The ever-growing pandemic known as the coronavirus has caused massive disruption for almost every industry in the world. Digital agencies are no exception to this rule, having to take unusual action, such as making employees work from the comforts of their homes, closing down offices, stopping agency reviews, or halting any advertising plans. This crisis has caused many companies to reevaluate their business plans for the future to assess their strategies for the future.
Everyone is firmly keeping an eye on the headlines to stay up-to-date on the coronavirus, with most of them wondering when they can leave their homes and go back to their daily lives. Fortunately, this current epidemic won’t last forever, and businesses will flourish once again. While it may seem like things are becoming worse as the numbers of cases rise, it will eventually get better.
China, the country where this deadly virus started spreading, is slowly returning to their daily routine. Recently the last of the temporary Coronavirus hospitals are closing down in Wuhan, and most stores are starting to open up once again. Travel restrictions that were placed on residents will also be lifted sometime on April 8th.
Other countries affected by this country were only a few weeks behind the impact caused by the coronavirus, but eventually, the numbers of cases will start to decrease, and business will once again reopen. As a digital agency, you want to make sure you can stay on top of things and regain any revenue you may have lost during this time.
Although, just because the virus has prevented certain aspects of your business from being done doesn’t mean that you can’t continue to improve your agency. There are plenty of things a digital agency can do while they wait out for this epidemic to finally cease. Right now, there are plenty of business owners, particularly small business owners, who probably haven’t dealt much when it comes to digital marketing. This has given many digital agencies a great opportunity to reach out to these struggling businesses and help them understand the importance of improving their local SEO, for example.
Here are the top things digital agencies can do while waiting for the end of the coronavirus outbreak.
Reach out to businesses on social media
Everyone is currently dealing with the change the coronavirus has caused in our daily lives, even if most of us are not sick. Everyone is taking precautions by remaining home and practicing social distance to prevent the spread of this deadly virus. This has made it difficult for people to visit friends and family alike, nor can we go out and eat at our favorite establishments or go out and solely have a pleasant day out.
Fortunately, there are ways for people to stay in communication with one another, and that’s the power of social media. This has given an opportunity for most digital agencies to take the time to stand out during these trying times. With more people spending time on social media platforms, searching through various updates, and staying connected, the chances of people seeing your agency have risen.
There are various ways you can promote your agency, such as posting any resources you may have made about the importance of marketing and advertising. Or how a business can improve its local SEO and so on. Letting these people know that there ways they can improve their business through the power of the internet. You can also contribute to the local food banks or assist the unfortunate with their grocery shopping. Promoting these great ideas on social media will help with building your brand’s reputation.
Social media has become a powerful tool in the past decade, and it’s up to you to use it correctly by providing something that can get your brand out there.
Improving Local SEO
Since everyone is stuck at home, people will have more time on their hands and rarely step out of their homes unless they are running low on supplies. This means that people will be hopping onto their phones or desktop computers and checking out what’s the closest places for various services and supplies. This means you’ll want to make sure your business local SEO strategies have been up to date so it can easily be found on search engines. You want these potential customers to be able to effortlessly locate you online through the maps so they can go to you first.
Another thing you can do to increase your local SEO is to improve your review score by getting more positive reviews. Managing your online reputation is crucial during these trying times because this is an excellent opportunity to get in contact with your target customers during a disruptive time. Providing people with a service for their business during a stressful time such as this will likely lead to your agency gaining fantastic reviews.
Remember that this isn’t only a great time to improve your local SEO but others as well. Small businesses are likely to be unaware of what SEO even is, so getting the word out there by providing resources or offering to help improve it can benefit your agency’s reputation.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising
With the number of people staying home glued to their screens, this has become an ideal business opportunity to utilize PPC marketing to get in contact with customers and gain a competitive edge. Most businesses have most seen a decrease in PPC across the board since this epidemic has increased. Chances are this trend that will continue to go on for as long as this quarantine phase continues to be a part of our daily lives. With the decreasing amount of clicks, advertisers are more likely to reduce the amount of money given to publishers for every advertisement that is clicked. Because of this, digital agencies have been put in a position to come in and capture any of the lost market shares from others who are pulling back to save up money during this chaotic time.
Because of the reduced competition, other agencies willing to take the risk can capture more traffic and conversion. Trying to keep the best interest of your clients in mind to provide them with strategies that can help them maintain exposure while managing the spending budget will put you ahead of most of the competition.
Offering special discounts
During these weary times, you have been given a chance to show how much you care for your customer base by offering them special discounts that will allow you to retain them and ensure the revenue continues to flow. With the number of people who are at home searching through the internet, seeking discounts to save cash during this uneasy time, many of them will come to appreciate the offers you’ll give them.
This also gives you another opening for you to engage with your customer base and make sure you can maintain some steady flow of revenue that shall help keep your business up and running. Furthermore, by providing discounts and services for a lower price, you’ll be developing your brand reputation even further by having your customer base remember the deals you offered them during a harsh time. This strategy can be done by offering discounts through various social media platforms or PPC.
Content marketing
Content marketing has become the core strategy for most businesses out there, and digital agencies are no different. Take the time to continue adding more content onto your website, such as expanding upon your resources or updating information. Content marketing is crucial for spreading your brand awareness through social media platforms and PPC. Being able to provide people with information about specific services or products can go a long way. Everyone is stuck inside with not much to do, giving them the time to read up on things they’d usually not find the time to consume. Sure they may be worried about the virus, but some people will want their minds taken away from the doom and gloom that this epidemic is causing.
By providing them with content, you are offering them to learn more about the importance of digital agencies and what kind of service they can provide for them. This also helps improve your brand image and places your company in a position of authority. Even if you are not creating new content, you can always go back and update old content that’s either out of date or too short to provide any serious impact on SEO. Take this time to come up with content that can help spread your brand and gain more potential customers.
Stay ahead of the curve
SEO is crucial for boosting your business’s organic traffic to your website and gaining leads to your competition. Getting your brand on the front page of Google’s SERPs and any other search engine out there should be done. That is why when customers are once again searching for specific keywords, you’re the company that appears to answer their problems. Being able to rank up your SERPS takes time and well-made optimization strategies. If you don’t continue to optimize your website and content regularly, you’ll lose out on not only getting ahead of your competition but also falling behind in search results, leading to your business potentially losing out on revenue.
Preparing for resurgence
As we discussed earlier in the article, the coronavirus epidemic will eventually begin to slow down and fade away after a couple of months. Everything will start to go back to normal, and consumers will once again restart their spending habits. This is where SEO starts playing a large role in businesses since it’s a long-term strategy.
Depending on what you do now with your SEO campaign will eventually end up affecting your organic search traffic during the coming months. Completely halting your SEO campaign will lead to negative results on your revenue stream in the coming months when the coronavirus has started to disappear from the mainstream. So make sure you continue improving your SEO campaign and get ahead of the competition, who’s most likely stopped theirs.
Don’t give in to panic
Plenty of people have given in to their fears and panicked over the past few weeks. The recent toilet paper mass purchases people have been doing is a perfect example of this. More and more people are purchasing as much food as possible so they won’t have to go out and interact with other people. Becoming hysterical because the virus isn’t how you want to react if you wish to continue maintaining your business at optimal levels.
Panicking won’t provide you with any smart moves and instead cause you to blunder and miss out on an opportunity that can earn you far more than you’d thought was possible. Alternatively, you should take the opportunity to assess the situation and react to the change caused by the economy and industry. Remember, the economy may be in decline, but it hasn’t completely fallen apart. Money is still circulating, and people who require services will find them through search engines. This is an excellent opportunity to start implementing your strategies.
Stay in contact with employees
You are not the only one who’s stuck at home because of this epidemic, so areyour fellow staff members who work just as hard at the agency. This is a great time to spend some time chatting through live chats, such as Google Hangout or Skype, and improving your relationship with one another. Not only can you get a better understanding of them, but you can sit down and plan out what can be done to improve your agency. Coming up with strategies that will ensure your company remains standing long enough for the economy to start ramping up again.
Moreover, this is just a great way to stay in touch and help one another during these trying times. Some of your co-workers may need assistance in certain situations or simply need someone to talk to if they don’t share their home with another person. So staying in touch will provide both you and them with comfort and closeness like never before.
Conclusion
Times may be difficult at the moment, but soon the world will once again go back to its daily routine. Take the time to improve your standing amongst the competition and prepare to start getting all sorts of business thanks to your time spreading awareness of your business during this epidemic. And most importantly, stay safe and continue to remain indoors until the deadly virus has finally vanished from our lives. Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas on what you can do during this troublesome time.
