By Sam Rose
SilverDisc
DURING the COVID-19 outbreak, businesses may be facing either severe threats or opportunities, and many won’t be working to full operational capacity. While there has been an increase in online shopping for sectors such as home and garden or home fitness, there have also been declines in areas such as travel, fashion and many others. At SilverDisc, we’re working hard to support our clients at a time when the only thing that’s certain is uncertainty.
However COVID-19 is affecting your business, it’s important to let customers know by adding messaging to your website, posting updates on social media, or emailing customers. It’s also important to review or pause paid advertising and amend automated processes if necessary. If you have scheduled social media posts or email marketing due to be sent out, it’s vital that these are sensitive to the current mood. Marketing messaging should be mindful of how COVID-19 is impacting different aspects of people’s lives – including their health, jobs, home life and frame of mind. Everything you do online needs to be appropriate to the situation. For example, now may not be the time for pushy sales messaging for non-essential products.
If you’re facing a reduction in demand and spare staff capacity, you could use any spare time to create new website content and plan how to share it. You could also review your SEO and paid advertising, or spend more time on research, training, and getting up to speed with the latest digital marketing trends to prepare for the future.
For companies experiencing an increase in online sales, consider which products are currently most sought-after and alter your operations to best suit consumer requirements. There will be increased competition due to increases in online shopping, so consider adjusting pricing, promotion and delivery, and redistributing budgets to remain competitive. What changes could you make to better service your customers in a time of need? Customers will not forget how they were treated in times of adversity.
Finally, you could create a post-COVID-19 marketing plan for picking up business as things improve, and document everything you are doing to futureproof your business in case anything similar happens again.
Whether your e-commerce business is experiencing increased or decreased demand, there remain plenty of opportunities and improvements to be made to keep working towards your digital marketing goals and put your business in a position to thrive moving forwards.
For more detailed advice on how to shift your digital marketing strategy during coronavirus, take a look at the SilverDisc blog at silverdisc.co.uk/blog. If you need any further help, please get in touch using our live chat or by emailing
We hope you’re all staying as safe as possible during this time.