Those who remember SARS, Ebola and many calamities before these and including complete slowdown after 9/11 attacks or after 2008 sub prime crisis, would agree that humanity suffered hugely after these historic down-turns, but the economies suffered the most. What will be left of the world if trade & business has to go down like pack of cards. Corona virus spread is threatening this very strength of our world : our global trade and business. Every shopkeeper, entrepreneur, executives & management of business houses have a prime responsibility, that while following the health & safety norms or revised rules of the game, they must do everything within their might, to continue their business.

For SMEs today, the biggest challenge at hand is to continue to market themselves while entire focus of all decision makers is on Corona crisis. I am enthused by the actions of some closely known organisations who have still gone with their developmental investments in this crisis time, which gives me faith, that needs will get fulfilled in any environment, may be in smaller budget and with less experiments. Thus essential marketing has to stay as Business As Usual requirement of SMEs. Getting depressed or holding back marketing efforts in this chorus of shut down is not going to help SMEs.

It is time to focus on Digital : Just as Digital Conferencing is a strong alternative to avoid business travel in Corona affected world, you should adopt Digital Marketing to stay on top of the mind of your customers. Digital marketing will ensure you cut marketing waste, you will communicate only with intended customers and send out essential messages only. Do you have some thing more to offer in these tough times that will help your customers better ? if yes, this is the time to send this out thru a short video or your FB or Linked In posts. Do you have a B2B offering for your business clients which is especially useful today, promote this through your Search Engine optimisation so that your website drives enquiries. Use videos to communicate in all media, small videos play wonders: these are low costs, communicate effectively and you can keep your marketing fresh with new videos sent out fairly regularly.

This is the time to communicate how will you reduce your customer’s cost, de-risk their business, enhance their service, improve their offering and their overall business proposition. If you have any of this to offer to your clients, use Digital media to communicate; it costs you less, its fresh and you have control over your spend and results.

Those who continue to market in tough times, soar at top speed when markets improve. This is the time to stay safe, keep your teams safe, build business continuity in your work and push your business promotion with heart & mind both, success will continue to be yours.