Right now, things are different, people are staying home, businesses are changing the way employees work, and the economy is changing. Learn about five marketing strategies that are working during COVID-19 to effectively grow your business.
1. Tune Up Your Website
2. Strengthen Your Email Marketing
3. Enhance Your Social Media
4. Add Digital Marketing
5. Create Visual & Video Content
Watch our webinar:
1. Tune Up Your Website
With many people spending more time online, using your website to make a good first impression has never been more important. Make the most out of your web updates by using the “Series of Threes” Method.
You only have three seconds to make a great impression when a potential customer visits your website, so focus on ensuring your headlines and visuals make a big impact. If a prospect likes what they see, they’ll likely give you 30 more seconds of their time, scanning through your homepage, clicking through to a product page, or maybe even watching a short video snippet.
By 30 seconds, the customer has made a decision whether they want to explore more product or service information or not, so check that your elevator pitch is really focused down to 30 seconds and that you’ve included your most important value proposition. If your message is short, concise, clean and on target, they’ll likely spend three more minutes on your website to learn about your company.
SEO Audit
Now is also a great time to conduct an SEO audit. Check that your keywords, tags, coding, backlinks and indexing are all working together to increase your ranking on search engine results pages. According to Moz, 71% of clicks come from page one results on Google, pages two and three, only get 6%. That’s a huge drop-off and shows how important it is to get your company ranking on the first page for your most important keywords. Review your content and refresh where needed. Also consider adding useful tools like case studies, application notes, and product selector guides to earn their trust and respect.
2. Strengthen Your Email Marketing
Email marketing has become a critical form of communication. Build trust with potential customers by sending useful information, such as case studies, white papers, or links to how-to videos. Also consider a marketing automation tool like HubSpot, which integrates email with your website and allows you to track visitor traffic, set up automated email prompts, create lead nurturing programs, and ultimately qualify leads before they are passed off to sales.
3. Enhance Your Social Media
Social media is the networking tool of choice right now. It’s a great way to expand your reach, build brand awareness, and stay connected to your loyal following and potential customers. Two of the simplest things you can do on social media are make sure your profiles are up-to-date and post on a regular basis. Using relevant hashtags, conducting a Facebook Live event, running a contest, or sharing third-party content that resonates with your audience are all simple examples of how you can enhance your social media efforts and interact with your followers while practicing social distancing.
4. Add Digital Marketing
We like to use the Nautilus pie chart below to demonstrate how marketing continues to evolve and this year the most effective piece of the pie is all things digital marketing.
We have seen some of the best results in our digital marketing efforts by focusing on pay per click ads, virtual product demos, webinars and eCommerce. Pay per click ads are very measurable and allow you to see how your messaging resonates with a target audience. Virtual product demos allow you to expand on the features of your products without an in-person meeting. Hosting webinars on topics that will benefit your clients helps build trusting, loyal relationships.
If you’re in the consumer market with eCommerce right now, you’re probably doing very well. But B2B companies can also leverage eCommerce as one part of their sales channels. People are now comfortable making B2B buying decisions and purchasing on the web, especially if product information, decision criteria, application notes, and product reviews are readily available. If you’re a B2B company that is on the fence about eCommerce, start small, put a few products out there and see if it works for your target audience.
5. Create Video and Visual Content
Captivate interest and earn the trust and respect of prospects visiting your website by focusing your content marketing efforts on video and visual content. Things like 3D CAD illustrations with interactive controls, virtual plant tours, and even short 15-30 second video clips work well. Drone videos are a great way to show off your facility. Creating content that people want to share, will help you make the most of your content marketing budget.
