While nobody can forecast what a post coronavirus reality would look like, one thing is sure for marketers, digital channels are more imperative than ever. Online channels now play an increasingly crucial role, as people continue to self-isolate and spend time longer online.
The crisis is forcing companies to re-evaluate many aspects of their financial plans for the foreseeable future and to reassess their digital marketing strategies.
While many think it’s best to stop their marketing effort during an economic crisis, many successful marketers believe it is wise to not completely stop digital marketing. Instead, you only need to be strategic about how you continue to market, including channels and messaging.
By revamping your existing marketing campaigns, there’s an excellent opportunity to be found to grow your businesses’ online presence or increase online sales. Focusing your efforts on digital marketing in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak will give you a competitive advantage over your competitors who may not be so quick to react.
So, brands need to carefully define their digital marketing strategy and find newer & sensitive ways to communicate during this time. Check out a few strategies you would possibly find helpful for your digital marketing initiative:
- Be Flexible with your Content Marketing
Set the correct tone of your content to communicate in these difficult times. At this time, it is important for brands to establish an emotional connect with consumers, and thus the messaging should be chosen carefully. Create engaging paid and organic content that is meaningful and relevant in these times.
- Social media became a huge opportunity
Though it may seem strange with everything that’s currently happening to think about your marketing strategy, social media really remains the key for several businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever, social media is often used as not just a way to keep your business front-of-mind, but to ensure it remains relevant in what we’re all calling the “new normal”.
Doubling-down on social media has never been easier, now that the world seems to have slowed down a little. It gives you more time to build relationships with new and existing customers, experiments with differing kinds of content and, more importantly, take advantage of increased engagement across all platforms.
- Stay in front of your Target Audience
With COVID-19, all traditional marketing efforts are almost entirely out of the picture. As many people across the globe continue to surge and increase their time spent on the internet, brands need to understand that it’s important to be ahead of their target audience, always. Not all customers have stopped making purchase decisions, so you want your business to be ready when your audience searches on the internet. Also, when this situation ends and all businesses resume, your marketing efforts will help to create brand recall and keep your business relevant in front of your audience.
- Optimize your SEO and sort your Rank Better
As people are spending more of their time online, there are more search activities and with that being said, businesses with a powerful SEO & content strategy have a bonus over their competition, who is probably doing everything they can to build an inbound machine immediately.
By building your processes and workflow, ensuring data quality with consistent measurement, building an audience and customer base, and creating quality content that ranks, you’ve got the chance to push ahead and come out on top while others lose traction across channels.
- Consider Pay Per Click Advertising
You might be thinking it’s crazy to start out pay-per-click advertising at such a time, but the reality is that this could be an ideal time. Your audience is online with more attention to spare than ever before, so why not get your brand right in front of their eyes? PPC advertising, when managed correctly, offers excellent value for money and an excellent return on investment. If you’re already running PPC advertising, make sure you have reviewed all campaigns and ads to reflect any important changes in your business.
- Engage Your Audience through Email Marketing
While a lot of people are pulling faraway from social life and being self-quarantine at home, marketers should be paying more attention to email marketing in order to stay in touch with your customers on a consistent basis.
Without commutes, people tend to spend time functioning from home and probably checking their emails. Therefore, it’s an excellent opportunity for you to build credibility and relationship with your customers. By segmenting your customers into different lists and sending them highly personalized content based on their preferences during this outbreak really shows that you care about them.
- Analysis of changing Consumer Behaviour:
Keep a close watch on how your customer behavior is evolving during these times. Indeed, when the world bids adieu to the COVID-19, the customer buying behavior might have transformed – their interest in products or services, their needs and expectations from brands, spending patterns, etc. it’s essential for brands to delve deep into these changes and work on their digital media strategy accordingly.
- Your Business Needs to be Nimble and Prepare to Pivot Swiftly
Businesses need to understand that this situation isn’t going to last forever and their business isn’t closing. They have to retain their brand presence as it may be harder to recover later after losing the momentum; that’s how digital marketing works! So stay positive and use this time to redefine your digital marketing strategies, strengthen your existing connections & build long-term trust with your audience and set yourself up for success post this crisis.
Wrap Up
Now is the time to connect with your customers like never before and not separate from them. Meet your customers where they’re now and find how to pivot and give your business the most effective chance to stay afloat by making your website easily found online through a strategic SEO, social media or PPC strategy.
