In this week’s podcast our valued Directors who are at the heart of JDR Group, Will Williamson and Dave Roberts, spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on small to medium-sized businesses’ marketing strategies. After 17 years of working with many businesses, we have never seen such a strong need for modified digital strategies and digital transformation, so quickly within multiple organisations, in different sectors. Seeing the digital evolution within our organisation and managing this first-hand with all of our clients, has been a true eye-opener for us here at JDR Group.
This podcast gives business owners a real insider’s insight into how the pandemic allowed companies to transform COVID-19 disruptions into opportunities, the importance of investing in digital marketing, and how we see digital marketing playing a fundamental role in the growth of businesses’ success, for a very long time in the foreseeable future.
COVID-19 And The Rapid Shifts In Business Development
It is safe to say COVID-19 has affected each and every one of us in one way or another. More specifically, many business owners and their employees have really had to shift their traditional ways of functioning, how they operate business systems, their communication methods and so much more, to adapt to socially distanced times. As a dynamic business, we can definitely relate to the sudden panic companies felt when having to adapt the way they run, to meet the requirements of the pandemic regulations. Working collaboratively within the company and with our clients first-hand, we were able to reconstruct the disruptions of the pandemic into opportunities for business growth.
Although many stressors such as supply chain management, financial issues or employment difficulties, arose for businesses during the peak of COVID-19, the pandemic also created many silver linings for business development. According to Simply Business the ability to implement digital solutions so quickly and reach different avenues that were previously not considered, allowed small businesses to expand, making them optimistic for the future of their business.
Similarly, Will and Dave discuss how important it was for businesses, during the pandemic, to evaluate their digital footprint and modify their digital marketing strategies, in order to survive the remote landscape.
Innovations And Digital Footprint
As we experienced a global transition to remote life, this lead to the switch of daily tasks and duties from being face-to-face to being 100% online. For industries that typically relied on face-to-face transactions such as restaurants without a dine-out service, automotive businesses, supermarkets or gyms, some great innovations were created in response to the change in service transactions. These innovations took place through using their websites and other specific online platforms to keep up with consumer demands such as:
- Developing click and collect services
- Switching to a delivery service
- Creating online training and online nutrition packs
- Increasing promotion efforts for software subscription services
Similarly, services that were dominantly online, used this opportunity to promote their business across the internet for further growth. For example, video communication software such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams skyrocketed in popularity. Although these platforms were already online, they still made use of adapting their digital marketing strategies to get their brands heard and spoken about even further than pre-pandemic life, ultimately influencing their website traffic and usage for the better.
Zoom and Microsoft Team’s digital developments to their apps such as the ability to create meeting rooms with large groups of people, worked as a great alternative to in-person communication, as many sectors such as education and healthcare, we’re able to recreate virtual classrooms, seminars and doctors appointments. The growth that multiple brands saw during the pandemic, is evidence to small to medium-sized businesses, that it was and still is, absolutely vital for businesses to make digital decisions, that respond simultaneously to their customer’s consumption habits (in this case, in response to the remote world).
Is My Website Fit For Purpose?
In the podcast, Dave and Will speak about how establishing your website purpose through researching what it takes to develop a successful site and knowing what marketing investments are needed to optimise your website development was vital for increasing traffic rate, across the peak of the pandemic. As Dave stated, “websites that were fit for purpose and looked into what it took to make a successful website reaped in success”, meaning it is definitely the right decision to make digital marketing investments, no matter how large or small.
Something we have all learnt is the significance of embracing tools like technology, automation, remote tools and video creation, into your marketing and how this is now a staple piece to successfully attracting the right demographics or new potential prospects to your brand.
So, where do you begin with investing in digital marketing?
Questions such as is my website good enough?, how do I develop my digital marketing strategy or how can a digital ‘push’ in my organisation advance create business-changing opportunities? Can be answered by JDR Group as we can guide you through your digital journey.
Expectations VS Reality: Investing In Marketing
In their podcast, Will and Dave touch on a persistent question that they’ve been asked by clients across their many years of working in marketing: “When will I begin seeing results?”.
Our advice? slow and steady wins the race!
Understandably, we all want to see the results for our organisations happen as quickly as possible. However, with marketing, it takes time for results to show as marketing is a process. Therefore, results are generated from consistency, patience, strong efforts and developing your strategies over time. Meaning, marketing results derive from quality over quantity as it can take time to build relationships with customers or prospects, learn what your competitors are doing and implement findings from market research in the most effective way for your business.
With external factors like Google, having a huge role in who can see your brand, it is important to not take shortcuts that could ultimately be damaging to your credibility as a brand and create ‘noise’ for customers and key stakeholders.
This is why we advise you to take the ‘long route’ for digital marketing and review progress over time, to fully see the progress that has been made.
Needing help with figuring out the appropriate digital marketing strategy for your small business? Get in touch with our team today here and listen to Will and Dave’s podcast here to hear what they had to say about digital marketing in a pandemic.
Stay tuned and see you at our next Digital Prosperity Podcast.
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