The only constant in life is change. Some changes occur as a result of natural evolution. In certain situations, unusual intervening forces drastically modify, accelerate, or even derail the status quo. Covid-19 proved to be such an intervening element, as seen by the developments that have occurred in the digital-marketing arena since early 2020.
We’ve witnessed an unanticipated shift in the digital-marketing environment during the last year and a half. The trend’s directions did not alter as much as they accelerated, but the adjustments that did occur have left both firms and digital-marketing gurus scratching their brains as to why their formerly brilliant tactics appear to be leaving them behind.
The pandemic’s most visible impact on consumer behavior was the fast desertion of brick-and-mortar stores in favor of ecommerce platforms. When you consider the medical rules that came with the epidemic, this probably didn’t come as a surprise to anybody. Besides, trade had been going in that direction for at least a decade. Covid-19, if anything, just aided us in reaching a point where ecommerce can be confidently considered to be the norm.
The concept of social shopping has only become stronger.
The fast move toward ecommerce was not the only trend that marketers had to contend with; social shopping was another that we were still attempting to figure out before the epidemic hit. In an age where a single tweet can spark a trend that ruins a person’s career, social buying is a phenomenon that marketers and companies alike must ignore at their risk.
The social-shopping phenomena has only become stronger with the surge in ecommerce transactions since late 2019 and the additional time that lockdowns given social-media users to be online. Businesses have rushed in the previous year to create better social media presences in order to “add to the discourse around their brand.” Whatever others say about you in front of you might be construed as criticism or advise, but when uttered in your absence, it can descend into backbiting, which is frequently damaging. The same is true for brand-related talks.
From performing regular Twitter searches to discovering mentions to running frequent Google searches of their companies with terms like “review” and “scam,” brands have developed inventive methods to identify every conversation about them online, allowing them to provide useful feedback. The overarching concept is to keep your consumers at the center of your social media interaction.
The changes in customer behavior that we have observed in the last year and a half have impacted many of the things that seasoned marketers regarded to be established information. For example, certain times of the day were seen as prime periods for publishing social-media-marketing postings. Certain content tones, words, and styles that were brilliant, direct, or considered “real” prior to the pandemic are now seen as insensitive and harsh in light of changing social attitudes; increased social-justice outcries and calls for climate change mitigation have shifted the prevailing conversation.
Consumer behaviors and tastes have shifted dramatically.
Furthermore, medical businesses have forced to pivot away from utilizing photos and videos of sick people to drive home their marketing agenda, instead focusing on the outcomes of their strategies: happy and healthy individuals. This is due to people’s frustration with the infection and its impact on their mentality.
The truth is that a lot has changed, and marketers are still trying to figure out how much has changed in terms of habits and preferences. One thing is certain: we can no longer rely on data that we previously depended on. We must produce and use fresh data.
Companies require tools to help them change more quickly
The demand for fresh data has contributed to the development of numerous digital-marketing companies that used a data-driven strategy prior to the epidemic. Companies in a rapidly changing world want tools that assist them adjust faster so they don’t have to learn from their mistakes. This has also resulted in an increase in the usage of machine learning and marketing plan automation.
The use of algorithms and scripts to test and assess the performance of a campaign with as little human interaction as possible, as well as the capacity to change or even build algorithms mid-campaign to reflect the demands of the campaign, has come to the fore.
The ability of these new tools to modify aspects such as color, phrases, and targeted demographics depending on the algorithm’s gathered data is what businesses crave in a post-Covid digital-marketing environment. The technologies are also propelling data-driven marketing firms to the top.
The merger of fresh data and automation would provide an ideal environment for entrepreneurs to prosper in 2021, but it remains to be seen how many will take use of the available tools and how many will fall. The ability to adapt to change is written into the human genome. Covid-19 may have brought too many changes, but it’s time to settle down and relearn all we’ve learned.
