With the lockdown period extending for months on end now, everything seems uncertain. The coronavirus has caused major damage to businesses and organisations that have to rely only on on-site working and physical labour.
Lots of companies are going under and thousands of people have lost their jobs. But, people are staying at home and are online now more than ever before.
People are social distancing and practising work from home. In these testing times, the only way to let your service stay relevant is through digital marketing. Being online and staying connected with your customers has never been more important than now.
The Digital Marketing Tips Lookbook
Mentioned below are 7 unmissable digital marketing tips that businesses around the world are following. You wouldn’t want to ignore these.
1. Stay Connected through Social Media
This is a really key factor in digital marketing tips look-book. Seizing social media doesn’t mean we are asking you to keep talking just about your brand to your followers.
One way to connect with your consumers right now is by empathising. Make the content on your social media pages interactive. These are testing times and everyone is having a hard time. Be sensitive about the things you post and the advertisements you make.
Engage people in fun quizzes, polls, DIY posts, etc. Ask them how they are spending this time off and share it with your other followers. Build a community among your followers. This will go a long way in ensuring that your consumers remember your brand.
Another way to keep your business buzzing is by sharing your volunteer work. If you are supporting local shops or volunteering to distribute food, clothes with people who have no means of livelihood, share it on your platforms. Make your brand seem human and watch how it thrives!
2. Leverage the power of SEO
Even when we were commuting daily to work, we would spend more than half of our time on our phone. So imagine the number of hours people are staying online. ALL THE TIME.
Hence, now is not the time to stay hidden and under covers. You have to really use SEO (search engine optimisation) to improve your website’s ranking. Make sure you are working on boosting your website’s SERP(search engine results pages) ranking. Reach the top of Google so people can easily find you.
The advantage of doing this now will be that even when the Coronavirus period ends, your rankings won’t change. If you continue working on your site, you can retain your position even when things go back to normal. You’ll already be ahead of the game.
3. Localise your Business
Since travelling far is an absolute hazard right now, more and more people are searching for services near them.
Use local SEO strategies to localise your business especially if you have a service that is deliverable. Optimise your website for “near me” search queries. Make sure potential customers in your geo region can find you easily online. This is a key digital marketing trend right now and doing this will make sure your business doesn’t go into loss.
In fact, over a two year period, there has been a 900%+ growth in mobile searches for “_ near me today/tonight.”
4. Reach out to Clients via Email
Earlier, you might have had some clients with whom the deal couldn’t be worked out. But now, both you and they have ample time.
Reconnect with old clients, clients you couldn’t onboard, clients you have lost touch with. Share newsletters, useful content and the new changes you have made to your organisation.
Try to reach out again. A personal touch goes a long way towards ensuring trust and long-lasting bonds.
5. Invest in Pay Per Click Advertising
One of the most important digital marketing tips, you can’t afford to ignore this one.
If you think spending on PPC advertisements is foolish right now, you might be making a mistake. I’ll explain to you why.
More people are online i.e they are glued to their screens most of the time. Simultaneously, a lot of companies have had to go offline due to losses, wage cuts, etc. Both these things combined together means that now the competition is low and the chances of your brand’s ads reaching the right audience are extremely high.
Moreover, on average, cost per clicks have decreased by 6 per cent according to Thrive’s senior PPC manager Jacob Wulff.
Therefore, market PPC rates are low, competition is low and your audience is online always. Win-win-win!
6. Keep Optimising Your Content
Since you have a business, you already know how important this point is.
In order to stay relevant, you have to keep generating content that is latest and updated. Whether that means optimising your website, changing the designs, writing new blogs, making videos.
You have to cater to the needs of your user base. Write content relating to the keywords relevant right now. This will enable you to reach a wider audience and bring more organic traffic to your website.
If you have a business that falls under “non-essential items” you can still use content marketing to keep your website relevant. Writing or making videos about how to do things at home, quick fixes at affordable rates, etc can boost your SEO.
Write blogs, shoot tutorial videos and make podcasts to stay in the loop and engage your audience.
7. Give Back to Your Customers
It’s very simple- give back to your customers.
The global economy is in bad shape, and it’ll take some time to revive. The brunt of this is being faced by both you and your customers.
Therefore, if you are in the business of delivery services, you can make your delivery free for all customers. If you are an e-commerce website, you can offer discounts on essential items.
On the other hand, you can also become the channel between your consumers and social service organisations. For instance, you can create an option that your business’ 10% profit will go to some charity.
Do something for your customers during these hard times and also give them the option to be able to give back to society. And share all these special moments on your social media platforms.
Wrapping Up
Times are hard but we must not lose hope. Things will get better soon. We have to keep fighting it and ensure that we do the best to keep our services relevant.
Digital marketing is important now more than ever. Analyse your business, use metrics to understand what works and employ the above discussed digital marketing tips to ensure your organisation’s success.
Stay safe. Stay indoors.