Marketing During COVID-19: A Guide For B2B Marketers

Marketing during COVID-19: A guide for B2B Marketers
Marketing during COVID-19:

A guide for B2B Marketers
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Contents
About Reuters Events.........................................................................................................3

Marketing during COVID-19: A guide for B2B Marketers.................................................5
The Global Economy & COVID-19......................................................................................6
The Renewables Industry & COVID-19..............................................................................7
The Impact on Labor.......................................................................................................7
Adapting Work Conditions .............................................................................................8
Adjusting to Falling Demand .........................................................................................9
Supply Chain Concerns ...............................................................................................10
Lessons Learned: How Crises Impact Marketing Investment (1930 to 2008)...............11
Lessons Learned: Marketing for the Recovery................................................................15
No More Face-To-Face Marketing................................................................................15
Decision makers working from home.........................................................................16
The value of content marketing in lead generation...................................................17
Adjusting your content marketing strategy for COVID-19.........................................18
Reaching new audiences..............................................................................................18
Planning for and boosting ROI.....................................................................................20
Promote use cases & performance data.....................................................................21
Next steps - Marketing during COVID-19........................................................................22
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Marketing during COVID-19:

A guide for B2B Marketers
As with everything else, the current coronavirus pandemic has seemingly turned the world of
marketing upside down.
All the while, the power plants, factories, refineries and global supply chains upon which we all rely
are working harder and leaner than ever before.
It’s in this environment that marketers should thrive, promoting solutions to significant operational
problems that can increase efficiency and productivity right across their client’s business. Instead,
marketing managers the world over are battling against suspended client investments, cancelled
trade events and a customer base that is mostly working from home.
As a result, getting in touch with customers has never been more technically challenging, precisely
at a time when reliable revenue is needed most.
And it’s not just glitchy Zoom meetings that are holding them back. In times of crisis, marketing is
historically the first department to see a dramatic budget cut.
That’s not to say that cuts to marketing budgets are not understandable. Businesses should rightly
prioritize the salaries and wellbeing of their workforce, and marketing expenditure is a variable outlay
that can be frozen quickly without cutting the workforce itself.
Still, an understanding of the economic impact of marketing during a crisis appears to be lacking,
and lessons learned are hard to find. All this despite the frankly absurd regularity of major economic
recessions or crashes that take place globally.
*
* The Great Depression
Figure 1. List of U.S Recessions from 1873 to 2009 including consecutive months of recession
So how then can marketers rise to the challenge? How can they best support their businesses and
make a case for brand building through a lockdown and prepare their business units and product
lines to take advantage of recovery?
These are the questions that this report will tackle directly, compiling lessons learned by marketers
reacting to crashes, recessions and depressions since the 1930s.
We will explore the core concepts and straight forward steps you can leverage right now to help you
adapt to the COVID-19 crisis. What’s more, we will offer tips and guidance to help you protect, or
even improve, your brand’s competitiveness ready for the recovery period and beyond.

The Global Economy & COVID-19
It’s far too early to know whether the current coronavirus induced economic turmoil will equal or
surpass that of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008.
It’s argued that the unprecedented actions of governments to prop up employment and bailout
critical industries will allow us to collectively “bounce back” once the crisis ends.
But, while these packages provide invaluable short-term support, economists can’t give a clear
picture of when we will return to normal, or even whether normal is possible anymore. Indeed,
economists have predicted the recovery taking the form of anything from a sharp recovery “V”, to a
long U-like period of sustained decline.
In between, we could experience a double-dip recession “W” as unemployment and corporate
bankruptcies bite, not to mention the prospect of a second or third wave of COVID-19 infections
and repeated lockdowns. Alternately there could be an “L” shaped forecast which occurs when
governments struggle to stimulate their economies’ normalization over a more extended period.
Finally, Reuters and the World Economic Forum report that recovery could even resemble more of a
“SWOOSH” or “tick” as lockdowns get lifted far more gradually than their implementation.
Certainly, the SWOOSH recovery looks increasingly more likely as the weeks into lockdown start to
slowly tick over into months...
Needless to say, as reported in Vox, the “overall record of macroeconomic forecasting as a discipline
is not very good...” Continuing, they argue “...and in this case, economists are looking at a situation
they have no real experience with.”
Put simply, coronavirus induced uncertainty is rife and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
Therefore, if uncertainty is the only thing we can be sure about, what lessons learned and best
practices should we take from previous crises?

The Renewables Industry and COVID-19
In many respects, the renewables industry has got off lightly in the face of COVID-19. As an essential
service, energy plants generally have been granted special status in many national coronavirus
contingency plans. At the same time, wind and solar have been largely immune to the massive price
volatility that has hit oil and gas markets.
And operationally, the fact that wind and solar plants can for the most part be operated and maintained
remotely has helped avoid problems arising from social distancing measures.
That said, there is no doubt that COVID-19 has had an impact on the future of the renewables
market; especially in impacts on labor opportunities, working conditions and the confirmation of new
renewable investments. This section will aim to unpack how, why, and what the renewables market
is doing to best prepare for success beyond the immediate downturn.
The Impact on Labor

Notwithstanding the general resilience of the renewables sector in the face of COVID-19, the
industry has seen significant layoffs as the pandemic has progressed. In April, for example, leading
wind turbine maker Vestas announced it was cutting 400 jobs in Europe. Henrik Andersen, President
and CEO, said the company was “In a period of high uncertainty.”
The cuts mostly affected the company’s Danish technology projects workforce in Aarhus and Lem,
plus an offshore supply facility in Viborg, Vestas said. Executive management also got a 10% cut in
salary up until the end of 2020. In North America, meanwhile, GE turbine blade subsidiary LM Wind
Power shuttered its Grand Forks factory in North Dakota after workers went down with COVID-19.
Tests revealed 110 workers had caught the virus.
Also, in April, the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) revealed that around 55% of workers in
the US PV market had either been laid off or were working for fewer hours or less pay because of
the coronavirus pandemic. The figure was based on research carried out on around 15% of the entire
US solar workforce in late March and early April.
It was a major setback for an industry that was originally scheduled to see a growth in employment
of almost 8% in 2020, according to the Solar Foundation. Despite this, the SEIA claimed that “over
the long run, we are well positioned to outcompete incumbent generators... and to continue growing
our market share.”
Continuing struggles to contain the spread of the virus in the US saw the situation becoming more
critical in May, however. By then, the SEIA reported that the sector had lost 65,000 jobs and had
cancelled the creation of 50,000 new posts. The industry body said job losses were set to reduce
the total US solar workforce to 188,000 by June, about the same level as in 2014 and almost 38%
less than the level that the SEIA had predicted for 2020.
Most job cuts were the result of delays or cancellations to projects. The analyst firm Wood Mackenzie
Power & Renewables expected US solar installations to fall by 18%, equivalent to 3.6 GW of capacity.
However, many solar developers worldwide were at least able to skirt around quarantine and social
distancing measures skillfully enough to keep project construction on target.
One of the most notable cases was the Noor Energy 1 CSP plant. In March, lead construction
contractor Shanghai Electric said the project was still on target for a first commercial operation
deadline of August 2021, despite COVID-19 restrictions.

Adapting Work Conditions

Alongside coronavirus-related workforce issues, renewable energy companies have had to adjust
their working practices to adapt to life during and after the pandemic. Spain’s CSP plants, for example,
resorted to split shift working and increased hygiene measures to maintain operations.
And across the European wind sector, operators scaled down scheduled preventative maintenance
work and focused more on essential repairs in order to comply with lockdowns and social distancing
guidelines. The new situation was a particular challenge for offshore wind, where the scheduled
maintenance season was just getting underway as COVID-19 struck.
Orsted, the world’s leading developer of offshore wind plants, confirmed it had split its on-site
teams up into smaller groups to reduce the chances of infection, as well as encouraging staff to
work from home. The change in processes across the industry forced a reappraisal of the powerful
analytics systems that many wind players have recently invested in.
The ability of these systems to identify likely failures was seen to be of growing importance with
maintenance activities reduced to a minimum. “Monitoring systems and data analytics allow
companies to monitor and pre-emptively shut down at-risk turbines,” said Daniel Liu, principal analyst
at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.
Even among wind operators that were not using high-end analytics platforms, use of supervisory
control and data acquisition systems was growing, according to Alberto Cena, technical advisor at
the Spanish Wind Energy Association. Elsewhere, GE Renewable Energy was able to rely on remote
monitoring systems to gain a real-time view of the health of its worldwide turbine fleet.
Other technological innovations that have come to the fore as the wind sector struggles on through
the coronavirus pandemic include drones and augmented reality tools. Yet while many renewable
energy companies have been able to manage ongoing operations and maintenance with minor
adjustments to current practices, there are lingering concerns over how COVID-19 might affect
commercial affairs.
In May, for example, experts predicted that post-coronavirus power-purchase agreements (PPAs)
would likely require new contract terms and risk aggregation to be viable. Experts such as Martin
Scharrer, head of legal (energy and investments) at German investor Encavis, worried economic
uncertainty would dampen previously surging PPA demand and lead to price cuts that could reduce
the viability of contracts.
“Projects are not as attractive as they need to be for investors, especially purely financial investors,”
he said.
One option to mitigate the price risk of PPAs might be to resort to layered contracts that aggregate
demand from a number of offtakers. This would allow groups of smaller firms to buy power from
larger projects or spread risk across a range of renewable energy assets.
The commercial challenge facing renewable energy developers in a post-coronavirus environment
was underscored in April when it emerged that Cerro Dominador, a major CSP project, was concerned
about securing PPAs. The plant, Chile’s largest, is due to enter operation in the second half of 2020
and already has a five-year PPA with Chilean fuel distributor Copec. Beyond this, though, COVID-19
was adding to challenges in signing further contracts.

Adjusting to Falling Demand

Although renewables have been spared the calamitous falls in demand that have affected the oil and
gas sector, at one point driving the price of West Texas Intermediate into negative territory, there
has certainly been an impact. In Germany, industrial demand is forecast to fall by up to 20% this
year, slashing power prices by up to 7.8%, according to Enervis, an energy consultancy. In March,
UK energy demand fell 10% due to lockdown. France saw a 15% reduction.
Other countries seeing significant falls in energy demand included Italy, where there was a 9% drop,
and parts of the US, where ISO New England reported up to a 5% reduction. Renewable energy’s
privileged position in the merit order meant most plants were shielded from falls in demand. One
notable exception was CSP in Spain, where overall energy demand fell by more than 6% compared
to a year ago.
While 5% of Spain’s generation in March 2020 came from PV, up from 3.9% in the same period in
2019, and wind’s share rose from 24.2% to 26.8%, CSP’s contribution to the grid halved, from 2.4%
in 2019 to 1.2% this year. This does not appear to have dampened enthusiasm for CSP in Spain,
though. The country’s Integrated Energy and Climate Plan foresees a major buildout of CSP with
storage, based on an existing fleet performance that rose 16.8% in 2019.
While many renewable projects seem to have avoided the need for curtailment, a perhaps greater
concern for developers is the fact that the investor appetite for new projects is likely to remain
muted for some time. In March, for example, the analyst firm IHS Markit said annual global PV
installations might fall by 16% in 2020, to 105 GW.
“Almost all large projects originally planned for completion in H1 2020 will be impacted in some way,
and rooftop installations will grind to a halt. COVID-19 will also severely hit the planning and kicking-
off of new projects in H2 2020,” it said.
Despite this, in May the financial advisory firm Augusta & Co said investor interest in renewable
energy infrastructure was still high. “The broader energy and infrastructure market has been hit hard
by the global lockdown, with a significant dip in energy demand, and low activity across transport
and other key sectors,” said the company in a press release.
But “renewables infrastructure on the other hand has continued relatively unaffected,” it added,
“due in part to its preferential status in many electricity markets, its non-correlation top stock market
returns and its stable yields.”
The market is now expected to rebound from next year, potentially helped by plans to incorporate
clean energy development into financial stimulus packages mooted for regions such as the European
Union. As it stands, many countries have extended renewable energy permitting and construction
deadlines that have been affected by lockdowns.
And in Germany, the energy regulator Bundesnetzagentur said it would maintain future renewable
energy tenders and inform winners but not publish the results or enforce implementation deadlines
until after the impact of COVID-19 has softened.

Supply Chain Concerns

Arguably the biggest concern for the renewables sector in the early stages of the coronavirus
pandemic was how supply chains would be affected by the lockdown in China. There were widespread
worries about the supply of Chinese solar panels and other renewable energy components to growth
markets such as the US and Europe.
In the event, China’s robust response to COVID-19 appears to have avoided the need for prolonged
manufacturing plant closures and although some shortages have been reported the Chinese supply
pinch has not been as bad as feared. The same cannot be said of all manufacturing elsewhere,
though.
In Spain, which at the end of May still had the fourth largest COVID-19 death toll in the world, turbine
maker Vestas was forced to close a generator factory in Viviero and reduce capacity at a blade facility
in Daimiel. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, meanwhile, cut production at its Aoiz, Somozas,
Agreda, Asteasu, Burgos and Lerna factories, reducing output of blades, nacelles and gearboxes.
Other wind energy manufacturers closing factories in Spain included Nordex, blade maker LM Wind
and offshore shipbuilder Astilleros Gondan. In Italy, meanwhile, eTa closed a blade factory in Fano,
Celme stopped making transformers in Montebello Vicentino and Promau halted production of
cylinders and cones in Cesena.
The factory stoppages, coupled with falling installations around the world, caused Vestas to suspend
its 2020 financial guidance in April. The company ended up with a loss of 54 million euros ($59
million) in Q1 2020, compared with a profit of 97 million euros in Q1 2019. Profits also fell at Siemens
Gamesa, by 8%. But it wasn’t all bad news on the supply chain front.
The solar inverter giant SMA reported in April that it had been able to maintain full manufacturing
output despite the coronavirus emergency. The company told New Energy Update it expected to
meet up to 15 GW of orders in 2020, up from 11.4 GW in 2019.
Spanish inverter maker Power Electronics, which is the largest supplier of inverters to the US utility-
scale solar market, also maintained its 2020 outlook of 12 GW in sales. Finally, some companies have
actually seen an increase in supply chain activity during the coronavirus pandemic. One example is
RayGen Resources, which is developing a hybrid CSP and PV plant in Australia.
The company locked down a number of key supply deals in April. They included contracts with
Turkey’s Egesim and Sweden’s Atlas Copco Gas for Organic Rankine Cycle systems, research and
development support and engineering, procurement and construction services.
RayGen also tapped Niras Australia for thermal energy storage, Azur Space for high-efficiency PV
cells and Jiangyin Kinematics Manufacturing for slew drives.


Lessons Learned: How Crises Impact

Marketing Investment (1930 to 2008)
No matter which shape it takes, recessions like the one we are sure to experience have traditionally
proven fertile ground for opportunistic marketers. Research clearly shows that companies who are
prepared and able to invest in their brands grow much faster than their competitors once markets
improve.
Some of the most important research conducted on the value of marketing in a downturn includes
‘Marketing in the American Economy ’ by Roland Vaile and Reavis Cox in 1952. By following 250
companies in the early 1920s, Vaile concluded that companies who increased their advertising
budgets during the downturn were able to grow their sales far quicker as the market improved.
Critically, companies that were either unable or unwilling to invest in the burgeoning advertising
markets of the post-war years saw a corresponding reversal of fortunes. The market logic followed
that those companies that did invest in their brands were able to capitalize on a quieter market, and
by doing so, increase market share.
This logic works on the basis that marketing and innovation are the only functions which generate
business revenue. At the same time, the latter relies on the former to ensure that consumer uptake
matches the potential of any new product. As such, companies which invest in communicating with,
engaging and supporting their customers will find that their lead generation potential is more robust
in the long term. Conversely, companies that turn off the taps struggle to generate new prospects
versus their competitors.
Understandably, not every company will be in a position to invest right away. We are currently
experiencing a sudden social and economic shock that was largely unforeseeable to the workforce
and the business community. Unlike in 2008, the current restrictions on the economy are self-
imposed and uniformly applied across all sectors. As a result of the downturn, many companies’
moral prerogative should be to ensure the safety and financial security of their workforce. Yet at the
same time, attention must be given to the long-term viability of the company — both during the
crisis and as we prepare for recovery.
However, it appears as though these lessons learned are forgotten just as we enter each downturn.
Last month, Marketing Week surveyed its members to gauge the mood of marketers. The outlook
was overwhelmingly negative, with 9/10 respondents either delaying key promotional campaigns
(39%) or placing them under review (38%). Additionally, they noted that 69% of North American
marketers predicted that their customers would be postponing significant spending commitments.
These sentiments echo our recent Reuters Events survey data, where COVID-19 has negatively
influenced the plans of 72% of all vendors surveyed.

How would you describe the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on your business?
2% Positive
27% Neutral
19% Very Negative
53% Negative
Figure 2. Reuters Events Survey of Vendors, April 2020
The above is as likely to be true for Business-to-Business (B2B) markets as it is for Business-to-
Consumer (B2C) markets as businesses and consumers alike become more protectionist with their
cash flow.
However, B2B markets operate differently in a few key areas that are critical for shaping our
understanding of how to market in a crisis. While emotional factors mostly drive B2C marketing
(FOMO included), the B2B market sees investment and contracting decisions based mainly on a
reasoned return-on-investment approach. Especially as B2B marketing tends to appeal directly to
the economic benefits of a technology or service, particularly where costs and processes can be
optimized, or productivity increased.
The longer buying cycles of B2B markets lend a further advantage. Where B2C marketers struggle
in environments where demand drops sharply or is restricted, B2B vendors operate in more stable
markets.
The strategy of continual investment in marketing to weather a downturn is referenced again in a
2009 report that highlights evidence from six recessions. In the paper, academics Raji Srinivasan and
Gary Lilien analyze the performance of 3,804 publicly listed US firms from 1969 to 2007.
In their results, they find that for B2B firms, increasing advertising during a recession increases
profits during the downturn and then continues to yield improved earnings in the year following the
recession.
What happens then if a company stops investing in marketing? The Institute of Practitioners in
Advertising tackled this question and presented their findings in a 2008 study. The IPA determined
in a series of modelling case studies that after cutting marketing spend, a business will “continue
to benefit from the marketing investments of previous years”. Mostly because B2B companies may
find short term wins as a result of focusing more resources on their current pipeline. However, they
warn that this short-term profitability may be “dangerously misleading”.
The model assumes a drop in marketing spends for 6 to 12 months. As a result, the IPA predicts that
the business will take 3 to 5 years longer to return to pre-crisis levels of profitability. Furthermore,
they calculate that the effect on foregone sales to be some 4.5 times that of the budget saved.

Regarding COVID-19 and the latest impending recession, the IPA released their Bellwether Report
for Q1 2020 (April 22, 2020). Tellingly, the paper noted that total marketing budgets for Q1 2020
declined at their fastest rate since the global financial crisis.
Breakdown of revisions to current budgets

% of all companies reporting an upward revision to current budgets
minus % reporting a downward revision
-6.1% Total
-6.6% Direct Marketing
-7.2% Sales Promotions
-9.9% Main Media Advertising
-14.3% PR
-15.9% Events
-20.9% Other
-21.0% Market Research
Figure 3. IPA Bellwether Report Q1, 2020

These results indicate that perhaps short-term protectionism is taking root in businesses nationwide
even though research suggests this is harmful to long-term profitability.
To emphasize the difference in approaches, consider the responses of two major brand conglomerates.
As of April 22, Coca-Cola has paused all marketing spend and plans to re-engage with consumers
“when [the] timing is right”. Their strategy appears to be driven by a significant decline in revenue
in Q1 of 2020 as bars, restaurants, movie theaters, sports and retail sectors were globally locked
down. Moreover, most companies lack the brand recognition and customer loyalty of the Coca-Cola
family.
Conversely, Proctor & Gamble’s CFO; John Moeller asserted “this is not the time to go off-air”.
They’ve calculated that if P&G pulled back on marketing, the reduced face time with consumers
would risk their brand’s visibility and recognition, not to mention potential market share.
With competing approaches gaining attention worldwide, IPA director-general Paul Bainsfair offered
a warning. “When recession looms, it is understandable if businesses try and shore up short term
profits by cutting variable expenditure, such as advertising.”
However, “unless companies are saving cash simply to survive, or because they can no longer supply
advertised services, cutting ad budgets - relative to competitor spend - is a high-risk strategy”.
Instead “those brands that hold their nerve will gain [an] extra share of voice which will achieve
competitive gains.”


Lessons Learned: Marketing for the

Recovery
In a letter to shareholders in 1986, Warren Buffet gave us an idiom that has made the rounds in every
downturn since; “be greedy when others are fearful”, but the full quote feels even more prescient.
“Occasional outbreaks of those two-super contagious diseases, fear and greed, will forever occur…
The timing of these epidemics will be unpredictable” he continued. “And the market aberrations
produced by them will be equally unpredictable, both as to duration and degree.”
“Therefore, we never try to anticipate the arrival or departure of either disease,” he added. “Our
goal is more modest: We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy
when others are fearful.”
The message is clear and made more so by the supporting evidence already delivered in this paper.
Make the case to invest in marketing if your business is able and reap the rewards in the future as
your brand builds traction with key clients during a period of turmoil.
But what is the methodology for marketing in a recession? Moreover, what strategies will increase
the engagement of the right decision-makers and gatekeepers?
As a business that relies on successful marketing, in addition to offering turnkey content marketing
services, Reuters Events draws on a rich history of responding to global and sector downturns.
That’s why, to help you plan to ride out the storm and position your brand for long-term success,
we’ve detailed our critical lessons learned in this next section.
No More Face-To-Face Marketing

The challenge caused by COVID-19 is that traditional routes to market are mostly impractical.
Face-to-face meetings are the backbone of business development, and marketers focus their
strategies and resources accordingly. A 2015 Forbes article notes, non-verbal cues drive some 93%
of communication effectiveness. Regardless of the more “reasoned” approach to B2B investment,
we ultimately do business with people. Therefore, the small nuances in emotion and body language
are easier to notice face-to-face and have a considerable impact on a marketer’s ability to respond
to objections and deliver.
For this reason, conferences and exhibitions are invaluable. Trade shows allow marketers to capture
the attention of key industry decision-makers in one location. At the same time, on-site product
demonstrations provide a literal foot in the door for B2B sales teams.
The world of B2B marketing, despite the rise of digital marketing, is still mainly driven by contact
books and the interpersonal skills of sales professionals directly. So powerful is face-to-face marketing
that any opportunity to find new clients or engage customers directly gets a straightforward gut-feel
appraisal when calculating return-on-investment.

However, under lockdown conditions, one-to-one (1:1) opportunities evaporated rapidly as travel was
restricted, and flagship events cancelled or postponed. As a result, industries that are typically so
reliant on face-to-face client interactions are now scrambling to identify new routes to market.
The change in priorities is shown in our Reuters Events survey of vendors, finding that Conferences
& Events have dropped from being a primary tool for 82% of marketers to just 10% during COVID-19.
Likewise, 1:1 customer meetings outside of events fall from being the route of choice for 11% of
marketers to 0% during COVID-19.
As marketers cannot leverage their prime source of qualified leads, they must look to digital channels
to fill the gap. That is, of course, reliant on whether the arguments made earlier were successful.
Decision makers working from home

Side note - the linguistic impact of COVID-19 has been so significant that the Oxford English
Dictionary was updated in April to include WFH, social distancing and self-isolation!
As the global economy adapts to lockdown, more workers than ever before are working from home.
While critical industries such as energy utilities, petrochemicals, public health, pharmaceuticals,
transport and supply chains require personnel on-site to manage operations and production, the vast
majority of executive decision-makers are working from home (WFH).
The impact of working from home has had a profound effect on the way that we consume digital
information and services.
In a bid to offset the impact of home working, workers have become dramatically reliant on services
such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams to maintain some element of face-to-face interaction.

For marketers, these apps are not a viable solution to replacing in-person contact. Unfortunately,
as many companies are coming to realize, video calling doesn’t carry the same effect as a genuine
face-to-face interaction. Much publicized teething problems include glitchy internet connections,
background distractions and visible participant discomfort, caused mostly by an inability to measure
and respond to body language. None of any of this aids marketers in building trust between
themselves, the brand, and the client.
For marketers increasing time on the phone instead; the battle is now against an increasing aversion
to answering. Of 1005 Americans surveyed by Pango, only one in four (22.6%) would consider
answering the phone to an unknown caller.
It is evident in both cases, though, that marketers require qualified data (typically; name, title,
company, phone or email ) to make the connection in the first place. These are existing customers
and contacts, not new leads or prospects.
Given that we’ve shown relying on an existing pipeline to be unsustainable in the long run, how then
can marketers continuously refill their funnel with new qualified leads throughout the COVID-19
crisis?
The value of content marketing in lead generation

An increasing amount of time spent online during work over the past two decades has led directly
to a proliferation in digital content marketing.
Typically taking the form of industry whitepapers and webinars, the aim is to provide content that
appeals to your target audience and establishes your brand as a thought leader. As with interactions
at a conference presentation or with traffic visiting a booth, the hope is that customer interest
converts into future sales.
Experienced marketers will already be taking further steps. Content can be hidden behind web
forms or subscription systems to encourage interested consumers to provide their contact data in
exchange.
Reuters Events has taken its content marketing strategy further. Using a layered method of continual
requalification helps us to understand the mentality of the customer over time, mainly as that
mentality amounts to their sales-readiness. But the principles of content marketing remain broadly
the same.
The key, however, is providing content that will appeal to your target audience, so take the time to
understand their needs. As a result, your content will become more timely, business-critical and
engaging.
In short, content marketing is the tool most likely to drive scalable lead generation and is embraced
wholeheartedly by our business.
Given that COVID-19 has forced more decision-makers to go digital, there are far more opportunities
to engage with and consume online content than ever before. Marketers should take advantage
of this and look to understand how their typical customers’ new working habits have changed and
adjust their brand visibility accordingly to optimize leads.

Adjusting your content marketing strategy for COVID-19

It’s essential to understand the principles of “Rule of 7” when content marketing and brand building.
Whether seven truly is a magic number or not, the logic is simple. It suggests that it takes multiple
touchpoints before a customer will internalize your brand’s message or act upon your call-to-action.
As such, to be effective, a brand must reiterate its message through a variety of formats over a
sustained period.
In content marketing, this can mean remarketing a piece of content through different advertising
channels. For many, promoting webinars, whitepapers or any form of thought leadership means
setting up a direct email campaign using the company database. More effective marketers will also
ensure that all brand channels get utilized. They’ll ensure that all company social media channels,
newsletters and other in-house user groups get the message too. They’ll also get their sales teams
to mention and share the content directly over phone calls and virtual client meetings.
This application of the “7 touches” strategy is proven to increase engagement with customers and
increase the number of leads that respond to your call-to-action. However, this only works with
existing or known customers and does little to generate new growth opportunities long term.
Reaching new audiences

To reach new audiences, marketers should replicate the above in principle, but leverage a more
comprehensive array of routes to market.
Trade media publications are a valuable traditional route, as is an investment in paid advertising,
retargeting and social media. But of course, the impact of COVID-19 and subsequent pressure on
budgets means a more targeted and efficient process is necessary.
As it happens, targeted online advertising through social media has never been easier. Paid for social
media advertising allows companies to focus on valuable demographics (age, location) but also the
prospect of pinpointing critical business data such as business type, industry, company name, job
title keywords and more.
Beyond social media, publishers with proven databases of industry decision-makers are a safe
bet. With strong brands themselves, companies can leverage sponsored marketing packages with
confidence that the decision-makers at the other end will respond positively to any call-to-action.
What’s more, members of these databases are opt-in and well-practiced in getting the most out of
digital content such as whitepapers, reports, webinars and virtual forums.
Additionally, publishers and digital marketing providers don’t just hold invaluable experience at
efficiently generating content. They also have an intuitive industry awareness that allows them
to build content that is engaging as it is informative. Combined, publishers that double as digital
marketing providers can further increase the total and quality of leads generated.
Of the most effective formats, webinars are king right now. Bringing together thought leadership
and direct lead generation, webinars were the preferred product of choice across all our Reuters
Events brands.

Figure 5. Reuters Events Vendor Survey, April 2020
Digital networking products, whether at the hyper-targeted end with niche online workshops or
virtual events at the other, are also rapidly gaining popularity with B2B marketers.
Often curated by a well-known digital publisher, virtual networking products allow sponsors to take
advantage of a mixture of thought leadership, branding and 1:1 networking opportunities all in one
cost-effective package.
In creating and promoting a premium digital workshop, marketers can screen the quality of and
engage attendees in advance with supplementary content. Combined with targeted marketing,
sponsors can be confident that these products will add valuable new leads to their pipeline.
On the other hand, in sponsoring virtual events, companies leverage incredible scale. Flagship
industry events already boast attendances in the thousands. Yet, virtual iterations have consistently
been bringing in triple or quadruple the attendance numbers of their physical counterparts.
For example, our recent eyeforpharma Barcelona and Philadelphia events (Reuters Events) recently
brought in 17,500 and 11,000 attendees respectively, upwards of 900% and 1000% on 2019 attendee
figures despite converting to virtual at late notice.
Simply put, virtual events allow more eyeballs on sponsor brands at one time than has ever been
possible before in a controlled setting. Working with events coordinators, marketers can also promote
their sponsored sessions to particular attendee profiles. This approach further ensures their brand
message is being received and acted upon by the industry executives that matter most to them.

Planning for and boosting ROI

We’re spending far more time online than ever before. Forbes even found that internet usage rose
50-70% in just the first weeks of lockdown on top of our record levels. Furthermore, the costs of
digital advertising have been falling since the start of the coronavirus crisis.
Figure 6. EZOIC (Last Updated April 24, 2020)
As more companies follow the likes of Coca-Cola and pause or delay key advertising campaigns, the
environment for marketers has never been more fertile. Increased affordability and a surge in online
traffic means that marketers have never been more able to reach consumers.
However, there are a few dangers or common marketing mistakes to keep an eye on.
For starters, the last thing your brand needs to do is bombard your customers. Unlike in mass
consumer marketing, where brand visibility and recognition require near-total coverage of all available
channels, B2B can take a more considered approach. The “rule of 7” still applies, but the timelines
can be elongated.
A buyer is unlikely to make an emotive purchase decision unless the need is critically urgent. Instead,
you should look to nurture your target audience through the marketing funnel slowly. By gradually
qualifying data until you have a core group of relevant, high-quality sales-ready leads, you stand a
much higher chance of success.
In practice, this strategy might involve releasing an introductory whitepaper or article that provides
the foundations for thought leadership. Readers are then encouraged to sign up for a webinar, or
virtual workshop, where they can go through the principles in more technical detail with company
representatives directly. Overlaid on this, advert retargeting before and after the webinar helps to
drive traffic to the host company using different calls-to-action (CTA).
Before the webinar, prospective customers may be encouraged to access a larger pool of technical
resources. Then after the webinar, retargeting advert CTAs can direct customers to book live demos
or introductory calls with sales teams. This approach requires greater agility of messaging but will
ensure your team is more responsive to customer needs than ever before.
Lead nurturing as a discipline can also help prevent the rise of a critical issue in B2B and B2C
marketing - digital or brand fatigue. No one needs to be hounded by a brand, particularly by an

industry service provider. It is critical then to ensure that your strategy is fine-tuned to hit as many
touch points as possible, but not appear intrusive when doing so. Too aggressive an approach and
you risk turning customers away from your brand for good.
Avoiding digital fatigue requires a delicate balancing act that Reuters Events knows all too well. In
finessing the art of event promotion over the years, our brands have had to be cognizant of the risks
of pushing too hard too fast. You can add urgency in other, more subtle ways that allow the customer
to feel engaged and encouraged to act, rather than feeling coerced. Well planned content marketing
and lead generation campaigns that file down a broader customer group into a workable set of sales-
ready leads are nearly always the solution.
Similarly, expect that your customers won’t be rushed into a purchase decision and market to them
accordingly. The one thing that COVID-19 lockdown has provided all businesses is a chance to
breathe, so use this time wisely and be prepared to wait.
Note that attending a webinar or virtual workshop is much less of a statement of interest than
attending in person. So just as total attendance is likely to be higher, adjust your expectations of
immediate return-on-investment accordingly. Much of the effort driven at lead generation through
content marketing will be ‘top of funnel’ or directed at generating ‘net new’ data. As such, it might
take a bit longer or more touchpoints with the customer to work them through the sales funnel,
and gauge sincere business interest. Likewise, you should judge return-on-investment for leads
generated through COVID-19 marketing more leniently than if they came from in-person events or
face-to-face meetings.
Promote use cases & performance data

Finally, the best practice derived from the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 finds that in a downturn,
gimmicks are out.
The Harvard Business Review of lessons learned finds that B2B messaging should emphasize
reliability, durability, safety and product performance. Where at all possible, brands should appeal
directly to use cases and have performance data accessible.
As this might require a more transparent marketing approach than usual, a layered content marketing
package offered by a 3rd party publisher as described above may, therefore, be required. You can
screen incoming leads and qualify them against your agreed customer profile.
As a result, you can be confident that you’re only sharing technical or proprietary data with customers
most likely to buy, and not competitors. In this way, digital content marketing replicates the systems
used by sales staff on an exhibit booth, just with vastly increased scale.

Next steps - Marketing during COVID-19
The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly and unexpectedly emerged as the defining crisis of our
generation. On top of all the social and economic challenges, business viability through COVID-19
will require marketers to be more creative, agile and accountable than ever before.
Remember, investment in marketing is essential to ensure that you’re priming your business for
recovery. There is no doubt that face-to-face will continue to be the most valuable form of marketing
after the market recovers. However, we hope you’ll take away critical best practices you can use
right now to succeed as a B2B marketer in the weeks and months to come.
In short, here are our key lessons learned.

1. Don’t cut the marketing budget if you can avoid it. Invest in marketing to maintain or improve
market share.
2. Embrace digital content marketing as a proven strategy for long term lead generation and
sales nurturing.
3. Know your target audience and target them directly. Work with partners to produce and
promote content that will engage and qualify them through your sales pipeline.
4. Adjust your expectations. New leads are essential to business growth but understand that
digital leads require more nurturing to get them sales ready.
Remember, Petrochemical Update offers you the chance to harness a global network of 60,000
major decision-makers directly and 400,000 industry professionals through our partners.
What’s more, as a Reuters Events brand, our team has access to nearly 30 years of experience as
leaders in both conference, events and digital marketing.
Our sponsors can benefit from laser-targeted messaging directed at the key decision-makers that
matter most.
Customers don’t want to be bombarded with information; they want brands to reach out with
personalized, relevant and exciting interactions. Reuters Events is here to help you deliver bespoke
marketing that is helpful and forward-thinking, rather than unwanted digital noise.
As pioneers in the use of content for community development and marketing, we foster year-round
contact with our customers. The quality and value of the information we generate drives loyalty and
underpins why our brands are considered the leaders in the market.
Are you interested in creating high-quality webinars, infographics, whitepapers or need help to
promote your brands existing content?
Or is your brand keen to explore virtual events and online-workshops to increase the number of top-
decision makers you’re engaging?
Either way, download our full digital marketing prospectus now to understand how our
brands, experience and marketing expertise can get you started.

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2 Let us do the heavy lifting, we curate industry leading content for you
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Marketing during COVID-19:

About Reuters Events.........................................................................................................3

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About Reuters Events

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CREATE DIGITAL EXPERIENCES

Digital Content Solutions

LEARN MORE &

WHY SPONSOR NEW ENERGY UPDATE

3 Associate yourself with senior-level voices

4 Gain access to our network of Reuters Events New Energy Update

5 Access leads engaged in subject matter relevant to you

Trusted Business Intelligence for Major Renewable Energy Companies

Visit events.newenergyupdate.com/content to learn more now 4

Marketing during COVID-19:

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The Global Economy & COVID-19

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The Renewables Industry and COVID-19

The Impact on Labor

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Adapting Work Conditions

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Adjusting to Falling Demand

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Supply Chain Concerns

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Lessons Learned: How Crises Impact

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Figure 2. Reuters Events Survey of Vendors, April 2020

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Breakdown of revisions to current budgets

-6.6% Direct Marketing

-7.2% Sales Promotions

-9.9% Main Media Advertising

-21.0% Market Research

Figure 3. IPA Bellwether Report Q1, 2020

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Lessons Learned: Marketing for the

No More Face-To-Face Marketing

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Decision makers working from home

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The value of content marketing in lead generation

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Adjusting your content marketing strategy for COVID-19

Reaching new audiences

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Figure 5. Reuters Events Vendor Survey, April 2020

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Planning for and boosting ROI

Figure 6. EZOIC (Last Updated April 24, 2020)

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Promote use cases & performance data

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