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The Importance of Digital Marketing During the Pandemic

July, 2020

The shutdown of many sales channels such as live events, conferences, trade shows and most face-to-face business is creating a huge marketing challenge for many businesses amidst the pandemonium of this pandemic. Yet many businesses continue to do quite well. What is their secret and how can we tap into it in the world of Electrical Distribution?

“In the coming months, businesses are going to become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Without wanting to sound too alarmist, in many cases it will be the deciding factor in whether they make it through the tough times ahead,” Forbes Magazine said in their recent article entitled Why Companies Turn To Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19.1

With more people self-isolating and spending more time online than ever before, a strong internet presence is more important than ever. Keeping products like PVC electrical pipe and fittings in front of potential customers online can help you remain competitive during these difficult times.

“Digital is likely to be the clear winner here, and companies – including ones that may not so much as had a Facebook page before – will need to move into social marketing, content marketing, SEO and influencer-led campaigns.”2

Fortunately, small steps towards digital marketing in the Electrical Distribution world can have a huge impact on sales growth for PVC electrical pipe and fittings. This is simply because Electrical Distribution has been slow to embrace the digital world. For this reason, it’s just not that competitive. This makes it easier and less expensive to expand your digital footprint. It is also fortuitous that most companies now have marketing dollars from canceled shows and events to help expand their internet presence, which is what Forbes Magazine recommends in the article mentioned above.

Adding to the many important reasons for moving towards digital marketing, here are a few more. Digital sales growth was up 18% in the first quarter of 2020 and overall internet traffic was up 13%. Social media usage also increased 8% according to Deloitte statistics.3

SCORE, a nationwide organization developed to help small businesses, said the following about digital marketing during social distancing:

“Digital marketing adds two very important elements to traditional marketing. First, it offers new marketing channels that are entirely online and therefore immune to the COVID-19 social distancing consequences. Second, customers leave a forensic trail of evidence in the form of digital data that enables storing, tracking and monetizing every marketing campaign through its channels. With an enormous amount of data at your disposal, you can make better informed campaign decisions, particularly in this time of crisis when every dollar matters.”4

With most marketers confined to their homes instead of out at sales events, they also have more time to work on digital marketing strategies to help bring in sales.

Here are three inexpensive digital marketing strategies to try during the pandemic:

1.    Make sure your business and products can be found online with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is all about getting your company and products on page one of Google and other search engines. Let’s face it, people rarely go past page one when searching for products. It’s the perfect time to take some of your non-existent trade show budget and hire an SEO consultant or do SEO work in-house. Use some of the time that used to be dedicated to trade shows.

2.      Invest in inexpensive digital ads that will appear to hundreds of thousands of people searching for products like yours. With more people online than ever before, investing some of your marketing budget in digital ads will be money well spent.

3.     Develop Social Media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest. You will be developing a following who will see your posts about products like PVC electrical pipe or fittings to for free. Not only will this give you a channel for free advertising, you will also be bringing new visitors to your website each month through your Social Media platforms.

According to Forbes, using digital marketing as an emergency fill-in while events and face-to-face sales are off limits will definitely help your business now! It will also help your business long-term when the world gets back to normal by making your company more resilient to face other possible disasters and economic challenges in the future.5

1.       Why Companies Turn To Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19, Forbes.com

2.       Why Companies Turn To Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19, Forbes.com

3.       Changing consumer, digital marketing and impact of Covid-19, Deloitte.com

4.       Covid-19’s Impact on Digital Marketing, Score.org

5.       Why Companies Turn To Digital Marketing To Survive COVID-19, Forbes.com