COVID-19 has changed the digital landscape, meaning now, more than ever, startups need to ensure their digital marketing is effective

Worldwide shutdowns have changed both consumer and business habits online, as well as offline, and consequently advertisers need to adjust their digital marketing to keep it effective.

Having seen the impact for startups across several industries, here are our recommendations on how best to adjust;

 

1. Review Your Spend

Given the current uncertainty, reviewing spend levels will likely be the priority digital marketing change for most startups.

There will be a lot of business variables that will affect this however consider your targets first.

  • Does your acceptable Cost Per Acquisition need to change to reflect a change in sales conversion rate?
  • Do you need a new target ROI to reflect increasing costs?

Assuming you have effective tracking and attribution in place this should be relatively simple, adjust your digital marketing campaigns to match those new KPIs and monitor closer than ever.

2. Adjust Your Messaging

Ensuring your messaging is relevant is the most important adjustment you can do for your digital marketing.

Everyone has been affected, and so your messaging needs to;

  • Be considerate of changes to customer purchasing decisions
  • Reflect any updates or changes to your products
  • Give customers confidence in your business

3. Update Your Website

We’re not talking about a redesign or redevelopment, the current state is temporary and so a temporary notice will be sufficient.

What exactly that looks like will vary on your product or service, however consider the following

  • A banner across your website
  • Live chat messaging
  • Updated product pages

4. Consider Facebook & YouTube Ads

Comparing the start of April to March, we’ve seen average CPM on Facebook fall 21%, making now a relatively cheap time to use the platform.

This can be attributed to the rise in ad inventory, with more people on Facebook while in shutdown, and a drop in the number of advertisers.

5. Invest in Top of the Funnel

Where possible, invest in top of funnel activities to increase your brand’s awareness.

A McKinsey study of nearly 700 companies from the 2008 financial crisis shows that making counterintuitive moves (such as increasing sales and marketing expenditures) can improve a company’s position when the recovery begins.

If you can invest in effective brand awareness over this period, you’ll benefit when your customers are more ready to buy by being front of their mind.

Consider the following;

  • Promoting brand stories
  • Educational content across social media
  • Targeting new, informational keywords for SEO