As the COVID-19 has continued to rip around the globe and spread rapidly across the countries, it has become evident that the outbreak is not only a health hazard but also a major threat to the financial sector worldwide.
More than that, we don’t even know how long this crisis will last.
But as they said, ‘Tough time never lasts, but tough people do.’ So instead of feeling depressed or disappointed at such times, you need to work with courage and determination.
Just like the scientists working 24/7 to find Coronavirus cure, you also need to plan out a recovery strategy for your business. You can utilize this lockdown period to renovate your online business platforms, including the business website.
You can optimize the website, analyze the data, refresh the content, check CTR of your keywords, Improve technical SEO, Try more social media platforms, make a mobile-friendly website, and much more.
For you lovely people, we have compiled a list of many such amendments & improvements that you can perform on your websites during the coronavirus lockdown.
We will explain all the points one by one in detail.
1. Analyze the Current Campaign
Don’t we often cry that we don’t get time to upgrade our websites because of the workload? Well, thanks to corona, we have now got enough time to analyze and refresh the website thoroughly.
Here, we have outlined the 10 most important tasks that you need to carry out in order to analyze the website thoroughly.
- Take an in-depth look at your current planning & performance.
- Study the results obtained from the current strategy.
- Check whether you have achieved the set target? Or do you even reach the goals to some extent or not?
- Check the organic search ranking.
- Analyze web traffic data.
- Analyze social reach numbers and engagement statistics.
- Evaluate social media accounts- such as Blogger, Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, etc.
- Calculate the revenue generated from the campaign.
- Find out whether the marketing campaign was worthwhile or not?
- Did you make a profit or loss?
Find these answers.
The legend Al Pacino in “The Godfather” advised that- Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. But we have modified this advice a bit- “Keep your customer close, but your competitors closer!”
So here is your next task! As soon as you analyze your website, start analyzing your opponent’s website!
A. Analyze Your Competitor
For a successful business, not only you need to plan your strategy, but you also need to understand your competitor’s strategy.
This is how you can analyze your competitor:
- Find out the strategy that your competitors have implemented. We suggest you use some online tools such as SEMrush and Ahrefs for this purpose.
- Use tools to evaluate general metrics, including Link Velocity, Domain Authority, Inbound Links, Social Shares, Domain Age, and much more.
- You can use Ahrefs to view their backlinks from most to least authority. 4. Analyze their topical trust flow and understand their semantic link profile.
This review exercise will give you enough signs that there is an urgent need to update much of the content, and the Coronavirus Lockdown is an excellent opportunity to get this done!
2. Website Optimization
Optimize. Optimize again. Optimize Once again.
The continuous optimization of the website and its content is the ultimate way to reach marketing purposes.
Once you find the loose ends and the vulnerability of the website, you need to optimize them one by one.
Below we have listed several ways of optimization.
A. Check Keywords CTR
It might be possible that you have a good website; still, it’s not getting enough organic search traffic.
For that, you can check the current click-through status of your pages.
Click-Through Rate (CTR) is used to gauge how well your keywords and ads are performing. Using CTR, you can find the pages that are performing well and pages that are non-performing.
You have to improve the CTR of the Non-performing pages.
There are various ways to improve CTR. The first is- Know your audience.
1) Know Your Audience
Understanding your audience is the first stage of improving CTR. Get inside the heads of your audience.
Think about your audience’s needs. Think about their spending power. Think about how they will search for the service or product they are looking for. Think about their search query.
And how will you find the answer to these questions?
By talking to your customers! Yes, every interaction you have with your customers will help you to know your customers better.
2) Advance Ad Copy
You may also work on the ad copy to improve its design & it’s content to make it more appealing for your audience.
The audience clicks only those ad copies, which they find engaging or exciting. The better ad copy will significantly improve the CTR.
3) Work on Keywords
Remember, Ad copy alone doesn’t work. You need to improvise your keywords too.
For example, if you are a bakery owner targeting the people searching for anniversary cakes, then the keyword ‘Cakes’ will be too broad.
For better CTR and more target audiences, you can narrow the keyword to ‘anniversary cakes.’ The impressions and clicks may be less, but you get the higher CTR.
4) Testing, Testing, Testing
As we all know, PPC is nothing but testing, more testing, and some more testing! Isn’t it?
Testing is a way to find what works and what doesn’t. You can increase the CTR significantly by A/B testing.
Even a little change such as, using numbers rather than words or rephrasing the CTR text or adding a more resonant image, could profoundly increase CTR rates.
B. Improve Technical SEO
Technical SEO is known as the process of optimizing the website and server so that search engine spiders crawl and index your site more effectively, which ultimately helps in improving organic rankings.
Simply put, Technical SEO is a way to convince the search engine that your website is good.
To improve technical SEO, You could check and optimize the following statistics.
- Apply SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). SSL is a security protocol that used to establish a secure connection between the web server and the browser.
- Evaluate your website indexing using Google Search Console. Fix the issue if discovered.
- Ensure that the website is Mobile-Friendly.
- Decrease the website load time. The optimal website load time is 2 seconds.
- Remove the 404s and broken links.
- Eliminate the mixed content and duplicate content.
Create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google. The sitemap tells Google about the most important pages on your website.
C. Improve Keywords Targeting
The whole SEO game depends on Keywords. Isn’t it?
Simply put, Keyword targeting is a practice of using relevant keywords to your business or service for the website and for ad copy to achieve a higher position in the search engines.
To improve the keywords targeting, you need to collect substantial data related to what the audience is looking for.
Besides, you also need to find out the answer to these following questions:
- Which keywords or phrases users are using in Google to find your business or the products? What are their search queries?
- The intention behind the search?
Once you find these answers, you may verify whether you are focusing on the right keywords or not.
You can even use online tools such as Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools, Google AdWords, and Google Planner to deep-dive into the world of keywords to understand the keyword game better.
Once you do the research and prioritize the keywords, it is time to act on it.
Use those keywords into the website content, Title, Description and Metadata.
Also, remember that you use the keywords in a way that seems natural and not stuffing.
D. Target the High Commercial Intent Keywords
Remember that Commercial Intent Keywords are more valuable than High search volume Keywords.
Of course, the high search volume keywords may bring you the traffic, but there is no guarantee that it will bring business too.
The high search volume keywords are good for increasing visibility, but to generate revenue, you must focus on commercial intent keywords.
There are three types of search queries.
- Informational query: The search made to find some information.
- Navigational query: The search made to find an address or the websites.
- Transactional query: The search made to buy something.
Commercial intent keywords are relevant to the transactional searches only.
Commercial intent keywords give the required push to the customers to reach the precise service or the products and complete the transaction.
High commercial intent keywords are best suited for the paid search campaigns.
Shopping Ads are highly attractive for users with commercial intent and get comparatively more clicks from users with buying intention
3. Retain Customer
Here comes the tricky part- Retain customers.
There is a well-known marketing principle – “Once you are out of sight, you are out of mind too!”
That’s why it is necessary that even in the tragic time of the corona outbreak, you make sure that you will keep in touch with your customers by any means.
You lose the customers as soon as you lose the connection.
Besides, it is easier to maintain an existing customer than acquire a new one!
Here are some tips on how to retain the existing customer base during the coronavirus outbreak.
A. Personalize Messages or Emails
Due to lockdown, all the people are in their homes right now.
There is a high possibility that in the homes, they will be around their mobiles and laptops. Right?
So we can say that this is the perfect time to launch the mission!
Communicate with your customers. Use this opportunity to get more social with them.
No! We are not suggesting spamming them with email marketing or hammering them with cold calling or marketing messages.
Instead, we suggest you reach out to each of the existing customers with personalized, targeted messages.
For example,
- You can simply send a message advising them to be safe from the coronavirus!
- You can share some coronavirus prevention tips.
- You can share Emergency helpline numbers for coronavirus prevention!
Believe us, even the small things like these will leave a lasting impression on your customers, and thus you will remain in their minds even during this lockdown period!
B. Getting More Social
As mentioned in the above point, most people will be around their mobile or laptop in this lockdown period, and so this could be the perfect time to get more social with them.
You can do this by engaging with the customers via social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tik-Tok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc.
These are the platforms where your customers’ review & critique your products, they also discuss their purchasing decisions, as well as share their opinions unbiased.
You can always utilize these platforms to listen to your customers and to learn more about your market.
At this point, you also need to be careful that you do not use these platforms solely to reach your marketing objectives.
Rather, your contributions to the discussion must be relevant and should be of benefit to the customers.
C. Innovative Content Marketing
Innovative content marketing is an essential ingredient for marketing campaigns.
It helps you to keep in touch with the existing customer base as well as attract new customers.
In Innovative content marketing,
- You can share positive customer experiences with the existing customers.
- You can even share some accounts of how you are different from the others, or
- You can share about what extra service you provide to the customers compares to your competitors.
- You can use social media platforms to promote your good stories and news features.
With such a positive campaign, you will not only endure your presence in your existing customers, but you will attract new customers as well.
4. Increase Online Visibility
Imagine you developed a wonderful website, but only a few people know about this! Is it fair? Of course, Not!
Digital visibility refers to the fact that- how visible your website is online. You need to do more than simply have a live website. Your website must rank well on relevant search engine inquiries.
A. Refresh Your Content
It is a known fact that the content becomes irrelevant and obsolete with time.
So, it is necessary that you keep a constant tab on content and upgrade & update the content whenever it seems necessary.
Content updating is inevitable also because of the ever-changing search engine algorithms.
To continue the SEO ranking, it is required that you modify the content with changing search engines algorithm or policy.
Revisit your content; refresh it to improve your rankings in the search engines.
You can either make necessary changes to the website content such as Service details, Product Details, the Success Stories, the Achievements, the company details, etc., or you can completely rewrite the entire content from scratch.
You might also choose a new theme for this content. You can even upgrade the blogs with new data, statistics, and fresh information.
B. Try More Social Media Platforms
Over the period of time, needs change.As users move to a new platform, it becomes necessary for us to move to those platforms as well.
If we lag in the marketing race, we will be out of the business forever!
That’s why businesses need to be extra strategic when it comes to choosing the social media platforms they want to build a presence on.
Choosing the relevant social media platform depends on many factors, such as the type of business, targeted audience, active users, the objectives and goals, the budget, the campaign period, etc.
Though, as per our research, some of the best social media platforms for business in 2021 are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Tik-Tok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Note that not all of these platforms match your business requirements. It is recommended that you dig a little deeper to find the perfect social media platforms that satisfy your business needs.
C. Try New Ways of Marketing
“Same things lead to dullness.”
This law applies to digital marketing too!
Adopting the same marketing approach, again and again, not only makes the users annoyed, but it also decreases its effectiveness.
So, we must continue to adopt new marketing approaches as a way to keep customers engaged, and our business sustained.
1) Video Marketing
It’s a well known fact that the Demand for video marketing witnessed a significant jump after 2018 because of the easy availability of smart-phones and cheaper data packs.
As per the global survey, Video Marketing remained a popular digital marketing trend in 2019 and expected to remain so for many years to come.
Since the videos do not have a limit like advertisements, you can explain your ideas, products, and services in a better way—That’s why video marketing can influence people better than text marketing or advertising.
Further, in the video, you can add gestures and feelings as well, that is certainly not possible in textual marketing or traditional marketing.
In the video, you can give a lot of information in a short time. You can explain the same information in just one minute through a video, which otherwise takes 3-4 minutes to read.
Again, there are many types of video marketing, such as
- Podcasts,
- Live streaming,
- Explanation video, and
- DIY video.
You can start video marketing by testing which of these medium suits your business best.
2) Personalized Email/Text Marketing
Gone are those days when customers can be easily lured even with the scripted emails and messages.
Now you have to adopt new approaches to entice them. One such way is- using personalized messages.
Here, you need to note that the personalized message does not mean using the first name of the customer as the greetings. It is way more than that.
For that, you need to dig more in-depth about the customer to get their information and include that information in the message.
Such personalized messages make the customers happy; they feel connected with you as well as get the impression that they are a part of the company.
5. Improve Conversion Rate
The conversion rate plays an important role in your digital marketing campaigns.
The conversion rate is the number of visitors to your website that complete a desired goal out of the total number of visitors.
Conversion rate optimization is essential because it allows you to lower your customer acquisition costs.
Besides, by optimizing your conversion rate, you can increase revenue per visitor, acquire more customers, and grow your business.
Here are some of the ways to improve the conversion rate.
A. Develop a User-friendly Website
“The customer is king.”
If you are a digital marketer, you must know this fact well.
Better the customer experience, better the conversion rate.
Invest in your website to ensure that,
- It has a minimum loading time.
- It is Mobile-friendly. And,
- It gives a personalized experience to the users.
Ensure that the website has easy navigation so that the customer can easily find what they are looking for.
Also, spend on UI and Graphics. If the website is fast, has better navigation but has dull graphics and UI, then it is meaningless.
Optimize the landing page too.
Remember that the landing page brings the most conversions. So, it should be attractive as well as engaging.
B. Make Website Mobile Friendly
No matter what industry you are in or where you are located, your website must be Mobile friends.
Remember that most prospective customers are using mobiles to access the internet.
Not only will it help you get more SEO traffic in both the short and long term, but it will also help you with your conversion rates.
Test your website in the Google Console to find how mobile-friendly your website is. If you don’t get the expected result, then it’s time to turn your website mobile-friendly.
There are many ways to make your website mobile-friendly. We have listed them here.
- Add a responsive theme: A responsive theme would work as a quick fix.
- Simplify the menus, list, and tables.
- CTA should be placed well.
- Include the search function.
- Optimize the text and buttons according to the average mobile screen sizes.
- Avoid large text, blocks, and images.
- Choose the right font type & right font size.
- Use media queries to make the website more responsive.
- Use AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
- Compress the Images and CSS.
- Avoid the use of flash.
- Turn on autocorrect.
Regularly Perform Mobile testing.
C. Optimize Website Loading Speed
Do you love the website which takes hours to load? of course not!
No one loves the website when it keeps on loading for several seconds or minutes.
The website speed makes the first impression of your business as well as affects the overall user experience. Low website speed is the most turn-off moment for users.
Moreover, High-performance websites have many benefits over low-speed websites. Such as, it generates-
- High return visits,
- Low bounces rates,
- Higher conversions,
- Good Engagement,
- A higher rank in organic search and
- Overall better user experience.
In contrast, slow websites will cost you money and damage your reputation.
Here, we have compiled some ideas to boost up the website speed.
1) Use the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
2) Use a better host.
3) Optimize the image size.
4) Remove the unnecessary plugin.
5) Minimize the CSS and JavaScript files.
6) Use website caches.
7) Avoid using web fonts.
8) Detect and eliminate 404 errors and broken links.
9) Implement prefetching techniques.
10) Minimize redirects on the website.
6. Re-plan Your Campaign
If the existing campaign is not giving anticipated results, you must Re-plan your campaign. There is no point in continuing the campaign if it has not provided any benefits.
Recheck your campaign; find out its positives and negative results. Find out why the campaign failed and what went wrong. Find out how much you lost.
Take care of all these advantages and disadvantages while planning a new campaign.
Conclusion
Coronavirus outbreak is a Blessing in Disguise. Look at the positive side of the coronavirus outbreak. You now have plenty of time to complete all those things which you have been pushing for a long time. This is the best period to optimize your website, social media platforms, and refresh its content.
These exercises will make it more user-friendly, drive more traffic, improve conversion rate, and ultimately generate revenue.
Also, for those who have not yet moved to digitalization, this lockdown is an excellent opportunity to begin. Because now you have understood why digital transformation is necessary as well as inevitable.
As they say- Better late than never!
Start this New Journey with Huptech Web!
The Huptech web is pleased to be your partner at such a difficult time. Give us a chance to build or rebuild your marketing campaign. We promise to get you what you wanted.
Together, we can outline a complete strategy for your business, and its execution during this lockdown period so that you can reap the benefits as soon as the Lockdown gets over!
About Huptech Web
The Huptech Web is a one-stop solution that offers Industry-specific strategies, excellent eCommerce website design, creative content, and digital marketing blueprint.
We are armed with skilled and experienced tech professionals who are proficient at Web development, Web designing, and Web Marketing.
Our only goal is to provide our clients with excellent service by utilizing our expertise and ensuring their business is at the pinnacle of success.
Very nice article!