Digital Marketing Trends to Focus On During the COVID-19 Pandemic
With an ongoing pandemic, a bright side about COVID-19 (coronavirus) would be the effect on behaviour change. It is observed that consumers from the 35-44 age bracket have an increase in their internet consumption by around 10% while millennials and gen z have an average increase of 5-7%.
The pandemic has drastically changed the manner in which businesses have to operate. Due to social distancing, lockdowns and restricted movement, there has been a huge shift to online platforms.
Brands all over are gradually coming to terms with the volatile business environment we have found ourselves in with the impact of COVID-19. Regardless of whether your company has temporarily frozen operations or has decided to enforce an innovation-driven remote working framework, how you approach your digital marketing strategy should be a primary focus in these stressing times ahead – if it is not already.
One of the key areas which digitisation is bringing a revolution is marketing and communication. Just about 90 percent of businesses are rethinking their marketing strategies. It is now more important for them to benefit from new techniques and tools. A good digital marketing strategy with high ROI is the need of the hour.
Here are some of the trends that have turned up in the ecommerce industry:
Micro-influencer-led campaigns
Many brands or companies have realized that celebrities don’t do the trick as it was before. Consumers refer to experiences of their peers. Moreover, the majority of the players in the ecommerce segment don’t have the budget to hire influencers with huge followings. Hence, there is a shift to do subtle marketing on social media through micro-influencers or focused group influencers.
For example, if an e-grocery player wants to capture an audience in a specific area in a city, identifying and engaging with local influencers, like housewives/mothers or housing society presidents of one of the largest housing societies will enable them to establish a better connection with potential customers from the area.
While engaging with influencers, companies should concentrate more on creating advocacy rather than advertising their product. This can be done through creative use of content in their campaigns.
Modify your email marketing campaign
Companies should concentrate on adapting their email marketing campaigns to address the unique challenges customers are facing. Rather than ending out the standard email content you’ve always offered, change the tone, content and frequency to match your target consumers’ expectations. Stay on brand, but be informed of how your emails are adding value to your audience.
Using the “in trending” social media platform
There are many social networking platforms, companies will need to regularly evaluate which is the most ideal. They should be careful about which channel to use for which audience and at what time. They should experiment with tools and tactics for each of these platforms.
Communicate critical information.
Keep an open line of correspondence with your crowd, and the transparency and honesty will be generally welcomed. Each industry has its own arrangement of guidelines and rules, so keep your clients educated on how you are being affected.
Using big data to customise consumer outreach
Data analytics has been used by companies for awhile. But now, the move towards big data analytics has converged with artificial intelligence. Companies in the ecommerce segment have been using these tools to gather insights about consumer behaviour, and then further use technology to customise content and marketing for each customer.
Enabling a social shopping experience
Some web based businesses and ecommerce companies have already been doing this. But now, it is also crucial for traditional brands to ensure they have a social shopping presence. Companies are either making their own novel online presence or have adopted existing ecommerce platforms. As we push ahead, it will urge companies to build up a particular brand identity on social platforms.