Digital Marketing Vital in a Post-COVID-19 World

During such unprecedented times, with remote workforces and tight budgets, marketing departments are under pressure to do more with less and demonstrate high ROI. Many marketing teams are allocating resources towards digital and online channels that can target niche audiences more effectively and demonstrate measurable results.

Even as pandemic restrictions are being eased, we are spending more of our day-to-day lives online. According to a GlobalWebIndex survey, consumers say they’re spending more time on in-home media consumption. Smartphone usage is up significantly, with 70 percent of all global respondents spending more time on their smartphone, climbing above 80 percent for Gen Z. Given these statistics, it is no surprise that digital will likely be the clear winner here, and companies will need to rub elbows with the likes of LinkedIn, Google, Amazon, Facebook and HubSpot.

In addition, due to social distancing arising from COVID-19, marketers today are reexamining investments in live events. Last year, PredictHQ found that COVID-19 concerns led to a 500 percent increase in trade show cancellations and postponements.

Trackable Results

Rather than sitting on these unused marketing dollars, businesses should shift some of their budget to digital advertising channels, which can target the same audiences that would attend live events, but at a much lower opportunity cost to their marketing and sales team. Plus, since all results are trackable and digital channels can be throttled up or down, the downside risk is minimal when compared to the upside potential.

For manufacturers, the top digital channels they should leverage include paid search and social media such as LinkedIn. Below we outline some use cases for these channels.

While some niche manufacturers may resist the idea of paying to advertise a product that only a handful of companies will be searching for, that’s exactly why they need to leverage paid search. With the right paid search campaigns in place, if someone searches for their offering it will appear in the top three positions of Google’s search results.

For niche manufacturers, these are important searches for your organization to appear in, as anyone inputting a specific product or service into Google’s search is very likely in their buying cycle. Don’t miss the opportunity to get your name and product/service offering in front of them at this critical juncture.

The Social Imperative

As a manufacturer, you may question social media, asking “is our audience on social?” The answer is yes, you need to be advertising on social media! The catch being that you don’t need to be focusing on the Facebooks/TikToks of the world. Rather, focus your advertising dollars on platforms like LinkedIn. For example, as the primary social channel dedicated to professionals, LinkedIn provides access (through its advertising solutions) to the decision makers and influencers at target companies. LinkedIn’s lead form ads, sponsored content, and InMail messages provide ways to reach buyers.

Moving to Digital

The transition to digital marketing has been predicted for years. However, the global COVID-19 pandemic sped up that change in ways marketers couldn’t have anticipated. Today, after over a year of pandemic-related restrictions, we are past the point of no return. If you have not already begun to make this shift, this is the time. Your potential customers have already moved to digital channels. Will you meet them there?