team to enjoy this rare opportunity to spend quality time with family and the great outdoors!

Very best regards,

Anthony LoFrisco, Jr.
Managing Director