The disruption in businesses and overall life caused by Covid-19, globally, is an opportunity for marketers to strengthen their brands. Historically, adversities saw the germinationof fresh ideas.Theygive rise to new laws, start-ups or simply,game-changing marketing plans and raise consumer expectations.

This is the time to reframe the marketing strategy with a purpose and a context. Too many marketers pay insufficient attention to the early warning signs of big shifts in demographics, technology and regulation. As a result, they miss out on a great opportunity to proactively innovate their business and their marketing to take advantage of these shifts.

The trick lies in seeing the glass as half full, not half empty. The seeds for setting up Facebook, LinkedIn, The Walt Disney Co., General Motors, IBM, General Electric, HP and Microsoft were sown during uncertain times like recessions in the past. The fruits from these seed-bearing plants were later listed on the NYSE, Nasdaq and leading exchanges in the world.

With the impact of Covid-19 spreading dangerously even at the time of writing this blog, a long recession is a given.The economic effect of a pandemic-led slowdown can be felt for 40 years, economists say. So,organizations must learn to do more with less for a long period of time.

Reaching clients through Digital Marketing with the help of a Partner signifies a scenario where you do not need to depend on million-dollar marketing budgets. We, at Adzguru, possess strong digital marketing acumen proven by successful interventions for clients in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

The key components of digital marketing, we believe, centre around website marketing, e-mail marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, viral marketing, blogging, microblogging, podcasting, vodcasting, photo and video sharing, social networking and virtual reality.

In different ways each of these tools provides firms with the unique opportunity to converse with a global audience at relatively low or no cost. There exist several advantages of digital marketing. Some include:

• Allows brand owners to create instant, high impact campaigns on current topics such as Covid-19 to their market and customer segments.
• Can deliver a much more rich and engaging media experience where photographs, diagrams, images, videos and other content can be managed relatively easily.
• Can try different forms of advertising and assess the results.
• Allows for personalization where visitors can tailor their experience to find products and services, they are interested in rather than searching through a full catalogue.

Tough times need not be bad times

Those companies that use marketing creatively to deepen relationships with existing customers and recruit new ones will emerge stronger despite the tough current situation in Australia. Marketing is changing faster than ever with both the web and mobile opening up immense possibilities. This bodes well for small and mid-sized firms because it’s creating a level playing field to compete with larger companies.

The Queensland Small Business COVID-19 Adaption Grant is a case in point.

For a booster shot to support your micro and small businessesthat are affected by Covid-19 in these challenging times do apply for up to AUD 10,000 funding. Once the program budget has been fully allocated, applications for the program will close. So,hurry up.

The funding can be used for financial, legal or other professional advice to support business sustainability, diversification, strategic planning, financial counselling or business coaching aligned to business development. Businesses also have the option to enhance marketing and communications activities, for example content development (web pages, mobile apps, visual and audio media etc.) digital/technological strategy development digital skilling or re-skilling to adapt to the demands of new business models during the pandemic.

To sum up, we believe modern marketing is more about aligning data and crafting a consumer-centric brand story through content, images, and hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp. The key lies in what kind of storytelling is happening.