Why Digital Marketing Is Crucial For Businesses During A Pandemic

The main aim for a business has remained unchanged over the years – getting more customers to engage with its products and services. However, the approach organisations take to achieve that goal has undoubtedly evolved with the times.

The companies that succeed in reaching their target audiences are often the ones that can recognise when they have to innovate and adopt a new strategy. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic upending various traditional business models, businesses are once again forced to adapt their strategies to survive.

Due to the various lockdown measures implemented by governments worldwide, as well as the fear of contracting the virus, more and more people are staying indoors. In the face of changing consumer behaviour, traditional marketing strategies have to take a step back and allow a new face to rise to the forefront – digital marketing.

Why digital marketing is more important than ever

The sudden emergence of COVID-19 has blindsided the world. Before the pandemic, in-person communication is still very much the de-facto way we correspond. Consider the crowded, tightly-packed trade shows and product launch events that are hosted by conglomerates announcing the next big thing. All of these seem like a distant past now with the strict safety distancing measures we have to adhere to.

While we are still likely to see such events in the near future, the unpredictable nature of the pandemic means plans are constantly shifting. Therefore, businesses need to adapt their strategies on the fly according to the latest measures implemented by the government.

So, with previously established lines of communications either completely removed or vastly changed, numerous companies now have to seek new, COVID-safe avenues to reach out to their audiences. Even those that have never dabbled in the digital realm now find themselves scrambling to establish an online presence.

However, with a flood of new businesses migrating to an online model, companies face increased competition for audience attention. In such a competitive landscape, those with excellent digital marketing strategies are more likely to rise to the forefront and capture the majority of the market share.

Statistics demonstrate the rise of e-commerce

The statistics gathered from research have also backed up this changing market trend, as they demonstrated a sizeable increase in online spending in 2020.

As COVID cases continue to rise across the globe in 2020, more and more consumers are turning to e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon, to acquire the essential products they require. This is evidenced by the performance of the top ten publicly traded e-commerce companies globally, all of whom reported double-digit year-over-year growth in revenue except Vipshop Holdings.

While this data reflects consumer behaviour on a global scale, we can see this pattern is indicative of consumer spending in Singapore as well.

As we can see from the graph, the online spending of Singaporeans has increased from 2017 to 2020. While this growth has coincided with the popularity of online shopping platforms, such as Lazada and Shopee, we can see a remarkable increase between 2019 and 2020, coinciding with the Singapore government’s circuit breaker measures.

How businesses can benefit from engaging the services of a digital marketing agency?

Now that we have established that more and more consumers are purchasing products online, it is crucial for every business to analyse how they can drive inbound sales.

If you are an entrepreneur, here are a few questions you need to consider:

1. How are your customers finding your website?
2. Are they arriving on your website through SEO or paid searches?
3. Are they searching for your products directly or indirectly?

These are crucial considerations as analysing your website traffic can help you determine where your customers are coming from and how you can improve your website’s visibility.

If users are mainly directed to your website via paid searches, you may want to consider revamping your website to increase visitors organically. After all, your marketing budget is finite, and there is only a limited amount of times you can boost your site’s traffic with paid searches.

Here is where the assistance of a digital marketing agency is pivotal. The right digital marketing agency with relevant SEO expertise can help you grow your target audience organically. The agency can assist you in analysing the keywords that are applicable to your industry and optimise your website’s content with said keywords to boost your website ranking.

Conclusion

There are few forms of advertising as effective and wide-reaching as digital marketing. To expand and grow your business, you need to expose your brand to a larger audience, and digital marketing can help you to accomplish this. While you may face challenges during the initial phases, it is only a matter of time before your company starts to reap the benefits.