The global pandemic known as COVID-19 is affecting almost every part of life all over the world.<\/p>\n
As the global economy reels from the impact of this disease, businesses are shifting strategies, hoarding cash and preparing for the worst.<\/p>\n
But the reality is that businesses can thrive in downtimes.<\/p>\n
There will be business winners and losers in this new global normal.<\/p>\n
And many of the winners will invest heavily in search engine marketing.<\/p>\n
Here are five reasons why you should absolutely continue search engine marketing efforts during these trying times.<\/p>\n
During economic downtimes, cash is king.<\/p>\n
Those that have the cash, or cash flow, to push through the hard times are the businesses that survive.<\/p>\n
The only marketing technique that produces a better ROI than search engine marketing is an opt-in email list.<\/p>\n
Opt-in email lists don\u2019t grow on trees.<\/p>\n
They must be created by generating demand \u2013 and search engine marketing is one of the best ways to create a profitable opt-in email list.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s beside the point.<\/p>\n
Search engine marketing, both paid and organic, reaches the consumer when they are in a state of need.<\/p>\n
Forget attribution and the top of the funnel.<\/p>\n
Search engine marketing produces sales and leads precisely because the consumer is connected with your brand when they are searching for your product or service.<\/p>\n
People still need products and services, even if they are self-quarantined for 14 days.<\/p>\n
In fact, when people stay home, my bet is they are going to be searching more rather than less.<\/p>\n
By putting your brand in front of searchers, you make the cut when the buying decision is made.<\/p>\n
Even if overall sales of your product or service go down because of the economy or the pandemic, you can offset some of your losses by investing in a comprehensive search engine marketing program that puts you in front of those that are still in a buying frame of mind.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been marketing to the top of the funnel but are experiencing a budget crunch, it makes sense that you\u2019ll move your efforts to consumers with more immediate buying intent.<\/p>\n
Search engine marketing does just that \u2013 but more importantly, you can prove whether you are successful.<\/p>\n
Unlike \u201cbranding\u201d efforts, its easy to see if search engine marketing is effective.<\/p>\n
All you have to do is look at sales or leads in your analytics.<\/p>\n
This allows you to pivot budget and effort when necessary.<\/p>\n
Buyer behavior is sure to go through significant changes in the next few months.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important that your marketing efforts can pivot based on data.<\/p>\n
Search engine marketing is, by its nature, reactive.<\/p>\n
Competent search engine marketers react to data and change tactics accordingly.<\/p>\n
A search engine marketer may move budget to keyword phrases with stronger buyer intent, or promote content that will appeal to the current mood of the consumer.<\/p>\n
But at the end of the day, when you don\u2019t have a big budget, every dollar you spend needs to be effective.<\/p>\n
With search engine marketing, you can know pretty quickly if your dollars are working for you.<\/p>\n
There is already an indication that some goods are going to be hard to find in the near future.<\/p>\n
I would imagine that the first eCommerce listing for \u201ctoilet paper\u201d (FYI \u2013 it\u2019s Amazon) is worth its weight in gold right now.<\/p>\n
When goods are scarce, consumers will search for them.<\/p>\n
If goods are not available, consumers will search for alternatives.<\/p>\n
If you can be in the search results when people are searching for scarce goods or services, your business can be the recipient of a windfall.<\/p>\n
The types of scarcity we may see in the coming months are unprecedented in most of our lifetimes.<\/p>\n
Forward-thinking search engine marketers will be looking for opportunities to:<\/p>\n
Many SEO professionals will build link building campaigns around alternatives for products that are exorbitantly expensive and hard to find.<\/p>\n
Those that can capitalize on SEO will be better off, as the keyword costs around scarce items will most likely increase as the demand increases.<\/p>\n
Despite what some of the folks in my Facebook feed seem to think, the world is not coming to an end..<\/p>\n
Humans still need products and services..<\/p>\n
And as I\u2019ve already stated, search engine marketing, both paid and organic, is the best way to reach consumers with buying intent..<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not saying that search engine marketing is always a quick fix \u2013 but you can get a Google Ads campaign up and running in a few hours or less..<\/p>\n
When the CEO starts panicking, suggesting a search engine marketing campaign may be the best way to calm them down for a bit..<\/p>\n
Especially if you haven\u2019t been doing search engine marketing in the past.<\/p>\n
Eventually, things will normalize.<\/p>\n
It may be different, and there may be a new normal, but the world will stabilize.<\/p>\n
And search engine marketing will still be one of the most effective ways to reach consumers.<\/p>\n
Those that implement effective search engine marketing programs during the downtimes will be primed to clean up when things normalize.<\/p>\n
Especially those that invest in search engine optimization.<\/p>\n
While you can see results from SEO in a short period of time, the overall effectiveness of SEO doesn\u2019t happen overnight.\n<\/p>\n
It takes time to get an SEO campaign to run effectively.<\/p>\n
But in the time that we are dealing with global pandemonium, a business could create an SEO campaign that will reap results for years to come.<\/p>\n
And those results could produce the revenue your business needs to make it through the inevitable hard times that are coming.<\/p>\n
So I encourage all businesses to either continue or start aggressive search engine marketing efforts.<\/p>\n
Search engine marketing is the most effective way to market your business in downtimes.<\/p>\n
We saw this to be the case in 2009, and things haven\u2019t changed that much.<\/p>\n
So get started today.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll thank me tomorrow.<\/p>\n