Marketing Through This Pandemic
Free resources and mental health support will help us all through this historical disruption. We’re taking what we’ve learned from our 223 accounts and bringing that knowledge to you.
Keep reading to see our approach to weathering the storm.
What’s your challenge?
We feel what you feel and during this time it’s up to us to all help each other. Marketer to marketer, we get the gut-wrenching feeling of working through a pandemic and it’s tough. If you’re stuck, email us. We are happy to have a conversation and find you extra resources. marketing@hanapinmarketing.com
As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.
What you can do right now
- Competitor research
- Forecasting: by collecting insights from Google and industry particulars from our clients, we combine that with what we know to be happening across paid search to thoughtfully produce algorithms that can help with predicting future statistics. Here is our current list of industry reports to help you do the same. Hanapin Marketing Library: Industry Reports
- Building a strategy for when accounts ramp back up. Think through a variety of scenarios for which you could need a strategy and have that ready to pop into place.
- Freshen ad copy and make sure your ad specs are correct. Check out our comprehensive list of ad specs to make sure you are on track. Hanapin Marketing: Ad Gallery
- Prepare for future promos and other comeback strategies while you are offline and tweak them as the scenario unfolds
Helpful resources for paused or decreased budgets
- Stay abreast of current news and updates in the industry: Hanapin Marketing’s Library of Webinars. Sign up for any of our April webinars, all of which are dedicated to addressing how COVID-19 is affecting PPC and how to work through it.
Ask the Experts: How to Approach Your Paid Media During COVID-19
Forecasting Despite Uncertainty: Anticipating Trends for Your Paid Media Accounts
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See what your fellow Marketers are doing:
3-minute Reads of Firsthand Examples That Made A Difference:
Paid Media & COVID-19: Efficiently Align Ads with Large-Scale Business Changes
Paid Media & COVID-19: Declining In-Store Revenue
Paid Media & COVID-19: Focusing on Engagement & Top-of-Funnel ActivityPPC Hero has a number of blog posts recently released on this topic, including the following:
Has COVID-19 Affected Your PPC Accounts?
What Non-Profits Taught Me About Social Media Marketing
Amazon & Google: Affects of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing
- Leave no stone unturned, audit your account: The PPC Account Audit Guide
- Always be optimizing, starting with CRO: Landing Page Optimizations Drive a 143% Increase in Conversions.
- Improve your current processes: Brainlabs’ Greatest Scripts: An anthology of open source scripts that will elevate your search strategy to superhero status.
- Boost the morale of your fellow marketers: Nominate the experts who have impacted you in your career. PPC Hero’s Top 25 Most Influential PPC Experts
- Take advantage of tools that wouldn’t normally be free: Adzooma is offering temporary open access to the full Adzooma platform (automation and optimization tools) for free until June 1st.
- Learn a new skill: Take a tip from our friends over at Distilled and level up your PPC knowledge with some SEO to back it up. Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO: while introductory, this is a good way to get your SEO feet wet. If you are looking to truly do a deep dive into SEO, we suggest checking out Distilled U which is far more robust and comprehensive.
- Find time for your mental health: Planet Fitness is offering complimentary in-home workouts or if you’re looking to get a little cultural boost from your living room, check out the Broadway musicals and plays that are streaming for free.
How can you help in a big way?
These days everyone is wondering what they can do to help. Need an idea? Check out what our digital marketers have been up to!

Our Hero Conf team member, Briana Ogle is helping at her local hospital. Check with your local hospitals to see if they are taking volunteers or hiring nurse assistants. More than likely, they’ll take any help they can get and there are a variety of positions they’ll hire for that don’t require any previous experience.

Other Hero Conf and Hanapin team members are donating blood. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak we now have a critical need for blood. Go here to donate: Red Cross

Our very own account manager, Jenna Kelly is sewing masks for healthcare workers. If you have the materials and ability to sew, get more information in this Forbes article: Calling All People Who Sew And Make: You Can Help Make Masks For 2020 Healthcare Worker PPE Shortage
Jenna also made a follow-along video for those needing a visual aid!
Our 3 Step Approach To Managing Paid Media During a Crisis
During a time when fear-driven decisions are taking over, we’ve taken a step back to create a process that helps us rationally address the crisis at hand.

If information and insights were gold before, now they are platinum. Work on projections and revenue forecasting and try to answer the following questions: What does your floor look like? What does your ceiling look like?

The new normal could last anywhere from 3-5 months or longer. Once isolation guidelines are lifted, the economy won’t magically bounce back right away. This is why we have to be prepared to settle in and realistically assess this new normal. The big question is what can you reasonably spend, and what will the returns be on that spend.

We simply don’t know the future, but we certainly can make an estimate, create a shell of an outline, and be prepared to execute. As we are all looking to ramp back up, keep in mind, other companies are doing the same thing and competition will be high.
How brands we know are helping

IBM and The Weather Company are working together to build an app that tracks Coronavirus cases and down the line will be able to help with predictions and scenario planning. Fortune has an article explaining the app and what it does

Thermo Fisher has been working diligently on creating test kits for COVID-19. Recently, Ford partnered up with them to assist in the endeavor, ramping up production and even expanding to other PPE needs. Tech Crunch: Ford partners with Thermo Fisher on COVID-19 collection kits, expands production to face masks, gowns

In a response to the UK government’s call for assistance, Formula 1 teams are pivoting their time to manufacturing medical devices that will assist with ventilator production. Read more about Project Pitlane here
We feel what you feel and during this time it’s up to us to all help each other. Marketer to marketer, we get the gut-wrenching feeling of working through a pandemic and it’s tough. If you’re stuck, email us. We are happy to have a conversation and find you extra resources. marketing@hanapinmarketing.com
As they say, a rising tide lifts all boats.