The pandemic caused a shift in people’s behavior, affecting how they obtain information, interact with others, and make purchases. Consequently, brands need to reconsider their marketing strategies and explore alternative methods to cultivate customer loyalty.
Simultaneously, the manner in which individuals operate within organizations underwent a significant transformation. The conventional 9 to 5 office workdays have become obsolete, as remote and hybrid work setups have taken over. This drastic alteration has compelled businesses to reexamine how their teams collaborate and cooperate to enhance business accomplishments.
What strategies have brands developed to deal with Covid-19 and how does this affect present and future digital marketing efforts? Our research uncovers the important advancements that businesses must take into account to succeed in a world after the pandemic.
Ecommerce is crucial to brand success
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the worldwide sales of e-commerce in retail increased to around $4.28 trillion, with the United States contributing $432 billion. In the period from 2019 to 2021 when there were strict Covid-related restrictions, retail platforms experienced a significant increase of visits, as reported by Statista – from 16 billion visits in January to 22 billion visits in June.
Charged Retail announced that online sales in the UK reached £10 billion in July 2021, breaking previous records, as 40% of the population preferred to shop from home instead of visiting brick-and-mortar stores, even after the lockdown ended. During Q2 2021, Shopify achieved its first $1 billion in a quarter on record with a 57% year-on-year increase in its Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV).
Shopify is not the sole company that profited from the Covid pandemic. According to GlobalData research, double-digit revenue growth was observed in 90% of the top 10 ecommerce websites such as Amazon and Alibaba. The rise in online retail platform visitors due to Covid caused this.
Despite the widespread administration of vaccines and a return to more typical daily routines, the rise of online shopping in the retail industry persists. There are still significant surges observed in several nations, and Deloitte anticipates that the US will witness an upswing of 7 to 9% in retail sales during the late 2021 holiday season. In South-East Asia, electronic commerce penetration is expected to expand by 85%, surpassing that of India (+10%) and China (+5%). Besides, digital consumer spending in this region is projected to escalate by 60% by the close of 2021.
In this digital age, optimizing your brand’s ecommerce offerings whether it’s on your website, social media, or a third-party platform like Amazon or Shopify will result in increased leads and sales.
Sectors need to pivot and reinvent
Lockdowns affected different sectors differently based on the nature of their businesses. As expected, the profits of hospitality and tourism sectors declined tremendously.
It became evident that when external factors arise, it is crucial to have the ability to think creatively. If customers were unable to purchase what they needed online, they simply moved on to a different website or brand.
Trade or commerce that involves the selling of goods or services to customers for personal or household use is known as retail.
Primark, a retail chain, suffered a $1 billion loss during the pandemic because it did not implement an ecommerce model. Despite customers expressing their desire for an online store, Primark argued that integrating an online function would result in higher prices for customers. Ultimately, Primark lacked the necessary logistics to launch an ecommerce site and the process would have been expensive and time-consuming.
The high street was permanently altered as other retailers experienced similar difficulties. Due to the closure of stores, the Arcadia Group went bankrupt and was purchased by online retailer Asos for £65 million solely for its stock and brands rather than its physical locations, which encompassed prominent UK high street names such as Topshop, Topman, and Miss Selfridge.
Conversely, secondhand clothing resale platforms like Depop have thrived as individuals seek to dispose of unused or unneeded garments. As consumers gain a better understanding of both the longevity and trajectory of their purchases, eco-conscious shoppers are opting to acquire clothing in alternative ways.
The pandemic has resulted in an inspired use of TikTok, which has had a direct impact on the publishing industry. The #BookTok trend has attracted a newer and younger audience to the joys of reading physical books. As a result, bookstores are responding by creating displays based on popular trends in the online platform.
The sector that deals with the production, sales, and maintenance of automobiles.
During the pandemic, the automotive sector suffered a major setback due to its conventional low-tech practices and reluctance to adopt digital innovations. With the absence of physical visitors in showrooms, the industry had to explore alternate methods for selling cars while people were confined to their homes. They introduced novel software, virtual test drives, and contactless pick-up and delivery to attract customers. Additionally, they employed digital tactics to interact with potential and current clients on online platforms.
Nissan has introduced Nissan@Home, an online platform that enables customers to purchase a car from the comfort of their homes, from test driving to signing the contracts. Sonic Automotive, one of the largest automobile dealers in the United States, plans to double its annual revenue by 2025 by hiring its first Chief Digital Officer and Vice President of Ecommerce.
It is evident that brands must be open to adaptation and innovation of their business model in order to endure and appeal to customers in a world after the pandemic.
Paid search and brand marketing need to combine forces
Performance marketing, commonly referred to as paid search, is highly favored by marketers due to its convenient measurement of return on investment (ROI), making it easier to distinguish successful campaigns from unsuccessful ones. Native advertising, social media advertising, sponsored advertising and affiliate marketing are just some examples of the different avenues in which brands can associate spending with a measurable action, such as a sale, lead or click.
Due to its cost efficiency in targeting the right audience, brands lean towards paid search marketing through platforms such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook. The increase in online activity brought on by Covid-19 led to more brands embracing online channels as a means to interact with customers, resulting in a highly competitive landscape that compelled marketing teams to reassess strategies for optimizing budget returns. This is particularly imperative considering the projection by Statista that advertising expenditure worldwide will attain $790 billion by 2022.
Deloitte’s Human Values Compass has noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a significant change in consumer behavior that requires brands to exhibit qualities of trust and humanity. Today’s customers are more interested in knowing a company’s ethics and mission statement, which emphasizes the necessity for increased brand awareness. This is especially crucial for socially responsible causes, as consumers now actively seek out brands that show concern for social issues and aspire to make the world a better place.
Airbnb made a daring decision to reallocate their budget from paid search marketing to prioritize brand marketing, specifically PR. The reason for this change was their clear necessity (as a travel brand) to reduce expenditures during Covid-19. However, they observed during this period that, even without any marketing expenses, their website traffic levels rebounded to 95% of their pre-Covid 2019 levels.
It is important to remember that Airbnb’s strong brand recognition allows them to decrease their investment in performance marketing, which is a luxury that most businesses do not possess. In an ideal scenario, a blend of paid advertising and brand marketing will yield the best results and maximize the impact of your marketing efforts without breaking the bank.
Digital Marketing Overview
Digital marketing is the practice of utilizing digital outlets to promote and distribute products and services for consumer accessibility. This strategy encompasses various online channels such as search engines, social media, mobile gadgets, and websites. The use of digital marketing rose to prominence alongside the inception of the internet in the 1990s.
Traditional marketing and digital marketing share certain principles and the latter is frequently viewed as a novel method for businesses to engage with consumers and grasp their actions. Businesses commonly merge conventional and digital marketing procedures in their plans. Nevertheless, it presents distinctive hurdles, such as unconscious partiality.
How Digital Marketing Works
The concept of marketing involves the actions taken by a business to boost the visibility of its goods and services in the market, as well as augment its share of that market. In order to achieve success, it necessitates expertise in advertising, sales, and supply chain management. Marketing specialists, otherwise known as marketers, handle such tasks either within corporations or at marketing agencies.
Previously, businesses put their marketing efforts into print, television, and radio advertising. However, with the rise of the internet, there has been a change in the methods used to reach customers. This shift has given way to digital marketing, which encompasses the use of social media, websites, search engines, apps, and any other platform that allows for interaction and feedback between companies and their customers.
Companies had to adjust their marketing tactics due to advancements in technology and emerging trends. Initially, email was a widespread method in digital marketing. Later on, companies turned their attention to search engines such as Netscape, which enabled them to enhance their visibility by implementing tags and keywords. Furthermore, with the advent of platforms such as Facebook, businesses could monitor data and conform to consumer trends.
With the availability of smartphones and other digital devices, companies find it more convenient to promote their brand and offerings to customers. Research suggests that most individuals favor browsing the internet through their mobile phones. That being said, it’s not shocking that 70% of people decide what to buy (often via their phones) before finalizing the purchase.
Sources and Receivers
The term “sources” is often used to describe advertisers, and those who receive the targeted ads are called “receivers”. Advertisers typically aim their messages at very particular and clearly defined targets, as McDonald’s did when targeting shift workers and travelers.
McDonald’s aimed its digital ads at a significant proportion of its late-night customers in an effort to promote its Restaurant Finder app. These ads were strategically placed at ATMs, gas stations, and frequently visited websites.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Digital Marketing
It is important to keep in mind that digital marketers utilize key performance indicators (KPIs) much in the same way as traditional marketers. KPIs serve as measurable methods for companies to assess their long-term progress by comparing it to that of their competitors. This assessment encompasses a wide range of factors, such as corporate strategies, financial goals and accomplishments, operations, and even marketing initiatives.
Here are several frequently used KPIs that marketers can utilize in aiding companies to attain their objectives:
- Blog Articles: Marketers can use this KPI to figure out how many times a company publishes blog posts each month.
- Clickthrough Rates: Companies can use this KPI to figure out how many clicks take place for email distributions. This includes the number of people that open an email and click on a link to complete a sale.
- Conversion Rate: This measure focuses on call-to-action promotional programs. These programs ask consumers to follow through with certain actions, such as buying a product or service before the end of a promotional period. Companies can determine the conversion rate by dividing successful engagements by the total number of requests made.
- Traffic on Social Media: This tracks how many people interact with corporate social media profiles. This includes likes, follows, views, shares, and/or other measurable actions.
- Website Traffic: Marketers can use this metric to track how many people visit a company’s website. Corporate management can use this information to understand whether the site’s design and structure contribute to sales.
Digital Marketing Challenges
Purveyors of digital marketing face distinct challenges as a result of the rapid proliferation of digital channels. To successfully market their products or services, digital marketers must remain updated on the functioning of these channels, their usage by receivers, and how they can be effectively leveraged.
The capture of receivers’ attention is becoming tougher due to the increasing number of competing ads. Furthermore, digital marketers are finding it arduous to scrutinize the massive volumes of data they gather and utilize it in fresh marketing campaigns.
Effectively capturing and utilizing data in digital marketing highlights the need for a marketing approach that deeply understands consumer behavior. Subsequently, analyzing new consumer behavior such as utilizing website heatmaps may be required.
What Skills Are Needed in Digital Marketing?
In order to effectively narrate your product’s story to your consumer base, you must possess excellent content writing skills and communication skills. It’s crucial to have data analytics skills that are essential to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and determine areas for improvement. Additionally, it is imperative to have social media and other online skills.
The Bottom Line
Traditional methods were once responsible for some of the world’s largest advertising campaigns such as the popular print execution of the Marlboro Man and Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” tagline. However, evolving changes in media consumption forced companies to refocus their efforts towards digital marketing which has now become equally, if not more, paramount. This includes the implementation of algorithms in digital marketing strategies, which if used effectively, can prevent implicit bias. As technology advances, it’s important to be aware of the continuous evolution of digital marketing.
