B2B Marketing Zone and Tom Pick, a well-known B2B Marketing expert, recently conducted a survey of over 450 senior B2B marketing professionals about the impact of COVID-19 on their B2B marketing plans. The results were not surprising in some areas, but were very surprising in others. Don’t miss this webinar, where Tom will share findings from the survey, from additional market input, and from the audience. By registering, you will get access to the full survey report.

1. Tom Pick Shelley Trout
With: Moderated by:
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How COVID-19 is Impacting B2B
Marketing Plans

2. 2
Click on the Questions panel to
interact with the presenters

3. About Tom Pick
Tom Pick is a digital marketing consultant who's helped dozens of B2B clients improve their online
visibility, increase brand awareness, and generate leads through search, social, influencer, and
content marketing. A co-founder of the B2B Marketing Zone, Tom is author of “The Ultimate Guide to
Content Marketing Software,” has been named a Top 50 B2B Marketing Influencer, and blogs at
Webbiquity.com.
About Shelley Trout
Shelley leads webinar production at Aggregage, the publisher of more than 40 B2B publications. She has
successfully produced hundreds of webinars featuring thought leaders, across a range of industries, and
delivering diverse and rich content and tens of thousands of targeted leads to webinar sponsors. Shelley
is a published author and writer, who previously worked as a director and producer on the West End while
studying Theater in London. After moving to the U.S., she majored in Anthropology & Archaeology at UC
Berkeley, worked at the Center of Digital Archaeology, and wrote her thesis on digital representations of
people and their stories.

4. 4
Agenda
1. A (really) quick look back
2. The real impact that COVID-19 has had on B2B events
this year
3. How B2B marketers are responding
4. What you can do right now to mitigate the impact of
COVID-19 for your company

5. 5
The Way We Were
B2B marketing / live events: bright outlook
•Big event budgets
• 65% allocated 20% or more
• 43% - 30% or more
• 17% - 50% or more(!)
•Busy event calendars
• 45% planned events monthly
• 23% - 21 or more events
• 11% - 50 or more events

6. 6
Quick Poll: Budgets
How do you expect your overall marketing
budget to be impacted this year?
•Down significantly: 50% or more
•Down moderately: 20-49%
•Down a little: 1-19%
•Roughly unchanged
•Increased

7. 7Today: Budget Impacts
Is the glass half-full or half-empty..?
How do you expect the outbreak of COVID-19 to impact
your overall marketing budget this year? (n=452)

8. 8
Budget Impacts by Size, Sector
• Largest companies (5,000+ employees):
modest decline
• Midsize companies: stable budgets
• Small companies (<250 employees): big cuts
• Tech and healthcare: unchanged or up
• Financial services: unchanged
• Manufacturing and business services: big cuts
• (More industries are mentioned in the report)

9. 9
Quick Poll: Event Cancellation
Have you had to cancel any events?
• Yes, and we have plans
to reallocate the budget
• Yes, but we have no
plans for reallocation
• No, we have moved all
our events online

10. 10
Event Plans
Live Events are being
cancelled:
• Two-thirds cancelling
some or all live events
for 60 days
• One-quarter cancelling
some or all next 6-9
months
What are you most likely to do with the budget dollars
allocated to live events this year?

11. 11
Budget Disposition by Size, Sector
• Biggest firms most likely to reallocate spending
• Smallest companies most likely to cut
• Midsized businesses (500-999 employees) twice as likely as
others to still spend funds on live events
• Software and healthcare most likely to reallocate
• Manufacturing, business services most likely to cut
• Financial services most uncertain

12. 12Budget Reallocations
How are you most likely to spend reallocated event marketing budget
dollars? (up to three responses)

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Quick Poll: Plans
What are your plans for replacing live
events with online events such as
webinars?
•Will replace most events with online events
•Will replace some events with online events
•Not sure
•No plans

14. 14Budget Disposition
• Large businesses most likely
to replace live events with
online meetings
• Small companies least likely
to do so
• Mid-sized firms (500-999
employees) most uncertain
• Software and healthcare most
likely to do online events
• Manufacturing, business
services: no plans
• Media / Internet & Telecom:
most uncertain
What are your plans for replacing live events with online
events, such as webinars?

15. 15
Budget Shifts by Company Size
• 5,000+ employees: hosted
webinars, paid social
media
• 1,000-4,999: content
creation, search ads
• 500-999: vertical websites,
newsletter sponsorships
• 50-499: outbound email,
postal mail
• Under 50: SEO, organic
social media

16. 16
Budget Shifts by Industry Segment
• Software: online events (hosted
and sponsored)
• Media / Internet & Telecom,
Business Services: content
creation
• Healthcare: search ads, social
media (paid and organic)
• Financial services: SEO,
outbound email
• Manufacturing: vertical websites,
direct mail

17. 17
Quick Poll: Your Outlook
Analysts predict the re-opening of society and business
will be a gradual process. None of us have a crystal ball,
but what is your best sense of when things will be mostly
back to “normal”?
• Within 3 months
• Within 6 months
• Within 9 months
• Within 12 months
• More than a year

18. 18Webinars
The Key Pieces of Successful Webinar
Production• Goal Setting
• Topic and Content
• Speaker Selection
• Speaker Preparation
• Marketing Segmentation
• Engagement/Experience
• Takeaway
• Nurture Campaign
• Sales Conversations

19. 19Webinars
Content
• Select a topic that
differentiates you and
satisfies the audience
• How/why does this
content benefit the
audience?
• How is this topic aligned
to your offering?
• Storyteller - someone with
data and experience
• A presenter and a listener
• Authenticity goes a long
way
• The audience will
remember stories and
link them to your
brand/offering.
Speaker

20. 20Webinars
Send them away; Keep them forever
• Bring them to a destination
immediately as the webinar ends.
• Send attendees a thank you with a
CTA to join a product demo.
• Include moments from the webinar as
memorable connections.
• Every attendee who goes to your
destination, should get a call.
• Add attendees to your nurturing
program.
• TRACK! TRACK! TRACK!

21. 21
Best Practices for Marketing and
Messaging in the COVID-19
World
• Use SEO and search ads to capture those are looking,
because, or in spite of, the situation.
• Talk to your customers. Share what you learn.
• Continue communicating to your prospects, but not business as
usual. Be empathetic, helpful, and concise.
• Using retargeting? Turn it off immediately.
• DON’T use the crisis to promote your brand or use “hard sell”
copy.
• Work on your “some day” list.
• Seek out ways to be helpful.
• CRO really matters now; accounts > “leads.”
• Brand monitoring is REALLY vital now.

22. 22
More Best Practices
Don't slash your budget (particularly in the relatively healthy segments).
History has proven brands that continue to market during recessions
reap the largest benefits when the economy rebounds.

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Still More Best Practices
• Reallocate live event dollars: content, search, social, vertical
sites, virtual events.
• Relationships > revenue. Build trust and credibility.
• Go old school: phone calls and direct mail.
• Be careful with humor.
• Experiment with formats: podcasting down (fewer commutes)
but video is up. Email response down, LinkedIn up.
• 40% of B2B software buyers plan to increase purchases in the
near term (per TrustRadius). Be essential; how can you make
buyers more effective?

24. 24
What Empathetic Messaging Looks
Like*
• Address the elephant in the room.
• But don’t go “all COVID, all the time.”
• Ask “How are you doing? Any advice for me?
• Not “what’s keeping you up at night” but – what
shouldn’t be.
• Share what’s working for others.
• Retain customers. Ask “How can we help?”
*Brazenly “borrowed” from Matt Heinz and Vinay Bhagat.

25. 25
Q&A
Chief Digital Marketing Consultant, Webbiquity
Linkedin page: in/tompick/
Twitter ID: @TomPick
Website: webbiquity.com
Webinar Producer, B2B Marketing Zone
Linkedin page: in/shelleytrout/
Twitter ID: @B2bMarketingZ
Website: b2bmarketingzone.com
Tom Pick
With:
Shelley Trout
Moderated by:
www.b2bmarketingzone.com/webinar-series/trends-in-b2b-marketing