The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing
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Cash In On Your Main Competencies
Almost a year and a half has passed since one of the craziest viruses emerged onto the scene and began to affect countries all over the world. The impact of COVID-19 has been multifaceted, to say the least. Since the beginning of Corona, the whole world has experienced many unpleasantries, including but not limited to: social distancing, declines in business, a decrease in capital, remote working, and restricted travelling.
The impact of COVID-19 has been huge. It led to many social changes, and also influenced how business is carried out. Digital marketing has changed immensely due to the pandemic. This blog post will outline the main impacts of COVID-19 on digital marketing; how it has changed, and the key takeaways and trends to keep in mind when trying to form a digital marketing strategy that will appeal to post-COVID consumers.
Keep the Basics
Firstly, it’s important to note that COVID-19 has taught us that when it comes to digital marketing, the basics can’t be ignored. For instance, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, fast-loading, responsiveness, attaining links and mentions etc. are still key!
The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing - “Basics” written with scrabble letters
These basics continue to be more relevant than ever and you should continue to place a huge effort to maintain and perfect them if you want your business to succeed post-COVID.
The reason for this development is that, during the pandemic, the Internet was used more than ever before. Research suggests that around 70% of the internet usage is for browsing online on search engines. Furthermore, a study from Ahrefs showed that only 1% of Google search results that rank on page 1 were less than a year old, meaning that SEO gains are long-term and aren’t just a “trend”, suggesting that there should always be a focus on keywords, and other SEO-friendly practices.
At Paperturn, we know the importance of the basics, so we ensure that our solution incorporates all of these. So if you decide to create a digital publication with us, we guarantee that your flipbook will be 100% responsive across all devices and browsers, and that you can optimize every page of your publication so that it’s SEO-friendly.
2. Customized Marketing
The digital world has become more concentrated than ever, with more and more users starting to use the Internet - as a side effect of COVID-19. This means that users are even more exposed to marketing than ever before, and have learnt to filter out ads and marketing campaigns that don’t appeal to them.
Therefore marketers needed to find a way to stand out from the crowd, and personalized marketing became an apparent tool that resulted in more engagement and sales.
According to research, 84% of consumers would like for search engines to perfectly identify their needs and narrow results down to no more than 10 choices. In addition, 70% of consumers would consider using digital assistants to make online purchasing simpler and catered to their needs.
It’s clear that one of the main marketing impacts of COVID-19 is the fact that there’s so much of it that consumers get overwhelmed and often ignore those messages that are directed at a huge target audience and not at them directly. So the key takeaway here would be to closely segment and target your audiences by catering closely to their needs instead of using a blanket marketing method.
One way in which you can collect valuable leads is by creating digital publications and requiring your readers to fill out a lead capture form before they can access your content. This will allow you to collect their information (for example: their email and name) and personalize your email marketing to them directly.
3. eCommerce is Here to Stay
When thinking about how business has changed during COVID-19, we can say with a great deal of certainty that eCommerce has reaped all the benefits. Online sales were up by 32.4% in 2020 and continued to increase in Q1 of 2021.
So if you have an online business that sells goods, you have definitely secured more positive effects than physical stores have. COVID-19 has taught us many things, one of the main lessons being that the virus is passed on through contact with others. Online shopping limited that contact and made people feel safer when purchasing, leading to the drastic increase in eCommerce sales.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing - Shopping online
If you have an eCommerce business, you’re at an advantage, but you still need to think outside of the box if you want to stay on top of your game. Be original, keep consumers engaged, and ensure that you’re intentional when it comes to marketing.
Why not create a digital catalog or lookbook to showcase your products in a unique way? Allow your customers to shop and make orders directly from your catalog with a built-in shopping cart feature.
4. Cash in on Your Main Competencies
Marketing during COVID-19 has taught us to not take huge risks in such a temperamental and uncertain social and economic climate. That’s why it’s vital that you stick to what you’re good at, in terms of marketing, and limit experimentation to a minimum. For example, if your main competency is paid media, don't try and place extra focus on cold calling or organic media, instead keep using paid media to your advantage and profit from it to the best of your ability. As they say, “don’t fix something that isn’t broken”.
The world is still dealing with the repercussions of the primary effects of COVID-19, and it’s still hard for us to predict what will happen in the near future. That’s why it’s critical that businesses try to make as much cash as possible by doing what works best.
Of course, there’s no harm in trying new things when it comes to your marketing efforts, but don’t neglect the source which brings in the most ROI for your business.
5. Turn Social
You can either love or hate this fact, but it can’t be denied that social media is definitely in and is here to stay for the long-term. One of the main impacts of COVID-19 is that people all over the world were required to stay home and limit their contact with others - but this didn’t mean entirely. People used digital tools and platforms to keep in touch with their friends, colleagues and loved ones. Social media usage grew to a new level, and became extremely prominent amongst all age groups.
Due to the pandemic, there are now more than 4 billion users on social media platforms - that’s more than half of the world’s population! In addition, it’s said that, on average, people spend 15% of their time awake, on social media.
During the start of the pandemic, many small businesses took to social media and created profiles for their businesses where they could engage and conversate with their customers. These businesses benefited from this change in their marketing strategy and saw positive effects. Furthermore, Instagram encouraged businesses, especially small ones, to promote themselves, and for other loyal customers to shout them out too, by using the “support small businesses” sticker, which allowed for more exposure.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing - Person holding an iPhone displaying different social media apps
It’s also suggested that now it’s much easier to gain a larger follower base, especially if your social media content is engaging and well thought-through. Therefore, the key takeaway here is - don’t neglect the power of SoMe!
Now, no one said being a content creator is easy, but we have some tips and tricks that will help you in your social media efforts during and even after the pandemic.
Promote video content!
Use engaging images, infographics and GIFs.
Keep your content relatable and shareable.
Post unique and professional content that matches your brand’s identity.
Try using flipbooks and share them on your social media platforms!
Digital flipbooks are an original way to showcase your content. Flipbooks have a real-page turning effect that will have your audience wanting more and keep them on the pages of your publication for longer.
Furthermore, you can incorporate all the above tips into your digital publication by adding videos, links, GIFs, advertising banners etc. and customizing your publication to fit in line with your brand. Once you’ve created your digital publication, you can easily share it on social media and embed it onto your site or email signature.
Want to learn more, or need help with creating your digital publication? We’re always here to help - so, don’t hesitate to contact us!
