Měsíc: Duben 2020

Due to the threats affecting the economy, companies all over the world are cutting down budgets of ad promotion, which puts them in a difficult situation to reach both new and existing customers. So they find themselves in the need to adapt fast to the new threats affecting the market. 

In your strategy meetings, you’re probably thinking about how to mitigate the impact of cutting down your advertising budget, while still attracting new customers. The trend is to stop paid advertising and shift towards generating creative ways to create customer relationships. 

So what has changed since the crisis began? This is what we see lately:

Less Push
Companies have stopped overselling and using hard selling techniques on digital platforms. It is simply not well seen by the market to be pushing your products down their throats during times of crisis.

Customer Relationship
Companies are focusing now on building stronger relationships with their customers. The brands realize that in these times of crisis a helping, caring hand is the best way to build trust with their customers. 

Boost of Creativity
Companies are adapting and even switching to new business models, creating new products and services and making the best out of the current situation. 

We have also identified four different types of companies, depending on the way that they are responding to the crisis. 

So, how are companies acting differently?

Innovators

“This is a great opportunity, let’s adapt as first ones.”

Big Companies

“We need to keep our market share, no matter what.”

Digital Dinosaurs

“Oh shit, the internet is a real deal, we have to be there in a week!” 

Passive Mainstream

“Let’s wait until it’s over … hopefully we don’t go bankrupt in the meantime.”

How is your brand reacting?

To close we would like to leave you with the best quote that summarizes what winning companies are doing and how they are shifting their marketing strategies. This is a quote from Mark Ritson:

“Great brands build their equity during crises like this. They stand out by actually exemplifying their brand values in the face of the crisis that surrounds it. They take care of their own and eschew shorter-term profits in favor of ensuring that their people are looked after. And they invest in brand-building media because, with many of their competitors losing their mind and their share of voice, there is a rare opportunity to come out of the crisis not just alive, but ahead.”

on the edge

👆👆👆 Join our Facebook group

New threats and opportunities are bubbling up for businesses, brands, and individuals. In order not to be affected by the current threats and to make the best of the few opportunities in the market, you most likely need to pay close attention to the digital marketing trends developing during #coronatimes. 

During the last Community Meetup (CM10), we discussed social commerce, direct messaging, micro-influencers, interactive emails, live streaming, influencers and more trends that can help you navigate with your business during the crisis. 

Livestreaming

Videos enhance engagement and increase the likelihood of your audience engaging with your content. The surveys are clear: 80% of consumers said they’d rather watch live video than read a blog post. So what to do for your business?  Consider “micro live streams” where you go online more frequently but for shorter bursts of 2-5 minutes to share, inform, engage, and connect with your fans and followers.  

Btw, remember to be where your audience is the most whether that is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

AR & Mobile

AR has disrupted digital experiences in mobile devices. It increases both user engagement and brand recognition. It is a high-end tool that gives you another tool when it comes to driving sales and enhancing brand value through mobile devices.

Shoppable Socials 

Instagram launched “Checkout” in 2019, and it allows you to connect with your e-commerce platform, ideally Shopify. With this game-changer feature, you can sell directly on the social media platform, which decreases the chances of sales abandonment by your target audience. Snapchat and Pinterest are two other social media platforms that enable shoppable posts. 

If you have a Shopify store, it’s as easy as linking accounts (for Instagram) or installing a plugin (for Snapchat). 

Direct Customer Care

Direct messaging is a new means of streamlining customer service and assisting in sales. With Apps like WhatsApp, Viber and Facebook Messenger, or through PMs on social media like Instagram or TikTok, you can establish meaningful relationships with your customers. 

Now, don’t be pushy, and remember that a customer DMing you first is worlds apart from you DMing them first. So what are you going to do for them to reach out first? 😉  

Micro-influencers

Your target audience right now is looking for the advice of close friends and family on what to do next, what the future is going to look like. Micro-influencers have narrower niches and are popular enough to be influential in their audience’s life. Plus, they, and are not overloaded with sponsorship offers. Reach out to them if you feel your company can bring something positive to their target audience and they will consider working with you. 

Interactive Newsletters

Email is still one of the best digital channels, and now is evolving in its form into something that looks and functions more like web pages, including clickable buttons and other interactions. Now, combine a beautifully designed email layout, with video… it can increase your click rates up to 300% if done right. 

Customer Data Platforms

These are digital tools that help you analyze the reactions of users and customers to a solution, typically on social media or other places online. This practice is called sentiment analysis usually involving data-collecting tools and complicated algorithms that look at online responses to your brand and evaluate them.

You can then use that data to fine-tune not just your products, but also your strategies for sales, marketing, social media, and content.

Global > Local

Now is the time for your brand to go truly global. Internet usage is increasing by the roof, as well as the time spent on social media platforms. People are at home and they are either looking at their computer screens or their phones. 
Your digital footprint can be there, connecting your products/services to the world. If you know your target audience, find that global niche, anywhere they are. 

Watch the Livestream:

Even before the Corona Virus pandemic disrupted the market, the digital marketing trends that we were taking place, paradoxically, are both more human and more technical. It seems the general pull of digital marketing goes in the direction of more personal relationships with more targeted niches, but the means of making those connections rely on automation and new technology.

BTW, we miss networking with you, so we created a Facebook group to network virtually and discuss digital marketing strategy. Join here.