5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Coronavirus Scare

5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Virus Scare
Press has been absolutely swarmed with Coronavirus (COVID-19) news, it seems it’s all anyone is talking about. Many of these conversations inevitably lead to personal job stability and the economic effects of the virus. Many seem to think something bad is just on the horizon. Clients keep asking us, what should we do during this frenzied Coronavirus scare when it comes to marketing online? So we want to give you 5 tips for digital marketing during the Coronavirus scare.
1. People are Home, and They are Shopping Online | 5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Coronavirus Scare People are stressed, they are taking precautions and unfortunately drowning themselves in press releases from the centers for disease control. Who knew the lack of toilet paper on the shelves would be the first sign of major public panic. That for us was hilarious, while at the same time, awfully unnerving. It’s officially the government has forewarned all US citizens about the virus, how contagious it is and what precautions to take. One of the major ones that we think are actually great for digital marketing is: stay at home, avoid crowds.

This lemon could be your lemonade

This means people are going to online shop way more than they normally would. No one wants to go into a public place if they can avoid it. Wallets are prepped for buying on digital platforms and e-commerce brands should have ads ready to meet the demand. If you can find a way to sell to people who are stuck at home (and bored) this is the moment to double down on social media marketing, Facebook ads, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO). Your marketing efforts are more likely than ever to pay dividends.
2. Take Advantage of the “ Work from Home” Users | 5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Coronavirus Scare Getting in front of the right people at a massive level is one of the biggest parts of your digital marketing activity. How many eyeballs is your product/service getting in front of during any given campaign?

You kinda have a captive audience

Currently, there are 113 million Instagram accounts active in the US. It was reported in 2017-2018 that 29% of workers in the US said they could work from home without issues. Just for fun, let’s double that number during the Coronavirus scare- that equals 58%.  From 113 million Instagram users gives us a potential 65.5 million people. That’s 65.5 million more people staying at home and using their mobile devices for personal use more than normally.

And it’s huge

We can only guess at how this number balloons when you count restaurant workers who can’t work from home. How much extra time are people spending looking at news sites and social networks when they don’t have work or school to govern their normal schedule? Your digital marketing plan needs to adjust immediately to follow this shift in behavior.
3. Stay the Course “Never Give Up. Never Surrender”, a saying that rings true during trying times from a pretty great comedy circa 1999, Galaxy Quest. While we might not be at a point where businesses are having full freakouts, there may be a time that that comes. We need to be prepared. First and foremost, it’s important to continue business as usual. Work as many regular hours as you normally would (from the office or home, depending). If you have extra time on your own in the upcoming weeks/months without distractions, you can get even more work done than usual.

Winners don’t quit

There may be many competitors who are smaller than you but are inching their way towards you that might halt work altogether and revert back to something that they are more comfortable with business-wise. When the dust settles you want to not only still be around, but come out the other side stronger, hey, you might even have less competition when this is all over.
4. You Might Have Some Down Time to Invest in All of the Things You’ve Been Meaning to do but Haven't | 5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Coronavirus Scare Let’s say you have to (or get to) work from home during all this Coronavirus hysteria. That means you if you buckle down you can potentially knock out your normal days worth of work early and finally get around to doing some of those online marketing ideas you’ve had on a list for a while.

Blog it up

You definitely have a website, have you posted a blog recently? Maybe do two? Also, we know you listen to podcasts and most of us have thought, hey I can do that, but of course never give it a go. Maybe set up a microphone layout a draft of what to talk about and just go for it.

Make some friends

Have you considered trying some influencer marketing? Have you thought about reaching out to influencers but aren’t sure what it’s going to cost you? Now’s the time to direct message people who you know are just home on their phone and get some conversations going. The list goes on and on and we’re sure you have your own, the key is to take advantage of this extra alone time.
5. Try New Avenues to Increase Your Reach. How many people are actually seeing the content you take so much time to create on a regular basis is half the battle? Your digital marketing tactics should be all about getting your content in front of the right audience. So if you have extra time to a lot to new avenues of your business that have been getting pushed aside focus on increasing your reach in specified areas.

Boost your reach

Instagram has followed in the footsteps of Facebook and is now a true pay-to-play platform. Did you know you can reach around 18,000 users for just about $20? So why not try promoting some posts via Facebook ads. It takes time to test and scale so now might be as good as ever, especially considering how many more users are home on the phones and computers Monday through Friday, 9-5.

Make sure your content looks good

Your creative may need a spruce up as well, let’s say you are already or intend on running some Facebook ads, trying phone apps like Mojo, Story Art, or Unfold are great for creating story ads or video ads. Did you know that video on Facebook has a whopping 86% higher reach than YouTube?

Try something new

At True North, we’re constantly testing new ways of reaching potential customers for our clients. Just recently we’ve been dabbling in a few Pinterest’s ads. In our initial testing, we were able to get website clicks and leads for as low as .25 cents a click. Google is, of course, another avenue that many find overly complicated. But it is worth noting that third-party tools such as SEM Rush and others alike are very user friendly and can help you determine keywords that are less competitive, thus less expensive to compete over.
Conclusion | 5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Coronavirus Scare Now is the time to buckle down and power through. The Coronavirus is scary, overall yes, but as business owners, many know that when the going gets tough the tough get going. We’re going to do just that. Take advantage of the solo time and get some of the things done you’ve been procrastinating on. It’s important to strike while the iron is hot. You can start running ads, posting content to your social channels, recording podcasts, and writing blog posts today (unlike traditional marketing channels that take weeks to produce). Best wishes, stay safe. True North To see the full article (5 Tips for Digital Marketing During the Coronavirus Scare), click the link below: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/five-tips-to-keep-your-business-thriving-digitally-during-covid-19-shutdown-from-true-north-social-301026612.html

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