The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on many industries. From restaurants to hotels and from beauty parlors to retailers, everyone is feeling the pressure. Many sectors are changing their approach while others are reinventing themselves entirely.
The digital marketing industry took a hit as well. However, as lockdown orders and quarantine measures started to take effect, more and more people flooded the Internet. This gave digital marketers an opportunity to expand their efforts.
The pandemic already pushed the digital marketing industry to adapt to the new reality. It’s also turbocharging the promotional efforts, making the most out of the situation, and preparing for the new reality.
E-Commerce Marketing During COVID-19
Online shopping was gaining popularity before the virus struck. When people landed at home for many weeks, online sales started soaring. The founder and CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is likely to become a trillionaire in just six years. The rise of sales during the pandemic contributed to his upcoming status tremendously.
Even though the purchasing behavior of many people has changed, e-commerce isn’t suffering from the pandemic. Just the opposite, right now is the time to reap benefits. Here are a few things to consider adjusting your e-commerce digital marketing campaign.
- Change your PPC budget – cut back on the least efficient upper-funnel keywords wherever the demand may be going down. Reroute your budget to support keywords with the highest conversion potential.
- Continue SEO efforts – SEO is an ongoing strategy, so it’s vital to keep the campaign. Otherwise, you’d have to start from scratch in the future. Support your SEO efforts while others are quitting the game and reap the benefits.
- Rethink your content – content you offer to your target audience should be clear and free from speculations or fake data about the pandemic. Try to focus on clarity and transparency as much as possible.
- Use social media – the majority of your target audience is currently spending more time on social media. While maintaining your digital marketing campaign, raise awareness by being helpful during these trying times. Give valuable advice and try to be entertaining to help alleviate the stress.
Viral Trends: COVID-19 Impact on Marketing
The pandemic is having an irreversible effect on digital marketing methods. To stay on top of your game, you should consider the following trends.
1. Responding to New Buyer Behavior
Consumers are changing their approach to acquiring products and services. They’ve reevaluated their needs and requirements, adjusted their budget, and adapted to the sea of offers.
To capitalize on the new buyer behavior, you need to figure out how their needs have developed and how budgets have changed. In some cases, you may need to revamp the buyer persona entirely.
Your company will have to refine its strategy according to the changes in buyer behavior.
2. Adapting to Remote Work Trends
During the pandemic, many companies switched to remote operation. It means that the time your target audience spends online has changed. You need to consider such changes as the absence of commute, different lunch break periods, and alternative working schedules.
Depending on this new behavior, you would need to figure out how to schedule your social media posts, when to send emails, and how to change the PPC marketing budget (peak hours may be different now).
3. Adjusting to the New Competition
While many companies are going out of business, it’s an excellent time to stay afloat. However, you have to be ready for the appearance of new competitors.
You may need to do extra studying of competition’s new habits to adjust your digital marketing strategy.
If you have a sufficient budget, it’s time to pump it into long-term marketing efforts like SEO to finally get to the top of the coveted search result pages.
Coronavirus and Marketing: COVID-19 Marketing Tips
Digital marketing during coronavirus has changed substantially. To continue getting results from your campaign, you need to keep up with the latest trends. Below tips can help you do it.
1. Capitalize on Involvement: Talk About the Pandemic
When creating content for your blog, social media, and webpages, consider talking about the pandemic. Since COVID-19 affected the entire population one way or another, your company needs to show involvement.
From sending out newsletters to creating special discounts, you need to communicate your care for the target audience during these tough times. Just make sure to avoid any predictions.
2. Coronavirus Inbound Marketing: Rethink the Sales Funnel
While the stages of the sales funnel haven’t changed, their duration has. Since the purchasing power today is low, the period between “decision” and “action” is longer. Even though the potential clients aren’t ready to buy right now, they will as soon as the situation starts stabilizing.
That’s why it’s important to make the most out of the rest of the sales funnel stages to ensure a quick purchasing decision in the future.
- Capitalize on the desire to learn
Offer high-quality content for free. Remember, now is the ideal time to build brand awareness, educate your audience, and strengthen credibility and trust.
Focus on positioning yourself as an expert in the industry by producing top-notch content. You can arrange webinars, podcasts, and masterclasses.
Dig into your resources to see what valuable information you can offer your clients.
- Cut fees and provide freebies
Since the purchasing power is low, it’s time to introduce discounts and offer freebies. Many companies reduced fees and came up with free trials, free courses, free sessions, free webinars, free e-books, etc.
- Emphasize Your Desire to Help
Don’t be shy about sharing the steps you take to help your clients or local communities during the pandemic. Emphasize the desire to make yourself useful while your clients are struggling with the tough times. Explain why you are making price changes and offering more free content.
3. Marketing During Coronavirus: Respond to the Crisis
Many companies have stepped forward to respond to the crisis by making special offers, providing new services, supporting the community, and much more. Besides cutting fees and offering freebies, it’s important to share your responsiveness and care for the target audience.
This is the “we are all in this together” time. To build trust and brand awareness, your company needs to contribute. Many businesses are doing it by:
- Supporting the healthcare sector
- Offering help to the elderly and other high-risk sectors of the population
- Donating to COVID-related research
- Finding ways to retain employees
- Providing new services related to the pandemic-related changes
For example:
- HubSpot is cutting prices, offering free tools, improving remote onboarding process, and making donations.
- LinkedIn is removing fees on numerous remote work learning courses.
- Adobe is allowing Creative Cloud app users to request “at home” access for students and educators for free.
- Meero (file transfer service) is offering free transfers of large files to support remote work and education.
- Dolce&Gabana and other fashion brands are funding coronavirus research projects.
Depending on your company’s size and resources, the response can vary from free top-notch content to large research donations. Whatever you do, it’s important to be transparent about these actions.
4. Coronavirus Marketing Ideas: Invest in Content
The power of content marketing is hard to underestimate. With millions of people spending more time online, you can’t ignore the new content-sharing opportunities.
Take advantage of your clients’ need for information by providing high-quality content in its various shapes and forms.
- Create a learning center — give your clients an opportunity to learn by sharing guides, whitepapers, webinars, and courses.
- Offer online tools — now is an excellent time to produce helpful tools for your stay-at-home clients or offer discounts on using them. For example, Neil Patel is offering a free marketing tool Ubersuggest to boost promotional efforts during the pandemic and beyond. Meanwhile, HubSpot is providing a Blog Topic Generator tool for the same purposes.
- Adjust your content — as your clients’ needs shift and pain points change, you need to adjust your content accordingly. You may need to revamp your keyword search and explore new approaches to blog topics.
While creating new content during and after the pandemic, it’s essential to remember that the priorities of your clients may be different. With huge amounts of information pounding internet users, they are after something clear, highly valuable, and straight to the point.
In the sea of fake information, conspiracy theories, and panic, your goal is to become an oasis of certainty, transparency, and clarity.
5. Go Online: Plan Virtual Events
Since it’s unclear when real-life events will make their comeback, consider turning to virtual events.
- Webinars — make presentations, hold discussions, arrange masterclasses, create workshops, and much more.
- Conferences — educate your clients, meet with key industry players, boost brand awareness, and strengthen business relationships.
- Branded podcasts — share valuable information and build brand awareness.
- Live events — arrange a remote event and stream it.
It’s vital to get a hang of these events right now to capitalize on them in the post-COVID world.
Some examples of how other companies do it:
Even when the pandemic subsides, virtual events will stay. Their cost-efficiency, impressive engagement, measurability, and conversion potential are impossible to underestimate. Learning how to cut your marketing costs during coronavirus can help you stay on top of the game after it subsides.
6. Marketing after COVID-19: Review Your Industry Pains
As the world is changing so are the needs and pain points of your clients. Your company may need to adjust or even reinvent itself to cater to the new demands. Today, many companies are focusing on health issues, remote work, education, virtual travel, and more.
Review your clients’ pain points and figure out how you can adjust your offerings to suit their new needs. These needs are likely to stay the same after the pandemic or at least several months after it subsides.
By preparing for the new approach today, you can reap the benefits for many months to come.
7.Email Marketing During Coronavirus: Review Your Options
Email marketing during coronavirus has changed as well. You need to rethink the sending times for your emails since people, who work from home adjusted the email checking time.
You should also remember to add as much clarity as possible to your messages and try not to overwhelm clients with offers that lack relevance in the new reality.
Digital Marketing During Coronavirus: The New Reality is Here
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way many companies do their business. To adjust, digital marketing specialists have reviewed their approach to many tactics.
By staying on top of the latest trends, rethinking the audience’s needs, and learning how to cut costs, it’s possible to achieve excellent marketing results during the pandemic and beyond.