Brands around the globe are coming to terms with the volatile business environment we have been living in, this year because of the pandemic. Whether your business is temporarily limited or stopped its operations or you have innovated and found new ways to go about your business, how you decide to market going forward should be your primary focus.
Though it would be foolish to undermine the power and pull of live, real and physical Traditional Marketing; Digital Marketing is going to be the new way to adapt to.
What is Traditional Marketing?
Traditional Marketing has many components. It includes items like newspaper/magazine ads, business cards, pamphlets, etc. It may also include commercials on TV or radio, billboards, posters and brochures.
What is Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing is the use of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, search engines, and other channels to reach consumers. Internet marketing is advertising that is solely on the Internet, whereas digital marketing can take place through mobile devices, on a subway platform, in a video game, or via a smartphone app.
The sudden disappearance of all channels of offline marketing and the increased barriers of face-to-face meetings, brings up a new challenge for any business. Your clients/ potential customers are very scared to walk into your office/store and get what they are looking for, and no-one really knows how long this will continue.
The internet is the only place that is not on lock down for the locked down world.
Let’s talk about how the pandemic has brought about the digital transformation…
Mid to senior employees (35 to 44 years) of an organization have increased their use of the internet by a close to 11%, while the millennials have used the internet 5-7% more than they usually do.
What Are the Digital Channels?
If you have not ventured into digital marketing yet, here is a summary of the digital channels available as categorized by Google. Their primary function is to drive traffic to your website or online products:
1. Organic Search
This is when someone enters a set of words or voice prompts into a search engine and consequently gets directed to online content. When one visits that content, it is considered organic traffic. The site owner does not have to pay a fee to the search engine company for this traffic. For organic traffic to materialize, much valuable and relevant content creation and search engine optimization (SEO) work need to take place. This often takes months if not years to materialize. So organic traffic may not be the short term solution that you are seeking while your clients are in lockdown mode.
2. Direct
These are users directly visiting your site. For instance, when I want to buy a computer, I go to dell.com or Microsoft.com. When I want to buy a smartphone, I go directly to apple.com. I don’t do a search, I simply type the web address in my browser, or click on a bookmark that I have saved there. This is considered direct traffic. Direct traffic is a function of brand building for your company, products or services. Brand building of your website takes time to accomplish. It is however never too late to start, particularly if you already built a recognized brand.
3. Social
Social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter. When people are checking their social media pages, they may see a posting about your company, product, or service with a Learn More link. When they click on it, it will take them to your website. This traffic is tagged as social traffic. Social traffic is not hard to build, but it requires the creation of frequent relevant and engaging content. If your business has a good client base that loves your product, you can stay in touch with them on social media by reminding them of your product’s value and engaging them with attractive content or offers
4. Email
This is the traffic generated by your outbound email campaigns and email interactions. Someone for instance sees a link embedded in the email, clicks on it, and it takes them to your website. That is considered email traffic. With more people confined to their homes, they are more likely to read their emails. Email traffic is the least costly and can be very effective when done correctly. Leverage your email list as much as you can during this lockdown. But be sensitive to the current situation.
5. Referral
This is referred traffic from one website to another. It is akin to word-of-mouth, but between websites. When backlinks and citations are present on others’ sites back to your site, they will generate traffic flow to your site. Link building is the most ignored digital channel, yet one of the most important ones. Backlinks are critically important due not only to the traffic they generate, but the authority they create for your site. You can use your downtime to affect the authority of your website by proactively pursuing backlinks from relevant high authority websites to yours. This is PR work that can generate huge dividends for you during and after the lockdown.
6. Paid Search
This includes banner ads, Pay Per Click, social media posts boosts, GeoMarketing, GeoFencing, etc. Unlike organic traffic, they require you to pay for each ad, each display, each visit or each conversion. While GeoMarketing and GeoFencing should take a backseat during this lockdown, you should consider investing the bulk of your marketing dollars in paid advertising. It is the fastest and easiest, yet costly, way to direct traffic to your website and products.
Why should you use Digital Marketing now more than ever?
1) The strong power of E-commerce
If big brands like Nike, Amazon, Myntra are facing reduced business, of course your business will too. However it will not be wrong to assume that online selling will go back to its pace faster than real selling will.
2) There are too many technological and innovation driven solutions
More and more are now resorting to social media like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and other platforms to build connections and expand their base of the target audience.
3) Reaching out to your worried audience via digital platforms is the way to go
This starts by informing your audience in a clear and systematic way of how the pandemic will impact the way they buy/avail your products/services. Offering a sense of clarity to them before they approach you in a state of panic will go a long way in retaining them in the long run.
4) Focus on ROI
For any digital marketing campaign measuring the ROI is much easier than it is for any traditional campaign. Now that businesses have suffered a set-back because of the pandemic, spending money wisely has become more important now and digital marketing lets you know exactly where you are spending your money.
The risk of actually going out to the market during current times has made even the ‘technologically unaware”use online shopping. And only now are they realizing the sheer advantages of being able to order everything from food to a refrigerator from the safety of their homes. This is a situation which no amount of marketing research could have predicted.
The year 2020 will go down in history as the year when the world changed. Many businesses will also remember it as the year when traditional marketing channels ceased being effective and digital marketing took over. If your business is among those that still rely on the old marketing tools, now is the time to start planning your digital marketing strategy and prepare yourself for doing business in the new, virus-conscious environment, if you need help to start your digital journey contact us TODAY!
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