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Both personally and professionally, there is a genuine human need to believe that the current situation is moving closer to a ‘return to normal’.
While the notion of ‘normal’ is undoubtedly subjective, there are positive indications that a return to a ‘new normal’ may be sooner rather than later for many businesses.
Much has been documented on the practical actions to complete during lockdown. This article builds on those lessons, focusing primarily on the steps required to maximise the ‘business as usual’ opportunity for companies.
When people experience unusual circumstances and unexpected change, the default position is often one of caution and assessment of personal impact.
Now though, after several weeks of coronavirus lockdown, measures and mindsets have become more practical, balanced and objective.
There’s been a shift towards forward thinking and prediction of behaviour, with the aim of recovering any lost financial ground and underpinning new seeds of business growth.
This shift can be seen visually in Google Trends UK data on the search demand for ‘return to normal’:
Source: Google Trends.
Marketing now, and after the immediate (short to medium term) impact of the current social and economic climate, will not be simply a case of pressing ‘go’ and following previous plans for the new financial year.
Things have changed. People have changed. Trends and data have changed.
Return to normal marketing (notably online and digital marketing) will present many fresh and exciting opportunities for companies, plus countless challenges too.
Your competitive landscape will have transformed rapidly over the past few weeks, and will continue to do so for the months to follow.
Depending on what they do now, brands could be left behind or capture a new market share, and it’s not too late to ensure it’s the latter.
For many, periods of difficulty and change fuel innovation, experimentation and accomplishment.
There have been many online marketing changes which have helped organisations reignite financial growth.
As an example of this in action, Google recently announced free listings for Google Shopping, meaning that there is a huge opportunity to list products on the platform for free alongside the current paid listings.
If your business has more than 10 retail locations you can now (for a limited time only) bulk update Google Business Profile Post features to push out your company communications within the search results for free.
If you would like to know more about the updates happening in the digital space and what they mean for your business, contact us for a chat to find out how we can help.
Looking at top-level data will undoubtedly provide a picture of turmoil, decline and fluctuation for many websites and wider industries at the moment.
But, once you look further into the data, in most cases there are new, changing and often unexpected areas of untapped potential waiting to be realised.
For eCommerce stores, you will want to ensure:
As you might expect, some industries are thriving in the current climate. Based on UK eCommerce data from the latest eConsultancy report:
Whether your industry is in a time of increased demand or not, there are always data-driven ways to make your website work harder for every visitor, and expand its search visibility to new and relevant audiences.
If your business has been affected by COVID-19 and you’re interested in receiving marketing advice, please let our team know and we’ll do our best to help.
Lee has been working in the online arena, leading digital departments since the early 2000s, and oversees all our delivery services at Vertical Leap, having joined back in 2010. Lee joined our company Operations Team in May 2019. Before working at Vertical Leap, Lee completed a degree in Business Management & Communications at Winchester University, headed up the online development and direct marketing department for an international financial services company for ~7 years, and set up/run a limited company providing website design, development and digital marketing solutions. Lee had his first solely authored industry book (Tactical SEO) published in 2016, with 2 further industry books being published in 2019, and can be seen regularly expert contributing to industry websites including State of Digital, Search Engine Journal, The Drum, plus many others. Lee has a passion for management in the digital industry and loves to see the progression of others through personal learning, training and development. Outside the office he looks to help others while challenging himself, having skydived, bungie jumped and abseiled (despite a fear of heights) with many more fundraising and voluntary events completed and on the horizon. As a husband and dad, Lee loves to spend time with his family and friends. His hobbies include exercising, trying new experiences, eating out, playing countless team sports, as well as watching films (Gangster movies in particular – “forget about it”).
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