This article is written by Jagrit Chawla, pursuing Diploma in Business Laws for In-House Counsels from LawSikho. The article has been edited by Prashant Baviskar (Associate, LawSikho) and Ruchika Mohapatra (Associate, LawSikho).

Introduction

It has been observed by many industry experts that the world can never be the same as it used to be before the global pandemic. The phrase which many experts are using as “new normal” would mean a social distancing world and thereby be completely reliant on technology for day to day functionalities. It signifies the change in the manner of running a company, the way they operate, advertise, market their products. By ascertaining some questions like how can the customers buy products during and post-pandemic phase, what would be the strategies involved for marketing products via technology and in what manner the supply and demand of goods/services would be ascertained, one can come up with ways to work in the post COVID world.  

The pandemic has hugely impacted all kinds of businesses including small businesses, big multinational corporations and one-person companies. It has been noticed that small businesses are enormously impacted due to covid as they have very few cash reserves for running their businesses and paying sufficient salaries to their employees. The marketing industry has also been completely disrupted. Earlier businesses used to widely market their products through physical modes but during the pandemic as after getting shifted everything Online. Businesses have to completely engage in online marketing platforms for promoting their products via Digital Marketing. 

Impact of COVID-19 on businesses 

The covid-19 pandemic has completely disrupted the economy of the world as a whole. The pandemic situation has severely slowed the world’s economic growth and has created greater inequality in terms of wealth distribution. Many companies have started re-organizing their complete marketing strategies and business structures. The whole world has witnessed the crash on stocks and trades, Countries have witnessed GDP decline, IMF slow growth rate and many more other visible signs of impact. Industries that are highly Impacted during pandemic are as follows:

• Highly impacted;
  • Tourism,
  • Airlines,
  • Restaurants,
• Least impacted;
  • Online IT Industries,
  • Life and Health Insurance,
  • Consultancy Firms.

Post pandemic marketing strategies

As the whole world is striving to survive the pandemic, it becomes very crucial and important to keep a track of what would be the post-COVID-19 implications and strategies for running day to day businesses. Due to the [pandemic, the world has shifted its focus to the Online Mode of interaction and transaction, which in itself is an asset and a gold mine for all to explore and utilize up to its fullest potential. The marketing has been completely disrupted due to the pandemic. Earlier there used to be seminars, physical awareness campaigns for brand advertising and promotions, but after the pandemic hit the world, the only marketing option left with the companies is digital marketing to make the public aware of the company’s products/services. 

Therefore, in order to curb and make effective use of marketing, here are a few of the strategies which businesses can adopt for the post-COVID-19 World which are as follows:

Focusing on existing customers

• If the business is suffering and struggling to bring more new customers to the company, the best approach in order to sustain is focusing on the customer the company already has despite the decline in the economy of the business. 
• Instead of making brand promotions to the new general public, the best alternate method is to divert complete attention to those customers who have previously purchased the goods/services. This would help the business to sustain and grow at a slow rate. 
• Reaching out to the existing customers is much easier than reaching out to the new ones. Businesses can offer discounts and attractive deals to existing customers via emails, phone calls, digital social media, etc.

Moving everything online

With the lockdowns and the other restrictions, everything has started moving online. It has been collectively acknowledged that people become more active on online platforms for most of their day to day activities. The best example of this would be the online shopping platforms. Platforms like Flipkart, Amazon have seen significant shifts in their sales during Pandemic because as physical shops have been closed, therefore everyone has shifted their focus to digital mode of shopping. 

Online access is just a few clicks away to avail and buys the particular product or service, which for physical access to the product, requires time, cost incurred to reach there, more efforts, depending upon price, location and target area of the product. 

Invest in Facebook ads

As so many people have started spending their time more on social media platforms, therefore, the ROI and the price of digital advertising on Facebook have skyrocketed. Which further creates a win-win situation for both the businesses and social media. This is the best strategy to make people aware of their product any time whenever and wherever they open their Facebook. 

Previously it has been observed that for making people aware of their product, companies had to collectively engage in a well-organized system with specific targeted location, timings, and venue to make the general public aware of their product. But, with the expansion of digital marketing on social media platforms like Facebook, it becomes extremely beneficial for both social media platforms and businesses to advertise online. This is further the most promising domain to make the businesses grow in the post-pandemic world as the whole world has witnessed the transition phase going from physical mode to digital mode. 

Running exclusive deals and offers

As most of the businesses begin to reopen, the best way to catch the attention of the public is through offering exciting and exclusive offers and deals. There are so many advertising options available via digital marketing to make the public aware of the deals. For example, Dominos which is a fast-food franchise uses discount coupons and codes via messages, emails, social media platforms. Which in turn makes people buy more of such food items from dominos due to exclusive and very exciting offers. 

Giving communication strategy an overhaul

As the situation after the pandemic changes, the previous strategies and tricks wouldn’t be of much use. It would be a wise option to rethink before sending the newsletters to the potential targeted customers. The best way to know the customers completely is through sending a survey option to the customers via emails and asking general questions about how the business can help customers and in what manner the business should provide products and services. This would further help in transforming the business structure and a better understandable relationship between customers and business.

Businesses can use this information to rethink the communication strategy and serve the customer in a better way. Giving other marketing options an overhaul would also be a better option to keep the current priorities of customers in mind. 

Focusing on main paid advertising channels

Choosing pay per click (PPC) advertising strategy would be a much better option for targeting specific audiences for advertising the products than hanging around social media ads, email aids, influencer promotion ads. 

Conclusion

When the pandemic hit, it enormously impacted the world as a whole, but there were still businesses that saw an era of light in it via Technology. Since the pandemic, many businesses have suffered huge amounts of losses but keeping the positive side in mind, the world also saw a transition to more usage of digital media. This further helped some businesses exponentially. With keeping marketing strategy in mind, the businesses prior to the COVID-19 pandemic followed the physical mode of brand promotion and advertising. After the pandemic, the businesses have to market their products physically and digitally, with more focus on digital platforms. 

Many companies have now made huge marketing teams specifically only for digital media marketing. It has significantly and exponentially helped businesses to grow. This pandemic has given the customers and businesses a plethora of options to dive into for buying and selling options. With the further expansion of businesses and other tech platforms, online marketing has also grown enormously. Now, businesses do not have to invest all their energy and resources for advertising in a specific targeted location through the physical mode of advertising. But now the strategy which businesses follow is digital social media or PPC (price per click) marketing.

Businesses have started anticipating further marketing strategies to expand and grow their businesses. The most highlighted point is that businesses are now more interested in investing in online marketing than using the physical mode of marketing. This has made it convenient for both the customers and businesses. Businesses can now sell their products just by using digital technology while customers can order products/services by online mode of buying services. The future marketing strategies would be solely of the digital marketing era as now many people prefer buying items online than going out for shopping due to pandemics and also the online shopping is much more convenient which is just a few clicks away. 

References

• https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-new-normal
• https://www.physio-pedia.com/Social_Distancing
• https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/americas/which-small-businesses-are-most-vulnerable-to-covid-19-and-when
• https://mapp.com/blog/the-state-of-digital-marketing-in-2021-how-covid-19-has-influenced-strategy/

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