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Kunal Sawhney: With people spending more time online than ever before, digital marketing channels are no longer an option, but a necessity for small businesses.

OPINION: With the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in unprecedented ways, digital marketing became a knight in shining armor for businesses.

The inability of companies to create a real-time ambience for their goods and services while viruses are shutting down has led them to turn to effective digital marketing techniques to stay afloat.

Compared to other industrialized countries, New Zealand has largely contained the spread of viruses thanks to its “go-hard, go-early” strategy. However, the global picture shows that despite the introduction of vaccines, the pandemic is far from over.

Therefore, trust in the digital landscape remains.

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Small businesses looking forward to growing their reach and sales can use the following digital marketing strategies to thrive during and after the coronavirus crisis.

Social Media Market

SMEs can use social media marketing strategies to connect with existing customers, attract new customers and increase brand awareness. Social media makes it relatively easier for small businesses to publicize their products and services.

However, it is imperative for businesses to identify platforms and websites that their customers would prefer to depend on before deciding to embark on a social media network. This can be achieved by surveying the existing customers or analyzing the audience demographics of various social media networks and then pairing them with their potential customers.

In addition to assigning social networks to the target group, it is just as important for companies to make frequent contact with customers via social media posts.

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Choosing the right online marketing strategies in line with their business model and external environment seems to be of vital importance for companies to wade through Covid-like future crises.

Invest in search engine marketing

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is one of the most effective digital marketing tools for increasing the visibility of SMB’s websites on search engine results pages. It’s a form of paid advertising used by companies to get their website to appear on the first page of search engines.

SEM includes offerings such as paid search, display advertising, pay-per-click advertising, and remarketing advertising. This inexpensive and fast type of digital marketing enables companies to connect directly with their potential customers and audiences and help them achieve optimistic results without waiting.

Businesses can thrive in SEM by keeping track of keyword research and bids. Since all forms of paid SEM depend on keyword research, companies can bid for their ads on specific keywords that may appear when users search for those words.

Run webinars

Webinars have become a powerful marketing tool for attracting new customers and generating leads during the pandemic. SMBs might consider hosting webinars for their target audience to engage customers with their products through real-time digital interactions.

Webinars can be used to provide information about new products, discuss current market trends, or inform attendees about the company and its product offerings. In addition, this marketing tool helps companies connect with a large geographically dispersed audience, thereby strengthening their ability to generate new leads.

To take advantage of this great online marketing tool, companies need to have a clear strategy when running a webinar. Instead of just showcasing the company’s products, SMBs can create interesting and engaging content for the audience to invest emotionally in their business.

Try email marketing

Typically, it becomes difficult for small businesses to invest heavily in marketing in the early stages. This is where email marketing comes in, which helps improve company visibility at minimal cost.

Small businesses with a limited marketing budget can leverage email marketing strategy to drive customer acquisition and retention. It enables a company to reach its target audience to promote relevant products and services while sharing personalized messages tailored to their needs.

Businesses can capture audience interest via email by greeting them by their first name, sending automated wishes on special occasions, creating the perfect subject lines, and creating an attractive email template. Relevant and valuable email content is more likely to be answered positively by a reader.

Start a blog

SMBs can add more value to their brand by creating a blog section that provides useful and relevant information to their target audience.

Blogging not only attracts more potential customers, it also provides a huge boost to search engine optimization. The blog posts created by a company provide search engines with fresh content to index, thereby increasing the company’s brand awareness. In addition, blogging is an ideal way to gain influence and trust in the industry through knowledge-based information.

While writing valuable content is vital to creating a successful blog, it is no less important to stand out from the crowd by creating unique posts to make your blogs instantly recognizable.

With people spending more time online than ever before, digital marketing channels are no longer an option but a necessity for small businesses to survive in the coronavirus era. In addition, choosing the right online marketing strategies, in line with their business model and external environment, seems to be of crucial importance for companies to deal with Covid-like future crises.

Kunal Sawhney is the founder and CEO of Kalkine, a stock research firm.