via Squirrly CEO, Florin Muresan | “Can’t be all that bad. The Sun still shines.” –  That’s what one of Squirrly’s customers recently said as they were discussing changes and shifts in strategy. Apparently both he and his agency have started focusing on SEO because there’s finally time for it. And he is right. You can either get beaten down into the ground, or you can keep a clear attitude and focus on things that are under your control. Because they are.

Nobody should try to downplay the effects of this global crisis (that’s why I’m happy that Twitter deletes tweets that are trying to make the virus seem weaker than it is). However, as business owners, freelancers, brands, marketers, we cannot let this bring us down.

There’s a lot of negative vibes everywhere. I get invited to share opinions in many business, startup and marketing groups on Facebook.

Recently I was asked again since many members in one group just couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to do during these dark times.

Someone had suggested that they spend more budgets (double their budgets really) on advertising and then requesting meetings with the new leads they would generate.

Such an approach is completely wrong, and it made me ultimately decide to write this email.

  1. There isn’t enough business happening anywhere in the world right now. There are very few industries where it would make sense to invest in ads NOW, during COVID-19. The businesses inside the Facebook group were in no way related to those industries. (What works well now: everything related to deliveries, because we’re all stuck at home. That’s about it)
  2. Investing in ads is wrong for most industries because there isn’t enough business happening. Also, people forget things, so it’s not like you’re still generating “good awareness”. Nobody will remember an ad they saw months ago. Ads don’t help you long-term!!! Only SEO does. Results keep coming even months after you stopped working on a page (stopped working on a page, NOT on the whole site; that still needs to happen).
  3. When you stop paying for ads, all the results stop. Unlike SEO, of course. SEO brings long-term benefits.
  4. You can’t get people into meetings during these times. I mean: you can, but they won’t really be ready to buy the most solutions. You’d get them to meetings only to have them say that they’re currently suspending most activities.

So clearly, that’s not the way to do marketing in April 2020.

What will you do? Also: What was the advice I gave to the group?

I wouldn’t do that (the part about 2x-ing the ad spend). I would only invest in SEO, email marketing, social media, but that’s about it.

Conversions across funnels are completely different during these times of crisis. Nothing works according to historical data.

Social Media - Top Rank SEO Philippines

SEO is good because now people finally have time for it. It yields long term results, so it’s awesome because when the world goes out of the crisis, companies who spend time on SEO now will be in front of everyone else.

The world will overcome this new virus. Things will go back to normal. Most people won’t be found on search engines then. But YOU can be found right then and there when that will happen if you start working on your SEO today.

Online Marketing - Top Rank Seo Philippines

Social media: because people spend a lot more time online now. You need to

keep being in their feeds. They need to see proof you are still alive and kicking. Project confidence. Otherwise, by the time the crisis is over, you will have been forgotten.

Email marketing: The same as SM. can also potentially keep sales going, yet the same occurs: conversions will be completely different than what you expect.