Marketing

Digital Marketing and How COVID-19 Has Impacted It

It goes without saying that 2020 was a challenging year. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted marketing across the board but especially digital marketing in particular. Be it a big-name brand working with a digital marketing agency to create more digital content then its ever had to or the shift in the digital experience expected by customers, 2020 and now 2021 are fascinating times in the world of digital marketing.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of the coronavirus’ impact on digital marketing, it’s worth defining exactly what digital marketing is and where it was the decade before the world went into lockdown so you can have a full picture of how the pandemic has affected it.

 

What is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing can be defined as the component of marketing that uses the internet and electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, desktop computers and other such digital mediums and platforms to promote products and services.

At its core, digital marketing provides marketing solutions that take advantage of the latest online media or communication-related technological advancements to interact with customers, especially in the virtual space that is the world wide web.

Whether they use a digital marketing agency or handle digital marketing campaigns in-house, brands, businesses, companies, and organisations leverage digital channels such as email, search engines (like Google), social media etc., and the digital devices that grant access to these channels to connect with customers past, present, or prospective.

The communication or interaction businesses can have with customers using digital can be very direct, which makes digital marketing a great BTL (below the line) marketing component. It offers the option to have more targeted, focused marketing strategies by facilitating online marketing tactics such as search marketing, search engine optimisation, social media marketing, podcasting, content marketing, PPC (pay-per-click), email marketing and more.

Some of the biggest companies in the world today are those that caught on early to the marketing potential of the digital age and invested heavily in working with digital marketing service agencies to utilise elements of digital to achieve specific marketing objectives and goals.

 

Digital Marketing B.C. (Before COVID-19)

I’ve considered writing a one hundred-thousand-word book on the evolution of digital marketing from the 1990s to 2019, but for your sake (and maybe mine?), let’s put my ambitions to the side  and focus on summarising the development of digital marketing from the decade spanning 2009 to 2019 in this section of the article. Specifically, let’s look at three events that defined or played a large part in digital marketing during this decade.

 

Google becomes a digital marketing powerhouse

Not starting this summary of a decade in digital marketing with Google would be like not starting the process of boiling rice with water. In this ten-year period, the search engine was able to grow enough to have its tentacles in many aspects of how people, and ergo customers, behave online. Any company that was able to have this influence was always going to have a humongous impact on digital marketing.

By constantly refining its algorithms so that users got the best search results possible, Google more or less forced businesses to create digital content that best cured customer pain points.

Brands – including those that mostly operate in the physical rather than online – had to turn their websites into information hubs for the industry they operate in, providing content that helped the user at every stage of her customer journey, from research and awareness to advocacy. For these brick-and-mortar brands, Google and digital would become essential in ways they never would have anticipated when COVID-19 forced them to shut down their physical outlets.

But back to B.C. With Google rising to own over 90% of the search engine market share during this decade, it was inevitable that advertising on the platform would explode. The little “billboard” that displayed pay-per-click adverts at the top of organic results when a search is done by a user became virtual real estate so prime, companies were (and still are) willing to pay up to £50 for a single click that might not even become a lead or conversion…or might (gasp!) be accidental.

The tech company became so influential in online advertising and visibility that it literally created new types of jobs, disciplines and marketing principles. Concepts such as PPC, SEO (search engine optimisation) and SEM (search engine marketing) became synonymous with the search engine during this time.

 

The rise of the digital marketing agency

When humans evolved to have hands and fingers, somewhere in the ether, the seeds of what would eventually become gloves were planted. That’s my pretentious way of saying for every action there’s a reaction, where there’s cause there’s effect.

It was inevitable that the increased influence of online browsing and its effect on consumer behaviour along with the internet of things, and the accelerated development of communicative and internet technology was bound to lead to a rise in companies created to help other companies take advantage of these phenomena for marketing purposes.

Of course, digital marketing companies existed prior to 2009, but the following ten years saw digital agencies become a crucial part of the development and implementation of marketing efforts of any business looking to flourish, keep up with competitors, and meet customer expectations in modern times (as we will soon learn when the coronavirus pandemic led to lockdowns world-wide, digital agencies would become even more important).

While some companies still kept all of their marketing efforts in-house during this period, most chose to seek out experienced digital agencies to help them develop and deliver digital campaigns. In some cases, brands would partner their in-house teams with an outside digital agency to work on marketing projects.

 

Mobile first: Mobile search overtakes desktop search

This headline might seem like a “duh, of course” fact now, but in the caveman times of the early 2000s when having a mobile phone that had the game Snake included would evoke one of today’s “mind blown” GIFs, the idea of people doing more searches on mobile devices than desktop would have been unfathomable. Back then, a smartphone was a tidy, compact mobile phone (see what I did there?…I’ll get my coat).

Fast forward to May 2015 and Google officially announced that more Google searches were being done on mobile devices than on desktop. Being that the company pretty much owns the online search market (fun fact: Google also powers Ask, the world’s sixth largest search engine), the impact this fact had on digital can’t be overstated.

To name but a few, this change was brought about by factors including the rise in the number of new mobile devices, the improved functionality of smartphones, increase in internet speed and access, the rise of location-based search, and more mobile apps hitting the market. As we would come to learn, in a twist of fate, these developments became foundational to how business would digitally react to a global pandemic that was just around the corner.

Google would soon switch to a “mobile-first” standpoint to give preferential search ranking positions to web content that is optimised for mobile consumption via the release of mobile friendly algorithms.

Consequently, digital marketing had to evolve to take into consideration these developments. Be it website design and UX, SEO and content, PPC campaigns and retargeting, many facets of the digital component of marketing had to adapt and improve.

By the time 2019 was coming to a close, due to how measurable and benchmarkable it is, many businesses (assisted by creative digital agencies) who had been utilising digital marketing as part of their marketing campaigns throughout the ten years had already or had begun to find their digital marketing strategy sweet spot or groove.

While resting on your laurels is a huge mistake for any brand when it comes to digital marketing, it is still possible to have a good understanding of what works for a business and it’s possible to anticipate where technology and trends might go…

…But no one could have anticipated the coronavirus and how the pandemic would impact digital marketing 2020 onwards.

 

Digital Marketing D.C. (During COVID-19)

To say that consumer behaviour has probably changed forever because of COVID-19 is no hyperbole. In the years to come when the dust of these strange times has settled, researchers and marketing historians will look back at 2020 as a watershed moment in how marketing and business processes are executed.

Below are specific factors and some challenges the pandemic has brought about for brands, what they mean for digital or the ways digital has been used to respond.

 

Lockdown

Although customers still preferred to purchase goods in the physical according to data before the pandemic began, preference had to be put aside when governments world-wide were forced to lockdown whole countries in many cases to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Some of the online-related results of people staying at home are quite predictable: a surge in searches being done on Google; an increase in demand and consumption of online content of all formats (video, audio, images, text, etc.); a higher usage of mobile devices and the apps available on them; and of course, an incredible boost in online purchase and e-commerce.

Other results, however, are less obvious, such as customers that wouldn’t usually fall under the technology innovators and early adopters’ profiles embracing digital technology not only for entertainment purposes, but to stay connected to friends, family, and work colleagues.

 

What this means for digital marketing:

Taking all these factors into consideration, it only makes sense for there to be a shift in how brands and digital agencies approach digital marketing. For example, it’s not only that content quality and quantity needs to be ramped up. It’s also:

And it’s not just that there’s more opportunities to generate leads using PPC because everyone is at home and more online. It’s also:

Using this last point as an example, think about the group of people that were mentioned earlier, those who are not usually innovators or early adopters of technology but are now being forced to go online: what does the customer journey look like for this potential customer? What kind of keywords and search terms might they use to find what your business has to offer and how does that affect PPC strategy and the platforms to execute campaigns on?

 

Social distancing

The reduction of socialising and face-to-face interaction caused by the coronavirus pandemic has meant people and businesses are turning to the likes of Skype, Google Meets, Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams to replicate these physical experiences.

For brands who usually hold events, trade shows, expos, conferences and the like, those solutions may not suffice. This can also apply to the average person who is in a particular situation where contacting a loved one isn’t as simple as picking up a digital device and booting up Skype.

 

How digital has been used to respond:

To illustrate how digital has been utilised to address the issue of social distancing, here are two quick examples involving SMACK.

Amazon – When the pandemic forced one of the world’s biggest brands to seek an alternative solution to their usual yearly Christmas PR live event that showcases products and gift items to the media, the company turned to a digital solution. Jubba, Amazon’s events team, approached our digital agency to create an interactive virtual experience that would capture the feel of the physical event and the spirit of the season.

Royal Star & Garter – We are especially proud to have taken part in this one. For people with family members in care homes, the social distancing measures caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been especially difficult. Because the elderly are in the high-risk group, even when restrictions were eased, being visited by loved ones was not a straightforward affair. There is also the issue of this age group not being as tech savvy as the younger members of their families.

SMACK was able to build a family portal for Royal Star & Garter – a charity that provides nursing and dementia care for veterans and their partners – that was integrated with their website. This portal allowed family members to access lots of information, images, and book visits with their loved ones in care homes.

 

Search Engine Optimisation

Naturally, there has been a huge increase in online activity due to the pandemic, but especially in search. What people are searching, how they are doing these searches, and the content they expect is being impacted.

There has been a shift in what people care about during the global pandemic. A look at Google’s search trends tool Google Trends reveals the peaks and troughs of search terms and topics as well as the emergence of new interests and reemergence of old ones.

With internet search souring, B2B (business to business) communication channels being limited to online, and more businesses competing to gain customer attention online, how optimisation of digital assets and content is developed and implemented during the coronavirus pandemic has to be reassessed.

 

What this means for digital marketing:

Regardless of the intention of a piece of digital content or its messaging (information, sales, promotion, PR etc.), the key components of SEO have to be factored into digital marketing campaigns like never before: keyword research, user behaviour analysis, structured data, UX (user experience), mobile-friendliness, website speed, content that satisfies user intent.

All of these and more have to be carefully considered and have attention paid to in order for messaging to perform well and stand out in a crowd of many online voices that are continuing to rise. Delivering content that is reflective of the behaviour and expectations of customers in this specific period and backing it with great SEO strategy is key.

Brands who usually view SEO as a small part of larger digital marketing campaigns must increase and invest in online optimisation efforts.

 

Customer Retention Marketing

In over a decade working in the marketing industry, I’ve come to the conclusion that customer retention doesn’t necessarily begin when a customer has made a purchase, but long before; right at the very start of their first interactions with a brand. This is even more so in the digital space. A positive digital experience at the research/awareness stage of a user’s customer journey, for example, can sow the seed of repeat business when they eventually convert.

Between the years 2009-2019, online customer service and communicative solutions like chatbots, personal artificial intelligence shoppers, gift finders and other online AI were tentatively being introduced to the websites, apps, and in-store digital devices of businesses. The purpose of this is to improve digital interactions with customers, therefore increasing the chances of customer retention and brand advocacy throughout the customer journey. A couple of examples are chatbots offering access to information that might be sought by potential customers at the research stage and gift finders easing the product-finding and purchasing process, leaving a positive mark on the customer that influences them to return.

What the lockdown has done is accelerate the need and importance of these digital solutions to businesses. If you’ve tried to get in touch with the customer service team of a company during this pandemic, you’ve likely experienced long waiting times to have your call answered…if it’s even answered at.

 

How digital has been used to respond:

Creative digital marketing agencies have been able to help companies build tools such as chatbots to not only assist in circumventing customer service issues, but also help businesses cope with the increase in activity on their websites and apps.

In an unprecedented period where customers are spoilt for options online and one negative interaction can be enough for them to move on to the next brand, fully utilising and going full force with these digital customer service solutions is vital for CRM.

 

Digital Marketing Predictions A.C. (After COVID-19)

What the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic will mean to digital marketing going forward will be interesting to observe. Knowing how things changed in just the space of a few months means trying to predict the future and make statements on certainties is tricky to say the least.

But that’s not going to prevent me from attempting to do just that (based on experience, research, and trends of course).

Here are 9 of my predictions for digital marketing after the coronavirus pandemic has come to an end.

1. Working from home will continue to be a big thing and will influence the creation of more digital business solutions.

2. E-commerce may slow back down a little but will not drop back to the percentage of the market it held in late 2019.

3. The aforementioned people who were technology averse or technophobes will not return to their old ways: they will become technology adopters and “acceptors”.

4. Virtual reality will see a surge in integration with business processes. VR shopping and meetings will become real things. This is not to be confused with…

5. Virtual video meetings and social online chats, although platforms like Zoom, Google Meets, Skype and Microsoft Teams will continue to thrive even when we can all meet in boardrooms and pubs once more.

6. Digital products (like the one offered by Switched on Space whose website SMACK was lucky enough to help build) that enable automatic person counting and alerts buildings when they are reaching maximum capacity will grow in demand to meet social distancing rules.

7. Artificial intelligence adoption (by businesses) and acceptance (by customers) will accelerate greatly, perhaps at thrice the rate of what it was in the previous decade.

8. Customers will expect brands to up their game in not only displaying their environmental awareness, but how they approach the treatment, distribution and selling of animal stock if relative.

9. Google will double down on its 2018 “Medic Update”, refining the algorithm and demanding more E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) standards from businesses/websites that operate in the YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) and medical field so that reliable content is provided to a post-COVID-19 user who will likely have heightened concerns about health and wellbeing.

 

In conclusion

Digital marketing as a component of marketing was already rising in importance in the decade preceding the coronavirus pandemic hitting the world. But now that the virus has, lockdown and the shifts in online behaviour has meant digital marketing has become more vital to communicating with and selling to customers.

Businesses and the digital marketing agencies they work with have to create, build, and implement strategies that adapt to these changes in customer behaviour and expectations, with some of these changes likely to become permanent.

SMACK is a London digital agency that has assisted top retailers such as Amazon and organisations as diverse as Black Tower and Royal Star & Garter develop and build creative digital solutions that have become core elements to how they have had to operate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contact us today to discover how we can do the same for your brand.