The past few months have been rough for businesses and individuals alike. It has singularly pushed people away through social distancing practices and reinvented the way in which we interact with the physical environment. Fortunately, the digital world has offered some buffer as we can depend on them to restore and maintain normalcy.
As individuals rely on digital technology to meet their everyday needs, businesses are rushing to accelerate their digital transformation journey. As a result, every business operation has now assumed a digital twist, and sales and marketing are no exception. Here are a few digital marketing strategies to help you pull through these troubled times:
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Initiate Open, Transparent Communications
Marketing has always been about engaging with the clients on a human level. Hence, communication plays a crucial role in its success.
It would be best to initiate authentic conversations with your customers without any agenda in the current situation. These interactions could be anything from checking up on their health and wellness to informing them about the measures that your business has taken to ensure safety. You may even update them on any services that your business may have started to help make it more convenient for your patrons.
Sharing personal stories and anecdotes allows your brand to have honest, open, and transparent conversations. As a result, customers would be more interested in hearing from you.
Fortunately, there are several channels of communication available in the digital realm. Thus, you can pick anything from email newsletters to social media to connect with them.
Invest in PPC Advertising
There are two primary reasons why investing in PPC ads is beneficial right now:
- There is a noticeable increase in internet users, and more people are spending time online.
- With small businesses dropping out of the PPC bidding race, paid ads are getting cheaper (by almost 6%), which is increasing their ROI.
Hence, businesses must seriously consider reallocating their CPM budget for PPC advertising. Through this strategy, businesses can offset any other losses and derive better results.
Empower and Educate Others
Given the current conditions, every person or business is struggling with one issue or another. Hence, now would be a good time to share some wisdom and knowledge to help them out. In doing so, you are not only coming off as helpful and selfless but can even gain a domain expert status. Offering solutions to customer problems will let them know that you have a keen understanding of technologies and pain points. Plus, offering a helping hand in these trying times can help build an awesome brand status.
Use a video maker to share tutorials and how-to guides for those who are already using your products and services. Similarly, use the same strategy to create engaging content that offers value addition to the viewers.
Recommended – 12 Impressive Online Video Maker for Your Business
Create and Market Interesting Content
We have briefly touched upon the importance of content in the previous point. In continuation of the same, one cannot stress enough upon the power and hold of content to keep businesses afloat. Content is a form of marketing investment that will continue to deliver results in the long run. Hence, you will continue to capture audience interest and build brand awareness even years from now.
Additionally, there is a great amount of diversity in content. Presently, video content enjoys a favorable position amongst the masses. And unlike previously, where video creation was time and money-consuming, creating video content has gotten easier and more convenient. At the same time, one can find several video marketing resources all over the internet to help get started.
Recommended – Best Video Marketing Tools to Boost Sales and Brand Awareness
Offer Promos and Discounts
With cutbacks and layoffs, the overall spending power of an average consumer has decreased. And even out of the meager savings, people would be keener on spending their money on absolute essentials over everything else.
Thus, when you tell your customers that “we are all in this together,” show it by running special offers and promos that can benefit them in one way or another. Such a move helps in building goodwill and promoting the feeling of a “community.” You can offer coupons to loyal customers or extend the subscription as a limited time deal. However, do ensure that such a step is financially viable for your business.
Alternatively, you may even form associations with charitable organizations or NGOs that are working towards improving the overall conditions. Even best, you can start your very own initiative that is tackling a major issue.
Prepare to Bounce Back
Even though the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak may appear crippling for now, it is eventually going to come to an end. Hence, you should also gear up for a future where there may be some semblance of normalcy.
Start by executing the tasks that had been pending in your to-do list. With more time at hand, you can work on other aspects of your digital strategy, such as website optimization, SEO task list, and website redesign, etc. It prepares your business for long-term growth and offers you a competitive edge over other businesses.
You can even use this time to draft a strategic deployment plan for when your business reopens. If you have a physical store, you can work out ways to incorporate changes to accommodate health and safety standards, such as partitions, social distancing stickers, etc.
Most importantly, keep your customers in the loop and keep them updated on all the changes and modifications that you are carrying out. It is particularly useful when you are planning to reopen your business.
Final Words
While the Coronavirus outbreak may have had us rethinking the traditional marketing strategies, it has also unlocked various opportunities for digital marketing. For businesses that have already embraced the digital route, navigating through its challenges may not seem too difficult. However, businesses that are just setting out to establish an online presence may find it overwhelming. Fortunately, with the above tips, you can be successful in digitizing your marketing strategies despite the global pandemic!
