IS THE DIGITALIZATION PENICILIN FOR COVID-19?

If we go back in past and remember the Justinian’s plague, Black Death, Spanish and Asian flu, how is COVID-19 different? The answer is the development of technology. We are aware that the digitalization has encompassed all the pores of our lives and that without it, today, it is not possible to organise the normal functioning of everyday responsibilities. Today, during the pandemics, when the focus is on online platforms, it is important to mention how few of us were ready for this situation.

Even though the advertising on the Internet and its use have been significantly increased during the last couple of years, we have still not reached the adequate level of digitalization. Today, many institutions, companies, organisations as well as associations turned their publicity and advertising to online platforms. Why? Because that is one of the faster and more efficient methods of transferring the credible information where we can reach as large target audience  as possible with just a few clicks. Regardless of whether our spheres of online interests are programming, design, multimedia or IT business, it is important to understand what it means to be computer literate. According to the research Digital 2020. Global Overview, we spend seven hours online on daily basis, which is the third of our day. When we go back to the new situation, we can easily conclude that the Internet is currently our “penicillin” for COVID-19. Apart from finding out useful information, we can also use the time at home productively. Some of the ways are definitely online platforms for watching films, online theatres, reading online books, gaining different creative interests as well as maintenance of communication with people. In Italy for example, as one of the most endangered countries during the pandemics, online communication on social networks has increased for 70 percent, while the time on group calls has increased for thousand percent. For the creators of online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Netflix, that also meant that they must introduce the “restrictive measures” in streaming, where they lowered the quality of reproduction from HD to SD whenever possible.

What is the challenge in the digital marketing is the question – how to animate the audience, i.e. – What is it that I can offer that others have not offered already? If we mention the research that prove that the least funds for advertising are spent during summer, when people are outside, what can we do when smart phones and computers are, in the majority of situations – everything to us? In order to implement an efficient digital campaign, we must first start from our target group, i.e. whether we should make the selection according to gender, interests, territory, etc. Remember that in online world, there is no successful marketing that generalizes, i.e. includes everything. It is also important to know what the purpose of advertising is. Is that the larger activity on a website, the growth of sales of a certain brand or do we simply want to gain a larger base of e-mail users for future business? When talking about positive examples on the current platforms, we should mention the applications such as TikTok, Netflix and Houseparty, which have found the way for “distant socialization”. Among other things, TikTok have been downloaded the most during the last month. Instagram has launched the Co-watching option where you can list social media feeds along with your friends, while LinkedIn opted for “Conversation Ads” which enables the new possibilities for conversion for marketers through inbox platform. Some of the most successful companies and brands see their success in the circular process: SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Email marketing – PPC Pay Per Click – Affiliate marketing – SEM Search Engine Marketing – Content marketing – Social media marketing, which enables them to have as large base of information and advertising as possible. When talking about digital marketing, today and in the future, each sphere of our actions must become “alive” online.