During an economic downturn, digital marketing becomes even more crucial as it allows businesses to reach their target audience cost-effectively, focusing on targeted campaigns and messaging that resonate with consumers who are increasingly price-sensitive and looking for value. Challenging times requires businesses to adjust their marketing strategies to reflect the current economic climate by offering discounts, flexible payment options, and highlighting the benefits of their products or services.
The GDP figures presented by the NZ Government this week presented a grim picture for the country’s economy. It’s more important than ever to seek ways to influence the right audience to come your way and recognise the value in what you’re offering.
In this article we’ll discuss the most cost effective digital marketing campaigns that we feel are most effective during a time when the economy isn’t running hot.
Discounts
Discounts can be an effective way to attract those new customers, retain existing ones, and lift sales. When there is less money available to spend in a household a discounted price can mean the difference for a sale. Discounts offered to existing customers is a way to reward customer loyalty and incentivise them to make additional purchases. When sales are low inventory can build up. Discounts can help you move some of this excess inventory.When offering discounts make sure to effectively communicate this. The terms of the discount should be clear to avoid confusion and misunderstandings. Discounted products should be presented loud and clear in your marketing efforts.
Flexible payment options
Flexible payment options have never been so popular. There are a number of companies facilitating buy now pay later options. Be sure to utilise these to allow your customers this option when purchasing from you.Highlight benefit of your products & services
Are the core benefits of your products and services clearly broadcasted and illustrated to your target audience? Put yourself in the shoes of a prospective customer and look over the content you present to the world. Does your website do a good job of showcasing what you do? If the answer is no, then there is some work to do here.
Now that we have some strategy ideas how do we announce this to your prospective customers? Digital Marketing is one of the most effective (and quickest) pathways to communicate these offerings.
Let’s take a look at some of the areas that operate in the Digital Marketing space.
Website
This is the first area that needs to be sorted as all ads and listings will point users to your site. It’s best to create dedicated pages that clearly and effectively communicate your offer. You don’t need to invent the wheel, take a look at great sites across the net that are offering similar services and products. Take inspiration from those pages when designing and constructing your landing pages. Be sure to structure the page in logical order, include FAQs if appropriate, call to action, etc.
SEO
This area is a slow burn process. While it is important to make all efforts to ensure your site and pages are optimised for search engines. It’s important to note that SEO results are not always immediate and take time. It is a challenging business figuring out how to get your site up the ranks for an organic search result. We won’t go into detail here as SEO is a very broad subject with many avenues.
Google Ads
Google Ads is a very effective option for getting your message seen quickly by a targeted audience. There are a range of advertising products offered by Google, including ads for Google Search, Display Ads, etc. While you need to pay for any ad clicks you have control of the messaging that you are communicating. Getting your ads out through Google’s platform helps to drive traffic to your site, increase awareness of your brand, and effectively promote what you’re offering. There are a ton of controls that are available to tweak in any ad campaign, enabling the advertiser to have a high level of control. Google wants all types of people to advertise on their platform, including people with little to no experience in digital marketing. For these users there are “smart campaigns”, which offer simplified user controls and plenty of automated features. In our experience, we are yet to see remarkable results for these types of campaigns. If you want the best results for your investment seek an expert that understands these platforms and with experience on what gets the best results.
With over 3 billion users, this platform offers plenty of opportunity to get your message across. Similar to Google this platform offers the ability to precisely target your ads to an appropriate audience. It also offers a way to directly engage with people interested in what you are offering.
Measure results
The beauty of digital marketing is the incredibly useful ability to measure results. This can be done via the platform you are advertising on, such as Google Ads, or via Google Analytics. Again here, there is alot to discuss when it comes to analysing data, which will be a blog topic in itself. Seek the assistance of an expert that has the skill and knowledge to effectively analyse the data and make the right decisions from this information.
There’s a lot to take in here but don’t let that discourage you. If you’re struggling to know where to begin, reach out and seek the help from one of our specialists. We’re here to help you achieve success in your Digital Marketing efforts.