If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it is that the times we live in are more uncertain than we like to believe. In fact, things have changed pretty quickly, but we have become lulled in our “modern times” so that we think we can fight off any crisis yet to beset us.
Work-wise, people have generally learned two things:
- Not everything can be done remotely.
- If your job can’t be done remotely, chances are — you’re likely to lose it during uncertain times.
As for the latter, we’d say it can be mitigated. To do that, you’ll need to work on your digital marketing strategy. If a brand’s online presence is strong and clients loyal, the brand will be able to weather difficult times. In fact, the determining factor when a consumer or a client is making a decision between two companies is their brand recognition. For example, have they established themselves as an expert in their field, via digital PR, guest posting and valuable on-page content?
Large businesses that have been around for a while are the greatest testament to this. Take only Coca-Cola as an example — not only has it survived the Great Depression, but it also emerged stronger than ever. The brand’s loyal customers are still there.
Coca-Cola surpassed the crisis with a smuggling impulse for marketing strategies. So can your business, whether you’re looking at top retail trends or innovative ideas for a fully remote team.
Because no one can foresee how long we will still experience the lasting effects of the pandemic, it is crucial to start implementing digital marketing now — and it will reward you in the future.
1. Stay Afloat in Difficult Times
All marketing efforts are an ongoing process, and digital marketing is no different.
As is always the case, communication with clients is crucial. Successful brands listen to customers’ feedback and implement these ideas into their business strategy. With digital marketing, communication has never been easier. You can create large outreach programs simply by finding the right recipients and creating attention-grabbing content. But, it can go even further than that.
Businesses combine email drip campaigns with social media ads for best results. Social media options are, in addition, great platforms for answering queries and generally keeping discussions alive. Different social media serve different purposes. For example, Twitter is rather famous for its discussions; a clever use of hashtags can do wonders in terms of marketing. Facebook, on the other hand, is great for sharing all new content, promotions and special offers. People often post questions on Facebook, in which you’ll see your chance to deepen communication with your audience.
Because many people are stuck at home at the present, it is only natural to expect that they will spend more time online and do their shopping online, too. This applies to all industries, more or less, in which no doubt you’ll see how digital marketing comes in handy.
Still, all these stratagems will be in vain if you don’t increase your brand’s online visibility first. The first and most important step in this process is — search engine optimization (SEO).
2. SEO Will Make Your Present Efforts Worthwhile for Years to Come
SEO, when used to its full potential, can truly do wonders in attracting new customers. The “full potential” means that it should be implemented not only on written content but also on images, backlinks and internal links.
Every SEO effort begins with proper keyword research. Keywords can be primary or secondary. The first are the main keywords that describe a business (for example “used cars”). The latter are the keywords that add more detail to the main keywords and are usually focused on search intent (for example “cheap used cars”).
You can create visualization using Data visualization tools to help you explain keywords insights, create visualization such as Sankey diagram with few clicks using Sankey Diagram Generator to represent keyword research volume for sets of keywords. You can also use the visualization to represent analysis of your website from the search engine point of view.
Further out, keywords can be long-key and location-based.
Long-key keywords are better than one-word keywords because they make your site stand out from the competition. For example, using the example from above, the keyword “used cars” will just serve to lump your business with other businesses selling used cars. It’s better to add more specific words to the primary keyword like (for example “cheap used cars best deals”).
Location-based keywords help Google show your site in a specific area. Hence, consider adding your location to the long-key keywords (for example “cheap used cars in Brooklyn best deals”).
Now, these keywords are placed only once and are to be placed in each new content piece you add (including images, video content, podcasts and links), but they’ll stay out there forever. This means that even when the crisis has passed, your brand’s web page ranking will be stellar. Thinking long-term is the key to success!
3. Mobile Users Will Keep Your Business Alive
Mobile optimization is easier than SEO. Once you have optimized your website, you should only keep an eye on the upcoming content. As for emails, there are numerous mobile-friendly templates that will hold the fort until you’ve come up with your own, unique template. Similarly, there are responsive themes and templates for websites, too.
Now, mobile optimization takes into account a couple of less frequently mentioned factors, such as is, for example, text formatting. Text should be easy to scroll through, not too image-heavy, and written using a mobile-friendly font. As regards fonts, make sure to use one font only. If you want to make parts of the text stand out (as you should in case of headers and sub headers), use a larger font size, bolds, italics or a different color.
4. Good Content Holds the Fort, Stellar Content Redefines History
When the word “content” is mentioned in this context, people think blog posts. Indeed, they are the first marketing choice for numerous businesses because they offer multiple benefits.
Firstly, blog posts pile up over time, meaning there’ll be more keywords, images and links and your page will rank better. Secondly, they are shareable across the board, and thirdly, people are used to them.
But now, we also have to consider images (that can also rank with a nice alt text) or optimized infographics, as well as eye-catching YouTube templates and other forms of video content.
Conclusion:
Digital marketing is always important and never more than during challenging times. It goes without saying that we’re living through one crisis that has made us more insecure than ever in our living memory, but this is neither the first nor the last disaster scenario that will come to pass.
Bottom line, you should move towards doing business online to curb any unfavorable occurrences in the future, and look for meaningful digital collaborations. We are already witnessing a huge shift in customer feedback in regard to online shopping. Many people have discovered the ease of “sofa shopping” just recently, and there’s no reason why they should revert to their old habits after the pandemic has passed now that they know they can do things more efficiently.
Therefore, work on your brand’s visibility (do your SEO voodoo properly!), keep in touch with customers, answer their social media queries, remind them that you care — and your customers will reward you with their loyalty in return.
