The Importance of Digital Marketing During Social Distancing

Digital marketing is always important – not only in times of crises. However, since now we have more free time than before, why not boost our efforts to perfect our marketing strategy?

Firstly, businesses offering online services (pretty much of any kind) have performed way better than traditional businesses since the outbreak of the pandemic. There’s a good reason for this – with lockdowns getting more massive, people have to find new ways to perform daily activities, grocery shopping included. And, they may lean more toward shopping or placing orders online, whether it be for household items or flowers for your local heroes.

The thing is – many people hadn’t known that online shopping can be this convenient before they were forced to try it out. Now that they know that they can save hours of commuting and physical shopping, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t continue shopping online, even when the pandemic has passed.

We have seen in the past couple of months that businesses offering online services of any kind have fared way better than traditional businesses. It is also reasonable to believe that many people will change their habits after the crisis has passed, simply because they have learned that many things can be done in an easier way. Online grocery shopping, for example, has witnessed a boom and is likely to remain popular in months and years to come.

In this, you should see your chance. If your brand does online business, it should make itself presentable NOW so that it can remain relevant in the future.

Bottom line, you should work on your brand’s online visibility, which in plain English translates into SEO.

Why Is Digital Marketing So Important?

Communication with clients remains in the center of any marketing effort, digital marketing included. Every successful business listens to customer feedback and implements clients’ suggestions. In this way, it grows with its audience and successfully maintains an evergreen offer and a loyal client base.

In order to do that, however, people must first discover your brand, judge it’s trustworthy, and only then decide whether to buy from it. Let’s begin with discovery.

Implement SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) boosts a brand’s visibility. It is a complex process incorporating multiple aspects of optimization that is applied to all content types including blog posts, images, ebooks, email marketing campaigns, social media campaigns, podcasts, and video content, to name a few most common examples.

Simplified, SEO deals with:

•       Keywords (primary and secondary)
•       Blog posts
•       Images
•       Backlinks
•       Internal links
•       Organic rankings

However, even the finest SEO strategies may fall short if your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices.

Optimize Your Content for Mobile Devices

Presently, almost 53% of all emails are being accessed on mobile devices. Since mobile device usage is on the rise and not likely to abate any time soon (if ever), mobile optimization should be a priority.

In a nutshell, this is what you can (and should) do:

•       Use mobile-friendly templates
•       Use one font
•       Format your content so that it is easy to scan (as opposed to read, mind you)
•       Feature optimized images that don’t consume excess bandwidth
•       Optimize your email campaigns so that they are not image-heavy and lead to mobile-optimized pages
•       Write subject lines featuring no more than 30 characters
•       Test-send all emails and check them on most popular devices and in most popular browsers (Gmail, iOS, etc.)

Do this for the existing content but also make sure to optimize all future content in this way otherwise you’ll start losing customers because your website isn’t mobile-friendly – not because its contents aren’t interesting.

Define Your Content Strategy and Stick to It

The most popular content type by far is – a blog post. Blogs are accessible to everyone, and there are a great many templates and plug-ins that can help your SEO efforts efficiently. Blog posts are great for promoting a brand and increasing its online visibility because they are easily shared across channels, notably on social media.

However, the frequency of new blog posts is crucial in terms of digital marketing. One post in three months certainly isn’t enough, but five posts a day are too much.

There are no general rules or recommendations in this regard, as each brand defines a strategy that suits it best, but common sense applies here like everyone else. Large brands serve bigger audiences and employ more people, so they can afford to publish new blog posts every day. Smaller brands, on the other hand, don’t need to go that far. It’s better to establish a posting routine so that your audience will know when to expect new content. I.e., three posts a week should be quite sufficient, but make sure they are being published consistently on the same days (e.g., Monday, Wednesday and Friday).  

Successful blog posts are:

1.     Published regularly
2.     Well researched, literate and relevant
3.     Regularly updated, where applicable
4.     Consistent with a brand’s message

As mentioned above, cross-promotions are perfect, so make certain to share each new post on your social media profiles. Social media profiles can attract a large following in a short time if the content is interesting and gets shared by your followers. In that sense, this is the fastest way to increase a brand’s visibility.

Other Content Types

On top of blog posts, there are a couple of other content types that are popular among various audiences, as follows:

•       Infographics
•       Video content
•       Podcasts
•       Ebooks

Infographics should be used whenever there are statistics involved. On one hand, they make it easier for the reader to keep up and on the other – they provide useful breaks in the text. They are great for site visitors who are big on time management and need to get to the point of the content quickly.

Video content is popular because it is less time-consuming than lengthy reading and because people just love to stare into their screens. Ask Netflix! Binge-watching has become the new normal! According to HubSpot, video content is 40x more likely to get shared than any other content type. It is also convenient when commuting or travelling, so you might wish to consider adding some video if it fits into your marketing strategy.

Podcasts are popular for the same reason – they’re perfect for commuting and traveling and require the usage of fewer brain cells than reading. Also, podcasts reach over 100 million Americans every month, according to Statista. They are a preferred content type when it comes to interviews or anything else that would make for a voluminous read.

Lastly, ebooks are great for promoting your brand and are often used as an incentive (e.g., for new subscribers). To maximize their efficiency, make certain to feature your brand’s contact info.

Conclusion

Digital marketing has always been a hot topic, but now it has become a necessity. With brands going under all around, it is advisable to learn the lesson and shift towards online operations. It’s easier, faster, cheaper, and offers a greater potential for reaching larger audiences.

Start with SEO and refine your strategy in accordance with insights and customer feedback.