The onset of the COVID-19 CoronaVirus has caught most people off-guard. It has not only plagued people’s health but also the business sector as a whole. Public and private sectors are struggling to survive as the world finds a cure for the CoronaVirus.
Global Lockdowns and Limited Movement
Schools and most businesses have closed their doors as part of safety measures, while establishments that provide basic necessities are struggling to meet demands amidst limited resources and manpower.
It is difficult to describe how every part of the supply chain is scrambling to maintain operations during this crisis.
Supermarkets have implemented new guidelines such as reduced operating hours, queueing or entering the establishment in batches to reduce crowding, and limiting purchases of basic necessities to only a few pieces per customer.
Meanwhile, retail stores, services, and most restaurants have closed during the quarantine, with only a few that could offer take-out or delivery services remaining open. Closure of malls are affecting small and medium enterprises the most, but the current situation is also taking its toll on large scale businesses. Airlines and hotels are likewise incurring losses.
Production of ‘luxury’ items, from cars to cameras, have all but ground to a halt, while production of basic goods such as food and sanitation are trying to meet demand while only running on limited capacity.
Global imports are also at a standstill, leading to further bottlenecks in production even if local manpower was available.
The quarantine guidelines that differ between cities have made delivering these products to the market difficult as well. The customer-facing side of this supply chain, at least those that are still open, also need to implement social distancing and safety measures on top of other concerns.
ECommerce in the Time of a Pandemic
To avoid going out of their homes, most households have opted to get their groceries and other necessities delivered to them. From supermarkets who offer this service to eCommerce sites like Amazon, online means of profit seem to have found a foothold during nationwide lockdowns.
It’s worth noting that this total shift from brick and mortar to online shopping has happened before during the SARS crisis in 2002 and 2003, with Alibaba and JD.com earning significantly from that.
At first glance, we might think that online stores will serve to gain from this situation. But even online retailers are experiencing the supply chain and logistical issues even if they remain ‘open’.
The reason for this are the much stricter lockdown laws being implemented in different countries. Shipments are getting stuck in ports and ocean shipping contracts are being held up. And this isn’t just on the national level, eCommerce sites themselves have started restricting the items being shipped from their warehouses. Amazon has currently stopped accepting items that are not medical supplies and household staples.
For now, some online stores are still operating even with limited mobility. However, the sales are expected to also dwindle as people experience restrictions in cash flow.
Addressing the Consumer Cash Flow Predicament
Utility companies and credit cards have delayed their monthly billings in consideration of their consumers and employees. Some CEOs and executive board members have also cut their paychecks in order to ensure the salary of their workers.
Some governments are also planning to release a certain amount of money per household to compensate for the money lost because their jobs have closed down either temporarily or permanently.
But there is an acknowledgement that these may not be enough because no one knows for sure how long lockdowns will last or when there will be a significant flattening of the curve. For now, the combination of public and private sector efforts to make sure everyone has enough money to spend are continuing and evolving.
Business Continuity Plans
Businesses that are able to are now utilizing work-from-home models to maintain workflows. Services such as online banking, video conferencing, and online collaborations are now seeing heavy use, with Skype reporting an increase of 220% in Skype-to-Skype calls.
Zoom has also become one of the most downloaded apps as it is used for video conferencing. This increases the demand for stronger and wider internet connection.
This shift to remote working isn’t just isolated in commerce, but medical practitioners are also exploring the possibility of remote diagnosis.
Telecommunication companies are now being challenged to provide more reliable internet services as more people are depending on it.
Mitigating the Economic Effects
Even with the exchange of essential goods and services still going on, the general condition of the economy is already dire.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared that the world is in a global recession due to the virus, but they also said they’ll do everything they can so that the world can bounce back by 2021.
After the meeting of the Financial Committee, representing 189 countries, the IMF Managing Director said, “…there may be a sizeable rebound, but only if we succeed with containing the virus everywhere and prevent liquidity problems from becoming a solvency issue.”
Amidst all of this, the IMF has asked countries who are in need of help to apply sooner rather than later as the organization finds a way to double its financial capacity to provide the assistance members need to alleviate the crisis.
With lockdown extensions happening to contain the virus, businesses have started coming up with contingency plans to avoid laying off employees and to shift seamlessly to remote operations. We’ll have more to summarize as events unfold, but while it looks dim, the efforts being made to alleviate the effects of the crisis already makes a huge difference.
It takes a whole team of experts to get the biggest return on investment on your marketing efforts. Marketing requires a certain level of focus, experience, and even aggression in order to be successful and sustainable, which can be difficult to achieve when you’re also busy with the other core aspects of your business.
For these reasons, many startup and even well-established companies opt to get help from a reputable marketing service provider. Below are some of the main reasons why you should do the same:
Access to seasoned professionals
Building a productive team of in-house marketers is no easy task. First, you’ll have a very small pool to choose from if you’re trying to find applicants that are highly-qualified, a good cultural fit, and live within a reasonable distance from the office.
It’s also unlikely that you’ll find them all at the same time, which means you’ll need to conduct induction and training multiple times before they’re able to work efficiently as a team. It’s a slow build-up, which means you’ll be wasting both time and money in the process.
On the other hand, outsourcing enables you to immediately tap into the skills of multiple experts who already have a good sense of teamwork. An external digital marketing company will give you access to seasoned professionals like digital marketing managers, content writers, graphic designers, social media managers, data analysts, web developers, and more, all of whom are ready to apply their expertise when needed.
Induction won’t take as much time either. A good digital marketing company will already conduct an initial research and assessment of your company and current marketing efforts. Afterwards, you’ll discuss the budget, scope of work, and targets before letting them work their magic.
Don’t worry about losing any sort of control either. Frequent touchpoint meetings give you the opportunity to approve or reject any strategic and tactical approaches they recommend. They will also provide full transparency of all metrics so you always know what’s going on.
Getting a fresh perspective
There’s no doubt that as a business owner, you know your products or services better than anyone else. While this is generally a good thing, it’s also likely that you have a very biased perspective. Gaining insight on your company not just from customer feedback but also from outsourced marketing experts will help you understand the best way to approach your marketing. They are trained to explore all opportunities; whether it’s tweaking branding, targeting, improving your website’s UX, an outsourced digital marketing team will cover all bases in order to meet your goals.
Access to tried and tested tools
Where do you even begin to decide what tools to use? Digital marketing companies are always up to date with new developments and technology in the industry, and also already have subscriptions to tools that are proven to be useful in getting results. You won’t need to waste time and money with trial and error!
Reduced risk and cost
Outsourcing is the most cost-effective way to drive the results you want with minimal effort on your part. Having a digital marketing team outside of your company enables you to take a step back and let experts stay on top of making your marketing efforts successful. There’s also no need to worry about going the extra mile to keep the team motivated to perform well. An outsourcing company is already highly driven to perform well sans incentives in order to keep you as a client.
Additionally, outsourced digital marketing agencies are well aware that you might not need them forever. They lay the groundwork for your marketing efforts until the time you’re able to have an in-house team that can take over and continue on the path they’ve already paved for you, normally after a couple of years. By that time, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect from your in-house staff and have a baseline for what counts as well-performing campaigns.
Your business can run 24/7
Trying to achieve a good work-life is near impossible if there’s always a possibility that something urgent comes up at 1AM in the morning. Running digital marketing campaigns in particular is notorious for needing to be monitored consistently to ensure that you’re not using up your budget for low conversions, or that you’re losing customers because an error has come up on your website.
Having teammates with a different work schedule from you may seem counter-productive at first, but it’s a great way to ensure that your business keeps running smoothly even when you’re asleep. Knowing that there’s someone manning the desk as soon as you clock out gives you and your employees freedom to decompress and enjoy their time off.
However, choosing an outsourcing company in the same time zone is still extremely beneficial in keeping your business running. As marketers, they committed to ensure ongoing optimization. Rest assured that they have their internal strategy in place in order to deliver on their proposed end goals.
Bearing all of these advantages in mind, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from getting your free consultation with a results-driven outsourced marketing agency today.
