How To Adapt Your Online Presence During The COVID-19 Pandemic & Beyond...('GO Reports)

COVID-19 is driving customers online, placing fresh emphasis on brands’ online channels. Here’s 'How To Adapt Your Online Presence During The COVID-19 and Beyond'.

Internet users worldwide were predicted to spend 1.25 billion years online in 2020, this was before the global coronavirus lockdown began.

Mobile app downloads and usage have been growing quickly across the board. People under quarantine have looked for digital alternatives to their out-of-home activities and for new ways to stay entertained. Over the first 10 weeks of the year, Google’s global share of Android app sales rose 5% to $360 million. Apple’s share of iPhone app sales grew 18% to $690 million. 

With shops and offices re-opening slowly and with social distancing likely in play for a long time to come as restrictions relax, businesses have been forced to adapt to a 'digital-online way of life'. Global consumers are clear: they want brands to play their part. Only 8% want advertising to stop, and 75% say they want brands to keep them informed.

To communicate effectively with your customers during this period, you’ll need to 'Adapt Your Online Presence'. Here’s what to consider.

WEBSITE

For many brands, your website is your most important online asset. It is the anchor of you online presence and HQ for your business. Customers will in fact use it to find out how you’re adjusting your business to the crisis – because mistake is relying solely on email or social posting to communicate.

Within a few weeks of lockdown, most brands updated available services, deliveries, and returns policies. Where possible, they built in eCommerce functionality, moved to automated processes and transitioned seamlessly to the overall 'Contact-Free' experience. And they highlighted health precautions to help customers feel comfortable ordering online.

Concerns vary by market, too. For example, 90% of Germans expect brands to protect their employees and supply chain. Whatever you’re doing, make sure you communicate because your community wants to know.

Brands are also using their websites to entertain and inform audiences. Nike has created a page to support their Play Inside campaign and engage customers. This includes useful articles for customers, an invitation to compete in the “Living Room Cup,” and links to relevant products. Offering free courses is another popular tactic – and of course, removing content that may now be off-key in the wake of COVID-19.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Search engines play an important part in the customer journey. Ranking on the first Google results page will get you roughly a third of clicks. Once you drop onto page two, it’s just 1%.

Recognizing this, Google released new features and recommendations to help businesses keep customers informed during the coronavirus period. It’s worth taking advantage of these, as well as updating title tags and meta descriptions to reflect changes to your business.

So right now is an ideal time to pause or review the effectiveness of your marketing activities. This unexpected downtime is a perfect opportunity to review the (often overlooked) technical elements of your international SEO strategy.

An SEO audit can help boost your organic rankings by identifying technical and on-page factors that are holding you back. Fixing technical issues makes your site easier for Google to index, and your content easier to find. And correcting on-SERP factors like missing meta descriptions improves your chances of being found.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click)

As SEO takes time to deliver results, PPC remains a quick and effective way to refine your digital presence.

With many companies pausing their advertising efforts as COVID-19 impacts their businesses, PPC ad volume is down by over 50%. This may present an opportunity to quickly bring in leads at below-average cost, although the devil’s in the data. Competition for high-demand keywords (like “bread maker”) remains high, while Google has restricted ads around outbreak-related keywords. 

Optimizing your paid search ads for the crisis based on international search trends will be important. The good news is PPC results are quickly measurable and well suited to a changing business and marketing environment.

Taking a more long-term view, some marketers are also using PPC to build (or maintain) brand awareness while their core business may be on the down-low. This is a smart move, putting them in a good position to quickly rebuild their sales funnel as business resumes.

SOCIAL MEDIA

People are spending more time online, and this of course includes social media. But it’s not business as usual – user behavior is rapidly changing. Here are some of the main trends around the world.

VIDEO’S DOMINANCE GROWS

Video has dominated online for several years. The coronavirus crisis has further accelerated the trend.

In February, YouTube usage soared across several of the worst-affected countries. Italy saw 20x growth in the volume of content watched. Germany ranked second, with 11x growth over the same period. Live-streaming increased by 37% in China during their coronavirus outbreak.

However, this figure varies greatly by generation. Millennials and Gen Z are most likely to turn to video. And even without professional production studios, creating video content is important to younger audiences as 18-29% upload their own material.

NEWS IS ALL-CONSUMING

Unsurprisingly, people of all ages are consuming more news content. For Gen X and baby boomers, 72% are tuning in to coverage more regularly.

There’s a growing demand for social media content to be fact-checked, too. Around two-thirds of global users would like social media companies to do more, with demand highest from China’s WeChat users. Stay ahead of the game by attributing factual information and safety messages to the proper sources.

COVID-19 'FRIENDLY' IMAGERY

Social media ads now feature 27% fewer images that show social interaction. Instead, people working in masks, running water and washing hands dominate. For extended audiences to other, consider that hygiene advice varies. For example, wearing face masks is more widespread in some markets like Canada vs. the United States.

A good social media strategy moves your relationships with your customers forward. It gives you crucial feedback you might not otherwise hear. This means a post-and-ghost approach isn’t wise. Invest in community management and talk to your audience. Prioritize engagement over sales, and show your customers you’re here to help.

HOW CAN TREEFROG HELP ...

Google Optimization Report ('GO' Report)

At Treefrog, as we emerge from the COVID19 pandemic and beyond our concentration has been helping 'kick-start' businesses by redefining their brand positioning and creating persona based content to target specific decision makers.  This strategy provides high quality leads of personas who are ready to make buying decisions for our customers right away … meaning ... more phone calls, emails and bottom-line business for our clients.

To engage our clients, Treefrog has been delivering 'Free' Google Optimization Reports ('GO' Report) looking at the 'Complete Online Effectiveness of Marketing Efforts For Businesses' to show how their online presence is performing relative to how Google is ranking them. 

Treefrog is also adding in a 'Top 3 Competitor Comparative Analysis' to this report to see how the competition is performing online as well.  It's a great tool to help build an effective online presence for business in today's times.

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