The global Coronavirus pandemic is an unprecedented phenomenon that we’ve never experienced before in our personal lives, nor in our professional lives. Because of that inexperience, many business owners are wondering what approach they need to take with daily operations and marketing strategies to stay afloat, while also keeping employees, customers and themselves safe and healthy. Many are looking for new channels and strategies to engage and transact with consumers, and many don’t really know where to begin.
The good news is that, thanks to technology and the digital age we live in, every business owner has everything they need right at their fingertips to stay front of mind with their customers, even with social distancing!
Now is the time to shift your digital marketing efforts into high gear. It’ll take more than just a couple sporadic emails and infrequent social posts to reach your audience during the COVID-19 pandemic. People are consuming content faster than ever, and are finding new sources for it at a rapid pace.
You Don’t Have To Spend A lot
Increasing your digital marketing efforts doesn’t have to break the bank, and even the most conservative spenders out there will be pleased with how much you can do with the most modest of budgets.
There are a few platforms that have seen their audiences soar, slashed their prices, or both, since the pandemic started. Let’s take a deeper look at those channels and see how you can take advantage in order to drive a higher ROI for your marketing buck.
Video Marketing
With people spending more time at home now, our consumption of online videos has considerably increased. According to industry leaders, 54% of internet users prefer watching videos from brands they follow and support. The major mistake that marketers fall into whenever they think of video marketing, is the misconception that video marketing means Youtube. While Youtube was certainly the online video pioneer, in 2020, we’ve seen a number of other platforms emerge that, many will argue, are far superior to Youtube, and cost significantly less.
Video marketing diversity allows creators to produce suitable content for B2C (business-to-consumer), as well as B2B (business-to-business) infographics or explainer videos. Even documenting your company’s day to day operations is acceptable and highly engaging. Gary Vaynerchuck, chairman of VaynerX, a modern-day media and communications holding company, and the active CEO of VaynerMedia, a full-service advertising agency servicing Fortune 100’s, has proven that B2B companies can, in fact, create a solid following using video marketing, as long as the content is entertaining, informative and relevant.
Even with the lack of activities available, and social distancing rules firmly in place, your audience isn’t just looking for whatever video content is available in order to pass the time. They are demanding, now more than ever, content that is valuable. If you are delivering high-quality information and objective opinions, you’ll easily grow your following and increase brand awareness.
By producing your own content and finding open source video editing software, you can create videos for next to nothing. There’s no need to hire actors for your videos, your audience wants to see you (yes, YOU) delivering your message.
TEXT Marketing
As the debate continues on whether text message marketing can be leveraged to the same extent as email, marketers must focus on what the data suggests. In this case, text marketing is the clear winner.
Recent statistics show that:
- 48.7 million consumers will opt-in to receive business SMS messaging in 2020.
- 75% of consumers want to receive special offers via text messages from brands they know
- Because text message marketing is opt-in only, you’ll be engaging with a warm-lead audience
- Text message marketing in 100% legal and less regulated that email marketing
- 98% is the average open rate for text message marketing campaigns, compared to a 20% open rate for emails.
- Text response rates are 295% higher than phone call response rates
The majority of businesses shy away from this marketing channel because it is essentially uncharted territory, therefore, intimidating. By leveraging this extremely effective form of marketing, you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of your competition. As email marketing becomes more and more saturated, text message marketing is the perfect alternative.
Lead Magnets or Incentive-based Marketing
Have you ever been offered an incentive in exchange for your email address? If your answer is yes, then have experienced a lead magnet strategy. Basically, companies dangle carrots for their audience in the form of an irresistible offer in exchange for your email address. Once they get this, they can target you for future marketing campaigns. If they are smart about it, they organize the lead data by campaign in order to create very specific future campaigns based on interest, in order to increase conversions.
All you need to do is come up with a great offer to incentivize people into giving you their information. Offering a percent off of a service or product you offer, giving aways a free gift with coupon, offering free shipping with a specific code or offering something for referrals from your audience, are all examples of thing to entice your audience and encourage them to give you their email address or opt-in to text messaging.
While this strategy is well-known to B2B marketers, B2C marketers have been less prone to use lead magnets. But, there’s no need to feel intimidated to use this particular strategy for B2C marketing. Just keep in mind that your marketing efforts are about delivering quality content and valuable information. What you should avoid at all costs, however, is coming at your audience like Crazy Bob from Crazy Bob’s Auto Sales. Consumers are over that type of marketing, without a doubt.
Paid Media is Cheaper
According to Neil Patel, paid media have seen a 20% increase in ROI. As most businesses are closed, the volume of online advertising decreased, which also influences the Pay Per Click & CPM figures.
Paid online advertising pre COVID-19 used to have approximately a 30% ROI on average, post COVID-19 paid online advertising exceeded 50%.
Said that, it's clear that the Coronavirus pandemic led to a dramatic drop in ad spend; this only means one thing, CPA figures also dropped.
The reason it likely indicates a decrease, is because in online advertising more advertisers = higher advertising costs, a typical supply and demand scenario. The concept was made to keep the advertising platforms balanced.
Geography Patterns
As the pandemic is global, some countries are affected more than others. Especially financially, looking for countries that engage with your products but still have the financial resources or aid to afford it - could be of a great impact on sales figures.
Developed countries like the United States, are keeping the same shopping habits if most cases. Plus, the remote working factor, it reflects that users still have a solid income stream.
To tap into specific countries or areas, Geofencing or location-based marketing is available for SMS marketing campaigns. Test out multiple states and come up with the sweet spot for your product based on conversions.
Get Cranking
There is no time like the present to start increasing your marketing efforts and testing out the channels that work best with your audience. Start by organizing your contacts into a really good CRM (Customer Relationship management) system that includes the ability to leverage the different marketing channels and opportunities discussed in this article. Your CRM should also allow you to follow engagement metrics, build a multi-channel strategy and adapt it over time.
SeoSamba, a global digital marketing agency, offers a powerful, ready-to-go, integrated CRM and CRM mobile application that includes text message marketing capabilities, along with a multitude of sales and marketing automation tools that will help you master your new Pandemic Online Marketing Strategy like a pro.
To learn more about the SeoSamba's CRM product and its companion CRM mobile app: visit SeoToaster CRM Ultimate, or call us at (877) 450-9894 today. SeoSamba offers a free 14-day trial to SeoToaster CRM Ultimate, which includes an integrated text marketing tool, and let you build combined email and text sequences.