The growth of offline businesses in an online world
In a world that was steadily moving online, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic expedited the shift. Several traditional businesses were forced to migrate from offline to online. Stringent social distancing and ‘no-contact’ norms forced everyone to explore other options. Take the example of newspapers. Even loyal consumers of newspapers and magazines shifted to digital news as they could not be delivered without physical contact. The fear of exposing oneself to the virus saw a boost in visits among online news portals.
The result? Not only did print media lose subscribers, but there was also a massive drop in advertising revenue. In March and April 2020 alone, newspapers lost nearly 75-85 percent of their advertising revenue. It seems near impossible to recover from such a massive hit in revenue, doesn’t it? However, one of the ways in which they can recover their losses is to focus on digital channels. After all, digital media and online gaming were the mediums that grew in 2020, adding in an aggregate of ₹26 billion in revenue.
Adoption of Online Channels
The shift to online is not limited to media and communication channels. In April 2020, popular Australian retailer Accent Group announced the closure of multiple brick-and-mortar stores. The conglomerate attributed this move to changing consumer habits in Australia and New Zealand. The focus was now to have online sales represent a major chunk of their total sales. And the approach has already shown strong promise with a 110% year-on-year increase in digital sales.
They are not alone; practically every major brick-and-mortar business understands that the world is at the cusp of a digital revolution, and none can afford to lag behind.
Whenever anyone thought of purchasing art pieces, it would mean a visit to art galleries. But Pisarto wanted to change that, bringing paintings from across the world to its customers online. The customers were present online, but Pisarto had to reach these customers. So Pisarto decided to try an organic search route around a year back. Today with the help of SEO-focused solutions, their organic click share (Search Market Share) for the handmade paintings category is 4.4%, leaping ahead of many competitors.
For a category where bringing potential customers to an art gallery could cost crores, online channels get thousands of potential customers on a daily basis to such businesses at a fraction of the cost.
The Growth Metrics
Brands need to plan, execute and drive successful marketing campaigns based on quantifiable metrics. Unlike venture capital-funded companies, traditional businesses focus more on profits than valuation. Hence, revenue, return on investment (ROI), and long-term returns are always part of the growth metrics that they want to measure. These are also a few of the reasons that traditional businesses are gradually switching to digital channels.
An online presence, however, comes with its own challenges. Being noticed, discovered, and showing up top ranks for relevant keywords on search result pages requires excellent budgets when it comes to paid digital marketing or a well-planned and well-implemented strategy when it comes to organic digital marketing.
The pandemic hit industry also saw marketing budgets shrinking, to a large extent in some cases. This led to a growing need to strengthen organic channels. On the other hand, reliance on paid channels dropped. The reason remained the same — better ROI; a necessity in a struggling global market.
Several brands prefer Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because it aligns with their ROI-focused goals — low investment, high returns. Mochi is one such example.
In two decades, Mochi has spread across 50+ Indian cities through its 150 outlets. So, when it went digital, they wanted their online success story to match that of their brick-and-mortar stores. And it did; their online platform witnessed a 400% increase in monthly revenue via organic search within a span of a few months.
Tools such as Google Analytics help marketers, deep-dive, into data wells to precisely understand user behaviour. Deep insights on user behavior can be secured via metrics such as the source of the traffic, duration of sessions, numbers of pages visited, and clicks generated, to name a few. It is only with such precise metrics that focused strategies can be curated. Within efficient hands, this data can help churn strategies like the metaphorical golden goose, in the long run, a major win for businesses everywhere.
Is SEO the way ahead in the ROI focused online world?
By this point, it is evident that SEO will continue to drive conversions at the lowest costs. At the same time, it shall continue to foster brand awareness and trust. This combination is something that any business seeks in the long run and a strong motivation for brick-and-mortar organizations to make their way online.
About the author:
Kaushal Thakkar, Founder, Infidigit