It’s been about 4 months since the coronavirus hit and businesses are rapidly trying to adapt to the new normal.
With skyrocketing infection rates in the U.S. there is a good chance we will see a second wave of the virus in the near future. Experts agree, changing the way marketing usually operates is what needs to be done. It creates more work, but it will minimize the harmful effects of the pandemic and help companies go back to pre-quarantine status.
In the meantime, there are plenty of ways to retain customers like offering discounts on goods and services, anti-COVID-19 plans or offers, and making some of your services free. This way, your current customers stay with you and you can take a more calculated approach to acquire new ones.
An advantage to online marketing in 2020 is that most people are working from home. Here’s an overview of the best types of internet marketing available to best reach those potential customers.
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)
SEO in a nutshell is the optimization of websites and content to make sure you rank higher in Google search. This way you maximize the traffic to your website based on popular search terms.
When someone decides to google something like “Best garbage plate in Rochester” the search engine sends crawler bots that comb the internet for keywords related to that query and return an index of the highest ranked sites.
The two types of SEO are On-page and off-page.
On-Page SEO happens when your website or content is optimized to rank higher by using targeted keywords and phrases. You can do this by:
- Making sure your website is as fast as it can be
- Using responsive technology so your page is visible across devices
- Utilizing targeted keywords
- Building content with title tags in mind
- Following Google’s featured snippets
- Making sure your data markup is structured
- Adding internal links to pages within your website
- Using outbound links to other sites that have similar content
Off-Page SEO is defined by using external methods to increase your spot in the search rankings.
By this, we mean things like social media presence or anything else that forms backlinks (when other websites link to your content or site).
Authority is something that search engines take very seriously because they’re designed to deliver accurate results. You can build this reputation by delivering high-quality content that other websites find interesting or impressive enough to share.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have paid marketing solutions that can be used to promote your business. For instance, Facebook has a method set up where you pay a premium to promote an existing post. You can also start a dedicated facebook ad that features your marketing goals.
These ads can have call to actions that:
- Send users to your website or Facebook page
- Install an app
- Reach people close to your business
- Raise attendance at an event
- Get users to claim an offer
- Or increase video views
Depending on your marketing strategy, some approaches work better than others.
CONTENT MARKETING
When you focus on creating, distributing and promoting content that is consistent and relevant to your brand that also is designed to engage and drive conversion from your target demographic, that’s called content marketing. There are tons of ways to do this, you can use:
- Blog posts
- Relevant reports and studies
- Podcasts
- Case studies
- Videos you can share to social media sites
- Webinars
- & Videos
This is a great all-around approach because it combines a lot of different methods and you can cross reference them for exponential results!
CONCLUSION
Even if the virus disappears next week, the effect that it has on the way that business is done will most likely continue. As a result of the nature of the pandemic, the existing infrastructure of the internet will continue to innovate and grow as businesses start to shift their model to fit the next normal.
Choosing a marketing agency like Site Hub to help you curate an online marketing approach is a great way to stay ahead of the curve.
