First of all, this is not going to be a verbal or rather, written ear-bashing. You as a business owner are facing unprecedented times.
Never before in modern history have entrepreneurs, small business owners, CEOs of large corporations and even the street vendors, had to deal with this kind of situation. But, business is resilient.
If the government can’t find a way through a crisis, you can bet your house on it, that business can.
Why? Businesses are innovative. They always find a way to get past an issue.
No mountain too tall, no ocean is too wide for a small business owner, with buckets of ambition and container loads of determination.
You’re not generating business during COVID-19 because of some things that are out of your control, but there are lots of things that are in your control that you’re not taking advantage of.
A new shade of branding
Every single brand has the opportunity to shift gear and shift their way out of a maze. It’s time to show another side to your brand.
The times call for a new approach because nobody wants to give time to a brand that thinks it can just advertise as it did before.
Take, for example, Nike. Their marketing campaigns are usually about fast-moving athletes, power in motion, speed, explosive energy and showing how their footwear will always keep up with the demands of the customer.
Now, however, the large brand has changed its a marketing approach to show another side to their brand. Now they have slowed things down, as the world has slowed.
They are focussing on mental health and how sport helps us to feel better. Their shoes are being shown to be a companion that helps someone to improve their mental health.
You can change your brand image to show a new side of your business.
Consider a new brand position whereby you are a brand that is more caring, more understanding and seeking to be a part of someone’s personal journey, not just a product that is better than the competition because of x, y, z, etc.
A marketing revolution
As business is slow, you have a chance to change the way you are marketing your company. Much more of us are working from home and that also means, we have more browsing time.
Usually, when trying to overhaul a website, it could take months for the customers to get used to it. But, with a modern and skilled marketing agency, you can make a brand new, crisp, user-friendly website during the pandemic.
Take, for example, this fact. If your website is simply unappealing, up to 38% of consumers will just click off it.
This isn’t because the website doesn’t have what they want to buy. It’s simply ugly, too cluttered, difficult to use, has bad-quality imagery and most of all isn’t interesting.
People want to have icons that move, change color when the cursor is moved over them, they want to have background videos that sum up the page, etc.
Consider changing and or updating your website from the ground up.
Have you adapted your delivery?
Even the local coffee shop has had to adapt to the demand for their products. It’s either become something they were never designed to be, or they will have to shut up the shutters and close.
Coffee shops, hardware stores, independent tailors and even artisan food brands are having to make their products available for local delivery. This is something that has both impressed customers, but also industries as well.
Google has been supporting businesses with better and better local SEO options and tips. In order to be ready to serve local customers, one must be ready to make local deliveries.
This could mean that you hire a local courier service, or you could deliver your orders yourself. It’s in your best interest to consider hiring a temporary fleet, if you think you would be losing so much money that operating a courier service would be worth it.
You can however, work with UPS, DPD, DHL and other major delivery brands. These parcel delivery services have been working overtime, expanding their fleets, hiring drivers and doing everything they can to cope with the new demand for ecommerce shopping.
Have you seen what your options are?
You’re still not writing?!
It’s imperative that you don’t give up on SEO content. It’s not just the most versatile style of marketing, it’s also the most popular!
That’s right, business blogs are now treated with the same interest and even prestige as real news outlets.
Why? Well, when you look at Google, YouTube, Facebook, Apple and even Ferrari, these brands release interesting and informational and or educational content for their readers. This makes them a source of news and helpful tips.
Ferrari releases blogs about better driving and equipment options for everyday drivers. This draws the average consumer to their website, where they might buy merchandise.
So, have you been creating SEO content? The best thing about business blogs is, nothing is limited in terms of topic choice.
You can write about anything and it can somehow weave your products into relevance. However, you must be savvy about good, sound, SEO strategy.
Remember to backlink your previous posts to create a content loop. Be sure to get trusted off-site links, which direct readers to respected sites where your blog can be verified for it’s facts or opinions.
Have good supported links from such outlets, so their readers are directed to your blog. A good way to do this is to release a bit of exclusive news on your blog and have the news outlets link to the particular post in their own posts online.
Read also: Blog Post Ideas You Can Capitalize on During Covid-19
Invest in video marketing
Online video marketing is 600% more effective than any kind of print marketing, or even email marketing.
PPC marketing is still and probably always will be bread and butter for most brands. However, video marketing is clearly the most viewed and responded to, marketing type.
It’s because you have so much opportunity to shift the way people approach your brand and the imagery you can have to associate your business with. But you might be wondering if this is at all possible to do now, as the pandemic restricts certain kinds of human interaction.
You should seek out and work with video marketing companies that have a system which clears their actors and on-set employees, to work. This has to be done with the permission of the local authorities as a gathering of a large group might be off limits for some jurisdictions.
Investing in video marketing is going to pay dividends in many ways. Not only can you place your video ads on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, but you can also show them on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.
Having a business meeting…in the open?
There has already been a rising interest in how businesses operate, from the general public. They want to know how you make decisions, why, what you have to contend with, how sales are generated and how you take on board the feedback from the general consumer.
These are just some of the things they want to know more about. In recent times, though, they have wanted more. The public has wanted to see how you do all these things, live!
Take for example how Elon Musk has behaved in this manner. He has literally made company calls for Tesla, public knowledge.
Streaming an earnings call, stockholders meeting, and more, has garnered Elon Musk, millions of views. This brings so much attention to the brand and yet, all you need to do is carry on as you normally would behind closed doors.
The simple change is, live streaming the event. This not only shows customers how products and marketing campaigns are developed and or decided. But they feel as if you are being more honest with them.
You have nothing to hide. You are the same behind the camera, as you are on it. Integrity during a pandemic, goes a very, very long way.
Bogged down in a rut
When you are feeling down about the world’s situation you can begin to feel like you’re stuck in a rut.
It just seems like you can’t adapt to the new way of doing things, everything you try is time-consuming, costly and just doesn’t work as effectively as your old routine. It’s important to never give up.
Keep going and trying to make your business work, no matter what needs changing and how many times you need to change it, in order to get it right.
It’s so easy to give up, throw your hands up in the air and walk away from the challenge mentally. But if you do, you will never recover.
Consumers will leave you and even your loyal fanbase will find someone else to turn to. Keep going, even if it’s just one baby step at a time.
We cannot doubt that the world we live in, isn’t normal. But, we must also accept that we have to adapt and keep trying new things in order to succeed during this pandemic.
Stock Photo from Dejan Dundjerski @ Shutterstock
