Several services that were used regularly by people have now become redundant. Print media and cable TV were the most regularly used marketing platforms before COVID-19 happened.
However, their subscriptions have decreased significantly during the time of the pandemic. This has also reduced the number of users brands can reach if they use these platforms for marketing. Correspondingly, the fraction of the population that is online has increased. Brands hence prefer to advertise and market online, and as the disposable income of people has slowly been growing, the shift online has also begun paying dividends in the form of revenue. A good example is a surge in social media advertisement, a prevalent example being Facebook video ads. Here are a few tips to elevate your digital marketing strategy during the pandemic.
- A Non-Quarantined Atmosphere: All other marketing and digital marketing platforms are not conditioned for a scenario in which millions of people have been quarantined. This hinders these people from having access to the marketing content in the form of offers, advertisements, billboards, and the like. However, the internet is one portal where quarantine doesn’t matter. In quarantine, people will access the internet even more than they usually do, increasing the user base of digital marketing. This non-quarantined atmosphere makes digital marketing ideal during a pandemic.
- No Exploitation: While utilizing digital marketing during an epidemic, it is essential not to try to exploit the situation to your benefit. It is often tempting to use an exceptional situation to your advantage and draw attention toward your brand. However, in a situation as tragic as a pandemic, this would be unethical and wrong. Using the pandemic as a critical point in your marketing strategy to sway the emotions of people is bound to be looked down upon and derided. It is much more prudent to continue with a regular marketing strategy but to shift it entirely online, maintaining recognisability while also putting your message across to your target user.
- Evaluating E-Commerce: E-commerce is a tricky business, and hardly as lucrative as it used to be a couple of decades ago. The pandemic has brought to the fore several weaknesses present in the supply chains of major e-commerce companies. With quarantine restrictions coming in, many local governments have placed a blanket ban on non-essential e-commerce delivery. Alongside, people are also wary of ordering stuff from outside their house, due to the fast proliferation of the pandemic. There are a number of situations in which the doubts and reservations of people need to be put to rest for the business to resume charting a trajectory of profit. Digital marketing can be beneficial in helping businesses do so, without the use of any tangible material and at a considerably lower price.
- Technology and Innovation:Technology has been the buzzword of the last decade. Technology and innovation-based solutions have been increasing at an unprecedented rate. These solutions need marketing to reach their target customers. A number of them try to use conventional video marketing by using Facebook ad templates because Facebook has the largest user base of prospective customers and also provides excellent customizing capabilities to choose your target audience. Digital marketing is a major requirement for technology-based companies since a significant amount of their business and services are generally hosted online.
- Reach Out: When most of the populace that might be a prospective customer is present online, it is prudent to shift all your marketing online as well. Online marketing is not just easier, but also significantly cheaper than offline marketing and helps you target customers in a much better way. Facebook and Twitter use advanced data analytics to target customers whose interests match the interests of the brand. This helps the brand make a lot more out of the money that they invest in digital marketing. Add to this the fact that videos for marketing can be made at a very low cost using online software and portals, and you have a winner on your hands!
- Spread Awareness: Especially for new companies and brands, it is vital to be able to spread awareness about the presence of your brand as well as the USPs it provides to the customers. Digital marketing, especially social media marketing, is a handy tool to be able to do so. To spread awareness about your brand, you may opt for ads on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. YouTube marketing has also grown as a significant form of video marketing over the past few years, as the user base of YouTube has grown by leaps and bounds.
- Corporate Social Responsibility: The online platform is the platform of choice for all sizes of companies to promote the corporate social responsibility activities that they choose to indulge in. A lot of companies choose to post videos of various CSR initiatives since these are capable of showing the human side of companies very effectively. These videos are then promoted on multiple social media platforms to spread the word about the company. They can pay back in the way of an expanded user base or greater revenues.
Conclusion
The COVID-19 crisis sending a large number of people online has led to a windfall for digital marketing companies, using a greater fraction of brands’ budgets, now being allocated to internet platforms. It is, therefore, prudent for companies to allocate a greater focus to digital marketing for greater revenues.
Post published in: Featured