The future of business as we know it: digital marketing

Businesses everywhere are redirecting their efforts towards online marketing strategies, and you should do the same. More importantly, digital marketing is an excellent solution in the current context because your business can easily monitor the efficiency of online activities and have a more unobstructed view if there is a return on investment (ROI). 

In the late days, we have seen lower prices for digital advertising, such as the cost-per-impression on Facebook ads, which has dropped significantly. From a different angle, there has been a considerable traffic increase for news publications, an aspect that emphasizes how much time people are spending online, substantially since the outbreak.

So keep in mind that while there are still owners who will put their businesses on hold, you can use digital marketing as leverage to grow your business, to attract and engage prospects more effectively. 

How to benefit from digital marketing activities during the crisis?

Allocating your budget on online marketing will bring significant benefits for your business concerning lead generation activities or online sales. More notably, while consumers are all day in the online, their need for content is increasing, which means that it is a great moment to put your content efforts in play. Some activities which you want to take into consideration are:

• Content marketing

We have already pointed out that adapting your content during these times is vital since what was relevant yesterday, will most probably not apply the next day. More than that, from a financial perspective, you will want to save budgets or at least direct them towards strategies that are critical to your business. 

What better way to do that if not by relying on content marketing? From blog posts to whitepapers, Ebooks, webpages, and do not forget about Social Media, an effective way to get the attention of your audience during these times.

Be careful about what topics you address since the public can penalize you for sharing content that is not appropriate for their latest needs. We made a few mentions on how to adapt a marketing strategy through effective communication. 

• SEO

In a previous article, we discussed how allocating a part of the marketing budget on SEO can open a significant growth opportunity for companies that have a long-term digital mindset. By doing so, you will ensure a competitive advantage over your competitors, since your business will manage to boost its SEO visibility. 

Keep in mind that optimizing your website for search engines is a vital marketing activity your business has to consider during this crisis. Especially when you want to make sure that your customers will be able to find you online and what’s even more important to make sure you will be their top choice.

• Video 

While we have mentioned in previous articles about how video content can skyrocket your business’ marketing efforts simply because it is more engaging, the current situation speaks even more about the outcomes of using such instruments.

Companies can quickly speak to the audience to offer pieces of advice or any news related to your services and products, but also Coronavirus and its impact from different perspectives. Nevertheless, when doing so, make sure to use video content effectively and that it is relevant for your business needs.

• Website Audit

One of the main things your business should do right now is to focus on its online presence, and call to action results. For instance, you will want the users that land on your website to take action. But you have to make sure that your website has explicit content that drives viewers to take action. 

In this case, run a website audit and make sure that from a user’s perspective, your website is working efficiently and that it is engaging enough. 

Where to start your digital marketing plan?

• Run an analysis of your business’ situation and follow the opportunities

During this time, you want to ensure that your business is performing well, and that means you should rewind how your competitors are performing as well. Not only that but what you want to monitor is how well they perform online. Having insights about your competitors will help you better understand what your priorities are right now. 

Once you have redefined your priorities, you can start to build new goals that will give your sales team a clear path to follow during the further step of adoption. More than that, to be ahead of your customers’ online behavior, your business will have to set new SMART objectives that will be followed in your digital KPI board. This way, your business will have a faster overview of whether the new plan is working as expected, and your efforts will have a return on investment in the future.

• Keep your audience more engaged than ever before

Now that you know what you want to achieve and have a plan set, the next step is to understand the audience. Most probable, if you are not new to online marketing, you have already done and re-done that so many times. 

What is new, this time, is that the public is changing. As marketers, we are now facing an incredible consumer behavior change. Therefore we need to re-evaluate their new needs and buying habits along the new way of living that is a result of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

The best digital marketing techniques will work only if you understand your audience, and only then will they engage with your business. So rethink your buyer personas and how you can reach them in the sea of gulls that are now competing with you from the same line. 

• Time to improve your online proposition value (OVP)

As mentioned before, your efforts have to be focused on reaching and retaining your audience if you are looking to grow your business while investing in a digital marketing strategy. To have the right people pay attention to your business, your online value proposition has to outshine those of your competitors. 

Being creative while keeping a promise real can sometimes be a challenge when communicating with your audience. But that should not stop your brand from being persuasive. We found a few exciting value propositions that can be seen as an example, also in the online environment, when defining an OVP. 

Since now most of the people are working remotely, online communication platforms are a trend, so here is an example of a value proposition defining Slack, that it suits even the current circumstances:

Be More Productive at Work with Less Effort

• Enhance your efforts with digital customer acquisition and retention plans

While many businesses are struggling with their budgets these months, it is vital to have real-time management of your budget always. Once you have decided that your business needs a digital marketing strategy, you will want to check each investment needed for paid, owned, and earned media. 

More importantly, these variables should be in line with the increase in your online leads and sales.

Since everyone is going digital now, you want to make sure that your brand shines and that your customers are evangelizing your company. This way, they will come back on your website or social pages, looking for products, services, even advice they need the most during this time. 

Final thoughts 

Remember that one of your main drivers during these times is to ensure that the activities you invest in will bring added value to your business. When digital is slightly cheaper than many other marketing tactics, there should be no reason not to allocate a budget for it. Not to mention that it is measurable; therefore, it can be undertaken more quickly and cost-effectively than offline campaigns will.

If you are looking to get the best of your digital marketing efforts, let us help you! Get in touch with us, and let’s build a strategy that is in line with your business’ needs and, more importantly, that suits the priorities you have from a financial perspective.