E-Marketing in the Epoch of the COVID-19

As markets around the world suffer from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 virus, governments around the world are working hard to manage the sporadic manifestation of the disease and control the infection. The economic consequences of the virus are still not clear. You find that small, medium and large companies feel the effects, especially companies that work in the field of tourism and travel. This article will show the effect of COVID-19 on digital advertising, also, will discover what is the benefit of e-marketing for businesses at the present time? Finally, this blog will give some recommendations to small firms to sustain their business after the virus was gone.

Sponsored ads and Corona virus

Global spending on ads funded by the Corona virus is likely to be affected, according to recently published eMarketer estimates, which projected total spending on funded ads worldwide to $ 692 billion, an 8% increase from last year. This shows a marked decline from preceding estimates, which projected that advertising expenditure worldwide will increase 8% to $ 713 billion this current year (emarketer.com).

Here's an in-depth look at eMarketer's expectations of the impact of the Corona Virus on advertising outlay in China, one of main markets for advertising in the entire world: Overall advertising expenditure in China is expected to touch $ 114 billion this year, less than prior estimation of $ 122 billion. In regard to growth in total ad spend: Projections lowered the rate of ad spend growth in China for 2020 to 8% from the previous estimate of 11%, because of lesser expenses across all medium, including electronic marketing. Also, spending on ad funded advertising: the expenditure on digital ads in China is expected to increase by 14% in 2020, related to the last approximation of 16%. Whereas e-marketing medium consumption is growing in China as customers devote much of their time at home, many firms are drawing their spending due to concerns that supply and shipping shocks and problems may prevent them from delivering products to the consumer (emarketer.com)

In other countries, the impact of the epidemic on advertising spending is still ambiguous. there are many other issues that could lessen ad spending globally: Firms with resource lines that depend on People Republic of China may start reducing advertising spending to decease their losses. Undeniably, there is an indication showing spending cuts on Amazon ads. This movement can spread to additional electronic platforms if these difficulties persist (De Vynck, 2020).

Out of home advertising spending can have an undesirable influence because of societal separation, isolation and health reservation procedures, customers in states with huge figures of corona virus cases avoid public places and large gatherings, which may ultimately affect marketing companies' ability to advertise.

The crisis forced all companies to reevaluate their financial aspects, especially companies that operate with the B2C system to re-evaluate their marketing strategy, whether they were carrying out paid advertising campaigns on social media “social media marketing”, or were using “Paid Search” ads provided by Google. Thus, it is important for brands to keep their minds in the public’s minds, but marketers should be careful about the brand’s safety, especially marketers in the field of tourism and travel, not to stop advertisements entirely but to ensure that they are placed in an appropriate manner and not promote the regions that deal with the spread of the disease.

Who is benefiting from the Corona virus?

The spread of the Corona virus is expected to enhance and upsurge the e-marketing sage in all sectors due to people's isolation their houses. Social networks can be the most beneficiaries, as consumers choice to use these mediums to interconnect with their loved ones, or to follow news content. In addition to inspiring more virtual chats between family members, the rapid changes of life to the Corona virus can translate into more users who keep track of what is new in the world through electronic platforms. There are huge worries about how reliable social media applications in delivering accurate information. Nevertheless, according to the Pew Research Center more than (56%) of American get their news from social media up 48% from previous year. Another research by eMarketer estimated that American adults ages 18 and older will spend almost one hour daily on social platforms in 2020 (Jurkowitz and Mitchell, 2020).

It is also possible that you will benefit from "SVOD - Subscription based video on demand" video services, as people quarantined and at home seek more entertainment or news content, such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video, which will lead to an increase in the number of Subscribers. Project and meeting management applications, companies seek to fully transform their business from home, as team and project management applications such as Slack, Trello, Basecamp, Zoho Projects, and video or audio meeting programs such as Zoho Meeting, ClickMeeting, BlueJeans, Zoom are used.

What is the benefit of e-marketing at the present time?

The main advantage of e-marketing, in addition to the fact that it does not require face-to-face communication, is that it is measurable. Marketers can easily get ROI value, activities that attract the most potential customers at any cost. Assuming that many marketers will have some extra time, especially those who will have to work from home, they are advised to use this time to review their marketing strategy and reformulate their marketing messages.

Why should you review your marketing strategy?

Marketing professionals often complain that they don't have time to update their websites due to their overwork. Well, this is the perfect time to re-visit the company website and re-arrange it to make sure your company is presented better, and prepare an easy and smooth in-site purchase path to raise conversion rates.

This is also a good time to reset your marketing campaign goals and take a deep look at the performance of your previous marketing activities. You will surely find that there is a real need to update many marketing materials that have been produced in the past. This is a great opportunity to improve the following features of your brand marketing strategy:

1. : Ensure that your website content it contains effective marketing messages with the correct call to make a "Call-to-Action" purchasing decision.

2. Check and optimize organic search rankings for your current site for search engines to improve the quality and number of traffic that comes from natural search.

3. Use this opportunity to generate ideas for new posts and articles for social media platforms and blogs and start writing the following email newsletter for your clients.

4. Think about topics you can post on the social media platforms for your clients and followers, by preparing presentations, guide, and other marketing materials.

5. Increasing the rate of interaction on social media platforms by developing strategies for how to improve interactivity on platforms, and by posting videos, writing new case studies, research, articles, and increasing the number of webinars.

Boosting your focus on digital marketing will enable you to maintain a state of nature in these crazy days and give you a competitive advantage over competitors who are late in response. Let us hope this crisis ends soon, but no matter how long it takes to boost your marketing efforts, it will reduce your risks and improve your overall condition.