There is hope.

There is hope. I found something immensely encouraging and I would like to share it with you. 

Every day I’m thankful that individuals, companies, political representatives, medical staff, service industry workers and more are investing so much of their time and resources to help flatten the curve of our anxiety.

But honestly, when things get tough, a wave of stress hits me squarely in the chest and I look at potential worst-case outcome scenarios. That’s my German side. ;)

But I also start searching for creative solutions. That’s my American side. There has to be some straw, branch, log or, better, a raft we can cling to instead of letting the churning vortex drag us into the eternal abyss. OK, so part of my German side was coming out again. Apologies. 

Then I began to ruminate: Hey, you survived the dot com collapse. The financial crisis of 2008 hardly even affected Bloofusion. And currently our business is stronger than ever. What gives? 

The answer was right in front of me. It’s the Internet! 

The Transmission Control Protocol is diligently at work behind the scenes quietly sending packets back and forth. Delivering emails. Letting me download PDFs. Perform my weekly video chat with Miguel in Portugal. Research competitors. Check the weather. Dig into a steaming bowl of home-made popcorn to relish an episode of “Schitts Creek” or “What We Do in the Shadows” or “Better Call Saul.”

No social distancing required. No dutiful handwashing session of at least two minutes is mandatory here. You can even touch your face after downloading that coveted industry report in PDF form. Free range. No guilt. No shaming. No sheltering in place. No mandatory lockdown. 

So, then I wanted to back up my theory with data. This is what I found:

I ventured to a cave in Mountain View to consult the search oracle of all oracles (Google) to verify if this idea could be substantiated. Could I substantiate my acutely cautious hypothesis that many areas of the digital economy were still alive and vibrant? Even growing?

Here is what I immediately found after isolating one of our clients’ logical search queries and juxtaposing them with real search data taking place over the last 12 months in the US. Including the days of March 2020 when the Dow Jones dropped 30% from its record high on February 12th.

I was expecting to see a similar drop in search volume and was bracing for activity being down 20% or even 30% from the norm. 

But when I analyzed “translation services,” a logical query that prospects of one of our current clients would input, this is what I saw. A very solid trajectory with even a bit of an uptick these last freakish days of economic uncertainty:

OK, so that held some promise. Next, I had to jump into what we do best. What is our future looking like currently? What about the queries for “digital marketing agency?”

I let out an audible sigh of relief when I noted a continued upward trend line:

Now this brought me to digital marketing topics in general. So, I searched for an area we all hold near and dear. The centerpiece activity that entices high value visitor traffic to your website: “content marketing.” 

Yesss! Again, a nice, solid trend:  

Even more encouraging was when you take this “content marketing” traffic to the B2B level. I.e. companies looking for help with their own content marketing strategies. They could be at a pivotal point in time where they are looking to outsource these needs to an external service provider. You, for example. 

Again, these searches containing “agency” are very much solutions-based and much farther down the funnel. The trends looked stable, with promise for the future:

Looking at yet another search queries that corresponded to the potential digital market space of one of our very favorite clients, the search phrase “product marketing agency,” also produced a most encouraging trend. 

Again, there is this juxtaposition of the much broader, information gathering, top of the funnel search “product marketing,” which doesn’t look so hot:

However, once you follow the flow deeper down into the funnel, the actual need takes shape and gets defined. And here we are seeing promise. This is basically one of your prospects telling you: “Hey, we know what product marketing is. We have identified an opportunity for us and it’s something we cannot handle internally. We have a specific need here. We are looking for an agency to help us navigate the waters. Could you possibly assist us?” 

Just for kicks, I ran a few other comparison trends to test my theory. I took the “artificial intelligence” traffic numbers under the microscope – this could be somebody simply researching around AI for a school paper.

So, a prospect with little motivation to buy. A highly superficial query dancing on the top lip of the funnel:

Immediately juxtaposed with a specific need, “artificial intelligence strategy,” the results are completely different:

For good measure, I wanted to see tangible evidence for actual clients we are working with currently and found the following two encouraging progressions:

As well as:

I’m honestly not sure why there is a sudden uptick in US boat owners looking to enhance their maritime fleets during these trying times, and maybe I don’t want to know. ;) But I’m massively excited that this motivation is still active and will be sending traffic to our client’s website.

What is our lesson here? I believe this is a much broader message than simply noting that certain sectors of the internet search ecosystem are active and growing. In spite of all of the anxiety-inducing news we are seeing. No, it means much more. 

There is hope. 

I want to help you see past the headlines on the news outlets. I agree, everything is changing. Our social interactions are being curtailed. The economy is in constant flux. But one thing is certain: The internet will help us get through this. The digital infrastructure dances to a different tune. It will help us communicate and interact in new ways. 

I want the positive trends outlined above to give you hope. Hope for a future that may be unknown and scary but may also be unique and exciting. 

I would like to express my gratitude to a small group of individuals who are relentlessly pushing me into new areas of thinking and supporting me in my quest to look at the brighter side of things and to do much more than just digital marketing:

Thank you, Miguel, Jorge, Angela, Ines, Luis!

Thank you, Mac!

Thank you, Markus M!

Thank you, Kyle!

Thank you, Stephen D!

Thank you, Alec!

Thank you, Markus H!

Thank you, Scott S!

Thank you, Steve G!

And thank you to my most wonderful family and friends.

Be safe and stay healthy. We’ll get through this together!