Blog
![[Infographic] Four Marketing Metrics to Track During (and After) a Global Crisis](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/523cf6c4e4b0f6b279e835d3/1587670534696-EE2UH458S0T132UBALVI/engagement-metrics.jpg)
[Infographic] Four Marketing Metrics to Track During (and After) a Global Crisis
COVID-19 isn’t just a global pandemic; it is an economic crisis for small businesses. As we work to flatten the curve of cases in the US, so begins the transition to our “new normal”. If you’re a small business, here are four marketing metrics that I would recommend you start monitoring now in order to help you understand where your marketing budget should be.
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way many small businesses have had to operate over the last month or so. Although there is discussion of some local governments lifting stay-at-home orders soon in order to improve their economies, we will be seeing the effects of this crisis for quite some time.
This “new normal” will be much different from the way things were before. Many small businesses will feel the need to cut back on costs, and may look to marketing costs firsts. As a marketer, this breaks my heart, because as my favorite quote by Henry Ford says:
Stopping your advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.
Nonetheless, your marketing budget will need to change. Here are some metrics that you should start tracking now to help you understand how to evolve your marketing budget in this “new normal”.
Change in Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total amount of money that a customer is expected to spend with your business during their lifetime. CLV can be calculated in different ways based on the type of small business you own, but the basic formula is:
[average value of a purchase] X [number of purchases from a customer per year] X [length of customer relationship in years]
If you have seen a drastic decrease in business from repeat customers, your CLV has probably decreased as well. For example, if you own a small coffee shop, and your regular customers have been coming in less frequently because they are working from home, the average amount of money they spent with you has gone down.
The specific metric you should identify here is the change in CLV that you have seen since the pandemic started affecting our country. This will help you determine how much money you should be spending to acquire new customers (which we will talk about in the next section).
To Track: Use sales numbers from before the year 2020 to see what your CLV was pre-COVID-19. Then calculate CLV using sales numbers from this year to compare the change. As local shelter-in-place mandates are lifted, it would be a good idea to contine tracking this metric as your local economy opens back up.
Change in Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is how much it costs your business to acquire a new customer. This is calculated by by adding up all of the marketing and sales costs associated with earning new customers (or converting existing customers into repeat customers) and dividing that number by the total number of customers won over from those efforts. Here is the formula written out more clearly:
[total amount spent on marketing and sales] / [number of customers won from those efforts]
Again, in the midst of this pandemic, we want to track the change in CAC. When you compare this number to the change in customer lifetime value, you will be able to effectively determine how much money (and time) you should be spending on your marketing efforts to attract new customers.
Going back to the coffee shop example, if your CLV has dropped from $250 to $150, you want to make sure that your CAC hasn’t increased to above that number. So if a $150 Google Ads campaign doesn’t bring you any customers, it’s time to reduce that budget, or look for other ways to spend that money that will be more effective—like SEO!
To Track: First, track all of the hours spent on marketing, as well as the costs associated with that time. Add it to any other marketing costs—think ads on Google or social media, email marketing platforms, etc.—and divide that number by how many customers were won over from those efforts. If you’re not sure, give your best guess based on conversations you or your staff has had with new customers.
Recalculate this number any time you calculate your CLV. These two metrics go hand-in-hand when it comes to developing your marketing budget.
Social Media Engagement
Predictions show that more people are spending time on social media while staying at home, which is why it’s so important to continue communicating with your customers on social.
With this in mind, make sure to keep an eye on your social media engagement. Social engagement is defined as shares, likes, and comments on your posts on social media. This is a great way to measure the success of your social media efforts, even if sales are down. The focus here should be on building and maintaining a relationship with your audience so that when they’re in a better position to buy, your brand will be at the top of their mind.
Nancy Kapoor writes for Social Media Today that interactive content as a digital marketing strategy will skyrocket this year. That’s because interactive content like 360-degree videos, quizzes, and polls are, by nature, a call-to-action. Interactive posts on social media can not only be shoppable, but shareable as well.
Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
To Track: Individually track engagement metrics on each platform that your small business is active on. Additionally, don’t forget about what your goals are for each platform. For example, if you are posting on Instagram to increase awareness from users between the ages of 25-34, don’t roll those engagement numbers in with those of your Facebook posts, where you might be trying to reach a different type of audience.
Stay agile. Find which type of posts are more successful and which ones have lower engagement rates.
Email Opens & Clicks
In March consumers saw a spike in emails sent from all kinds of brands making statements about how they were handling concerns about the pandemic. Most people found this to be kind of annoying.
Unsurprisingly, Salesloft reported that sales emails with “COVID-19” or “Coronavirus” in the subject line saw a 40% reduction in reply rates.
With this in mind, you may be thinking that email is a no-go right now. However, just like social media, email has the potential to help you create a much stronger relationship with your customer base (if you do it with the right intentions). Here are my three best recommendations:
Don’t try to incite fear.
Be positive, but...
...don’t be ignorant.
To Track: If you’re still sending marketing emails at this time, it’s important to keep a close eye on the open rates and click-through rates of your emails. If you’re seeing a significant drop in these metrics from before, you might want to think about changing up the content or just taking a break for a few weeks. Otherwise, you may see your unsubscribe rates shoot up, and those are contacts you may not be able to win over again.
As the economy starts to open back up in your area over the next few months and you adjust to your “new normal”, I hope you use these metrics to make re-budgeting less daunting and easier to understand on the marketing front.
If you’re a small business wondering where to go next, I’m happy to provide a free 30-minute consultation to talk about your goals and develop a plan of attack. Fill out the form below to sign up!
Four Things You Can Do Right Now for Your Small Business’ Marketing While Closed for COVID-19
If your business is one of the 50% of American small businesses that have closed their doors due to COVID-19, you may be feeling powerless in this situation. Whether you’re using this time to rest, or want to stay occupied, here are some things you can do to help you hit the ground running once you are able to open your doors again.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
Due to COVID-19, we’ve seen a 50% drop in small businesses that are still open in the US. These businesses have closed either out of concern for their employees’ health and safety, or due to local government mandates.
If you have closed your business’ doors (or feel that you might do so soon), you might be feeling pretty powerless, but please know that you are not alone. After looking into these resources through the Small Business Association, you might be wondering what more you can do at this time to enable your business to hit the ground running once you’re able to open up again.
Here are some of my best recommendations on activities you can work on that will bolster your brand and help you in your future marketing efforts.
1. Continue to engage with your followers on social media.
Now more than ever, people are spending a ton of time on social media, either out of boredom or simply because they’re craving social interaction. Feed into this need for them by posting fun, informative, and engaging content on your social media pages.
If you’re feeling kind of lost on social media right now, take a look at this blog post. Here are some other ideas for posts that you can repurpose for social:
Behind the scenes: Snap a picture of some of the goings-on that patrons of your business don’t normally see. This could be a back room on-site, a video detailing your process, or a sneak peak of a new product or service coming soon (more on that later).
Ask a question: If you’ve built a loyal fanbase in your social media followers, they’ll likely engage with a question asking what their favorite thing about your business is. For example, if you’re a restaurant, ask your followers what is the first thing they will order when you open your doors again.
Quarantine life: Give your followers a brief look into your personal life by showing a photo of your family, pets, or other activities that you're spending time on or with while self-isolating. This gives a more human side to your brand and will build stronger relationships with your customers.
Words of encouragement: A lot of people are scared right now. We’re all going through an unprecedented global event, and your followers are probably just as afraid of the unknown as you are. Provide some words of encouragement to build comradery and to, again, give a more human side to your brand.
Remember, just because your business is temporarily closed, that doesn’t mean you need to go radio silent to your customer base online.
2. Adjust your value proposition and offerings, if necessary.
Right now is a good time to take another look at your value proposition. With everything going on right now, will your business’ product or service truly serve the changing needs of your customer base when you open again?
We’re entering a new, very different economic market, and this market will be challenging for many small businesses. Take a good look at your current offering with this in mind. Does it differentiate you from your competitors? Does it help support your goals to scale back up? Does it truly create value in this new market?
If necessary, brainstorm some new products or services. You can also think of some innovative ways to change the way you serve your customers. For example, if you are a retail store, it’s possible that customers will soon prefer to order your products online for shipping or in-store pickup.
3. Do some reading.
If you’re a reader, there are a ton of awesome books out there for small business owners and entrepreneurs that are looking to developing their craft. These books might help you find inspiration for a new value proposition if you struggled with the first step! Here are just a few of my favorites:
The Lean Product Playbook by Dan Olsen: Have you ever heard of the term “minimum viable product”? This book introduces the concept by outlining a framework for launching a product that fits the basic needs of your customer base and evolves based on rapid feedback from this customer base. I read this book a few years ago—it was published in 2015—and I still find myself referencing its concepts today.
Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash
Inbound Marketing: Attract, Engage, and Delight Customers Online by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah: You know I have to recommend this book, written by the founders of HubSpot, because inbound marketing strategies can really evolve your business. This book is another older one, written in 2014, but the strategies outlined in it can still be applied today.
Friction by Jeff Rosenblum and Jordan Berg: I haven’t had a chance to read this one yet, but it’s on my “quarantine list”. This book talks about branding in this new age, where consumers are constantly bombarded with advertisements, and how to create a “passion brand” that is more focused on engaging with audiences and building stronger relationships.
If you’re not a reader, check out some of these TED Talks to keep your ideas fresh and your mind motivated.
4. Start writing a blog.
I realize that a blog may be the last thing on your mind right now, but hear me out. We already know that blogs can help you generate more website traffic, which in turn will provide you with more leads and a better ROI for your marketing efforts. If you need a refresher on that, check out this previous post of mine.
This is the perfect time to start writing a blog related to your business for a number of reasons.
You finally have the time to spend on it.
Nobody knows your business / industry / product better than YOU do!
Writing can be extremely therapeutic, especially in tough times.
As stated previously, people are spending more time online. Give them more content!
If you don’t think you’re a writer, just start jotting down ideas. Write what you wish your customers knew about your business, what you can offer, and just focus on tips that they would find helpful as it relates to what you do. You’d be surprised at what you come up with when you just start writing things down. Structure the information into an outline and fill in the gaps with any needed context. Before you know it, you’ll be writing blog posts!
If nothing else, the most important thing you can focus on right now as a small business owner is your health. I’m not just talking about your physical health (even though we’re in the middle of a global pandemic), but also your mental health. If your body is telling you to use this time to get some rest or spend some quality time with your family at home, do it. There is no rule that says you NEED to be working on your business when it’s closed. These tasks will still be available for you to work on when all of this blows over, too.
Adapting Your Marketing and Communication Strategies in Light of COVID-19
This is a scary and uncertain time for small businesses, but the COVID-19 outbreak doesn’t mean you should pause all communication with your customers. You can continue to serve them while supporting yourself and your brand’s reputation. Here are some examples of how some of my favorite local businesses are weathering the storm and adapting.
COVID-19 has already had a major impact on our country’s economy, and it’s likely that small businesses will need to weather this storm for the next few months as we get through this.
With the CDC encouraging consumers to stay home and avoid big groups of people, we’ve seen many small businesses elect to close their brick-and-mortar storefronts for the safety of their staff and customers.
That doesn’t mean that you should stop communicating and serving your audience. Not only is the current situation the perfect time to serve your community, it’s also a great time to review your current tactics and see how you can adapt.
Take a moment to read some tips on how to best adjust your marketing messaging during the coronavirus pandemic. I’ve also included some creative strategies from some of my favorite local brands as examples. Feel free to use some of these tips to implement creative tactics of your own!
Listen to your customer base.
I know that I’m not the only consumer who has received tone-deaf emails from credit card companies or banks in the last week. They sound something to the tune of “We want to let you know that we are dedicated to supporting you during this difficult time. You can pay your bills online!”
What these brands are failing to do is really listen to the concerns of their customer base, think of what their expertise is, and find ways to serve them during this time of uncertainty and confusion.
I’m not saying that you should be giving away all the free things if it would significantly impact your cash flow for the coming months. Your brand can serve your customers and community members by curing something as simple as boredom. Brick Road Pizza Co., a restaurant here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has begun offering make-your-own pizza kits for pickup in their location. These kits are a great way for families to pass the time and bond with each other while quarantined at home.
Other local pizzerias like Lombardo’s Pizzeria and Vitale’s Hudsonville offer pizza kits as well. I have also seen bakeries offering cookie and cupcake decorating kits that play off of the same idea.
Be helpful, not greedy.
The COVID-19 situation is very serious, but once all of this has passed, people will remember which brands aimed to serve and which brands used fear-mongering tactics to squeeze more money out of people.
Your marketing efforts right now need to be focused on helping your community make the best of the current situation. If you’re a business that typically relies on in-person visits, think about ways you can use technology to continue offering those services, especially if they can be helpful to people right now.
Funky Buddha Yoga Hothouse, one of my favorite hot yoga studios in the area, has been offering free live classes on their Facebook page. This is an awesome way to continue serving their current customers and give a taste of what they offer to non-customers as well.
Another awesome yoga studio offering free live videos of their classes is AM Yoga, who is incorporating positive messaging in their recent social media posts as well.
Go virtual.
Small businesses that sell goods are quickly adjusting their strategies to focus more on their web stores. While many states have discouraged retail shops from staying open, it’s still perfectly safe to order goods online to ship to your house.
Dime & Regal, my favorite local handmade goods store, thought of a creative way to encourage their customers to buy online by holding a daily (virtual) scavenger hunt. They post a clue of a particular product on their website, and visitors that guess the product correctly receive a prize.
One thing that makes this tactic so ingenious is that it not only drives more traffic to their online store, but is a great way for the brand to engage with its customers and break up the monotony of being cooped up inside.
Stay positive.
Again, attempts to ensue panic in your customer base will not end well for the reputation of your brand. Positive, helpful messaging will land well with your audience, even if you sprinkle in a bit of (tasteful) humor.
Bit Baking Co., a local vegan bakery, started offering vegan “Quarantine Survival Kits” with free shipping to those that ordered on their website. Here, they’re playing off of families that are feeling a little “stir-crazy” while staying at home with the kids.
One important thing brands need to be aware of is that many people are scared for their health and that of their loved ones right now. Jokes about the severity of this virus would be seen as tactless, so make sure that any jokes you incorporate in your messaging are in good taste. Just use your best judgement.
If you’re not sure how to adjust your marketing messaging at this time, I’m happy to help. Sign up for a free 30-minute consultation below!
Hi! I’m Jennie.
Thank you for visiting my blog! I write about marketing tips for small businesses and how to succeed as a female professional. I write from experience about the things that I love.