Be mindful of your content during this time of uncertainty. With a sudden and unexpected loss in revenue, many businesses are being forced into conversations on how they can trim budgets and maximise efficiency.
But what does this mean for various digital marketing investments?
Beware, your analytics data is likely skewed
Internal traffic is not internal! With so many employees working remotely right now, this may influence your digital analytics data! Your typical filter won’t catch workers working remotely unless they are possibly using a VPN or other remote network connection. This means your employees might be counted in your analytics metrics, even though you had previously created a filter for this.
Reduce paid search and social media?
In the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, search demand is down. If your company’s product or service isn’t deemed an “essential need” than you may want to consider pulling back on your paid spend. Failure to reduce spend can make even the most profitable campaigns turn negative for return on ad spend. Proceed with caution if you know your product/service isn’t a top priority for your consumers right now.
On the flip side, bids in many industries are lower than they’ve ever been. This is likely due to advertisers making fewer bids and cutting their budgets. But if your company is selling product/services that still have demand at this time, you should be looking to maximise your ad spend. Just make sure you keep a close eye on your return.
Maximise email
Email is cheap AND effective. Considering you can’t impact search-demand—leading you to potentially decrease paid search/media—you may be able to claw back some scale with email campaigns. For some industries, it’s as simple as reminding customers that despite brick and motor stores being closed, they can still get all their needs met online.
Remember to be mindful of the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensure your clients/customers that you are here to help. This isn’t the time to hard sell or promote special COVID-19 “deals.”
Email likely won’t make up for all the recent performance losses but brands that show value and instil trust from their clients/customers will pay dividends when times are more certain.
Continue the path of SEO and content marketing
Like paid search, teams everywhere are seeing performance losses in the organic channel due to a drop in overall search demand. Unlike paid search/social, I recommend continuing your execution on SEO and content marketing efforts.
If you choose to reduce spend in your SEO and content marketing efforts, you significantly risk your organic rankings. Once search-demand returns (and it will) you will still drive considerably less organic traffic than before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Right now, it’s vital to maintain – if not grow – your SEO campaign.
Companies that continue to execute on their planned digital marketing campaigns, and more specifically, on their planned content and conversion strategies around SEO as an acquisition channel, will be poised for faster (and more effective) recovery when we come out the other side
In a time of uncertainty, businesses need to prioritise consumers and employees’ safety. Be kind and aware of the situation. The brands that do this best will undoubtedly rebound most quickly once the COVID-19 pandemic retreats. Until then, be critical of your digital marketing efforts and double down on lean effectiveness.
