7 Digital Marketing Strategies for the COVID-19 Pandemic

While there have been over 600,000 Coronavirus cases in Canada, every single Canadian is being affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and shutdown.

Recently, we have been seeing unprecedented occurrences in the economy. Businesses have been forced to close their doors, and over 3,000,000 Canadians filed for unemployment. However, looking at previous data from other economic recessions and depressions, we know that our economy will bounce back eventually.

In the coming months, businesses are going to become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Without wanting to sound too alarming, digital marketing may be the deciding factor that makes or breaks many businesses and corporations. With the unprecedented disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences, and the increasing barriers on face-to-face business pose an enormous challenge. The key to resilience is the development of ongoing contingencies to mitigate against these losses.

To help get your business prepared for the end of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve put together a list of digital marketing strategies you can start using today to set your company apart. After all, we’ve been through with the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s going to be important for companies to bounce back in the second half of 2020.

As long as businesses approach the shift to digital marketing strategically, there's no reason why it should just serve as an emergency fill-in, but could carry on providing long-term value when the world eventually gets back to normal. And of course, it would make companies more resilient to deal with any future crises or any unprecedented abrupt changes to the economy.

1. Directory Listings

Posting a free directory listing is just like the traditional marketing method of listing your company in the Yellow Pages. Adding your listing to a business directory is a fast way to get a step ahead of your competition and open an everlasting window for your intended audience to find you.

Companies can be categorized by niche, size, location, or activity. All you have to do is find a good directory that pertains to your business and link to it. This will help gain more exposure to your website and draw in top-quality traffic.

The people who visit these directories are likely to be in need of your services. Why else would they be there? Additionally, many business directories allow customers to leave reviews, ratings, and testimonials. Having great reviews located right alongside your contact information makes it easy for customers to put their trust in you and then locate your company. Not to mention that it will allow your company to scale higher faster than your expectations and competitors’ expectations.

2. Local Citations

These listings are particularly designed to help local searchers find the information that they need about businesses. If you have a physical location, this is a terrific way to generate foot traffic.

Google rankings are influenced by a business’ number of citations, their accuracy, and the quality [relevancy and trustworthiness] of the platforms that they’re on. Any unreliable content in your listing can deter consumers and give your business a bad reputation. If you’re not taking advantage of local citations, it’s likely that your competitors are using this online advertising tactic and getting local traffic. So start today, if you haven’t picked up on the hint already!

3. Google My Business

Getting about 75% of desktop searches, Google dominates the other search engines. And an updated Google My Business Listing is a free, easy way to bring in customers from your immediate area.

A map with three local results is located under the paid ads but before search results. To find its way towards the top of listings, your entry needs to be optimized and filled out entirely and thoroughly. GMB provides helpful statistics that show how your audience is engaging with your profile and postings, and you can track website traffic with the help of Google Analytics to better understand your audience and more suitably cater for their needs.

Also, you can email your customers a link to your listing, ask them to leave a review, and thank them for providing a positive rating. A customer review is just like a word-of-mouth recommendation for your company that builds your credibility. Over 50% of consumers use a business if it has positive ratings in the Google Local Pack.

4. Blogging

If you want to attract new customers and keep current customers engaged with your website, a great, inexpensive online marketing tactic is creating content via blog posts.

According to HubSpot, marketers that prioritize blogging are 13 times more likely to get a good ROI. Search engines (like Google and Yahoo) are more likely to rank your site higher if it regularly gains new, relevant content. Blogs offer an easy way to do this, and they can set your business apart as an industry expert. If you provide people with sufficient, relevant, helpful, and informative blogs, they’ll eventually see you as their go-to source within your industry. Also, people are more likely to share a top-quality blog post on social media, attracting an even wider audience by tapping into uncharted market segments.

5. Guest Blogging

Whether you’re an individual or a large company, guest blogging is a fantastic way to instantly generate high-quality traffic for your site. Contributing practical tips to an authoritative blog with regular traffic proves your credibility to a wider audience.

More people learn about you, value the knowledge you shared, and remember you when they need your services. Make sure you stick to your brand’s voice in all of your posts to build consistency and trust. If the blog you’re writing allows you to leave a link for your site, don’t forget to add it to your backlink profile. This brings us to another aspect of digital marketing that has a huge impact on your site’s authority.

6. Backlinking

Google has hundreds of different ranking factors, but one of the top factors is backlinks. According to an Ahrefs study, over 66% of sites don’t even have a single backlink. To further help your rankings, you should create SEO backlinks to top-quality relevant sites—not spammy sites with no authority.

Getting a vote of confidence from a well-known site lets search engines know that you’re reputable. When a search engine crawls your page, it doesn’t only look at your site’s content. It also studies the number of links that are coming from quality websites towards you. Additionally, backlinks can help generate brand awareness and draw traffic towards your site. But you don’t want to overuse backlinking or cover topics that people won’t search for—Google will penalize you for this.

Make sure to start this process earlier than when you want to start seeing results. Rome wasn’t built overnight, and neither will your quality backlinks. Backlink building can be time consuming to allocate relevant resources and reach out to them individually. But we promise it will be worth your time and efforts.

7. Social Media Posts

With the COVID-19 lockdown, more people than ever are going online and using social media to connect with the outside world. If you want to develop a younger customer base, aged between 16 to 35 years old,  your online advertising campaign needs to include social media platforms.

Faster than ever, customers are able to leave grievances and feedback with businesses, who can then respond with great customer service. Consumers feel like they’re being heard and appreciated. This can help you build a great reputation and humanize your brand. When you’re connecting with people, and they feel like they’re getting to know you personally—they’re more likely to do business with you. Don’t forget to include links to your website in your posts. This will be a great way to allow them to become more familiar with your brand and vision.