Bankruptcy rate for small and medium businesses almost quadrupled during the COVID crisis. DesignRush interviewed digital marketing experts on their biggest success stories that have helped businesses weather or thrive through the pandemic.
NEW YORK - AUGUST 13, 2021
Small and medium (SME) businesses reached an aggregate bankruptcy rate of 12.36% in 2020, a significant increase compared to the 3.61% pre-COVID rate. Many businesses that have effectively leveraged digital marketing channels and tactics during the pandemic have shown greater resilience during the crisis.
DesignRush, a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies, leveraged its 9,000-agencies-strong network for quick insights – or “QuickSights” – on their biggest digital marketing success stories and takeaways during the pandemic.
1) CONTINUOUS PPC AND SEO STRATEGY OPTIMIZATION TO ADAPT TO THE CHANGING USER NEEDS & BEHAVIORS
According to Jay Fontenot, president of JMF Digital Marketing, during times of local or global uncertainty such as the COVID crisis, the key to running successful PPC and SEO campaigns is continuous optimization to address the users’ fast-changing needs.
- “We helped our client JMF Commercial Construction find more customers during the COVID19 shutdown,” said Fontenot. "To do this, we had to reimplement our marketing strategy to reflect the changing market. Over time, with continuous optimization to our pay per clicks advertisement and search engine optimization we were still able to meet our client’s pre-covid expectations.”
2) CONTENT MARKETING PAID DIVIDENDS IN CUSTOMER LOYALTY
Gustavo Rojas, head of accounts relations at Elliptic Marketing, said that businesses that had invested in content marketing were better positioned on the market and, therefore, more resilient due to their “social capital.”
- “During the pandemic, the brands that came ahead knew how to keep up with customers without expecting something in return,” said Rojas. “How-to guides, online events, live interview with subject experts, and other forms of content marketing helped build social capital that is now being repaid as customer loyalty.”
3) SUBSCRIPTION MODEL INCREASED THE MARGINS DURING THE PANDEMIC
According to Founder of Media Jet Marketing, Jorge Cevallos, subscriptions proved to be one of the most effective marketing tactics during the pandemic along with digital products.
"We have found two major golden eggs during the pandemic, the subscription model and digital products,” said Cevallos. “We've seen incredible growth for clients that were able to adjust into either of these service offerings. Digital products and subscription models both amplify margins and increase profitability on each customer, which allows you to justify spending more to acquire a customer. This led us to double down and become one of the biggest spenders on Facebook and Google in our niche, with an average ROAS of 10+ in the months of April and May."
To help businesses find a fitting partner for their digital marketing efforts, DesignRush released the August list of the top digital marketing agencies:
- Lorenzo Gutierrez - lorenzogutierrez.net
- Deyo Digital - deyodigital.com
- Global Social Media Marketing - globalsocialmediamarketing.com
- JMF Digital Marketing - jmfdigitalmarketing.com
- Code Conspirators - codeconspirators.com
- Nautilus Marketing - nautilusmarketing.co.uk
- Explorate Global - explorateglobal.com
- Martek Cloud - martekcloud.com
- StratDev - stratdevdigitalmarketing.com
- Bizcope Digital - bizcope.com
- The IT Crowd - theitcrowd.com
- BrainTrust - thebraintrust.com
- Online Path - onlinepath.com.au
- PigWorks - pig.works
- Elliptic Marketing - ellipticmarketing.com
- Split Reef - splitreef.com
- Media Jet Marketing - mediajetmarketing.com
- Renegade, LLC - renegade.com
Brands can explore the top digital marketing companies by location, size, average hourly rate and portfolio on DesignRush.
About DesignRush:
DesignRush.com is a B2B marketplace connecting brands with agencies through expert reviews and agency ranking lists, awards, knowledge resources and personalized agency recommendations for vetted projects.
