Marketing may be the department within your small business that has been most negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistics suggest that around 69% of brands believe they'll need to reduce their marketing spend through 2020 as a result of the effects of the virus on the economy.
Marketing, it seems, has been maligned by some companies as non-essential and a cost that can be cut. But if you want to rebound from the challenges of COVID-19, marketing is essential. If you stop marketing your products, that will lower the number of people buying from you, and this will mean less profit.
Your marketing spend is crucial to your bottom line—you just have to think slightly longer term. But of course, the vital detail here is that you need marketing techniques that are genuinely going to work and make you money. And it might not be obvious, in the current climate, as to which techniques are going to be successful.
So, here I present a range of marketing options that are going to be valuable to your business in the post-COVID-19 world.
Make improvements to your website
The fact that a large proportion of the population is spending more time in their homes could be seen as an opportunity from a website marketing perspective. According to a recent study, British people have been spending more than a quarter of their day online during the crisis and ultimately, this means that they're using websites more frequently.
It could be hugely valuable, then, to make improvements to your website. Firstly to increase your rankings on Google and other search engines, but also because a high-quality website will convert at a better rate. This means that more people coming to your site will purchase from you or contact you.
Of course, there are many changes that you can make but a great place to start is with the images and written content. Ensure that you have high-quality images on your site that show off your products in the best possible light. And now might be the right time to consider rewriting the copy on your site.
Paid search
Just as getting organic traffic to your site is an important aspect of marketing, so too is paid search. While it can be expensive to attempt to utilize Google Ads, the results can be fantastic—this can be a very effective method of driving sales to your site without having to put in the groundwork.
It should also be stated that paid search, if done incorrectly, can be a huge waste of money spent on search terms that aren't going to drive the right kind of customer to your site. It's a great idea, then, to work with PPC specialists.
Direct mail
Physical marketing still has a role to play for businesses looking to make more sales post-COVID-19. If your company has never sent a direct mail campaign now could be a perfect time.
"We think that the uplift in interest in printed brochures is due to the fact that more people are staying at home since the beginning of the pandemic," said Edward Handford, co-founder of YouLovePrint, a specialist printing firm. "The fact that that there is something of a captive audience makes this period a very attractive time to send out marketing materials in the mail."
Emphasize the power of change
According to a recent study, 76% of people have recently picked up new habits, behaviors and routines through the COVID-19 pandemic. This is something that businesses really need to get behind in terms of their marketing plans. The fact is that what some companies have offered in the past may no longer be as relevant to customers.
It's important, then, to change with the times; offer and market products that have become useful or trendy during the pandemic.
Social media
Don’t forget the power of social media as a marketing tool. Usage of social media has soared during the pandemic, so now might be the right time to rethink your social media marketing strategy, as you could actually be interacting with more people.
It's also worth noting that social media advertising could become far more useful as a marketing tool—a great way to get more eyes on your products.
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