Online marketing in times of crisis

In addition to the fact that Internet marketing has experienced a boom in recent years and has generated significantly more sales, the fact that this has fallen by more than half today is worrying - the "thanks" go to the corona virus.

A large percentage of businesses have not yet recognized the importance of internet marketing and are therefore not reaping the rewards of a large slice of this enormous pie. Individual companies wake up immediately after their sales figures have plummeted or even after the closure of their sales objects and without understanding the advertising strategy, they approach this type of market presence superficially, without clear ideas and without creativity, looking for their share - often with very high expectations.

Many companies, especially small and sole proprietorships, have decided to wait for the end of the crisis and freeze their presence in Internet advertising, while those that remain present in all forms are less frequent. Being on the Internet through organic traffic, paid traffic, the social networks, or other forms of Internet advertising appears to be in some way contrary to business ethics.

On the other hand, consumers have a completely different approach and research shows that only 8% of consumers think companies should stop advertising online in times of crisis. Why this drastic difference between the opinions of companies and consumers? Is it a question of money when it comes to the companies, or is it a matter of ignorance and desire when it comes to the consumers? The answer is in the realm of speculation, but personally I think that consumer hope and anticipation is far more keen as companies seek to maintain their acquired position with a loss already calculated.

What after the crisis?

The duration of the crisis is unpredictable and the losses of the companies due to the interruption of advertising will only follow. The crisis will pass and many will interfere with online advertising with great expectations due to the interruption of several months or the drop in sales.

Whether such companies will be penalized by consumers is currently unclear as the online advertising business is less than ten years old and this is the first major crisis it has encountered. Comparative data simply does not exist. Whether crises will occur more frequently and whether the current one will be of a lasting nature - at the moment it looks like that.

What do we advise?

Don't interrupt communication with your customers. Let them know you are there for them. Open new sales and shipping channels if you haven't already. If you have a sales channel, update it.

Facilitate access to information and try to reach as many consumers as possible. Diversify communication channels through online marketing.