Following the Global Financial Crisis, those businesses that dropped their digital marketing team or agency, while saved money in the short-term, these businesses ended up paying out 10x the initial investment in the long-term as those companies which stuck it out ripped market share away from their competition.
Companies that are opting to be more aggressive in their digital marketing strategies and refocusing their spending during recessions have ended up outperforming businesses that made the decision to make sweeping cuts. Marketing during a recession isn’t necessarily about spending triple the amount. Instead, it’s about cutting the waste from unprofitable campaigns and doubling down on the ones that are bringing in the best profit for the business right now. Rather than revolutionising the industry with clever new marketing strategies, what we call a ‘Digital Marketing Recession’ is about reshaping your business and its strategy to adapt to the changes within the industry, particularly right now when COVID-19 is wreaking havoc across countries.
This brings us to our top 7-tips for clawing back market share from your competitors:
It goes without saying that the impact of COVID-19 has been widespread and is damaging many small businesses. Despite being tested positive for Coronavirus or not, being locked down in quarantine for weeks or months results in drastic increases in online activity, particularly in the use of social media. People are jumping onto social media to keep occupied, stay updated with the latest news on the virus and stay looped in with family and friends.
Now is the perfect time to share your company culture and how you’re able to help those struggling a bit more than you are. At Marketing One, we’ve pulled back on driving new sales because we understand right now is a sensitive time for all, so we’ve taken certain passive steps to maintain the flow of sales while standing out from the crowd. As a business owner, remain active on social media, put together a social media plan and begin scheduling content for your business using software like Later or Hootsuite. Struggling for content? Create social media posts about how you’re helping your community get through these tough times, how you’re responding to the virus – build brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Everyone is online, surfing the web or browsing through their social media on unprecedented levels. Storefronts are either closed down or getting little foot traffic due to Coronavirus fears as such search traffic has nearly doubled since the outbreak first began. We’re seeing conversion rates skyrocket into 20-30% ranges in particular industries such as the food delivery, fitness & health and IT services. The demand is there, now has never been a better time to capitalise on growing your mailing lists and spreading your brand out there.
If you’re an e-commerce store or a local service provider, by making sure you can be found online through a search engine so people can find you, you firmly cement your place within the market while others are looking to cut back. Take advantage of this heightened demand and use it to take your business to the next level. Once, business picks up again, and employment levels drop, you will be armed to the teeth with an extensive mailing list and brand awareness, allowing you to outshine your competition.
As everyone sits at home scrolling their social media or browsing Google, now is the perfect time to sell any leftover stuck using PPC advertising. Steal back the market share from other businesses cutting their marketing budgets and bring more sales and build that competitive advantage within your business with effective ROI driven paid advertising strategies.
Traditionally, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) takes 6-12 months to begin seeing results, however, with competition either placing their campaigns on hold or cutting their marketing agency completely, you have a golden opportunity to leverage this gap and rank for your target keywords quicker. Delaying your SEO campaign now could result in your business having to spend double the expenditure in the future.
Forget the long-tail keywords as these can be easily targeted anytime. Use this opportunity to jump on the high volume search terms.
As the Coronavirus begins to fade into history, position yourself within the market, so when the economy bounces back, your business can scale efficiently with organic traffic (SEO), email marketing and re-targeting campaigns. The crucial decisions you make now in your business have the potential to reshape how your business performs over the next 5-10 years.
Seize the opportunity while it presents itself. Keeping in mind there are only 10 positions, 10 companies like yours, which can be listed on that first page – be the first to double down on SEO.
Overall travelling has been crumbled, leaving many to shop local. By undergoing re-structuring of your local SEO strategy such as your Google My Business listing, this will help your business stay out front when customers search for “[product/servive] near me.”
There’s no need to throw in the towel in your digital marketing. By doing this, you lose your initial investment and progress to date and set your business back at a marketing loss for the next 2-years.
Analyse the data and make concise business decisions for the long-run.
The Australian Government is rolling out a number of support packages to provide for our local businesses and to try and keep them afloat. With support packages being rolled out on a regular basis, discuss with our team today on how you can re-position yourself within the market without the additional marketing expense.
