Re-thinking Digital Marketing in the time of crisis

If organizations thought the pre-pandemic shift to digital was fast, three-year strategies are now being implemented within weeks. The pandemic being an accelerant to digital strategy is an understatement. Digital has become central to every interaction, forcing both organizations and individuals further up the adoption curve almost overnight. Digital channels have become the primary customer engagement models for a lot of businesses. Agility has become prized and often the only way for businesses to survive.

In this unique moment, companies can learn and progress more quickly than ever before. The ways they learn from and adjust to today’s crisis will deeply influence their performance in tomorrow’s changed world. Any hesitation to pursue bold new strategies has been usurped by the need to adapt to the new reality. This presents an opportunity to advance the digital agenda with organizational support and sponsorship. However, applying “digital lipstick” won't be enough, and there needs to be intent to innovate entirely new digital offerings, deploying design thinking and technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) at scale across the business, and doing all of this at pace. Playing it safe now, understandable as it might feel to do so, is often the worst option. So what digital marketing strategies should businesses pursue in this new context?