Opportunities and Setbacks when Marketing in times of Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a serious disruption in the lives of many people around the world. People weren’t able to go out of their houses much, travel was heavily restricted, physical contact was limited, and businesses and even some government services were shut down for safety. For a while, it seemed like the world stopped turning.

Nonetheless, things still continue albeit with a different kind of normal for the time being. The same thing goes for digital marketing; just because most businesses are closed down doesn’t mean people will not be out and about looking for things to purchase or services to avail of. Before going all in and intensifying your online campaign, however, you need to weigh the pros and cons of continuing such a campaign in a pandemic or similar emergency period.

A New Audience

One of the consequences of the global pandemic is the requirement for people to stay at home as much as possible to stop the spread of infection. This means most people were forced to work at home, or were furloughed if their jobs can’t be done off-site. With so many people stuck at home with few things to do, they would turn to other things to pass the time when they’re not working, like visiting the web. This means your digital marketing campaign has a larger potential market to work with.

With more people potentially going online either for work or leisure, you have a greater chance of increasing your exposure and expanding your market coverage. Putting additional effort on the traditional digital marketing channels like local SEO, email marketing and situation-relevant social media has a higher potential return of investment thanks to the wider potential audience. There’s also the possibility that your brand can be exposed to other locations that have been also affected by community lockdowns, helping drive further to you.

Cost-Cutting Galore

One of the critical issues that businesses had to contend with during the pandemic was the reduced income due to the lower number of clients that they received. As such, they may be forced to lower their projected growth targets and cut down on expenses. Business owners had to balance the books, finding ways to keep their now meager budgets floating while trying to keep a stable income. They’ve also had to worry about long-term prospects for their businesses even way after the pandemic is over.

This situation isn’t something that bigger corporations can get away with like in the past. With the global markets virtually going into a standstill, much of their regular revenue has been affected as well. It’s not only small companies and independent entrepreneurs that will have to be wary about ambitious digital marketing targets; even the more recognized brands will have to take a second look. Ensuring that their products have something to offer in these times can be helpful, but it’s not entirely foolproof, so they may scale down their marketing if it helps them keep their bottom line through the crisis.

Keeping a Balance

The pandemic may be over in a few more weeks at best, but digital marketing experts are split on whether things will normalize quickly after this incident. On one end, there’s a lot of potential new clients to market your brand to. On the other, your short-term growth may be marred by any long-term repercussions on both clients and employees, especially if layoffs or extended furloughs happened.

It is important that your online marketing team should strike a proper balance between taking advantage of the current pandemic-induced market trends and keeping a realistic forecast of how the prices will move in the next few months. Keeping it safe by maintaining a moderate online campaign could be a good start, but if you are confident that your local SEO or email campaigns have retained enough long-term clients, you should take your chances.

 

The global pandemic presents a lot of challenges and opportunities for the keen-eyed business owner when it comes to digital marketing. Just remember that times may still be rough after things have calmed down, so remember to keep your campaigns in moderation and your online marketing strategies are sure to succeed.