The COVID-19 lockdowns around the world are causing major economic impacts, but one key benefit that we have in modern society, that hasn't been available in pandemics of the past, is the internet, and increased connectivity, which has enabled many businesses to continue operation despite not being able to open their physical stores.

And while the human impact of the crisis cannot be overstated, for those that are able, minimizing the economic impact through the available means could be the difference between staying afloat or going under, and suffering massive financial burden as a result.

To help with this, the team from Webclick Communications have put together a listing of key digital marketing trends worth focusing on amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, which could help to maximize response, and subsequent sales performance.

1. PWA (Progressive Web App)
2. SEO Snippet Marketing
3. Social Commerce
4. Chat Bot Marketing
5. Pay Per Click Marketing

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1. Progressive Web Apps

The introduction of Progressive Web Apps by Google has changed the way we think about mobile app development.

Progressive web apps can be considered as an extension of a traditional mobile website. Think of it this way: What if you get to access an app in the same way you open a website from a web browser? and what if you get to visit websites that offer features and other functions similar to an app? A Progressive Web App is the answer to these two questions.

In the most basic sense, a Progressive Web App is an app that can be loaded directly from a web browser. These apps support most functionalities offered by traditional apps, all without consuming any storage space and requesting permissions to access hardware as an app does. Seems good enough right?

The smartphone revolution has enveloped everyone under the digital umbrella. In the modern-day, getting to know and access the services of business requires access to their digital world. Companies worldwide are making their presence felt by hiring developers for mobile & web app development. But small businesses do not have the luxury of investing in R & D for leveraging new technologies. As such, a PWA offers several benefits that make them perfectly suited to small business owners. Here are some of them:

1. Low Usage of Data
Data is a great chore in whatever application you are using. And hence, it is worthwhile to take care of it. There might be a situation where the entire society is seeing a major downfall in the price of mobile data. In such situations, it is advisable to use PWA since it consumes very fewer data in comparison with the native applications.

2. Security
Security has become a trendy word in this tech-savvy world and it creates a problem for both developers as well as users. So the users are looking for niche since the previous HTTP norms are not sufficient for data protection. It is essential to use PWA inside the safe environment since the majority of the websites are indulged using HTTPS. This gives customers confidence while providing required data into PWA through a secured network. All sorts of benefits such as fast loading time, optimum performance, along with app-like user vibe it offers. What more will you expect from it?

3. High Performance
We all know that progressive web apps are working really fast. But we are oblivious about the fact that they are faster than the normal apps and websites. There are many reports available nowadays which give the answer “Yes”.

Optimized web performance gets more response from the end-users and adds more value to the progressive web app. So what is the main reason behind this? The simple answer is that PWA works on a particular technology of caching. The website performance had a great influence on the lead conversion along with the retention rates.

4. Google Backup
The leading software giant Google promotes PWAs. In the I/O meeting of 2017, Google appreciated the continued development of an app like preference. From that time, Google began the promotion of Progressive Web applications.

5. No Installation
The most important aspect is that the visitors don’t need to download any particular app from the play store and then wait till the installation gets over. Using PWAs, they can add an app straight into their devices. It is similar to the mainstream mobile application and similar to the normal mobile application.

Furthermore, it brings the own icon on the home screen negating the sloppy and no complicated installation process. As a result, it enhances the audience’s experience. This mitigates user abandonment which implies that users will spend time on your site. Moreover, it asks the user to download these apps when they navigate to that particular website.

6. Application Resemblance
One of the main features of PWAs is that they bring an app-like experience to their users, but, at the same time, allow them to skip app store browsing and installation. In other words — they feel like a mobile app but work as an ordinary website and combine the best features of both. PWAs are able to provide users with features mostly associated with mobile apps, while opened in a browser. There are push notifications, background support, and more.

7. Special Features
The next gift of this PWA feature is the push notification. Most of the publishers use this property to produce creative solutions for popularizing new content. It is mostly adopted by e-commerce giants because it’s a brand new channel. Customers directly view the push notifications on the screen of their device.

8. Seamless Offline Work
This feature is most fitting for developing countries like Nigeria because of high cost of data. Unlike the usual web apps, such as Facebook, Instagram or many others, PWAs allow users to keep on interacting with the app even when they’re offline. When a user enters a website with a PWA feature, a browser stores the entire app (or caches it). So, when a user enters the website again, the information is entirely served from cache. When the device comes back online, the application re-synchronizes. Impressive, right?

9. Low Development Cost
The development cost of PWA is much lower than the mainstream applications and so it gathers a huge group of people. A normal app must be compatible with both Android and iOS which covers the majority of smartphones. This requires huge costs mostly for small startups. At this juncture, PWA comes into the picture and decreases the cost.

10. Updates Upon Use
Unlike with traditional mobile apps, developers can push all the necessary updates a PWA needs directly on the server, the same as with web apps. The other great thing is that there is no need to wait for the update approval because PWAs are not regulated by any app store. Plus, users don’t have to intentionally load the app store and download the updates (some people avoid it due to the lack of storage on their mobile devices), so you get the reassurance that they use most up to date version.

11. PWAs are Universal Tools
One of significant progressive web apps advantages is that it fits all types of operating systems, browsers and devices — it works on all kinds of PCs, laptops, and tablets. Therefore, it is easy to maintain the app and keep it running smoothly both online and offline. They are hosted on owner’s servers and can be easily modified — just like web pages.

Wrap Up
Progressive web apps are armed with the best modern goodies from both worlds — mobile and web apps: push notifications, offline mode, background support and more. These features bring new opportunities for business owners to reach their customers and have better user engagement.

From Pinterest to Uber, the adoption of Progressive web apps (PWAs) has been rapidly increasing since Google introduced it 3 years ago.

Pinterest has increased its core engagements by 60 percent, which equated to a 44 percent increase in user-generated revenue. Its users now spend 40% more time on the website.

Twitter also designed a PWA for users who didn’t prefer their native app on smartphones(which actually does suck, honestly). The result? The company saw an increase in the number of tweets sent by up to 75 percent, which came at a 70 percent decreased consumption of data.

Similarly, Uber’s PWA app takes less than 50 KB of space on smartphones and takes less than 3 seconds to load even on 2G networks!

These examples highlight the importance of progressive web apps in the world of fast-paced and feature-heavy internet technology today. But the success experienced by these companies isn’t reserved for the big corporate giants alone. In fact, small businesses have the most to gain through PWAs.

For small business owners, we recommend that the PWA should include pages such as Homepage, About Us, FAQ, Contact Us, Services, Testimonials, Privacy, Terms, Sitemap and Page not found.

If you need more information on how to get started for your business, you can chat up TeamWebclick on WhatsApp on Zero Seven Zero Six Six Nine Nine Nine Four Six Six

Now over to number 2 of the Top 5 Post Covid-19 Digital Marketing Trends Recommended For Small Businesses


2. SEO Snippet Marketing- Details loading...

2. SEO Snippet Marketing

Ranking high in search results is great, but what ultimately makes people click through is the content of the snippet. Rich snippets help make your webpages look more enticing in the search results.

Rich snippets are created based on structured data that is available for certain pieces of content. The data is formatted and organized in a way that makes it easy for Google to understand and use it for SERPs and other purposes.

Small business can benefit from onsite and offsite SEO, but ultimately, it is how you appear in search result that determine if a user will click the link to your page.

As more and more people now turn to the internet for products and services, having a sustained SEO marketing strategy with the right mix of rich snippet is a must for all small businesses.