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At
the onset of uncertain times, data showed us
the way
Being
data-driven is one of our core
organizational values and it helped us
identify and prepare early on for the change
in our digital marketing approach.
Apart from monitoring the impact of
COVID-19 on the domain registration numbers
for every geography, we kept a close eye on
Google search trends and changes in media
consumption patterns.
●
Analyzing Google Search Trends
Search
trends are often the earliest (and truest)
indicators of a shift in any sort of
behavior and the most effective source of
information if you are looking to stay ahead
of the curve.
We
looked at domain-related search queries that
were on the rise. It was obvious that people
were looking to “build a website” or “start
a blog”. What we also saw was that there
was an increase in queries pertaining to “setting
up an online business”. These changing
trends were further validated when a few
weeks into it, we saw peaks in registrations
for .ONLINE and .STORE domain names.
Source: Google
Trends
Interest over
time:
Numbers represent search interest relative
to the highest point on the chart for the
given region and time. A value of 100 is the
peak popularity for the term. A value of 50
means that the term is half as popular. A
score of 0 means there was not enough data
for this term.
What
also helped us immensely was to identify
trends and behaviors that had already come
about in countries that were hit with
COVID-19 early on.
This
helped us anticipate and prepare for some of
these changes
pertaining to buyer behavior, media
consumption patterns, impact on domain
sales, etc.
●
Monitoring
Media Consumption Patterns
This
crisis led to some major behavioral and
attitudinal shifts among the users and the
media consumption patterns reflect that.
A
study
of 25,000 consumers across 30
markets showed a 61% increase in
digital engagement compared to normal usage
rates.
Messaging
across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram went
up by 50% in countries that
were hit hardest by the virus. Twitter saw 23%
more daily users now than it
did a year ago.
Source:
COVID-19: Tracking the impact on media consumption
Under normal
circumstances, this trend would be a digital marketer’s delight. Current
circumstances, however, are not normal by any measure.
Our guess was
that people were most likely stress-scrolling on their screens, looking for
community support, and reassuring news to be able to weather the storm.
Not just that,
these patterns have constantly been
changing because of the volatile nature of this crisis. As a marketer, keeping a
close eye on these changes, and accordingly altering the strategy is key.
For example, in
the first few months, there was an increase in time spent on the desktop because
of the quarantine. People were no longer commuting, staying up late, and
spending more time on their laptops.
What this meant
for us was to adjust our ad schedules, device targeting strategy, etc. Lately,
we are seeing a shift to the earlier patterns of internet browsing as people are
returning to their earlier routines.
Radix’s digital marketing
approach to COVID-19
Times such as
these truly test the organization’s leadership and its values. Being
data-driven and having the freedom to make tough decisions helped us
course-correct in time to offer maximum value to the small business community.
At Radix, we
wanted to lend a helping hand to the SME community in their journey through quarantine,
working-from-home, and transitioning from offline to online to maintain business
continuity.
Owing
to the lockdown, a lot of small and medium businesses were compelled to move
online to maintain continuity. Businesses with no prior experience of running an
online business were now faced with the daunting challenge of setting up,
managing, and marketing their business virtually.
In keeping with
our commitment to empowering businesses to be future-ready, we wanted to ensure
we do everything in our capacity to make this whole process as seamless as
possible for them.
This became the
North Star for all our marketing efforts during this time.
Our entire digital marketing strategy basically boiled down to answering
three pertinent questions:
-
What are the specific
challenges that small and medium businesses are facing with getting online?
-
How can we help?
-
How do we get the word out?
Once we had
figured the answers to these questions, we had a pretty solid game plan to help
us navigate these uncharted waters.
Right from
building a thorough resource library to collaborating with our global network of
registrar partners to share helpful content with end-customers; we moved forward
towards not only helping them transition from offline to online easily but also
thrive online.
What we can do as marketers in
the domain industry
It is already
established that this crisis has stressed the need for businesses to have an
online presence. It’s inspiring to see how quickly the consumers have adapted
to the digital way of life. This has paved the way for a permanent change in the
shopping preferences of consumers, with online being the preferred mode even
post COVID-19, leading to a possible eCommerce boom.
As part of the
domain industry, we play a huge role in helping businesses to go online.
While it is a growth opportunity for our industry, let us also
acknowledge that it is an honor and a responsibility to be an enabler for so
many business owners looking to build business continuity.
At this critical
juncture for us, my advice
for domain industry marketers would be to remain mindful of the fact that there
is a lot of panic, chaos, and uncertainty all around. A lot of small and
mid-sized companies are undergoing financial strain. Being sensitive towards
their state of mind and helping them in whatever way possible should be our top
priority as marketers.
With
the kind of uncertainty that COVID-19 has brought upon us, businesses are just
playing catch up. Empathy is key. Look at solving a problem for them, create
value for them.
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