Recalibrate your marketing plan

Things are changing fast, and marketers are feeling the pressure to cut spending and shift priorities. CMOs need to quickly adjust strategy this year, not to mention rethink how they lead and deploy teams, interact with customers, and manage brand(s), marketing activities, spend, resources, and reputation. For product owners in particular, there are specific plans to reconsider or find workarounds, including release dates, product updates, lead generation management, and troubleshooting to pass. from physical to digital contact for sales, conferences and service.

Work at two speeds

There’s no shortage of issues to address, but while you’re dealing with pressing issues on an ad hoc basis, marketers should gather their lieutenants and take a fresh look at marketing strategy for the rest of the year.

What do you need to do

1. Audit existing objectives and planned activities. Quickly. Perhaps in a workshop or a long night, develop assumptions for market and activity changes (30, 60, 90 days and beyond – or alternative step gates to arbitrary numbers) by consequence of the pandemic.
2. Articulate how things will change for your audiences, the tactics (channels, content, programs) to reach them, and the right enablers to get there (data, resources, technology, governance).
3. Sprint revise the existing marketing plan through a rapid, development and iteration process that aligns budget to target, activities, clear owners, next steps and measurement of results. What should you stop, start, continue or adapt? What would success look like in December? Revise models and projections as needed.
4. Codify approach and determine the cadence, process and frequency of retooling marketing plans in the future. Things are fluid, but a little structure might help. Your adjustments may need to be made every two weeks to start, then monthly as things stabilize. Put it in the calendar.
5. Socialize the draft with your partners in sales, communications, products and of course, the executive suite. Don’t wait for it to be perfect to tweak. Report.

I spoke to my colleague Hanif Perry who does a lot of this work and he advised me: “Companies are rapidly rethinking their business models in this environment and their marketing plans need to quickly pivot to adapt. Many marketing organizations have tackled the first part of the exercise which is crisis management, but need to pivot to crisis leadership and how they prepare their marketing plans to support their business through and out of a new normal.

Examples of companies in action

Panera Bread has pivoted its business strategy to focus heavily on delivery, including grocery delivery. Its marketing team evolved to quickly pivot its entire plan to support this, including PR, advertising, and front-end experience development.

American Express redesigned much of its marketing plan during this time. Engagement programs for its existing cardholders and small businesses are focused on promoting programs around managing financial hardship such as waiving late interest charges and benefit extensions on things like the trips. Its acquisition engine promoted longer extensions on the eligible purchase window for new card member bonuses.

Additional good news: muscle memory

By doing so, you’ll be able to scale the rest of the year, not to mention develop some of those nimble capabilities that everyone says we all need in the long run. Many companies turn to quarterly marketing reviews anyway, which will get you going in that direction.