How Coronavirus Affected Small Business Advertising
In the past, there was nothing simpler than using a trend in order to send a branded message through. However, COVID-19 is a humanitarian crisis and a tragedy, which is why trying to capitalize on this idea is quite amoral. Other than this, there are so many conspiracy theories out there, some of which could cause proper harm. This has caused both search engines and social networks to try and prevent these messages from getting through.
How does this affect small business advertising? After all, we live in a world that is so COVID-19 dominated that it’s nearly impossible to create content that avoids the subject matter. Are there censorship safeguards to restrict the reach of your advertising? Let’s see how coronavirus affected small business advertising efforts across the globe.
1. Stopping the spread of misinformation
While free speech is one of the most valuable assets of modern society, the truth is that social networks probably did more harm than good over the course of this epidemic. Even since the SARS outbreak in 2003, conspiracy theorists have used social media to spread the misinformation. Now, regardless if this was due to bad intent or their own beliefs (based on this misinformation) the damage done by this spread is more than real.
YouTube and Google were the first to try and fight this menace. Next to every caption or title of the piece that mentioned COVID-19-related keywords, they placed a small warning disclaimer. Sure, this didn’t stop the spread of misinformation but it allowed people a more reliable way of telling adequate sources of information from their unverified counterparts.
From the perspective of marketers, it’s incredibly important to do the fact-checking process whenever talking about COVID-19 or to just outright avoid delving into these topics.
2. Adoption of new marketing trends
The circumstances surrounding COVID-19 forced marketers to adopt new trends. You see, buyer’s relationship towards brands and their buying behavior has drastically shifted. People spend more time indoors, which makes them more interested in DIY tools and materials. Board games, digital products and self-improvement materials are also more in need than ever.
In order to enhance the sales of these products, marketers invested efforts into enhancing brand promotion, boosting web engagement and enhancing communication channels with their target audience. Remember that this is the event that shook the world to its core and the downsides that small businesses suffer from aren’t that dissimilar to what their target audience is going through. Keep in mind that small businesses are suffering the brunt of this massive hit. This is something that the audience can strongly relate to. The idea of going through these ordeals together is a unique branded message that can be both lucrative and humane.
3. Event marketing industry
There’s probably no chance that’s more apparently undergoing a revolution than an event marketing industry. Hosting traditional events is no longer an option for safety reasons. Even if you were to host an event, you would encounter a number of logistical problems. For instance, the venue that you used for the previous event can no longer host the same number of people. Second, providing all the necessary measures like glass dividers, masks, disinfectants and barriers will be much more difficult.
Instead, it’s probably a much better idea to just transition into digital event hosting. First, you would need reliable video conferencing services. Second, you need to embrace the fact that, while similar in theory, the logistics of organizing an online event might be slightly different. This means that you’ll need some professional guidance, even some further education on the subject matter. The end result may as well depend on it.
4. Marketing budgeting
In order to stay competitive, businesses need a proper marketing budget. In moments of crisis, businesses that keep investing in their marketing will drastically improve their odds of survival. The problem lies in the fact that the marketing budget gets determined by one’s average annual revenue. Let’s face it, 2020 was a tough year for everyone. Sure, e-commerce isn’t nearly as hit as some other fields but there’s been a recession across the board. It is, therefore, only natural that the marketing budgets tend to be somewhat smaller in 2021. This kind of restriction will be felt across the small business advertising industry.
5. Strategy adjustment
Chances are that you’ll have a lot of potential updates to handle before you are through. For instance, your business may have operated from a brick-and-mortar headquarters in the past but now, things are probably different. When promoting your business, you need to learn to put the information regarding the delivery at the forefront, seeing as how the physical address is no longer that big of a priority.
Moreover, people want to know about your organization’s readiness to follow all the pandemic-related regulations. This is a completely new requirement that was completely absent in the past. The ability to adjust to the new set of circumstances is the key factor in your organization’s resilience.
6. Digital marketing is still going strong
As we mentioned earlier, it seems businesses that invest in their digital marketing have a shot at making it through this rough patch. This is why, even under such circumstances, a lot of small businesses are showing readiness to invest additionally in their digital marketing. The average purchasing power of the global market may be going down but those who manage to remain competitive still have something to look forward to. In a moment when so many small businesses are struggling for survival, reducing one’s advertising budget is the absolute worst of ideas.
In conclusion
At the end of the day, the COVID-19 pandemic is shaping up to be one of the defining moments of the early 21st century. As such, it is bringing a systematic change to the business world as we know it. Seeing as how digital marketing and advertising as its integral part exists to complement it, these changes run quite deep. Still, a change implies adaptation and embracing these new trends and ideas might just be a lifeline for small business advertising.
