The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

has accelerated change in the way businesses engage with their customers and

clients. The current pandemic has reduced face to face contact, forcing

businesses to find creative ways to navigate the digital space to maintain

contact with their audiences and keep their businesses afloat.

Apeiron Digital Pro CEO, Adam Cummings, said,

with the online space becoming even more saturated, businesses have to be

strategic in how they use content to engage their audiences during this time.

“The online space, especially social media,

is becoming extremely saturated as almost all businesses are pushing their

products and services out through those channels. To cut through that noise,

businesses must be strategic in their content, make sure they are targeting the

right people and also that their content is engaging to that audience,”

Cummings said.

Apeiron Digital is a local digital production

company specialising in helping companies and brands navigate the digital space

by creating strategic content that tracks and targets audiences online.

One way Cummings said companies can still give their audience the face to face feeling they would get in stores is through virtual tours and sales pitches.

“For businesses with brick and mortar stores,

customers could usually go in and look around, feel and experience the products

and services. The critical thing during this time is for businesses to give

that same feel and experience virtually. Businesses should look at their

content production as an investment that, if done strategically, could be one

of the key factors in bringing and maintaining their success during these

changing times.”

Businesses are using the digital space to target customers at all stages of the buying cycle. Cummings said, in the pre-COVID 19 times, most clients used his services as a means of marketing their services and products in the first stage, however he sees where more businesses are using targeted content to engage with customers at all stages of the sale cycle.

“Before COVID-19, what we were seeing were

requests to produce content that attracts customers and introduce their

products and services, but we are now working with our clients and introducing

different ideas to clients that will engage with customers further along in the

cycle to confirm a buy.”

VIRTUAL LEARNING, THE NEW NORMAL

With face to face classroom interactions now

limited, educators are also scrambling to find ways to engage with their

students digitally and still keep them engaged. Creating engaging and visual

educational content for students is one way many companies as well as teachers

are working to keep their lessons on track and keep students engaged.

“It is very easy to lose the attention of the

students when teaching virtually so we have seen where educators and companies

operating in that sector are looking to create more visual content, both videos

and graphics, that will keep the attention of their students while learning and

this, I think is the way to go when trying to keep children engaged virtually.

The content they are looking at must be engaging enough to keep their

attention,” Cummings said.

With live event hosting now at a standstill, Cummings said live event streaming is another sure way event organisers can still keep their audiences involved while they adjust to the new normal way of operating.

“From business conferences, round table discussions to entertainment event, live hybrid events are definitely another way to keep audiences engaged. We were a part of the managing the live stream for the recently concluded Digicel Unplugged Concert Series where we incorporated live elements to give the same feel as if the audience was there in person.”

Cummings said brands and businesses that have

not started engaging digitally run the risk of getting left behind as the world

starts to adapt to the new normal way of life.