It has been three months since India went under lockdown. The country is slowly opening up now. The recent outbreak of the COVID – 19 has caused a tectonic shift in most people’s lives.
WFH is the new norm now, many companies are now willing to extend this facility even after the lockdown is lifted. In our endeavor of bringing our readers views from a wide variety of stakeholders in the industry Medianews4u spoke to Prasad Shejale, Founder & CEO, Logicserve Digital a new-age digital marketing company that offers the most comprehensive suite of digital marketing services. A decade plus experience of working on various platforms like search, social and mobile has enabled Logicserve to deliver high-quality brand and performance marketing campaigns.
During this lockdown many brand communications have changed, what are your thoughts?
In the current times, the purchasing power has been shifting rapidly in the hands of millennials. Hence, brands need to follow a route which not only communicates brand values but also supports relevant issues of the larger society. Lately, we have seen many brands addressing unuttered topics like mental health, depression and anxiety during this lockdown period.
This paradigm shift of marketers prioritising the consumers and then shifting the focus towards their offerings is interesting and will pave the path for change in brand communication.
As a Digital-first agency what has been the new toolkit for survival and what will be the future of SEO?
As consumers move towards online resources to address their needs, a strong SEO can help businesses to have a mobile-friendly, well-structured and quick loading website. But at the same time, they need to focus on building a strategy that includes YouTube optimisation, app optimisation, podcasts and a right approach of content marketing for changing user personas. It’s also essential that brands stay relevant and accordingly modify their content strategies, further strengthening the local SEO. Organic search will continue to be an important channel in the consumer research phase. Therefore, marketers must align their strategies in such a way that SEO shouldn’t work in isolation but should play a critical role in the overall integrated marketing strategy. During the COVID times, SEO has proven to be effective in conversion rates, and this will show more significance in post-COVID times.
What are some of the post-lockdown business strategies that you will suggest to your existing clients?
Post-Lockdown is going to see a change in consumer behaviour and buying patterns. Marketers need to have the right data strategy to track and understand the changing consumer journey. Brands can invest in AdTech and MarTech tools to build personalised engines that will directly benefit their business. Brands can also start targeting in the upper and middle funnel of consumers to get their business back on track.
As a Digital Media expert, what are your thoughts on this unprecedented pandemic?
This pandemic has taught us a lot of life lessons. This situation has helped everyone to question the basis of all our wants and needs. The consumer demand pyramid has shrunk and the consumers have not just minimised their needs but also stopped using products and services of many categories. With time, everything is changing. Consumer and competition will change too. Considering the current situation and the altered lifestyles, Digital is not just a ‘nice to have’ but has moved up to being a ‘must-have’ channel. Brands need to realign their focus and restructure their strategies to have an integrated digital strategy across media, creative, customer experience, data, technology and tools.
During this lockdown, how have you boosted the morale of your team, and some of the measures you have taken at this juncture?
These are really tough and challenging times for everyone. As a leader, it is extremely important to take steps to boost the morale of your team and support them as they tackle various challenges. For us, the key to achieving this is ‘Communication, Collaboration and Governance’. I strongly believe that the job of the leader is to be able to communicate clearly, regularly with everyone and also answer any concerns or queries they have during such times. We ensure that we are open with our employees and are transparent in all our communications. Also, since day 1 of working from home, I go live every morning wherein I address all our 350+ strong workforce and share important updates while also motivating them to start their day on a positive note and tackling things #OneDayAtATime. We are also continually building and designing frameworks that will make it easier for people to align their work and will also ensure that everyone is in sync.
A learning and a message to the young millennials.
This pandemic has affected us all in a significant way. Millennials have truly emerged to be very strong and have been tackling the situation really well while managing their responsibilities well. They are facing the uncertain times with a strong head and have become more patient, resilient and helpful.
It’s commendable to see the millennials manage the situation so well. If I have to share a message for them, I would say, you are doing great, stay strong, have faith in yourself. You will cross over to the other side of this unfortunate situation soon. The only tools you will always need for this are Courage and Belief. I am sure you will sail through these tough times too and emerge as even better and stronger versions of yourselves in the coming times.
