There are plenty of articles out there right now about marketing during the COVID-19. But the question you should be asking is who should I be reaching out to? Many people are working from home these days. Many people are not working at all, temporarily or otherwise. Here are a few tips on you should reach out to:

Be sensitive to those that are temporarily not working or no longer with their organizations

It’s entirely possible that your prospects have been having hard times and have had to make some tough employment decisions. Check any prospects’ company pages for news about potential closures or layoffs. Of course, this information may not be available but the best case is you may not hear back in several weeks and worst case you don’t hear back from them at all, spending your marketing budget on a prospect that doesn’t exist. This leads to our next point.

Most people are in their homes but…

You know that most of the American workforce is working from home. Media like social media, email, and direct mail are a great way to reach people in self-isolation. However, sending B2B direct mail to your prospects, if you have their home addresses might seem a bit creepy. If you can offer online solutions and delivery for what you provide, now is a great time advertise. 

Don’t forget about those existing customers

There’s an old business adage:

It costs 10 times more to acquire a new client than retain an old one.

or another:

A bird in the hand is better than two in the bush.

In short, focus on keeping your current clients doing business with you. You can hopefully stay afloat by handing on to your current customers while we ride this out.

As a final note, if your product or service can help your prospects now, focus on those who are close to buying. If your product will not materially improve your prospect’s situation any time soon, focus on your leads and new prospects. That way you can set up new business int he future when things start to move back to normal.