As we enter the Unlock 4.0 phase in September, India also becomes the second-worst country to get affected by Coronavirus. The new set of guidelines has definitely brought good news for business owners with ease in relaxations, but it’s not all hunky-dory.
Let’s be honest with the start of businesses and many people stepping out of their houses, the risk of COVID increases too. The rising number of cases and restrictions in conducting traditional business is not beneficial to anyone. That doesn’t mean you let your business go in losses, instead opt for digital marketing and let your business grow. It will also help you to reach out to millions of potential customers, which a traditional business module would be incapable of.
Here are a few tips & tricks that will make your business shockproof in these uncertain times.
Digital Marketing – A savior for your business!
Why does your business need it?
- Greater visibility
- Reaching to the target audience in less time
- Lower marketing costs
- No restrictions in conducting business operations
- No need of stepping out of the house in this pandemic
- Audiences are slowly moving towards digital platforms for their shopping needs
Digital marketing gives various options to market your business. You can choose one or all depending on your target audience and type of content your business shares.
- Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Content Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
SEM & SEO are an ideal combination to generate traffic on your website.
Content Marketing & Social Media Marketing:
- Creates a niche for the business/brand in the market
- Builds brand identify i.e elements with which audiences can identify the brand like logos, colours, symbols, and the type of content
- Eg: Durex India’s Instagram page can be identified with blue feed and quirky content.
Tips for successful content & social media marketing:
- In detail research of your audience’s demographics
- Which social media platform do they use the most?
- What type of content engages them?
- Can different content be used on different social media platforms?
What can digital marketing do for your business?
- Greater visibility
- Generate traffic to the website
- Generate leads
- Organic PR
- New customers
- Brand awareness
- Builds brand-customer relationship
- Promotion of sales
Is it a great time to start an online business?
Absolutely yes! Even when we are locked in our homes, our needs and wants are never-ending. Let’s take a simple example of our basic everyday needs – groceries. Many people would not prefer to step out for grocery shopping, but there needs to be an alternative to satisfy their needs. Apps like Big Basket & Grofers step in here and offer contactless delivery at your door-steps.
Things to keep in mind when you start your online business:
- Idea: The business model should create value for customers depending on the current situation. For example – Paytm Mall used the lockdown situation and partnered with over 10,000 Kirana, small shops, and other businesses for deliveries of essential goods.
- Platform: If you think, your business doesn’t have the budget of setting up a website or social media marketing strategy, there is no need to worry. You can connect to e-commerce websites like Amazon or Flipkart to promote & sell your products. Many retailers moved businesses online in this lockdown as they saw a rise in the use of the Amazon & Flipkart website.
How can Online Marketing promote your business?
- Online Reputation: You can use online marketing as an opportunity to turn a negative outlook towards your business to a positive one. E.g – 2015 Maggi Ban. Not just that digital marketing can help the business to be a reliable source and create a brand image that audiences will trust blindly. E.g – Tata’s digital campaigns where they don’t try to promote their business but talk about social issues and how we can bring a change.
- Traditional business but an online approach: There are some businesses for whom to shift completely online is not an option like a goldsmith (selling & buying of gold). In situations like this, one can set up their social media accounts and give business details on it. For example: What are the shop timings in the unlock phase? What kind of services are provided? etc.
- Link Building: Smaller networking sites like LinkedIn have the potential to build a large brand community that can easily generate traffic to the business, other social networks, and websites.
How to make Online Marketing a success?
- Hosts Contests & Giveaways: When one gets a chance to simply win a contest by answering a few questions or tagging people, the chances of generating traffic are higher. The aim should be to design a contest that takes participants to the website and persuades them to make a purchase. If your business wants to gain new customers, giveaways are an ideal choice. To participate, the audience will have to tag their friends and see to it they follow the business page.
- Interactive YouTube videos:The classic example of Interactive YouTube videos is AIB’s collaboration with Swiggy. The video didn’t make the audiences feel the brand is being pushed forcefully towards the audience. In a quirky way, the team spoke about the food ordering problem and introduced swiggy as a solution. The problems spoken about were so relatable that the audiences connected instantly.
- Build brand-customer relationships for loyalty: Online marketing should make the customers feel a part of the family. To make online marketing successful, customer’s every feedback should be appreciated and taken into consideration. This kind of attitude results in brand loyalty & helps in tackling competition because whenever a customer has a problem, his thoughts will be valued.
- Master SEO: Online marketing is a success when you get organic traffic. SEO is the key to website traffic generation. How can we achieve it?
- Using of right keywords that customers would look for
- Regular update of content on the website
- Focus on getting backlinks on other articles
- Improve the user experience on the website
- Optimize content & images with the ongoing trend
Is Influencer marketing effective?
To get out of the gloom-doom of 2020, social media influencers came up with funny and entertaining content. This type of content garners a lot of attention from the audiences and look forward to seeing more. In some cases, the audiences start idolizing influencers like Prajakta Kohli, Mumbiker Nikhil, Beer Biceps, Komal Pandey and believe in everything they say, do, and use.
So a small business integration in their content has the potential to influence their massive audiences. If you think your business is not reaching the right target audience, influencer marketing can help you out. All you need to do is select influencers, whose niche aligns with your business and audience. Voila, you found a new way to communicate with your audience.
Benefits of Influencers marketing:
- Influencers audience can become your business’s audience
- Quickly builds trust
- Reaching your target audience
- Relevant content is provided
- Increases brand awareness and reach
- Suitable for any type of business
- Easy on the wallet
- Widens the scope of marketing
Lockdown has been tough for everybody, especially for the ones with traditional business models. With the invention of technology and using it for marketing, every business has the potential to grow digitally, no matter how difficult the situation gets. Digital marketing can keep your business prepared for unforeseen challenges and help it grow.