Changing Landscape of Digital Marketing: Pre and Post COVID-19

With a timeline of sorts emerging and bringing a visible paradigm shift, comparisons an differences are bound to crop up, i.e. how things were and are pre and post COVID, respectively. Though, seemingly nothing obvious has changed on the surface, yet everything has, be it our day-to-day normal lifestyle or how businesses used to function, things aren’t going to be the way they were for a long time now, at-least.

Having said that, even the way digital marketing was done earlier, isn’t the same anymore, the way things have shaped up, has made people more self-aware and conscious of their surroundings, thus, the accountability of the organizations has increased dramatically and so creating and maintaining a positive perception about themselves, should be the utmost and sincere priority of any business organization. Though, unfortunately in any crisis, it is the marketing budget which takes a hit, but it should be kept in mind that the resources invested in marketing aren’t a frivolous expenditure, but a prudent investment, to create and maintain your brand identity, as well as, creating a trust-worthy bond with your customers, assuring them that all is well and things shall look up soon.

Here are some aspects which shall demand more focus in digital marketing post COVID-19:

1. Cultivating an integrated approach – Digital marketing isn’t an activity that can be pursued in isolation, marketing has seen a paradigm shift, and the use of analytics is being seen on a widespread basis. Integrated marketing is the need of the hour, where the behavior of the consumers can be understood and predicted well before-hand. With the change in times, traditional style of marketing doesn’t fit the bill anymore; not the focus is on creating a ‘personalized’ and ‘relevant’ digital marketing model instead of a generic experience.

          As per Diaz Nesamoney, “Marketers in the post-COVID-19 era will have to rethink what technologies they really need, which ones can help them save money, and which ones can help them transform their businesses that have been altered by this crisis. Marketing technology that helps with the above business needs will therefore be considered essential and the rest may end up in the garbage heap of tech-driven promises that never delivered true Marketing ROI”.

Nowadays, careful and strategic placement of ads on social media, frequently visited websites by the consumers, relevant e-commerce websites are used to pique the interest of the consumers. Here is where Zivanta Analytics can help you gain traction and competitive advantage by the use of our data analytic tools to target your consumer base. Hence, the use of traditional marketing tools won’t be a great idea, but incorporating modern analytical tools to track consumer behavior and convert the leads into final sales, successfully, is the focal point.

2. Increased Focus on ROI – With the pandemic hitting across, the shopping patterns of the people have changed, wherein people prefer more of online shopping rather than going out. This implies that, definitely the marketing strategies too shall have to go undergo changes, wherein companies will have to invest in building and strengthening their online presence. This means that ROI generating tools like SEO, programmatic advertizing, conversational and interactive marketing shall be witnessing an investment jump. Because, this is where the future of digital and social marketing lies.
3. Enhanced attention on direct consumer based marketing – Companies operating in the sphere of Consumer Packaged goods had and to a certain extent, are still bearing the brunt of the pandemic. This was bound to happen because of their over-reliance on the brick-and-mortar stores, where in they were due to obvious reasons unable to create a bond with the consumers, this negatively impacted their business, but now the lesson has been learnt, hence they are now driving their focus on building consumer relations and concentrating on 1:1 B2C marketing strategy.

     Since the lockdown was announced, people had stopped going out to buy goods, which obviously resulted in them buying the same goods over online portals, thus, those businesses which had already established themselves in the e-business sphere, gained a lot, in comparison to those who lacked an online presence. Marketing via traditional methods like TV ads, Print media, OOH, have taken a backseat and an enhanced focus is being channelized towards digital marketing, more-so, because it is cheaper, direct, targeted and offers the use of analytics to customize the ads and offer the marketer the flexibility to customize the ads as per the customers’ preference.

With established businesses across different verticals, experiencing a slump, they all are quickly moving towards digital marketing, for instance brands like McDonalds and local businesses etc have strengthened their online food and other products delivery mechanism, because that is what the time demands and the looming uncertainty whether and when things will shift back to the olden times, have propelled them to go ahead. Hence, this implies, that in the coming near future, a lot of investment will be directed towards platforms focusing on personalized digital marketing, which shall help to create and manage content, automate messages, deliver personalized messages and respond to queries, design specific offers etc. This shows that there has been a considerable shift in the marketing style, and now the theory of One Size, Fits All, doesn’t work anymore, to that effect.

4. Effective use of PPC – In the times of the pandemic, the supply of goods and services got limited due to obvious reasons, therefore, the ads being shown on different leading marketing channels like Facebook Ads, Google Ads, etc. were lesser, hence it meant that utilizing PPC in an effective manner, would yield amazing results for your company, and this had happened precisely during the COVID times.

     Due to the fact that people were staying at home, there was an enhanced surge in traffic and online searches, but the competition along-with the cost of paid ads, has seen a downward spiral. This means you could use this opportunity to effectively enhance your brand visibility and gain traction, therefore increasing your sales and traffic. A well thought of and a strategized marketing strategy by combining SEO, SMO and PPC etc can give your business the much desired boost.

With people avoiding market places, the digital footprint of people across digital media has enhanced exponentially. This tremendous increase which has happened has been unprecedented, therefore, it is always a great idea to stay of the game, not only you can effectively target your customers for increasing your sales, but you can use these social media channels to create a responsible and positive image of your brand, one which works to uplift the humanity, thus, further deepening your bond with the audience, especially in times like these, where the world needs many helping hands.

The moment to act and jump on to the ship of digital revolution has arrived, so the sooner you act, the better.