SEO is Search Engine Optimization. But, in the current pandemic-induced lockdown, we can call SEO as ‘Stable Employment Opportunities.’ For all Content Marketing teams chasing big-website-numbers month after month, the latter will make sense, isn’t it?

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2) is wreaking havoc on Content Marketing. B2B Media Publishers are finding it extremely hard to attract relevant readers to their websites even as Video streaming platforms continue to see a daily rise in their traffic and subscribers. Companies spend anywhere between 10% and 30% on Content Marketing. Has COVID-19 put your content goals off-radar?

Try SEO. It won’t fail.

This article takes a deep-dive into SEOs standards and what market intelligence tells about the trends in the current COVID-19 scenario.

Marketing Professionals Expect Search Engine Optimization to Help in Time of Decreased Budgets and Increased Challenges

In the latest report, MarTech company Conductor announced the results of its extensive survey of marketers’ responses to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey, commissioned to provide insight into marketers’ reactions to the pandemic’s international upheaval, received 317 responses from Marketing professionals including Managers, Directors, VPs, and C-suite executives from dozens of industries worldwide.

Key findings include:

• 64% of respondents expect a decrease in their Marketing budget for 2020.
• 86% said they anticipated coronavirus would make meeting annual goals more difficult.
• 63% said that Search Engine Optimization is now more important than ever.

Seth Besmertnik, Conductor’s CEO, said: “Most media investments are fleeting. You buy an impression, you get an impression. You buy a click, you get a click. Your content and SEO are like bonds. You invest today. You begin to get yield today, and if you execute well, you continue to drive value for many years – without making any more investments. This is like a high-yield bond fund, not a lot of risks, and it just grows and grows and grows.”

Additional survey findings include:

• While decreased budgets are marketers top concern, staff reductions and channel limitations are also top perceived threats to Marketing performance
• 29% of marketers will raise the bar for marketing ROI
• Despite reduced budgets, 72% of marketers say their goals will stay the same or increase

As one anonymous respondent said, “We’re moving some of our cut media budget to SEO so we can maintain traffic and build our brand. We’re preparing for when consumer demand comes back and using search trends to monitor whether our audience is changing in any significant way so we’re ready on the other side of this.”

In an official blog, Lindsay Boyajian, Sr. Director of Marketing at Conductor, explains the long-term dividends of following a strong SEO strategy for Content Marketing.

Lindsay writes – “SEO-focused content is a clear winner for marketers in a challenging business environment. It is less expensive to produce than other types of Marketing initiatives (like a trade show or a Superbowl ad), it builds brand trust and brand equity, and it meets your customers where they are — on their laptops.”