At this point, you are probably tired of hearing about the Covid-19 pandemic, and let me tell you, so am I. However, if you are a business owner or someone looking to start your own company, I would recommend tuning in for just a little longer. As you know, most “retailers and brands face many short-term challenges such as… the supply chain, the workforce, cash flow, consumer demand, sales, and marketing” (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020). However, in order to “survive Covid-19” (Marr, 2020), businesses are switching to online modes of service, and as “online communication, online entertainment, and online shopping are seeing unprecedented growth” (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020), it is now more important than ever for companies to also evolve their digital marketing strategies. So how should you evolve your digital marketing strategy? To evolve your digital marketing strategy, it helps to ask yourself a series of questions in relation to where your business is at and where you want it to be. To do so, many organisations use the SOSTAC method which is a series of questions a business must consider when detailing their strategy (Singh, 2020). These questions are based on the acronym as follows (Chaffey, 2020):
One industry that you should take inspiration from is the hospitality industry. Before COVID-19, a central part to service was contact with customers and building relationships with them to keep them loyal. Now however, “guest safety requirements have pushed owners and operators to identify ways to implement a contactless guest experience that eliminates the traditional workflows” (Harris, 2020). This means that for a majority of cafes, sales are restricted to take away only or online ordering, and in some cases, delivery services. This, therefore, answers the question as to why cafés and restaurants have also had to evolve their digital marketing strategy. If they cannot identify the significance of doing this, then they are likely to continue with old ways, and ultimately will be forced to stop operations. Those that do acknowledge this, however, must also consider other elements that influence their strategy, such as goals like, whether they want to reduce costs, generate more revenue, or increase communication streams (Singh, 2020). For most cafes, they ultimately need to reduce their costs and open up communication streams in order to maintain customer engagement since it was such a central part of their service before COVID. A few ways cafes have increased their communication streams include:
But how do you know your new digital marketing strategy is working? One of the main ways to measure whether your new digital marketing strategy is working is to keep watch of your platform’s analytics. Your analytics should highlight areas such as campaign management, conversion tracking, goal tracking, keyword tracking, site search tracking, etc. A typical way to do this is through analytic software programs that integrate all your platforms together such as:
In the end, if you are a business who is struggling to stay on top of the challenges of COVID and have tried some of the suggestions in this post, do not be too hard on yourself. We are in unprecedented times and although statistics do show consumer online engagement is the highest its ever been, there is also evidence highlighting that “demand for certain services has ceased to exist” (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020) due to uncertainty and conservative with their money.
References Brewer, P., Hardy, K. and Ditthavong, S., 2020. Lava Espresso Owner Lincoln Fairleigh Has Created A Website To Help The Hospitality Industry, And The Cafe Is Still Doing Takeaway. [image] Available at: <https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6696777/canberra-is-still-open-the-good-food-news/> [Accessed 28 August 2020]. CBR is Still Open. 2020. CBR Is Still Open. [online] Available at: <https://www.cbrstillopen.com/> [Accessed 28 August 2020]. Chaffey, D., 2020. SOSTAC Marketing Planning Model Guide. [online] Smart Insights. Available at: <https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/sostac-model/> [Accessed 28 August 2020]. Donthu, N. and Gustafsson, A., 2020. Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of Business Research, [online] 117, pp.284-289. Available at: <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320303830> [Accessed 28 August 2020]. Harris, A., 2020. Hospitality Post COVID-19: Is It The End For The PMS?. [online] Hospitality Net. Available at: <https://www.hospitalitynet.org/opinion/4100170.html> [Accessed 28 August 2020]. Singh, P., 2020. Week 4 Digital Marketing Tutorial.
1 Comment
9/17/2020 06:04:26 pm
You've got a really excellent blog, post are really well written so they easy and interesting to read! I particularly like this post as it's so insightful and provides a great in-depth look into how businesses can process their digital marketing during this time.
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