Whether the unprecedented societal reaction to the Corona pandemic is justified or not, the fact remains that the institutional response to this medical issue caused economic turmoil like we haven’t seen since the last Great Depression. As unemployment claims skyrocket like never before in modern history, the death toll of the coronavirus seems to be in the range of a seasonal flue. In fact, even lower than the 2017 flue outbreak. Interestingly, no nation saw fit to shut down the economy then
As per recent survey done by Numerator,Every 1 in 3 customers indicated that coronavirus news impacted their shopping decisions. eMarketer report says, poll result of 47.2% US internet users confirmed they are not going to shopping malls anymore.
What does this mean for your bottom line?
The world economy is set up in such a way that a virus is its perfect enemy. As one supply chain and customer base are disrupted, it causes ripples in the entire system. And as more areas shut down and go dormant, the need for a wide range of services vanishes overnight. Simply put, it is a cascade of shutting down economic activity.
With all the gloomy news, there is a silver lining in this situation. More people than ever are consuming online content and avoiding physical shopping and other social activities. Meaning, the audience that consumes SEO optimized content has drastically increased. This is important for several reasons.
Even with temporarily halted purchases, the economy will eventually resume its normal pace. During that time it is critical to developing fine-tuned SEO content that is educational in nature. To demonstrate, this study from Conductor shows that early educational content from a brand boosts people’s affinity to the brand, which then translates to trust and loyalty. Once you nurture those key ingredients to establishing a customer base, conversions will pour in. There are already hundreds of companies tuning their strategies to this fact. Payment processors are dismissing their fees under certain conditions, online services like MailChimp are issuing free accounts for a certain time period, media companies like Time Out London are issuing free digital copies of their magazine. In short, people will remember how brands are responding to this crisis, even if turns out to be a self-inflicted crisis.
Developing SEO-focused content has an exceedingly low investment threshold which means that its cost-effectiveness is increased markedly during business downtime. Moreover, unlike traditional paid campaigns, SEO content lives long after its creation.
As you can surmise, in times of heightened anxiety and uncertainty, a classic sales pitch you are used to making would have a negative effect on the perception of your business. It would make you look ghoulish and repellent. For instance, Corona (the beer) got some negative feedback on Twitter and other social media platforms after the launch of their Coming Ashore Soon campaign.
Amid Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon has reduced their google spends since january, they are spending almost noting on google PPC now. Google has also lost advertisers and ad impressions in a big way. As per Wordstream report, Pay Per Click advertising business has seen a budget cut, companies are putting their big plans on hold, many trimming down campaigns.
Positive news among all the negative clout is SEO is showing remarkable upward trend and that’s really a good news for the organic traffic generating professionals. As per Path Interactive report, some brands are seeing upto 300% growth via search visibility and SEO.
The sites/content that is gaining traction are:
Health and Wellness
Recipe and Home Food cooking
DIY (Do it Yourself)
Ecommerce websites/apps delivering online orders (for Grocery and stuff)
Now is time to rethink your SEO pipeline. If you developed it pre-Corona, it needs to be reworked to be more sensitive and useful. From small startups to big brands, now is the time to adapt within the confines of a limited budget. SEO Consultants specializes in just such market scenarios where quick thinking, accurate feedback mechanisms, and novel approaches for each brand are the trifecta that will ensure your business continues to thrive.
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