.COVID-19, now officially classified as a pandemic has derailed life all over the world. Apart from taking thousands of lives and making hundreds of thousands ill, it also has negatively impacted the global economy to a great extent. To counter the slowdown, businesses are shifting gears, changing strategies, and hunkering down to tide over the crisis. However, as stark as the new reality might be, it is a fact the even during the downtimes, businesses can and do flourish. It is no secret that in any marketing environment, some businesses will win while others will give ground. Among the many things, the winners will be investing substantially in search engine marketing. Here’s why businesses must sustain and even increase their SEO and SEM activities to be able to come out tops even in these trying times:
Sustain the Cash Flow
When things are rapidly turning from bad to worse, companies that have a strong cash flow will find it easier to survive the hard times. In terms of marketing techniques, SEM is the most productive, ranking right after email marketing. If you are thinking that it would then be better to focus on email marketing. The problem is it can be relatively more difficult to generate quality opt-in email lists out of thin air. Since the opt-ins are created by generating demand. The best way of generating a profitable email subscription list is to engage in search engine marketing. However, even if your objective is not getting email subscriptions, it is a fact that both paid and organic search engine marketing reaches potential customers when they are in a purchase mode.
It produces leads and the sales exactly at the time. When the customer is looking for your product or service and is connected to your brand. This means that even if people are self-quarantined at home. They will still be needing products and services since they are not in a position to step out and buy stuff, online purchases will increase significantly. This means that businesses can put their brand in front of customers. A comprehensive SEM campaign is likely to win over others trying to conserve cash. According to Searchenginejournal.com, it is 30% more likely that searchers would conduct a branded search after having seen a brand advertisement.
You Can Measure Search
If the economic slowdown has already affected your marketing budget, it is all the more important. For you to move your efforts to convert consumers whose purchase intent is more serious and immediate. Not only does search engine marketing enable you to achieve that but you will also be in a position. To know whether your efforts are paying off, unlike branding efforts that take a long time to show results. For sure, the current pandemic is going to have a significant impact on buyer behavior and businesses. I need to be able to refocus both the budget and efforts as necessary.
Sales and lead data should direct your marketing efforts and search engine. Marketing fits in very neatly in this scenario because it is reactive by nature. You can allocate more of the budget to keywords that signify a stronger buying intent or promote content that appeals to the customer’s current mood and priorities. The biggest advantage of SEM is that you come to know immediately if your investment is giving you the returns you want.
Amazon’s SEM strategy in recent weeks provides interesting insights into how a crisis can affect the SEM strategy. Marketers would have noticed that Amazon has virtually switched off. All its advertising in response to the quickly changing trends in spending by customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rather than advertising its traditional bestselling items. It is now focusing on meeting the spiking consumer demand for essentials like groceries, cleaning supplies, medicines, not to speak of toilet paper. That person who is sheltering in place to prevent the infection from spreading to others. With Amazon stopping the shipment of non-essential items, for the time being, the change in advertising strategy also has a ripple effect on affiliate sales.
More Search Activity during Scarcity
With the slowdown in business, there are already indications that there could be a scarcity of some essentials soon. As the news spreads, customers will also become increasingly desperate to stock up while they can still find them. And if they cannot find what they want, they will want to look for alternatives. The heightened search activity for scarce goods can be a very good opportunity for businesses. That is in a position to supply what customers are looking for. However, this will call for the search engine marketing to focus on generating leads for these goods.
The pandemic that is running high is likely to cause severe scarcity of many items, and forward-looking marketers will do well to start trying to rank well for them, including items that are normally very expensive and do not have too much sales volume but which now may be able to deliver what the customer wants. Remember, the earlier you start, the better it can be as campaign costs are likely to increase with the rise in demand for important keywords.
An antidote to CEO Panic
Despite dire predictions, it is unlikely that the world is coming to an end due to the coronavirus epidemic. Consumers are still going to need goods and services, even if the demand is scaled down for many product categories. When sales may have slumped, and the corner office is in mode, it can be worthwhile to suggest the activation. Of an SEM campaign. Because it can be done in hours and the results can immediately start to flow in.
One thing, you can be sure of is that eventually, there will be normalcy. Even if it is of a new kind and SEM will still be among the most effective ways reaching customers. If you have implemented SEM programs during the bad times, you will be better posed to get into the top gear again. The investments that you make in SEO now will continue. To bear fruit long after the pandemonium is over because not only do they but also they are enduring.
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Conclusion
As one of the most devastating events in recent history, the coronavirus epidemic has virtually crippled much of consumer demand. In various categories leading to an economic slowdown from which, it may take time to recover. However, it has also led to a spike in demand for other essential items. Businesses should strategically activate search engine marketing campaigns to drive the visibility of in-demand items to reduce the impact of the falling demand across other categories.
