Everybody is waiting on the current crisis to end and for everything to go back to normal. When will that happen? In two weeks? In two months? In two years? No one seems to be able to predict with any certitude when the crisis will come to an end and what the long-term economic impact of it will be.

If you are in charge of marketing, what can you do? The temptation is to stop all marketing. Why spend money, time and effort on uncertainty? If that is your thinking, you better think again. Why? Marketing has to adjust to the times in which we live, that is the truth. But marketing cannot shut off the engine and expect to restart it on a dime. There are three reasons you should not stop your marketing.

Your customers need to know you will be there when this is all over

If your customers are not hearing from you now, they should be. They need reassurance you are still in business and are not going away. Why? Because there is a gloomy outlook from several industry experts about the viability of businesses if the shutdown lasts much longer. I have read reports predicting the end of whole industries! That seems really extreme, but that is what is trending in business news feeds these days and it causes your customers to panic. You need to send some assurance their way.

Communicate your support

What can you do if your business has been completely shut down during this crisis? Many businesses have found themselves in this very situation. What do you market if you have been told to sit idle until the all clear has sounded? Communicate your support for those on the front lines – like health care workers, those who produce critical products, those who clean and sanitize the places we frequent, those who move goods from manufacturing to warehouses to stores, those who make finances available, those who keep our internet running, and many others that provide crucial services. Take your pick and send kudos from your company. But you should not forget those who are stuck at home either. I saw a marketing message from the sports network, ESPN the other night. When your business is built on reporting what is happening now in the world of sports, yet all sports are shut down, what can you promote? They promoted missing sports in a heartfelt marketing piece that encouraged people through empathizing with their situation. "There’s no place like sports,” the spot emphasizes and then simply states, "We miss it too.” (See it here.) Empathy is a strong identifying emotion. You can make an emotional connection between your brand and your audience if you communicate support during this time.

Look for the essential new

What innovative businesses are finding is a new market during this time. Companies like Zoom, the video conferencing format; Postmates, the local delivery service that does more than just deliver food, they will shop for you and deliver to your home; and social media sensation TikTok, the video sharing/dancing network, are seeing huge spikes in growth. Where there is a need, there is an opportunity for business. New business has to have marketing to succeed. However, even if you don’t expand your service and product offerings, you might want to rethink how you market certain aspects of how you do what you do. For instance, if you are sellling a product, how is that product handled before it is packaged and shipped? Was it produced in a clean environment? Did the workers who handled it wear gloves? Was it cleaned again before it was sold to the customer? These are things we just took for granted before this virus. Now they are critical pieces of information that will make people want to buy from you or not. Shift your marketing to the new essential information people need before they will say yes to a sale.

Should marketing stop during this health crisis? No, it should just adjust.