Business for industries that were heavily dependent on traditional forms of marketing and advertising is rough right now. The C19 pandemic has catalysed a paradigm change towards digital forms of communication, work and entertainment. Everybody is turning to their mobiles and laptops for almost everything: work, educating the kids, grocery shopping, health advice, finding love and watching movies. As offices and shops reopen, and as lockdowns are eased, how should businesses prepare for this new world? Here are seven simple recommendations from Driving Growth:
1. Improve your website
There’s no better time to update your website than now. At this point, your website holds more value than any physical storefront. Every detail of your website should be beautifully and effectively crafted to streamline user journeys, maximise engagement and capture leads.
2. Update your downloads and website apps
Offer downloadable, topical content on your website against email registration. This will increase signups for your email marketing campaigns. Add other kinds of sticky web apps, too. Well-designed business calculators can also be excellent marketing tools.
3. Offer value-adding native content
Native content matches the feel of wherever it appears and is an effective way to grab attention and build relevance using articles, audio, video, search or social. Combine it with the power of programmatic, including real-time automated media buying and more effective targeting, and you have a powerful mix.
4. Digitise the physical
To avoid the potential risk of transferring viruses, develop low-touch ways of sharing product samples to your prospect’s mobile screen. Whether it’s 3D animated demos of your product, or a professionally produced mini documentary, the experience must be at least as compelling as looking at, holding and touching the actual product.
5. Develop interactive online events
Develop engaging online events to replace the cancelled physical ones. Successful webinars can invite your audience to participate in many different ways. Make sure they are expertly branded in the same way you would a live event. Podcasts are far more flexible and can reach your audience anywhere, but the flipside is that it’s tougher to capture participants’ data.
6. Fine-tune your social media presence
Social media has returned to be a place where people actually socialise once again. Video-based media consumption is up by 87% this year, a figure that is unlikely to drop significantly anytime soon. Make sure your brand is top-of-mind by listening to your audience and crafting your social messages around their current interests and talking-points.
7. Capitalise on email marketing
The global pandemic has even boosted email marketing performance. Hubspot reported open rates of emailers have increased by a staggering 53%. Carefully crafted content, deep-linked to specific areas of a website, will generate engagement and will help to deepen brand relationships.
The technology platforms we are all using now both for work and leisure, including Zoom, Teams and Hangouts, have already improved significantly since the C19 outbreak started, and will continue to evolve faster than ever before. The future is exciting and it’s here and now.