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Eight Ways to Adjust Your Approach to Digital Marketing During COVID-19
As a nation we’ve passed from the initial COVID-19 lockdown phase to tentative recovery. There’s a slight potential Q1 2021 could look similar to Q2 2020 if there is a massive resurgence in test positivity, but let’s hope that’s not in the cards.
Either way, there’s a relatively simple solvency-maintaining formula the majority of SMBs have likely figured out on their own.
If you can’t handle jobs due to lockdowns/restrictions or are getting fewer calls due to your clientele’s COVID-related fears, you can cut or reduce spending on the ads that generate leads for those jobs. Many businesses can safely pause or drastically reduce associated Google Ad and Facebook Ad spends.
The value of search engine optimization, however, has remained unchanged. At this point there’s no reason to assume the pandemic is the new normal. By 2022, when things are back to normal, you will have been well served by maintaining your SEO efforts through the pandemic of 2020 and 2021.
Social media management could, in hindsight, tell a similar story. If your in-house SMM efforts are costing you nothing, or your SMM provider is relatively affordable, there’s no reason to stop that customer or community outreach. This is especially true if you want to maintain relevance or stay top of mind with customers who may have need of your services once the pandemic is over or restrictions loosen.
Either way, there’s a relatively simple solvency-maintaining formula the majority of SMBs have likely figured out on their own.
If you can’t handle jobs due to lockdowns/restrictions or are getting fewer calls due to your clientele’s COVID-related fears, you can cut or reduce spending on the ads that generate leads for those jobs. Many businesses can safely pause or drastically reduce associated Google Ad and Facebook Ad spends.
The value of search engine optimization, however, has remained unchanged. At this point there’s no reason to assume the pandemic is the new normal. By 2022, when things are back to normal, you will have been well served by maintaining your SEO efforts through the pandemic of 2020 and 2021.
Social media management could, in hindsight, tell a similar story. If your in-house SMM efforts are costing you nothing, or your SMM provider is relatively affordable, there’s no reason to stop that customer or community outreach. This is especially true if you want to maintain relevance or stay top of mind with customers who may have need of your services once the pandemic is over or restrictions loosen.
The basic COVID-19 advice to live by:
cut back on ad spends if they’re no longer generating revenue or a reliable ROI and maintain SEO and social media efforts when possible.
1. Cautiously Choose When to Move Your Budgets
Paid ads are kind of like the stock market – you have to be smart about when you get out and when you get back in. This is different for every industry. A lot of home service providers paused their campaigns when they weren’t actively accepting jobs, but those times are over for most of them. What they need right after reopening is a blitz on ads to generate leads as quickly as possible.
This need for jobs conveniently aligned with the pent-up demand within the market by consumers who were unable to get those service needs met during shutdowns.
This need for jobs conveniently aligned with the pent-up demand within the market by consumers who were unable to get those service needs met during shutdowns.
2. Paid Ads and SEO Reach People Where They’re Spending Most of Their Time During the Pandemic
Internet
use has skyrocketed
during the pandemic. The average broadband customer’s bandwidth use in Q1 2020 was 404.5 GB, up from 273.5 GB in Q1 2019. That’s a 47 percent YoY increase and a 17 percent increase from the previous quarter. Disney+ rocketed past their four-year growth projections (it’s just over a year old now) with 54 million paid users, Netflix signed on 22 percent more customers and Facebook’s traffic was up 27 percent.
Life has not gotten back to normal, even in Q4 2020, and likely won’t for the foreseeable future. It’s safe to assume people will continue to choose social distancing and internet use/streaming at home over concerts, bars or parties until there’s at least a viable vaccine widely available. That means increases in internet usage will likely continue for a while, making investments in digital a good choice for the time being.
Life has not gotten back to normal, even in Q4 2020, and likely won’t for the foreseeable future. It’s safe to assume people will continue to choose social distancing and internet use/streaming at home over concerts, bars or parties until there’s at least a viable vaccine widely available. That means increases in internet usage will likely continue for a while, making investments in digital a good choice for the time being.
3. Putting Dollars Towards Services that Are Relevant During COVID-19
A retailer may want to reduce ad spends for luggage and increase spends on ads promoting casual wear (sweat pants, slippers) to use around the house. HVAC companies may want to increased budgets on ad campaigns for UV-Light air purification systems and HEPA filters. Each business should analyze search volume for their relevant services and recalibrate their budgets based on what consumers want and don’t want during the coronavirus pandemic.
While this won’t be relevant to every business, there are plenty that should be updating their ad mix based on new demands. Services and products that are more travel oriented likely require fewer ad dollars while products and services that are home-oriented should probably be promoted more heavily.
While this won’t be relevant to every business, there are plenty that should be updating their ad mix based on new demands. Services and products that are more travel oriented likely require fewer ad dollars while products and services that are home-oriented should probably be promoted more heavily.
4. Keep Your Best Customers Engaged
Businesses with an email list or CRM that allows them to identify particularly valuable customers may want to engage those customers. Don’t let too much time to go by without reminding lapsed-but-loyal customers of your existence and the value you can provide. Sending out special offers or incentives through E-Blasts to VIP clients may be an opportunity to boost sales and ensure you’re staying top of mind.
5. Is Video Conferencing Relevant to Your Business?
Digital isn’t just for marketing – it can also be a valuable business tool. Many service providers may be able to use video conferencing to supplement or enable continuing operations.
Health care is a perfect example. Telemedicine has enabled doctors, physician assistants and nurses to provide virtual diagnostic and treatment services. These methods don’t just reduce the risk of coronavirus infections; they’re often faster and more efficient than in-person estimates.
Roofers or plumbers, for example, could have homeowners help with diagnosing an issue by streaming video of the damage or problem through a video conferencing app.
Health care is a perfect example. Telemedicine has enabled doctors, physician assistants and nurses to provide virtual diagnostic and treatment services. These methods don’t just reduce the risk of coronavirus infections; they’re often faster and more efficient than in-person estimates.
Roofers or plumbers, for example, could have homeowners help with diagnosing an issue by streaming video of the damage or problem through a video conferencing app.
6. Generating Fast Wins
E-commerce advertisers who are looking for quick wins during COVID-19 should consider investing in retargeting and Facebook lookalike audiences. If the stats are to believed shopping cart abandonment rates are about 70 percent (as
of September 2019
).
Post-COVID analysis seems to paint an even more dire picture. Amperity, a platform used for tracking and analyzing customer identity and data, found a 46.8 percent increase in shopping cart creation since the pandemic but an almost unbelievable 94.4 percent abandonment rate.
Those people were interested enough in your products or services to hit the “add to cart” button, why not see if they’re more willing to actually make a purchase today?
Post-COVID analysis seems to paint an even more dire picture. Amperity, a platform used for tracking and analyzing customer identity and data, found a 46.8 percent increase in shopping cart creation since the pandemic but an almost unbelievable 94.4 percent abandonment rate.
Those people were interested enough in your products or services to hit the “add to cart” button, why not see if they’re more willing to actually make a purchase today?
7. Discounted Gift Cards or Vouchers
Even though things are starting to open back up (for now) there are still a lot of SMBs that need a stopgap to keep them afloat until capacity is back up to 100 percent. Vouchers or gift cards get cash in your revenue column now when you might need it most. Offer a 10 or 15 percent discount if someone purchase a $100 gift card or something similar to encourage loyal customers to give you some money now and increase the likelihood they will return for additional purchases in the future.
8. Shifting Funds to Branding
It’s been a rough year for everyone – including a lot of brands. People are looking for brands and businesses with positive messages; brands that meet a need, offer customer-focused service and exceptional value – and preferably without dragging any hot-button issues of the day into the matter.
Now may be an ideal time to invest in brand equity, sharpen your mission and define your business’s values. Investments in brand identity pay off over the long term, so they’re nearly always worthwhile when done right.
Now may be an ideal time to invest in brand equity, sharpen your mission and define your business’s values. Investments in brand identity pay off over the long term, so they’re nearly always worthwhile when done right.
Get Digital Marketing Advice From the Professionals
Finding proven, effective methods for generating leads is more important now than ever before. Maintaining healthy ROIs is the difference between continued viability and closure for many SMBs across the nation.
At REV77 we utilize innovative and proven Google ad, Facebook ad, email marketing and SEO strategies to help clients quickly and affordably increase brand awareness, reach and generate leads. Our clients’ success is our success, and we’re committed to the principles of quality, accountability and reliability.
Find out what we would recommend by
scheduling a digital audit
.
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