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To govern is to foresee. That includes marketing professionals, who market products and services to a constantly changing market. And how that market has changed, over the past year and a half. This is why many wonder what marketing post-corona looks like.
The corona pandemic rocked the world. For some companies, the lockdown meant the noose, while others saw huge sales. But almost all of them had to digitize their offerings and increase their marketing efforts.
The question now is whether -and if so, to what extent- this turnaround is temporary. In this blog post, we turn our gaze to the future. Based on the questions that companies and institutions bring to us, combined with unstoppable technological developments, we paint a picture of the marketing landscape when lockdowns and other measures are lifted.
We were forced during the pandemic to do as many things as possible online. As a result, we, both as individuals and businesses, are quite spoiled. After all, why even go to the supermarket when you can order your groceries with a few clicks? And who still drives to the psychologist, with all the parking problems that entails, when you can also consult them online? Companies looking to make a large purchase are also less likely to drive or fly to a supplier for a demonstration, because video calling will get you a long way.
SEO was important before the pandemic. After an initial time investment (if you produce your own content) or financial investment (if you outsource to SEO professionals), you enjoy months to years of a stream of visitors who may be looking for your product or service.
Now that everyone is more active online than ever, SEO has become even more important. You want to be findable by your target audience, but so does the competition. Applying local SEO will ensure that you get solid rankings in your city or region. Regular blogging keeps your site fresh and interesting for your (potential) customers. If you don’t feel like-or have inspiration for-content writing yourself, you can hire 2manydots to do it.
Customers, both B2B and B2C, expect a flawless online experience. The more your website takes the thinking, clicking and typing out of your hands, the better. They want to find what they’re looking for faster than ever, whether it’s an answer to their question or a product they want to buy. Anything that gets in the way of that means they drop out.
Knowing exactly what the customer wants requires not only market knowledge but also hard numbers. Dates. Machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) allows you to anticipate customer needs better and better. That can result in better content, more relevant recommendations and more success with upsells. This may sound a long way off, but even tools like Google Analytics are already starting to recognize patterns via machine learning. Consequently, implementation is increasingly taking place at the back end, in the infrastructure of the Internet.
In line with the above, customers more easily switch to another brand if it is too cumbersome to find information or order something. You can do something about that: work on your customers’ loyalty. For example, some airlines give double air miles and Starbucks offers free coffee delivery. Gamification, by the way, can also increase loyalty: retail chain Primera gives customers digital scratch cards that allow them to win great prizes.
Therefore, consider if there is an additional service you can offer to retain customers. Or which loyalty program can ensure that customers remain loyal to your brand. By the way, this is additional advice: you still want to continue to optimize your offerings. It is almost as if you are reading your customers’ minds and thus making them central to everything you do.
The corona crisis has brought out the best and worst in people. Just look at the divided opinions on coronagraphs. We have also become a lot more sensitive and concerned in other areas of society. The Black Lives Matter movement,carbon concerns and transgender discussions are a few examples.
Some companies play into these kinds of social issues in their marketing post-corona. For example, Ben & Jerry’s stopped selling ice cream in Israeli enclaves in Palestinian territory, Tony Chocolonely fights slavery in the cocoa industry and Nike supports kneeling NFL star Colin Kaepernick.
Still, it remains a balancing act to avoid being accused of wanting to score easily. Social concerns are fine, as long as they are genuine and tie in with your product, service or industry.
We briefly mentioned local SEO: optimizing your website for local visitors. This not only makes you more findable, but also fits well with the trend of staying closer to home. And we’re really not just talking about vacationing at home.
Due to the lockdown, delayed imports and changing measures abroad, our focus has increasingly shifted to the Netherlands. If we are going to do something outdoors then, we prefer to stay as close to home as possible. Consequently, the demand for local products and services has increased. In the Albert Heijn, for example, you also see more and more local products on the shelves. By highlighting your origins in your marketing post-corona, you can get the favor factor from local and regional customers.
