What do you do if your marketing strategy is thrown off by unexpected market disruptions?

1 Assess the impact

The first step is to assess the impact of the market disruption on your target audience, your value proposition, your channels, and your budget. How has the disruption changed your customers' needs, preferences, behaviors, and expectations? How does it affect your competitive advantage, your unique selling proposition, and your differentiation? How does it influence your distribution, communication, and engagement methods? How does it alter your revenue streams, your costs, and your resources? By answering these questions, you can identify the gaps and opportunities in your current marketing strategy.

3 Adapt your tactics

The third step is to adapt your marketing tactics to suit your adjusted goals and your customers' changing needs. You may need to modify your marketing mix (product, price, place, and promotion) to offer more value, convenience, and relevance to your audience. You may also need to experiment with new or different channels, formats, messages, and offers to reach and engage your customers more effectively. For example, you may use more digital or social media platforms, create more educational or entertaining content, or offer more discounts or incentives.

4 Analyze your results

The fourth step is to analyze your marketing results and measure your performance against your adjusted goals and KPIs. You need to track and evaluate your marketing metrics and data to see what works and what doesn't. You also need to collect and analyze feedback from your customers, partners, and stakeholders to understand their satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. By doing this, you can learn from your successes and failures, and identify areas for improvement or innovation.

5 Anticipate future scenarios

The final step is to anticipate future scenarios and prepare contingency plans for different possibilities. You need to monitor and forecast the market trends, customer behavior, competitor actions, and environmental factors that may affect your marketing strategy. You also need to create and test alternative or backup plans for different scenarios, such as best-case, worst-case, or most-likely outcomes. By doing this, you can reduce the risks and uncertainties, and increase the opportunities and advantages of your marketing strategy.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?