5 Effective digital marketing tips to grow your local business online amidst the pandemic

Since the pandemic, almost every sector around us has been influenced in one way or the other.

Every business is under pressure to gain an online presence. The brick-and-mortar retailers, which were already a less favourable sector over the years, are left with no option but to take their businesses online as well.

However, with this migration, the competition in the e-commerce sector has toughened more than ever, making it difficult for newly launched businesses and startups to be recognized effectively.

With most sectors already having top players ruling the markets, establishing a business online requires dedicated strategies and smart approaches.

What makes digital marketing significant to an online business?

With the growing number of online businesses, discovering small or newly launched businesses becomes more burdensome for consumers online.

Digital marketing, to compete with industry giants, plays a significant role in brand recognition and discoverability for a business.

A bright and creative outreach method is crucial to adjusting your business into this jam-packed online environment in the current digital marketing scenario.

While companies are focusing on paid media to improve discoverability, there are many conventional digital marketing methods to help your local business online, especially during the pandemic.

How to use Digital marketing to grow your local business in the pandemic?

Despite the setbacks experienced over the last few years, many businesses continued to grow, even in these times of uncertainty. 4.38 million new businesses started up in 2020 alone.

To follow the same pattern and achieve the same growth with your online business, you can implement the following five tips in your digital marketing strategy:

Convey to your customers you are still there for them.

Since the pandemic, a lot of sectors have undergone a rollercoaster ride. Some businesses have opened, some have closed, some have downsized, and some have grown exponentially.

To make your marketing strategies work in the first place, convey to your customers that you are still operational.

Let your customers know you are there for them; operating at such times is something they need to know to remember you.

More than that, let your customers know that you are there with them during this time and reassure them that everything will be okay. Use your social media, emails, and every other channel for these purposes.

Having a hotline and posting regular updates about your business in these times is what makes your brand transparent and approachable.

Host virtual events and webinars.

Webinars, workshops, and other virtual events have been popularized since the pandemic.

Hosting such events for customers relevant to your brand is a great way to reach out to people remotely and invite new customers to your brand.

However, as these events have reached a saturation stage, making your event stand out from the rest has become necessary. Creating an immersive and interactive experience always appeals to a vast audience, increasing your chances of conversions and sales.

There is no lack of resources, especially with so many visual tools to create exceptional content. Moreover, using a video maker tool and content distribution platform makes it easier to attend these events.

Create a remarkable organic online presence.

With the internet being a great way for people to stay connected virtually, there is no better time to build an online presence of your business than right now.

Working on your social profile improves your brand’s discoverability and helps you attract more customers.

People now expect to hear more from their favourite brands, including yourself in their favourites list, which requires you to offer as much information about your brand as possible.

To build an exceptionally well online presence, you can:

• Create valuable content.
• Introduce resources like blogs and free eBooks.
• Improve the organic discoverability of your brand on search engines with SEO.
• Correctly research keywords and appropriately implement mentions in your content.

The competition between brands is fierce. Standing out from your competition calls for thoughtful content creation and adopting new methods to make your content easily digestible.

Optimize your content for local discovery.

For local discoverability, leverage various digital marketing methods. If you aren't optimizing your content for local discovery, you could be losing about 80% of potential customers. It's important to optimize your content to make sure you are receiving attention and potential opportunities from areas around your business.

Reaching new and old customers in local areas is easier than ever because of Google Ads and other platforms that allow detailed keyword and location targeting.

Marketing your business locally through YouTube is also a great idea. Leveraging various video maker tools could help you create the videos, and the effective use of the local advertising features could help you market your business locally.

Have an exceptional social profile.

Social media was and will remain pervasive in the foreseeable future.

Brands have significantly worked on building a social media profile in the last few years. A brand’s personality is judged by its social profile now.

As social media remains one of the best methods to reach various audience types, it makes sense to practice your marketing strategies socially.

To create a great and interactive social profile, you can:

• Post regularly.
• Ask your customers questions and interact with them frequently.
• Promote your brand collaborations across your posts and stories.
• Show "behind-the-scenes" from your workspace.

The best part about social media is that you can even leverage the local ad running feature to market your brand locally. It makes sure your local visibility is strong and that you are not marketing your brand in regions where your products or services can’t reach or aren't on offer yet.

Conclusion

The internet has a lot of connecting and discoverability power.

Businesses leveraging the crucial digital marketing techniques can grow locally and globally. 

It’s difficult to understand what exactly will work for a small business. Being flexible with your digital marketing strategies is the best way to ensure brand discoverability.

Despite the size of a business and the uncertain global situation, the proper digital marketing techniques and strategies could always ensure growth for a business.