Impact of Corona Virus on Digital Marketing Industry
As we all know Coronavirus (Covid-19) which started spreading from China (Wuhan) from December 2019 has become a pandemic and spreading across the globe. This virus has spread to more than 212 countries causing massive damage to human life and the economy. Coronavirus spread has impacted many industries across the world.
In India Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi has announced a 21 days lockdown on 24th March, then 19 days lockdown and then 14 days lockdown. Most of the technology-related professionals have already begun work from home. It’s highly recommended to follow the guidelines of government agencies and stay at home. In these difficult times, it’s Safe to Stay at Home and follow social distancing if required to go out for essential services.
As a digital marketing agency owner and trainer, I have noticed significant changes in client accounts due to this virus. In this article, I will discuss the impact of coronavirus in the digital marketing industry.
What is the Impact of CoronaVirus on general Industries?
As of today May 12th 2020, many countries have been ordered to lock down and self-quarantine for 4 weeks to 6 weeks. This has massively affected many industries, the worst-hit industries.
The situation of Coronavirus (Covid-19) as of May 12th 2020 (Source: Wikipedia)
Some of the most affected industries are:
- Tourism
- Hotels & Restaurants
- Aviation
- Poultry & Seafood
- Consumer Electronics
- Apparel
- Banking & Finance
- Offline Entertainments
- Banking & Finance
- Oil & Gas
- Education
Some industries have seen demand:
- Healthcare Industry
- Digital Marketing
- News Media
- Online Streaming Services
- Online Gaming
How CoronaVirus Impact Digital Marketing?
Digital Marketing is one industry which will have a severe impact due to the effects of coronavirus on other industries. As most of the digital marketers are offering services to third parties, the industries which have been affected with coronavirus will have a loss of business. This will result in digital advertising.
The Digital Marketing Industry will be affected in the following ways in short to medium term.
- Change in consumer interests
- Low search volume in General Industries
- New Search Patterns
- Increase in social media usage
1. Change in Consumer Interests
As Coronavirus is spreading rapidly across the globe, consumers are showing more interests towards the products/services which help in preventing this virus. The interest in masks and sanitizers has increased rapidly over the last 2 months. Consumer interests have increased in other essential products/services.
Apart from essential services, there has been a steady decline in interest in other industries. We can expect the consumer interests to grow in the next 3-6 months based on the Covid-19 situation across the globe.
2. Low Search volume in General Industries
Since the outbreak of CoronaVirus in Dec 2019, many industries across the globe noticed a steady decline in search volumes for many keywords. As we can expect most of the users today are searching for keywords related to CoronaVirus, health services, essential services etc. There has been a very high increase in search volume for the above industries.
The advice for SEO Professionals is to not let the lower volume discourage you because once life comes to normalcy, we can expect the volume to grow higher as usual. It’s the right time to try to add new articles and optimize the website with new strategies.
3. New search patterns on search networks
In Google search engines, CoronaVirus, Covid-19 related searches have spiked significantly. These terms may be the most searched in such a short period in the history of Google. We will be seeing a new pattern of queries with combinations of queries which may include words like Lockdown, Quarantine, Coronavirus (Covid-19) etc.
Source: Google Trends
4. Increase in social media usage
As per the recent Nielsen report, Social media activity in the country grew 50X in early March (source). As a digital marketing professional, this is one of the biggest mediums to utilize for marketing purposes.
Telecom operators have requested online streaming platforms to decrease the resolution to 480P on mobile networks to avoid network congestion. YouTube, Hotstar has already decreased the resolution on mobile devices. WhatsApp has recently decreased the Status Video length to 15 secs to avoid network congestion.
“Overall, the use of WhatsApp has seen a 40% increase that grew from an initial 27% increase in the earlier days of the pandemic. For countries already in the later phase of the pandemic, the use of WhatsApp has increased by 51%.”
It’s highly recommended to stay active across all social networks, content, share videos, blog articles, infographics on all social networks to get the user’s attention. This will also help in educating your client about new changes.
Note: It’s recommended to share any information after verification of the source. Sharing Fake/False information in these times will lead to a negative effect on the brand.
Advice to Digital Marketing Professionals and Agency Owners
- Monitor all your client accounts closely and find which mediums are being impacted due to present conditions.
- If your search traffic is declining, focus on creating new blogs, pages, informational pages to cater to your users during these times.
- Increase your efforts in developing quality links from reputed sources.
- Focus more on creating videos and infographic images for social media. Use both organic and paid promotions to reach maximum audiences.
- Use content marketing keeping in mind the industry and possible user queries which your buyer persona may search.
- Be active on all social media accounts and respond to all queries from your users.
- Stay positive and focus on improving your skills in these days.
Advice to Digital Marketing Students
If you are presently pursuing digital marketing or have already completed a digital marketing course. I would personally recommend you to follow the below suggestions during the lockdown/Quarantine time.
- If your academy is offering sessions online, attend the live online sessions. Also, take the backup of video recording to revise later. (LeLogix has shifted all classroom sessions to online mode to avoid loss of time due to lockdown)
- Revise all the previous notes and study each topic in detail.
- Prepare your resumes as per the skills you have acquired.
- Watch videos on YouTube to improve your interview skills.
- Research about various interview questions and prepare in advance.
- Read books in digital/physical books to gain more knowledge
- Apply for Jobs via online portals and attend Video Interviews/ Telephonic interviews.
- Read blogs, e-books, research reports related to the digital marketing industry to stay updated with new changes.
Conclusion
As we can see from the above reports, digital marketing demands are in high.
“Every adversity brings with it a seed of an equivalent or greater opportunity” – Napoleon Hill.
I would suggest you stay positive and focus on what positive outcome can bring to you in future once these issues are resolved across the globe. Being negative can bring more stress and decrease your productivity level.
As you are spending most of the time in quarantine or lockdown. You can utilize this time to join our Online Digital Marketing Course, learn from the comfort of your home. Learn advanced digital marketing strategies along with faculty support to start your career in digital marketing.