Our last blog covered some of the ways we expected the novel Coronavirus to affect businesses and their marketing efforts. Although it seems not long since that blog was posted, we have seen dramatic shifts happen rapidly across industries including restaurants, grocery stores, and retail. This is an ever-changing situation, and we expect things to change more and more. Read on to discover some of the trends we’ve seen in marketing related to COVID-19.
Online Ordering for Pickup/Delivery in Restaurant Industry
The ability to order online from your favorite restaurants has been around for a while now. With many restaurants closing their dining rooms and switching to to-go and delivery only, making online ordering available and making customers aware has been critical for restaurants large and small. We have seen restaurants of all sizes ramp up their efforts to advertise this side of their business in their organic social media, paid social, Google PPC, and even TV ads. Many restaurants are even offering free delivery with services like UberEats, GrubHub, and DoorDash. We have seen local restaurants even offer their own delivery services to a small radius around their business for a low price or even free.
This effort has been critical for many small and local restaurants in order to weather the storm of Coronavirus. Some governments, including the state of Tennessee, have even temporarily allowed to-go and delivery sales of alcohol (with food purchase) in order to help restaurants further since alcohol sales tend to offer better profit margins.
E-commerce and Online Shopping
Whether or not they’ve been ordered by the government to close, many retailers have temporarily closed their storefronts in order to further slow the spread of COVID-19. With the temporary closure of this sales channel, retailers are depending on eCommerce to help make up for the loss of retail store sales.
We have seen a number of retailers offer free shipping at their online stores in order to encourage customers to continue shopping with them during the pandemic. We expect to see more creativity and efforts to encourage online shopping with the closure of stores.
At-Home Products and Services
Another big marketing pivot we have noticed is various businesses stressing the ability to use their products or services at home. With the importance of social distancing and staying at home, various retailers and businesses have put out more ads to communicate how they can keep you busy during self-quarantine. You have probably seen more and more ads for home-learning software and online exercise training and classes. Some businesses that didn’t offer online services have even adapted to offer classes or training online.
While the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, we are proud of all of the businesses and marketers that are working hard to innovate and adapt to these unprecedented changes in the marketplace. If your business needs help adapting your online strategy for these changes, contact Smarter Searches today.
