First, we had Australian bushfires that killed over one billion animals and destroyed 72,000 square miles of land (the same size as the entire state of Washington).
Then we had coronavirus that has ravaged world, ruined economies, and brought life to a standstill with over 600,000 deaths globally.
And the cherry on the cake was the Pentagon finally releasing videos of UFO sightings.
What’s next? Mars Attack? Kanye West as president? Who knows.
But most importantly in your world and mine, it caused the hearing care industry to go through one of the most difficult periods in history.
- Our doors had to be closed.
- We’ve had to stay away from face-to-face patient interactions.
- And the world’s priorities significantly shifted overnight.
Yet as we approach August 2020, and COVID-19 no longer feels like something new but something that has become part of our normal new lives, the question is, what impact has this had on the demand for your services?
Has the industry fully recovered, is it still compromised, or has the craziness of the past several months built up demand?
Well, to answer these questions, we’ve dived into the stats and data for you.
Through managing over 40 of our “Inner Circle” members’ websites, we carefully track and monitor the continuous data trends and developments within this industry.
Here are the number of average daily website visits between the start of November 2019 and July 23, 2020
As you can see, following the first confirmed case in the US on January 21, the average daily website visits increased reaching a four-month high.
But shortly following this on February 29, the first confirmed death on US soil was announced, which quickly escalated in Trump announcing a National Emergency on March 12.
The traffic across the board significantly dips.
On March 17, Northern California is ordered to “Shelter in Place,” leaving the lowest levels of website traffic and interest in hearing care at April 12.
This was the biggest plateau that we have seen in the past 30 months.
The traffic levels then started to slowly increase with two catalysts making significant improvements.
The first was many states lifting restrictions and reopening restaurants, bars, and non-essential stores. Then on June 25, with cases decreasing, the US announced the lowest daily death rate since March 27, which created a further increase in daily website visits.
The daily visits today (as of writing this article on July 23) – are at levels that are in line with what we were seeing in February.
Although nobody can predict what is coming next and the long-term impact of COVID-19, the traffic rates are looking very positive with more and more searches relating to hearing loss than we have seen previously.
With traffic levels higher than what we have seen throughout November, December, and January – it would be fair to say that the search volume and website visits are in a slightly stronger position than pre-COVID-19.
However, this does come with a disclaimer. The work we do with our “Inner Circle” members is significantly more proactive than the large majority of the industry, as we continuously strive to improve online performance. This data trend is unlikely to represent the entire industry
