Mitra Ferdows, a business management graduate from the United States’ Loyola Marymount University and consultant in start-ups, expresses her point of view on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on digital marketing.
DUBAI, UAE, March 29, 2021 /Neptune100/ — Mitra Ferdows stated that the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time in the history of mankind when 70% of countries all over the globe are under lockdown has caused huge unrest in the global economy. The lockdown has halted many business processes from manufacturing processes, supply chain to logistics, and marketing. The unprecedented, almost-total disappearance of all channels related to live events and conferences and the increasing barriers to face-to-face business has posed an enormous challenge. Being at a loss, businesses have become more reliant than ever on their digital strategy. Mitra Ferdows restated that the key to resilience is to take measures to mitigate the effects of this loss. Over the years, digital marketing expenditures have seen a significant increase. Companies have indeed curbed the expenses due to the spread of COVID-19, but digital marketing channels remained exceptional.
The Pros and Cons
Mitra Ferdows elaborated that various advantages of digital marketing in terms of a target audience, approach, documentation and consumer interaction, marketing costs and analysis, real-time results, interruption, strategy refinement, and communication help foster the process of marketing compared to the traditional methods of marketing.
Mitra Ferdows pointed out that the first and most significant advantage of digital marketing deals with the target audience which lets marketers reach the target audience, customers, and consumers globally from around the world. Therefore, companies are not confined to the local audiences like the traditional methods of marketing. Taking pandemic into consideration, it is evident that substantial numbers of businesses have promoted online marketing strategies to stand out in the business world affected by the pandemic. If not so, they might decline as the digital marketing tools surge to continue to reach the summit be it in the time of the pandemic or afterward. Furthermore, as far as communication is concerned, online marketing provides mutual communication and thus helps to satisfy the customer and make the customer feel that they are being listened to and served.
Modern Approach, Modern Marketing
Mitra Ferdows continued that as with digital marketing it is a merit that the physical presence of the marketer is not at all required in digital marketing, yeas physical presence will be a bonus but it is not required, and digital marketing permits marketers to reach the finite number of customers easily within a short time. This makes digital marketing more prominent since the COVID-19 pandemic started to remain attended.
Consumer Interaction
Mitra Ferdows added that digital marketing methods propound the number of platforms to the consumers, customers, and buyers like social networking sites, e-commerce websites, and different apps for collecting their feedback where they can put their views about products or services. These platforms have always existed since the advent of digital marketing. With the existence of pandemics, however, many more consumers, as well as businesses, have further taken the advantage of online platforms. Mitra Ferdows reiterated that this paves the way for more digitalized marketing techniques now or in the future since in the time of pandemic the critical infrastructural foundations are being endowed.
Marketing Cost
Mitra Ferdows mentioned that marketing costs have always been a matter of concern for businesses as they are highly overcharging businesses that have yet been influential. Free of charge uses of social networking sites aids to have less costly marketing expenses. To the business advantage and based on marketing requirements, marketers can opt for paid ads if they want to. Taking COVID-19 into consideration, there are chances of higher online marketing costs due to the excessive reliance of businesses on digital marketing which might lead to high demands and thus higher marketing costs.
Marketing Analysis and Real-Time Results
Mitra Ferdows contributed that since online marketing or digital marketing can give quick results, it will be less challenging for marketers to get real-time marketing results. Therefore, it works as a real facilitator for the marketing team to refine their strategies i.e. to opt for changes and/or update their marketing strategy based on the results. The great news is during the pandemic when many customers have turned their backs to the traditional methods of shopping, chances are that market analysts can, by all means, gather more data to succor businesses with any obstacles they are dealing with in the hard times.
Why Digital Marketing Is an Exception During the Pandemic?
Massive social distancing efforts are the results of the pandemic. The manifestation of remote work policies, as well as the cancelation of both high-profile and cultural events, have been impacting the societies and economies at large. A great number of brick-and-mortar events like fairs, conferences, seminars, workshops, and trade shows which used to be done physically before the pandemic have been held virtually. This means marketers are seeking non-physical venues to budget the marketing cost through digital channels. Moreover, many consumers hunkered down at home to avoid the virus have been turning to online purchasing they traditionally bought in stores. It is in fact to the online retailers’ advantage to better return to their online ads, boosting online marketing expenditures.
Mitra Ferdows concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic makes it for a new rise in the world of digital marketing as with more companies being forced to shift to remote methods of conducting business as well as more customers online approaches to communicate and purchase. Before COVID-19 it was evident that digital marketing was taking over traditional methods of marketing since there are a greater number of advantages and facilities being offered to the consumers. Consumers are independent and not bound to patronize any brand and online marketing offers hassle-free marketing, returns, and cashless transactions. Digital marketing contributes to the world of marketing by offering entirely online new marketing channels which were immune to the COVID-19 social distancing consequences and customers leaving a forensic trail of documents evident in the form of digital data to store and track marketing campaigns through online channels. This enormous amount of data will therefore help with better decision making especially in the time of crisis when companies are struggling to survive. Mitra Ferdows stated that many people may think that digital marketing is the solution to gain momentum during the pandemic but it is not giving visibility for a short time. Considering the time required to pinpoint efficient marketing strategies, digital marketing techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO) or social media marketing would take months to give results.
