Businesses from across the world have taken a serious hit with the spread of COVID-19. Companies which were thriving at the beginning of the year are now struggling to stay afloat during this difficult time. Many of them are adjusting budgets and cutting their costs to survive.

The thing about the COVID-19 virus is that it does not discriminate. No matter how careful we are as individuals, there is always a possibility of catching the infection. This situation is unprecedented, and we have not seen anything like it ever before. Most of the business marketing and contingency plans designed for 2020 have now been rendered completely useless.

The effect of the pandemic and lockdown has not only affected small businesses, but many big corporations have also gone bankrupt, with thousands of job-cuts being announced almost every day. Unemployment has reached a new level. Even the companies which have been successful for more than 20 years are now facing the possibility of a permanent shutdown.

“As per my observation, companies which have not made investments in digital marketing are suffering the most during these times. On the other hand, businesses which have a strong presence online with good search engine rankings, have been able to get their sales almost at par with how they were before the pandemic” - CEO Nihal Fashions. He says that the sales of their Indian ethnic fashion products have actually increased, since people are not comfortable visiting physical stores these days.

We can all agree that the situation has taken a toll on all of us, especially for businesses, but it is still important for companies to try to survive this phase until the economy bounces back eventually. They cannot rely solely on walk-in customers because people don't want to take the risk of leaving their homes.

This is especially true for companies which sell luxury and high-end products. People might still venture out of their homes to get their daily essentials, but they will try their best to avoid leaving home to purchase luxury items.

Frederick Lewis from Clovr.com gives a classic example of how the pandemic has affected online casino businesses. They provide reviews on the best casino sites which offer Bitcoin gambling - “Now that most of the big casino houses are forced to shut down their establishments because of the lockdown, the market has shifted in favor of online casinos. Even if you look at the online casinos, it is the sites with good search engine ranking and proper digital marketing strategies that are performing much better, in comparison to others.

Companies are looking for cut costs to manage their ongoing expenses and overheads. Of course, there are possibilities of making some savings on costs, but the question here is, how much can you cut down on your marketing expenses?

Historically we have seen that the companies which still continued to put money into their marketing strategies were able to bounce back faster after the recession in 2008.

According to David Baddeley, CEO of finance.co.uk - 'We adopted an optimistic approach by continuing to spend money on the online marketing of our web portal, which provides real-time data on flight durations and a Flight Time Calculator. We knew that flights won’t be grounded forever, and the re-opening announcement was just around the corner. Now that domestic and international flights are slowly restarting, we are getting good hits from qualified visitors. Our investments in Pay-Per-Click marketing and guest posting are really starting to pay back now.

5 Digital Marketing Strategies That Can Aid Success During This Pandemic

1) Pay per click marketing - PPC allows companies to get instant exposure on search engine results. It is the type of marketing where advertisers have to bid on the amount that they will pay for each click leading to their web pages. If your business websites do not have good search engine rankings, then you must give more priority to paid advertisement to achieve quicker results.

2) Guest posting - Guest posting is one online marketing strategy that has withstood the test of time. It allows businesses to publish their content on high authority blogs and get effective backlinks to their landing pages or sales pages. Andrew Dominik from Quality Guest Post services calls it a safe marketing strategy, as it fully complies with policies of high search relevancy from Google.

3) Social Media marketing - This is the best way to increase engagement with potential and existing customers. Since people have more time on their hands nowadays, they love to scroll social media networking websites. You can create groups and communities to attract targeted audiences who can be converted to customers. Social media platforms also work as an excellent feedback mechanism which allows companies to understand the problems that are faced by real people. It will help in improving your products or services to meet their personalized needs.

4) Local SEO - Companies which cater to the needs of people in specific locations will need to focus more on reaching out to people from those particular areas. A combination of social media marketing, guest posting, video marketing, PPC and discount deals, will help in attracting targeted local audiences.

5) Reputation Management – Naturally during these times, people will have more issues with services, and if those problems are not addressed quickly, then it can snowball into a big issue. If more and more people keep speaking up about it, then it is bound to ruin the reputation of a business. Reputation management will help to find all the content and reviews that are being published about your business. If there are any issues found, they can be addressed immediately, before they cause serious damage to the reputation of your business. On the other hand, customers will also feel comforted, knowing that you are willing to help them. It is an essential step for creating loyal customers for life.

While you can cut down on some of your internet marketing expenses, the five areas mentioned above are indispensable. Many experts in the economic field are already seeing the signs of the economy bouncing back in the coming months.

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