Adapt Your Digital Strategy In The Midst of COVID-19
The Impact on eCommerce due to COVID 19: 4 Strategies to Follow by Digital Marketers
The beginning of 2020 has been heavy on all of the world as COVID-19 stepped into all of our lives. Businesses from all over the world took a hit, and all the countries are struggling to maintain their economies. Due to the measures taken for preventing the pandemic from spreading, people have been asked to work from their homes.
Schools, supermarkets, and other stores are partially closed or fully closed in most countries, including the US, UK, France, Germany, and Italy. However, due to the closure of physical stores and markets, some of the eCommerce sectors are seeing a significant rise in their business.
What Products Have the Highest Demand?
Most of the people are stuck inside their houses following the lockdown, which has made the demand for garden furniture rise in the market. Usually, the demand for the same is not as high as it has been seen this year. As most of the schools are closed, the searching queries for schooling equipment and other homeschooling products are seeing a huge spike in their demand.
There are several people who are busy working on their laptops from their homes. However, there are many who are not digitally connected to their work and have got a lot of time to spend with themselves. Plus the children at home need a constant entertainment source that has resulted in the growth of craft items and board games.
And lets not forget, the biggest pikes can be seen is in the entertainment and gaming industry. The home gaming systems like PlayStation, Xbox, and apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime, both are the prime search for the customers in these times. So if you are in any of these businesses, it’s a great time for you to enhance your user base and customer reach.
Product Searches that are Declining in the Market
Largely the fashion industry is struggling to sell its products. It is not just the retailers who are struggling. The online clothing stores are also in the same boat. After all, almost everything is shut down, so there isn’t a point to buy new clothes as everyone is staying in the limits of their house. The worst beating is taken by the travel industry.
All the hotels, aviation businesses are not operating and are losing great amounts in their businesses. Although travel sites are still highly packed with customers, all are there for refunds and cancellations.
What Strategies can Digital Marketers Implement?
As the earnings of the businesses have impacted due to COVID-19, businesses will be doing everything possible to decrease their marketing budgets. So it is essential for digital marketers to adopt strategies that will make the impact of this pandemic on their business minimal.
1. Efficiently Manage their PPC Budgets
There will be many talks from businesses regarding completely switching off their PPC campaigns. However, it will be a highly damaging step for the companies that are new in the business. So instead of complete shutdown, manage efficiencies in the accounts wherever there is a possibility. To successfully implement that:
- Find the upper-funnel keywords that have lower conversion rates due to lesser demand and cut back the campaigns for them.
- Save budget for the keywords with a higher probability of creating conversions.
The CPC’s will usually go higher when you pause and restart the campaigns as they will have to go back to the initial learning phase. During these times, the CPC will be on a lower scale as most businesses are down. So the businesses that can afford to capitalize on their CPC must do it now wherever possible.
There is also a long term benefit linked with it. The quality score of your product is based upon your CTR relative to your competitors in the auction. So when others stop advertising, it will be a time for you to impact your CTR gains that will lower your CPCs and improve the quality score of your product.
Also, in case you are thinking of stopping your PPC campaigns, then you must consider the effects it may have in the long run.
2. Improvement of Organic Visibility
Traffic on the sites has hugely enhanced in these challenging times. Therefore Google will be working on their algorithms even more minutely to provide more accurate information. So it is not a time to ignore your organic listings as they can get highly impacted due to it.
Also, if dealt with the right attention, there is a high chance of improving your organic listings as the businesses that have online selling capacities are in great demand in these times.
3. Get Connected with More People through Digital PR
The media industry is all full of COVID-19 news and stories, and rightfully so. But this also creates a good opportunity for you to share your experiences of the products with people with the right intent. Most people are worried and becoming obnoxious with the pandemic news from all over the place.
So if you have a good story that can lift away the tension from the people’s mind and get them something interesting to watch, it will be worth, both for your business and people’s well being.
4. Strategize your Social Media Campaign
The traffic social media platforms are getting these days due to the COVID-19 is phenomenal. As people have nowhere out to go, so they are inevitably spending more time on their social media accounts. So as a digital marketer, it is an appropriate time for you to redefine your social media strategies.
Down-below are some of the ways or tips that can be implemented by the brands to create a positive strategy for their business.
- Build Communities: You can create communities according to the similar likes of the people and help them connect with each other worldwide.
- Bring out your Helping Nature: Provide customers information about the products they like in detail. Be more specific and detail orientated, and the customers will definitely attract.
- Find the Suitable User for Your Products: Masses might be sitting at home, but there are many among us who are constantly fulfilling their duties and helping us out in this difficult hour. Find such people who are in the field or people who are related to them and support them by providing the required products.
- Be Available in the Morning and Night Hours for the People: Make people aware of this fact that you are available whenever there is a requirement.
- Work for Making the Lives of People Better: Bring out the ways that can help people fight their anxiety and boredom sitting at home.
Although social distancing and isolation are there in these difficult times, be a part of the community and remind them that we all are together in this. By providing ways that will benefit people through entertainment or any other support, your brand can create a good name for itself.
Secure the Future of Your Business
The given tips are generic and may not fit all of your business strategies and approaches. These are just a reminder for you to make your perspective larger in these challenging times. So that you can ensure all you can do for having the least impact on your business, and when the times are good again, you can come out victorious.