This is not what we thought, COVID-19 is a different crisis. Although the sudden cut-down in the marketing budgets threatened to decimate the Digital Marketing companies. Nevertheless, if we closely analyze the current scenario, we will notice that many companies have adapted well to the disastrous circumstances of COVID-19. In a pandemic hit world, companies are focusing on building their online presence.
What we have seen over the past few months is that industries have realized that online is the present and the future. Given the changing dynamics of the industry, marketers must shed their archaic marketing methods, hence, enabling brands to focus on building a larger entity, within a growing but sensitive consumer base.
However, the question here is: How do brands handle the uncertain moments of these challenging times, and what will the world offer once this crisis is over?

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Noting Patterns

To understand this, the pressing priority is to note the changing consumer patterns. During the pandemic, mobiles became a dominant force of communication and decision making for many customers. A near 100% increase in online sales is proof of the same. Also, as per SEO Journal, many industries have noted that 50% of their traffic is coming from non-desktop devices. It is fair to say that customers are using their mobiles to showcase their intent.
Thus, making it imperative for digital marketers to develop the mobile-first user experience. Moreover, the agreement over the search engine’s biased preference for faster loading sites cannot be denied from an SEO’s perspective, especially for those who depend on paid media. With AMP optimized sites and fast loading speed, a marketer will not only enhance the user experience but also significantly reduce the bounce rate.

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Marketing with Empathy

Empathy plays a key role in the current scenario. Marketers should empathize to understand the actions of their customers; thereby, making better use of technology, tools, and data to stay ahead in the market. They should listen to their customers and use real-time data to comprehend the situation better. Hence, giving themselves a chance to create and develop an active audience, which will be fruitful in the post-COVID era.
However, for that, one needs to maintain a healthy presence through organic, social, and paid channels. With sympathy updates and better use of relevant content, marketers can increase the likelihood of interaction between the brands and their customers on a more personal level.

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Focus on ROI

The traffic on the internet is at an all-time high. Perhaps, streaming channels reducing their video quality to accommodate different internet users signifies the same. Furthermore, as the latest trends suggest, we can see that ROI is high on paid ads. With small businesses currently keeping their paid campaigns on hold, it is noticeable why PPC is decreasing and brands have access to a huge inventory.
Further, the ads have become a lot cheaper and an increase in online customer engagement has ensured that brands are, now, taking their online presence more seriously. Hence, it is understandable that they are more likely to invest more for their product and brand awareness which leads to a boost in investments on digital channels such as SEO, advertising, and conversational marketing.
Seeing all this one can say that marketers need to embrace, create, and innovate new ways to showcase their clients, firm, or products. Relevant content powered with empathy should be pushed out in these sensitive times. More importantly, with an eye on ROI, marketers have to rethink ways and technologies that can help in saving money and transforming their business.