The SARS-Cov-2 or Coronavirus pandemic has brought unprecedented changes to our daily lives. As the infectious disease spreads across the world, it continues to alter the behavior of people. Marketers are no different; they are scrambling to devise marketing strategies that will help their brands survive during this pandemic.
Since the spread of the virus has changed consumer buying behavior, marketers have to change their promotional strategies as well. It’s time to think of new marketing strategies while keeping in mind the current situation and its consequences.
We have compiled a list of 15 digital marketing ideas to help marketers make a winning marketing strategy during the COVID-19 crisis.
#1. Stay Connected With Your Audience
People around the globe are affected by the pandemic, quarantine has left people with ample free time, so they are finding things to stay busy. Some people are affected positively while some lost their jobs, loved ones, or other negative impacts. It is essential to stay connected with your customers and audience online.
You can stay connected with your audience in the following ways:
- Use email marketing to reach existing customers. You can reward them by offering valuable information, discounts, and offers.
- Post engaging content on social media pages; all posts don’t have to be promotional. You can create interactive posts like polls, opinions, and reaction posts to prompt user engagement.
- Answer frequently asked questions through FAQs
- Retarget marketing by offering appealing offers to dormant consumers.
#2. Raise Awareness through Relevant Content
In these times of difficulty, everyone needs a little support and encouragement. Try to be there for your audience by raising awareness on how people can stay safe and busy during the COVID-19 crisis. Raise awareness through your platform so that you are useful to your consumer; this way, they will remember you long after the crisis is over.
#3. Contribute to the Cause
Multiple clothing factories and brands around the globe have paused their regular production and shifted focus in developing protection kits for health care workers. Look for options that your business can utilize to help people in any way during these difficult times. Think of ways to serve people during the times when everyone needs help and support.
Multiple platforms and services have provided limited-time free courses/ subscriptions during COVID-19 so that the people sitting at home can avail of these services at much lower costs. Offers like these can help you stay in business.
Businesses must promote these offers in the right way to come across as authentic as well as to help the maximum number of people benefit from these free/discounted offers. This will have two advantages:
- By providing value to consumers, you make a good impression on their minds, which can lead to customer loyalty, positive WOM, and more.
- There is a high chance that the consumers you attract through the discounted offers may become loyal, repeat customers.
#4. Online Presence
Take this time to realize how important it is to have a strong online presence. These are the times when the only way people are communicating is through digital media. Utilize this time to market and improve your digital standing to attract consumers.
Focus on the following to enhance your online presence:
- Develop an aesthetically pleasing, easy-to-use, and responsive website
- Maintain your social media platforms
- Post ad update content regularly
- Post-high-quality, optimized content
#5. Capture Conversion through PPC
People have more time to spend on screens, and therefore, the use of social media has increased manifold in the past two months. This gives marketers a great opportunity to market using pay per click model to interact and engage with the audience.
We recommend developing a new PPC strategy wrt to the on-going situation; conduct an exhaustive keyword search to identify the keywords in demand which you can use to attract higher traffic.
#6. Focus on SEO
This is the perfect time to improve the SEO of your websites to increase the ranking in SERP. Rank for better keywords by dedicated efforts and sail past your competitors on Google ranking. SEO tactics can help you rank on the top of Google’s first page and makes it easier for people to search and land on your website.
#7. Capture Market through Offers
This is a time where people are hesitant to buy things; however, you can encourage sales by offering discounts through online promotional campaigns. Small businesses can offer discounts, deals, bundle pricing, and bulk pricing, etc. to entice consumers in purchasing their products.
Marketers know that sales promotional is a short term measure to boost sales. Therefore, it is perfect for the current situation, where an instant boost in sales can keep the business solvent in the short-term.
- Give people discounts from website purchases
- Give discount coupon codes on social media
#8. Master the Near Me Search Strategy
Try to capture your local audience and provide them easy access to your services through the near me search strategy. As people are at home, they are searching more and more for services/businesses near them.
Optimize your settings so that when people search for services near them, your website appears on top.
For example, a professional cleaning service in the UK, carpet cleaning Chislehurst, included geotagging and beacons in their SEO strategy to increase their ranking.
When people near the business search for a cleaning business in London, their business will appear on top. You can do the same so people may reach out to your services more easily.
#9. Testimonials and Reviews
To develop trust in online services, people count on the reviews present on different platforms. You must ask your customers to write reviews after they have used your services. Adding testimonials and reviews can help you increase your reach and business.
Business research suggests that more than 80% of consumers look at online reviews of a product before making a purchase; therefore, ranking high on review sites can increase the possibility of high sales substantially.
Here is how you can encourage consumers to post a product review online:
- Give consumers incentives such as a discount or free product for posting an online review.
- Send a PR package to online review sites. Most of these sites review your product fairly.
- Collaborate with micro-influencers in the niche to make reviews available.
#10. To-Dos
Digital marketing has several aspects, from content creation to content optimization; too often, we don’t get enough time to go into the details that matter. Now is your time to complete your digital to-do list and pay attention to all those pending tasks. Due to the COVID-19 situation, everyone has ample time in hand. You can also hire part-time or freelancer employees to get your work done.
#11. Design and User Interface
The user interface of your website matters a lot for customer experience. The design and user-friendliness of a website greatly impact the experience of a customer. Pay attention to the design details of your website and work on improving the interface during this time. Analyze the bounce rate and figure out the reasons why people are not staying on your website. Pay attention to the pages that aren’t receiving a lot of traffic.
#12. Adjust To Meet the Customer Requirement
People are quarantined, and it is a problem to go out to shop even if your services are open. Consider the situation and offer services that are completely safe to acquire. Multiple companies have also reprioritized and altered their services, partnering with other companies in the production of material that is needed.
#13. Learn From the Situation
Although COVID-19 is an unprecedented situation, it has taught us a lot of lessons and allowed us to improve online strategies. This is the time to realize the importance of digitalization and improve our systems from scratch. The lessons learned during these times can be beneficial in the long run. Record the issues and learn from this situation for further strategies.
#14. Don’t Make Decisions in a Rush
Although the pandemic has greatly affected businesses globally, this time shall pass. We see the trends in various countries of how the virus peaked and then started to decline. According to the trends observed in China, things will start getting normalized after reaching the peak of the virus. Because of the stress and anxiety, multiple people tend to make impulsive decisions which they later regret upon. In this time, try to be patient while staying connected with your audience online.
#15. Prepare For Ahead
Although no one is sure about the timeline, there is hope for things to return back to normal sooner than later. So marketers need to plan ahead and utilize this time to proactively work on strategies for the times when people would shift back to regular routines. You have ample time in hand to discover new techniques and action plans. You should also work hard on the SEO of your website as it is a time taking process to yield better results.
About the Author!
Muhammad Shoaib provides ghostwriting and copywriting services at AssignYourWriter from the UK. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for carpet cleaning Chislehurst.