Over the last 6 months, businesses have been faced with challenges they never thought could be possible. With sales declining between March and April before slowly picking back up in recent months, many have been forced to make in-house cuts in a bid to keep the bottom line alive. One of these cuts has been to businesses marketing budgets, forcing them to pause their campaigns in their tracks, resulting in a loss of revenue on certain marketing channels and lower online visibility. We’re taking a closer look at how to promote your business post COVID-19 below.
Drive your Online Sales now
As CEO of award-winning digital marketing agency Absolute Digital Media, it’s safe to say that we’ve had our fair share of enquiries over the COVID-19 period with businesses wanting to excel at their marketing in order to drive sales during a time they are needed the most. For more information about how we can support your business, get in touch with me, Ben Austin, or the agency on 0800 088 6000, today.
Understand The New Normal
It’s safe to say that a lot has changed since COVID-19 broke out back in March earlier this year. It’s not just impacted the UK either, as the virus was quickly deemed a pandemic just days after the initial spike in cases. As businesses were forced to shut up shop for the foreseeable future, people turned to online shopping to get the essentials (and not so essential) items to avoid heading out into the known.
Of course, because of this, businesses (including ourselves) have had to try to understand what the new normal will consist of with very little data to go on. When it comes to marketing, there are now several new factors to consider, including those that existed before but are now more important than ever.
Research New Consumer Behaviour
Many people’s financial situation has changed, with some being furloughed and others struggling to generate revenue to support their businesses. Some customers had become more reserved in what they were purchasing, searching for deals and one-time offers online to make their budget stretch further. Others, however, took full advantage of not having to pay to commute to and from work and other money saving factors, meaning that they had more cash to splash. In fact, online retail sales actually increased by 238% in April which – despite everything – was the largest increase to the sector for the past 10 years.
Generally speaking, older generations are less concerned than the younger generation when it comes to COVID-19 impacting their shopping habits. Overall, we saw a spike in the number of subscription services being subscribed too throughout the lockdown period from Netflix, to beauty sub-services that deliver the latest products to your door and the Medical, Baby Products and Cleaning sectors receiving the biggest spike in eCommerce sales. Surprisingly during the same time period, fashion and apparel and auto or tools were two of the sectors to take the biggest hit.
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Reflect On What’s Performed Well In The Past
With a rough idea about how your sales are set to increase over the coming days, weeks and months, it’s important to reflect on what’s performed well for your business in the past, allowing you to take time to consider how you can achieve such successes again. Competitor research can be useful in helping you to achieve exactly that, providing you with further insight into your business sector which can then help you to form your own ideas. With more and more businesses picking up their marketing strategies as we head towards Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas, now is the perfect time to do so!
Identify How Your Customers Needs May Have Changed
Your customer needs are likely to change all of the time – but now more so than ever. Despite the lockdown period coming to an end in some parts of the country, people’s outlook on what they buy has changed and, depending on how you approach this change, it could be a good or bad thing for your business. Utilise data from over the past few months to identify what products or services have been the most popular and also those that have taken a backseat. With this knowledge, you can then construct you campaign around these products, taking into consideration your own return.
Test, Test, Test
When it comes to making the most of our post COVID-19 marketing, it’s important to test out your new marketing strategy to identify how your campaign is performing. Within the first few days of launching your marketing campaign, you’ll have a clear insight into what’s working well, helping you to determine the next steps for your business.
Build a Bespoke Marketing Strategy Today
For more information, get in touch with me, Ben Austin, or Absolute Digital Media on 0800 088 6000, today.
