This article was origionally published in Localogy.
Over the last six years,
The State of Local Marketing Report has tracked the steady increase in the prioritization and utilization of digital tactics among small businesses. In 2020, the research report revealed that the trend toward digital tactics was accelerated by the pandemic, with SEO, social media, paid search, and websites and landing pages experiencing the most significant increases in marketing priority from 2019.
Local businesses that once relied heavily on events and foot traffic no longer had those channels available when the threat of COVID-19 put an end to in-person gatherings and leisurely shopping. At the same time, streaming increased, social media use skyrocketed, and online search behaviors changed. The savviest local marketers took advantage of these trends by shifting their marketing priorities and budgets to the tactics that would be most effective in the new normal—digital.
Here are a few key data points that demonstrate the pandemic’s indelible impact on local marketing: