As a result of the global effect of the coronavirus, governments are urging the citizens to stay at home and for businesses that don’t offer essential services to close down.

Some businesses that remain open, can only do so for limited hours with a smaller number of employees. What is being witnessed is a huge impact on the global economy.

Unlike brick and mortar businesses, online businesses such as e-commerce, technology service providers, and digital marketing agencies do not need to completely shut down. This is because their employees can work remotely and perform usual operations enabled by internet connections. The availability of project management software, communication software, and video conferencing makes this much easier.

Unfortunately, this is not worth celebrating as the digital marketing space has not been spared from the effects of the pandemic. Many are left to figure out how to deal with the uncertainty and disruption in the digital marketing space.Consumer behavior is different and this impacts their purchases. For instance, the travel industry is affected while the online purchases of some products and services have seen a rise.By the way, if you have e-commerce apps or the website it’s time to dust them up and perfect the processes.

The pandemic impact is so great that even the giants have not been left out. According to a Forecast on effects on Google and Facebook advertising by Coronavirus, it’s expected that digital advertising by the two companies will be highly affected. Together the two could lose more than $44billion in Worldwide revenue in 2020.Facebook in this report agrees that although there is high usage of their apps for communication purposes, they have registered a drop in ads especially in countries that are taking aggressive measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

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But, don’t jump to close business yet. Because what this means is that, although with a bit of reduced profit margin, digital marketing is performing better than other businesses.

The agility of digital marketing allows for the business to reallocate spend budgets such as ad spend due to decreased opportunities.Consider this, there is less search for some industries such as hotels and travel businesses.

This impacts on paid-search as well as online display advertising. With no sales, it means no more spending on advertising budgets. On the other hand, there is an increase in searches for particular health-related topics and businesses such as pharmacies, hand sanitizers, and face masks.

As a result, many companies whether big or small are now facing the decision to review their digital strategies.There are a lot of changes as people withdraw from daily activities such as remote working, schools closing, and online shopping. This only means that there are consumer behavioral changes.

‍For digital agencies that will be able to adapt quickly this may result in new growth opportunities. For instance, with directives to stay at home consumers are turning to online shopping and some business people are offering delivery for products including grocery, foodstuff and other products.

‍A move towards virtual events and more businesses going digital is an opportunity for digital marketers. This means that as dangerous as the epidemic is turning out to be, it has also created business opportunities in other areas.

‍Final thoughts It may be easy to predict the short term of the ongoing pandemic, but if the crisis doesn’t die down it may be difficult to answer what will happen in the long term.The best thing you can do for your business is to stay in touch with the changes and be flexible to allow for adjusting your digital strategies and goals.