8 trends in the digital marketing world after COVID-19
The first few weeks after the nations across the world went on lockdown due to COVID-19, it seemed like the world was coming to an end. The stock market showed a steady decline, people started losing their jobs, the grocery shelves were getting emptied, and the death toll showed no signs of stopping.
Never before in our lifetimes had we seen this kind of crisis, which is a catastrophic combination of a humanitarian crisis and a financial crisis happening on a global scale.
From the perspective of digital marketing, the pandemic brought in a major transformation in digital marketing trends 2020 due to the considerable changes in consumer behavior. After all, right from the way people worked to their purchasing patterns, everything has been fundamentally altered during this time.
And, even as everything slowly returns to normal, these new trends in digital marketing are here to stay for the year and maybe even after that.
So, on that note, here’s taking a look at the top trends to rise in the digital marketing world after COVID-19.
Greater focus on delivering value over cheaper pricing
The pandemic showed that in the face of uncertainty, people will always choose value over getting cheaper goods. This is certainly going to have an impact on digital marketing trends in 2020. Let’s explain the digital marketing trends 2020 further with an example.
Suppose ABC is a company that sold masks at a higher price than most other competitors. Yet their demand remained higher during the pandemic and even after things started normalizing because of the new trends in digital marketing.
The reason behind this is that the scams on low-grade and faulty masks made people cautious about buying cheap masks. They didn’t hesitate to go for the more expensive product to get better quality.
It means that people are looking to get products that they can trust rather than sacrificing quality for getting a good deal. So, the digital marketing trends 2020 need to focus on creating a marketing strategy aimed at creating greater brand awareness, and building the trust that is valued even more during the times of misinformation and fake news.
Addressing the increased skepticism of the customers
As misleading information and false claims hit an all-time high during the times of pandemic, the skepticism of the consumers increased in tandem.
Right from conspiracies about the spread of the virus, political spins, to the strangest cures, flat-out lies and half-truths flooded the television and the internet. The situation was made even worse by the fact that everyone was as glued to their screens as a child is to his Legos!
But, people soon started realizing the amount of misinformation that was going around. This put the consumers on a higher alert about the things that were broadcasted to them.
One of the new trends in digital marketing that emerged from this was the focus on delivering relatable and real customer experience in order to ensure greater customer retention. Greater emphasis on personalization and interactive content is going to become an absolute must in the days to come.
The use of loss aversion attitude in marketing
Loss aversion attitude is something that is engrained in the human mind. The effect of this was more evident in what happened during the early days of the spread of the virus. The term loss aversion refers to the fact that people would rather avoid losses than acquire gains.
Our minds are hard-wired to make sure we avoid losses, and digital marketers know this all too well. The uncertain situation due to the pandemic, especially at the initial stage, increased this loss aversion attitude of people. It wasn’t too long before digital marketing picked up on this factor.
One of the new trends of digital marketing that came up as a result of this was leveraging sales by focusing on the loss aversion mindset of consumers. As consumers become more reliant on loss aversion techniques, digital marketers are going to make more refined use of this prominent aspect of consumer behavior.
A steady decline in non-digital advertisement
Signs, billboards, and all other kinds of outdoor advertisements have been witnessing a steady dip even before the pandemic hit. COVID-19 simply ramped up the rate of decline, as it increased the focus on online marketing in digital marketing trends 2020.
Though the lack of time spent outdoors and increased screen times are responsible for this, things will continue moving in this direction even after people can leave their homes again.
Going by the digital marketing updates, it gave the businesses and the marketers a closer look at how going digital is considerably more beneficial in terms of resources used and results achieved.
With digital ads, marketers can leverage video content, use artificial intelligence, and so on. Moreover, content marketing ensures greater customer retention than physical ads through personalized and interactive content.
All in all, there’s no going back to the traditional ways even after the pandemic is over.
The days of agile marketing are here to stay
COVID-19 was a lesson in agile marketing, which has to be one of the major digital marketing trends 2020 to come out of it.
The response required for COVID-19 was unusual in the fact that messaging had to be different based on where in a country (or the world) the brand was targeting.
One-size-fits-all marketing was definitely not going to make the cut for digital marketing trends 2020. Trying the same marketing techniques for all meant, showing empathy where people had overcome the crisis or directing people to stores where the infection was still peaking.
The digital marketers learned that in order to keep up with the new trends in digital marketing, they need to respond to changes fast and in a way that appeals to the target audience.
Bottom line
The comprehensive marketing impact of COVID-19 on brands, agencies, and consumer habits are yet to be known completely. However, leave no doubt in mind about the impact of the aforementioned new trends in digital marketing. So, it’s time for digital marketers to buckle up and be prepared for any results while they continue their quest to find new opportunities.