3 Reasons to Maintain B2B Marketing in a Crisis

Kacey is guest posting today as a freelance writer whose professional background includes over a decade in the fields of business, culinary arts, and health and wellness. This experience has allowed her to establish a successful career as a writer, creating content that promotes connection for brands in food, health and entrepreneurial business spaces. She lives at www.kaceyhayes.com.

Any number of scenarios could qualify as a ‘crisis.’ However, the current pandemic creating concerns around both global health and the economic climate is the latest adversary nearly every business must face. Decreasing client workloads and budgets combined with unpaid invoices make for shaky ground, and as a result many businesses have been forced to slash expenses. Marketing is often one of the first casualties of emergency budget-tightening. It’s an understandable response, but is it the wisest? I make the case that it isn’t. Here are 3 reasons why.

Content marketing is the gift that keeps giving. Content marketing fills a number of important roles in your business marketing strategy. It educates and informs your audience, provides them with value, and is a fantastic trust-building tool. High-value, customer-focused content during a time of uncertainty and instability is exactly the kind of content your audience needs to see. Demonstrate the leadership that got you into business in the first place and give your audience clear, productive ways to move forward at a time when it’s all too easy to spin out.

The money is still out there. Did you cringe when I said ‘money’? Then you may have some work to do around the value you offer as a service provider, but that’s another post for another day. Because the money really IS still out there – there are still ideal clients who need exactly the expertise that you offer and will pay you well for it. It does well to have a plan for the worst, but certainly try to expect the best. You can’t land the clients out there looking for your services if you take the axe to your marketing efforts because you don’t see the point, or you assume no one needs your help.

Your presence indicates stability. At a time when it would be all too easy to throw in the towel (I mean, when else will you get globally sanctioned time off work?), your consistent presence online whether through social media posts, sharing career-related insight on LinkedIn or continuing to publish entries to your business blog offers some sense of normalcy. Not only that but continuing to show up for your business community during a crisis signals to other companies and potential clients that you’re still actively engaged with your work, positioning you as a reliable resource should they ever need your help.

Oprah Winfrey said it best when she remarked, “Helping others is how we help ourselves.” Who are any of us to argue with Oprah? Make yourself available to help and continue solving the problems you’re so adept at solving. When you can offer your services to a business or individual in dark times, you not only provide the assistance they’ve so desperately searched for, you meet a human need for yourself by connecting with and supporting another person. And we could all use more of that right now.