Top Marketing Tips for Businesses to Navigate Covid-19 Disruptions Online
Communicate Updates to Changes in Business Delivery
As we can all know the Covid-19 situation is quickly evolving with updates flooding in every couple of minutes. Government guidelines for businesses are changing quickly in response to the crisis and it is impossible to know what the new situation will be on a day to day basis.
Many businesses cannot operate at all or have had to change how they deliver their services. It is therefore vital that businesses do everything they can to keep customers informed about how they are doing business during Covid-19 and what they are doing to keep their employees and customers safe.
- Update your website letting customers know if and when you are open, what services you are continuing to provide and how you are going to deliver these services.
- Make a banner on your homepage and your contact us page with a brief overview.
- Make a new page on your website with more lengthy explanation if required with a visible link from your homepage.
- Show how you will be putting the safety of your employees and customers first. You might for example reassure your customer with safety guidelines e.g. that payment can only be taken by card over the phone and that when dropping the delivery goods to customer you will leave outside the door and call by phone to avoid physical contact. Perhaps let your customers know if extra hygiene methods have been implemented when handling their goods.
- Be transparent in your communications. Customers can empathise with companies and brands who are facing real pressures under these difficult circumstances.
Shift Your Sales Strategy
In this time of unprecedented uncertainty, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and let your sales effort get stopped in its tracks. It is important now more than ever to think about what you can control and what you can do to keep your sales pipeline strong and not make a bad situation worse.
- Think about how you can continue to deliver sales working within government covid-19 guidelines and keeping employees and customers safe. If you normally sell face to face look at how you might implement or increase online sales. If you are in a service industry you need to think of how you might continue to deliver a quality service online or remotely.
- Devote extra time to online lead generation. Ramp up your social media communications so your target audience keep informed of how you are going to continue offering the services that you can. Keep up your online marketing spend but tailor it to the services that you are focused on right now. Put your email list to good use.
- Tailor your solutions to what customers are looking for as a result of the Covid-19 crisis. Look at your business and think about the angles that might help customers at this time. For example, a furniture business might focus on the number of people working from home and looking for desks.
- Get creative with your sales process and keep advancing sales in creative ways that you may not ever imagined in the past:
- Make a strong web-based presentation
- Create a virtual tour of your premises
- Make an in-depth product video etc. etc.
Look to the Future
- Look at your longer-term marketing strategies such as SEO and set yourself up for excellent rankings next year as things start to grow again.
- Review your most important marketing tools such as your website and see what you would like to do with it to give you a stand-out presence during the competitive times ahead.
- Devise clever social media marketing content during quieter times that you will have ready to use throughout the year.
With all the doom and gloom surrounding covid-19 it is hard to imagine a time when the crisis is over but that time will come and hopefully we will have saved as many lives as possible by the actions we are taking now. When this time finally does come make sure that you are doing everything you can do now to set your business up for the strongest possible start when things go back to business as usual.
If your business needs help with your website or how to promote your business online during these difficult circumstances The Marketing Pod is open for business as usual and can be contacted remotely at 01 406 4219 or by email.