Why you should work on your online marketing now (COVID-19)

This article explains why it’s a good time to build your online presence, and how to do that cost-effectively…

Business owners are making tough decisions as they struggle to protect revenue and pay staff during the COVID-19 crisis.

It seems that digital marketing should be one of the first services to get the axe, right?

Actually, no.

It does make sense for some managers to abandon their digital marketing campaign (for now).

But for many others, this move will likely cause more financial damage in the long run – depending on the nature of your business and the results your marketing efforts have yielded so far.

There’s no need to go full throttle with digital marketing at this time. In fact, it’s not a bad idea to pause or cancel some strategies, like paid advertising. However, other strategies (like organic SEO) should be maintained, even at a reduced level.

This advice applies to companies with active digital campaigns, and those without:

Embrace this opportunity to build your online presence, as many of your competitors lift their finger off the pulse. Also, take advantage of the fact that some agencies are now offering services at discounted rates.

3 reasons why this is a good time to MAINTAIN or START a digital marketing campaign:

1. Quality content is in high demand:

Consumers are spending more time online as their schedules free up. This paves the way for organisations to deliver engaging content via email, social media or their website. There aren’t as many distractions, so people are likely to sit down and carefully read something that catches their attention.

Those who appreciate your content during this time will probably seek out your company when social distancing is no longer required. From an SEO perspective, websites with strong user engagement tend to rank prominently on search engines.

2. Online shopping is taking off:

The demand for online shopping is likely to increase, as more brick and mortar stores shut down and people look for products that can be delivered to them. E-commerce sites that capitalise on this reality could at least maintain some revenue, or even make more money than before.

3. Some activity is required to maintain search engine results:

The coronavirus threat will pass and businesses will eventually operate normally again. When this happens, you want your website to rank highly in search results and deliver value to online visitors. Search engine optimisation (SEO) is one of the best strategies – but it’s a long-term relationship that doesn’t handle abandonment well. Your website will drop its rankings and get lost in the dark abyss of the internet, if you neglect all SEO activity. Thousands of dollars could be wasted on a recovery effort that takes many months.

On the other hand, businesses that focus on SEO quickly gain a strong lead over competitors that have paused or cancelled their campaigns during this time.

Keep reading to find out how to protect your business by focusing on digital strategies.

7 digital strategies that will boost your online presence and protect revenue

1. Stay connected with your customers:

• Clear messaging from your company about COVID-19: inform your clients about any changes to your business operations, and precautions that your team is taking.
• Maintain regular contact with clients via email: consider sending out a weekly or monthly newsletter, with advice that may benefit people during this stressful time (especially if it’s related to the service you provide).
• Ask clients for reviews: this gives you the chance to improve your services based on valuable feedback, while also building your online reputation.

2. Evaluate all of the content on your website :

How often do you get the chance to sit down with a cup of coffee and read the content on your website? Probably rarely, given your busy schedule. Now’s the chance to do exactly that. Be as critical as possible – does the content reflect your core values and unique selling points? Does it provide useful information to consumers? Is it engaging enough to hold people’s attention?

3. Update old content:

This is one of the best ways to boost organic SEO, but it’s something that businesses rarely do. It’s also easier than writing an entire article from scratch! Deliver value by adding new information that’s useful to the reader, or change the tone to make it more engaging.

4. Add new content that interests your target audience:

Share your knowledge, especially if it’s useful information that people regularly search for online. But don’t post simply for the sake of publishing content, if you have nothing helpful to add. There’s an oversaturation of information and people don’t need to read the same thing over and over again. Do your research and deliver content in an engaging way. Think outside of the box and incorporate video, audio and images into your strategy. Videos are particularly useful for SEO purposes right now! It doesn’t even need to be high-tech, you can use your phone.

5. Start an organic SEO strategy or maintain the one you already have:

This is a low-cost and highly effective investment – considering that more than half of all website traffic comes from organic search. When done correctly, organic SEO enhances the visibility of a website by making sure it’s seen by people searching online. This translates to higher conversions, sales and engagement. It also increases the trust and credibility of your website.

6. Fix your website to improve the user experience (UX design):

It doesn’t matter how many people you attract with SEO, if you can’t hold their attention. Even the most engaging content won’t capture an audience, if the website is poorly designed (for example: text that’s too small to read, inadequate spacing and harsh colours). People are more likely to browse websites with clean, user-friendly layouts. We know what works best by studying behaviour patterns when people browse online.

7. Fix your website to make sure you’re not breaking any Google rules:

Penalties from Google affect search rankings, leading to a significant drop in site traffic and revenue. Many business owners don’t know why this happens, because they haven’t set out to break any rules. Websites can be penalised for many reasons – both deliberate and accidental. It can be as innocent as falling on the wrong side of an algorithm update, using too many keywords, or accidently linking to a manipulative website. It’s important to get rid of unnatural links and take other steps to ensure you don’t break Google’s rules.

Why not learn some digital survival skills?

You can learn about digital marketing, or arrange for your staff to be mentored by experts during this quieter business period, when there are fewer tasks to tend to. This keeps everyone on their toes; while empowering your team with valuable tools that boost business performance and revenue. For example, learning how to interpret your website data enables you to make informed marketing decisions.

Business is quieter than usual, why not take advantage of that down-time? After some normalcy returns, your team won’t need to rely so heavily on an external agency, which saves you money too.

Why trust us?

The team at E-Web Marketing can handle every aspect of your digital campaign, or teach you how to run it yourself.

• Delayed billing due to COVID-19: we want to help businesses during this difficult time, while our team stays switched on by working on meaningful tasks.
• No restrictions: if a particular service no longer suits you, we can adapt our approach, despite what’s on the contract.
• We know what we’re doing: an award-winning company with more than two decades of experience. Our team is based in Australia.
• No stone unturned: our multi-channel strategy is driven by hard data and extensive research.
• Integrity and transparency: we say what we believe and keep our word.

If you need specific recommendations or would like to discuss any concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Keep well,
Sam Shetty