The outbreak of the coronavirus will force the majority of companies to push the pause button on product or service launches during the next two months according to a new research by Marketing Week and Econsultancy.

Out of the 887 professionals surveyed, 55% said they have already paused upcoming launches and many are expecting to see buyer behaviours and habits change significantly.

The Covid-10 global pandemic poses a host of new challenges to marketers and companies who may need to pivot to new strategies and solutions to support core operations during the next few weeks.

Separate research by searchenginejournal found SEO metrics have also been particularly volatile since European countries and US states started rolling out increasingly draconian measures to control the movement of the general public.

During the last ten days, ecommerce sites and those posting wellness and wellness content have seen a marked increase in impressions and traffic.

Recipe websites are also more popular, presumably because people are not eating out as much and are turning to home cooking to fill the void.

For brands in the food industry or who specialise in food-based content, creating articles and blogs with quick guides and recipes with fewer ingredients could be the best course of action right now.

Despite the outbreak, brands will remain committed to content and general marketing campaigns as six in ten are delaying the review of budget commitments for the time being.

More than a third have noted a dip in demand for products and services during the last week and 61% expect that trend to persist during the coming quarter.

Content marketing and organic SEO could be crucial during this period as marketing initiatives such as events and roundtables that are usually central to lead generation will be delayed or cancelled entirely.

There is also an opportunity to engage more consumers across digital platforms as 88% expect the use of online services to soar. A similar number also expect social media activity to increase during the next month.

The switch to digital platforms is also being felt in the workplace where many companies are now embracing remote working to enable employees to continue their roles amid the outbreak of the virus.

More than a third of UK marketers say working from home had been a “somewhat rare” or “rare” occurrence for them until the last few weeks but eight in ten now expect it to be “somewhat” or “very common” during the spring and summer.

In terms of productivity, the move to remote working could be beneficial for companies as two-thirds say they expect to work more hours when they are at home due to the lack of a daily commute and the ease of access to work-related devices.

Three-quarters also expect to be more efficient in their work activities, though a small portion (23%) are concerned that it could eventually intrude into their personal lives.

When the outbreak subsides, 54% of respondents believe working practices to go back to normal by and large, with only 6% forecasting “significant” changes in the long term.