how digital marketing agencies will change due to COVID-19
If you have an agency, or are you in an agency, you're probably wondering how things will change due to COVID-19. I have spent a good amount of time thinking about this and this is what I predict will happen.
Strategy with change
Everything a digital marketing agency does begins with its strategy, so I think it's important that we address this first.
There have been clear changes in online supply and demand. The product market adjustment has also been modified for almost all categories at some level due to the domino effect of COVID-19. Because of this, agencies will have to view themselves and their clients through the following lenses:
- How has the need for your customer base changed?
- How have your budgets changed?
- Are they still a good target for the customer?
- Should they point to a different customer profile?
- Do they still have the right services to help those clients?
Agencies should analyze the fit of their own product market and that of their clients. This will be an important exercise for the rest of 2020.
How to win
You should take a closer look at your customer and refine your strategy around your new weak points.
For example, we have seen searches drop dramatically for terms “close to me” and the terms of “delivery”. We have seen YouTube grow a 15% in traffic, while at the same time advertising revenue is down.
Agencies must change the way they bring their clients to the market, your services and prices to do it.
Immediate advice on how digital agencies should update customer strategy
- A page on their website that directly addresses COVID-19 and how they are helping customers. This should be visible on all pages of the site. You must also provide an update on any changes in the business.
- They need to bring their new messaging strategy to their advertising creatives, to your email and content marketing teams, and to television and radio.
- They need to run a campaign that clearly states how they are helping their customers, and they need to track the results. If the results are good, they can promote how they helped customers in a follow-up marketing campaign later in 2020.
Organization
There is no doubt that the way organizations operate will change in the short term because of this.. Agencies are no exception.
With everyone working remotely, you can expect employees and employers to get used to this. Rent is not cheap and, usually, the profitability of the agency is low. In most cases, agencies have net profits between 5% Y 30% and rent is a big part of that cost since the agency often likes to have a good office to attract staff and surprise clients. If clients don't want to meet in their office and staff want to work from home, this means big savings for the company. The best part is that this money can be used to invest more in customer success and employee success..
How will they change
an office brings other great challenges: lack of team culture / business, lack of community, collaboration and much more. Personally, I love having an office and seeing our team every day. Without one, agency owners may have management challenges and will n