The Impact of COVID-19 on Digital Marketing Agencies

The COVID-19 pandemic took the whole world by surprise. Almost overnight we were forced to change our daily routines completely, adapt to new protection measures and confront potential health risks. At the same time, business owners and entrepreneurs all over the world are facing drastic changes in the way they run their businesses. As a result, digital marketing agencies are affected as well.

Digital marketing agencies are being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. To learn more about those changes, just keep reading. Here’s how the coronavirus impacted digital marketing agencies on a global level.

1. Shifted Daily Routines
2. Remote-Work
3. Increase in Online Shopping
4. Search Queries Change
5. Need For Accuracy
6. Businesses Shut Down
7. Increase in Social Media Usage

The basis of every digital marketing strategy is the target audience. Defining your target audience implies knowing their habits, understanding their online behavior, and defining their actions.

With the coronavirus impacting the entire world, things are bound to change in the way people spend time online. Here’s why:

• People are spending a lot more time at home
• Many people are on temporary leave and aren't working
• People spend their leisure time at home
• Brainstorming in a group
• Exchanging ideas and opinions
• Socializing with colleagues
• Minimalize their out-of-home marketing since it’s becoming less visible
• Increase online marketing and make it more impactful
• Increase in health department search queries
• Decrease in travel industry search queries
• Boosting their immunity
• What kills the virus
• Latest findings and data
• Predictions for the upcoming period
• Coronavirus affecting their field of work
• Provide accurate information
• Use credible sources
• Stay updated
• Show your trustworthiness
• Airline companies
• Travel agencies
• Hotel chains
• Local businesses in touristic locations
• Raise brand awareness
• Gain more traffic from social media
• Build firm relationships with their customers

This means that the typical day of your target audience member has changed. For example, he's no longer working from 9 to 5, commuting home, having dinner and spending time online form 8 pm on.

Instead, he’s browsing during day time.

This is just the tip of the change iceberg and digital marketers need to conduct new analyses, gather fresh data, and create a new strategy based on the changes that have occurred.

Many digital marketing agencies decided to let their employees work from home. This is a global trend that businesses in different industries are trying to embrace.

While remote work has numerous benefits such as flexible work hours, increased productivity, and less stress, there are some downsides as well.

Many digital marketers are missing:

These changes may lead to a decrease in creativity and motivation. This is why so many digital marketing agencies are turning to online platforms that allow team collaboration.

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Trello, and other platforms are helping digital marketers stay connected to their teams.

Another change in online behavior is seen in the increased need for online shopping.

People are trying to avoid visiting the physical store and stepping out of their homes when it’s not necessary. This is why they are increasingly shopping online.

For those in e-commerce, it’s good news. For digital marketers it means strategy changing.

Digital marketers need to help their clients:

"Let's say a company's invested in billboards, hosting events, and advertising on public transportation. Now they need to make a change. Fewer people travel, public transportation isn't being used in numerous countries, and people are avoiding crowded spaces," says Diana Adjadj, a marketer and writer at Trust My Paper and Studicus.

The shift is forcing digital marketing agencies to re-invent the marketing strategies they've previously formulated. It is also influencing the way they're writing new strategies for their clients.

As the average person’s daily routine changes, so do their needs, problems, emotions, ideas, and feelings.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is, therefore, influencing what people online want to know and want to read about.

Naturally, the search queries change and this is affecting digital marketing agencies’ SEO strategies.

The changes we witness are logical:

Digital marketers will need to work on finding new tools and strategies to rank higher. Depending on the type of business an agency is representing, their search engine optimization will most likely need to be revisited and reexamined.

When it comes to content marketing, there’s a significant change we can track down in that domain, as well. Trending topics and information that people are looking for are increasingly directed towards the coronavirus.

People want to know about:

Now, more than ever, it’s important to:

And since data and information about the coronavirus are changing from hour to hour, digital markets need to invest the extra effort into staying informed and providing accurate, current information.

Unfortunately, some industries are impacted by the coronavirus, more than others. And, since not everyone can take the financial blow of being shut down for business for a month or two, there are those people who needed to shut down their businesses.

This blow is obvious in the travel sector. Those suffering the most are:

Millions of people are losing their jobs as we speak and hundreds of companies are being forced to go out of business.

For digital marketing agencies, this means they might lose their clients. For every business that is closed, a digital marketing agency somewhere loses their client.

This will make a financial impact on digital marketing agencies and cause them to cut their own expenses, find new clients in a different niche, and reorganize their inner structure.

With more free time on their hands and fewer options for spending it, people are turning to social media more than ever.

For digital marketers, it’s an opportunity to work on social media strategies and help their clients:

People will be more exposed to all the social media efforts the digital marketing agency comes up with and will have more time on their hands to read, watch, like, share, and comment on.

Final Thoughts

The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting everyone. It's a time of uncertainty, but it's also a time of possibilities. Digital marketing agencies might be facing some serious changes and will have to invest extra effort into overcoming the upcoming obstacles.

Still, this period will help everyone use their strengths, skills, and courage to overcome the crisis.

About the Author: Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she works as a freelance writer at WowGrade and GrabMyEssay, Kristin also does some editing work at BestEssayEducation.