Over the last 2 weeks we’ve seen an increase in clients getting in-touch for advice on how to adapt their marketing efforts across paid advertising and SEO to better answer users queries and avoid wasting budgets.
In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the government has asked everyone who can to work from home to do so. Some businesses have been closed down completely, while others have had an easier transition to remote working. But no business is unaffected.
Right now, business owners are focused on looking after their people, communicating with their customers and working out how to access government support. But with no end date for the lockdown, one thing is clear: This is not a short, sharp, shock. We can’t just wait this out.
Below, our digital team share their advice on how to best use your digital channels during the coronavirus outbreak to keep up with the changes in audience behaviour.
Pay-Per-Click
With an increase in working from home and a huge reduction in physical shopping many companies without an ecommerce presence have completely stopped trading. But it’s not all doom and gloom there have been a few success stories; one of our clients a local Beauty Clinic who also had an online shop selling skin creams doubled their PPC budget and have increased online sales by 500% year on year. However we understand switching focus may not be possible for a majority of businesses, so below we have compiled some advice on what you can do to make the most of your current Pay-Per-Click campaigns:
- Making sure budget is being utilised on campaigns and keywords where you can meet demand.
- Use Ad scheduling so ads are shown at the right times. With ad scheduling, you can set which days of the week you want to run your ads and start/stop times for each day.
- Use the correct call to action, e.g don’t say ‘call now’ or ‘visit us today’ if no one will be there to pick up the phone or your store is closed.
- Review device bid adjustments – mobiles are the preferred device for commuters, but what if those individuals are no longer commuting? It’s worth reviewing chosen devices and adjusting bids accordingly.
- Keep an eye on what your geo location data is telling you, with less people commuting to work this data may shift
- Check your ad copy to ensure your tone and message sits right with your other channels
- Update your sitelinks to promote important pages such as delivery information or general company information
- Some keyword CPC’s have fallen through the floor so reconsider and benchmark your KPIs so they reflect the current climate
SEO and Content
It is important to make sure you share any crucial information that your customers would want to see, as well as picking up on any SEO tasks that you may have neglected before.
Initial actions to accomplish this are:
- Update your opening hours on your site and do this on maps like Google, Apple and Bing, your Google My Business page. Wherever your opening times are mentioned.
- Let your customers know of any changes in business operations with a blog post or landing page, with updated FAQs according to any consumer queries that will arise during the outbreak
- Hyperlink to your announcements through your homepage (banners, navigation, the footer, so it is obvious and people won’t miss it) The same goes for your newsletter emails and social media posts
- Review sponsorships, paid advertising or costly tools and subscriptions that you feel you cannot use for the next month. Also try to lower invoicing for unused resources (tool providers for example may allow invoicing to stop temporarily. Worth a shot!).
Throughout this period in time:
- Think about what content that you will need to remain up-to-date as a business relating to the Coronavirus pandemic and its impacts on the services and products you provide, so your customers know what to expect from you.
- Write down any necessary aspects to update users on and produce material on this daily, weekly or whatever frequency you see fit, pushing out through your normal channels.
- Remember that this is your chance to aid your existing customers and maintain brand loyalty and commitment.
Analytics
Keep watch on your site’s analytics. Data can show you how to approach your digital marketing methods during the outbreak.
Here are the 3 essential and actionable points to consider:
- Use annotation markers inside Google Analytics to signify crucial events, changes or announcements to your digital marketing because this will allow you to better comprehend any traffic changes. For example, include ‘ad spend lowered’, ‘workplace hours lowered’ or ‘government statement made’.
- Keep your eyes peeled to traffic behaviour to better comprehend how the news is impacting users so you can pinpoint issues or identify brand-new business ventures:
- Are they looking for various items, services or material?
- Are they searching your website but in a different way?
- Are you offering users with what they require?
Create notifications inside of Google Analytics so you can be notified of irregular activity on your website, such as plunges in site traffic, traffic spikes, blog visits, leads or sales.
For more in depth suggestions and advice please contact us today.
