Marketing Your Business During The Coronavirus can be tricky, but we’re there to help
We will go in detail on digital marketing and coronavirus. With everything that’s happening out there regarding the spreading of the infection, people staying inside, travelers being asked to self-quarantine and so on… It can take a toll on your business, especially if you’ve got a storefront and people just aren’t coming anymore. Clearly, marketing can help reach out to potential customers and we’ll go into details of how you can do just that.
If you’re not familiar with how Coronavirus works, here’s a quick recap of the infection through the WHO (World Health Organization)
Putting aside the personal issues at hand with the virus, there are strong repercussions on your business, brand, and revenues due to the widespread infection and businesses being forced to close down.
Do you own a small business? If yes, you’re wondering about a few things such as:
Will COVID-19 affect my business in the long run?
What measures should I take in terms of marketing to avoid too much money loss?
Is it a good thing to do marketing in this uncertain time?
The last question is really important here, and the answer is surprising “YES”.
Many businesses will take a step back in times of crisis, but honestly, you don’t need it. Keep in mind that there are a few exceptions due to the nature of your business. If you’re a massage therapy clinic, you probably won’t have a lot of business right now.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t double down on marketing efforts though. In the coming weeks or months (hopefully weeks) we’ll go back to normal and by then, you might have an edge over the competition because you took a step forward and made things happen in dire times.
You have two options as a business owner:
You can either be the business that goes in full hiatus, quarantine yourself away and wait until it dies off…
Or you can be the bigger player and just optimize your business while you have a bit more time on your hands.
What can you do with Digital Marketing in the Coronavirus situation?
1. Social Media Marketing
Right now Social media is much more active than ever given that a lot of people are working from home or not at all working. It’s time to brush up on new strategies, finding the right posts to actually get in front of your potential customers. Depending on particular on your business, you might even have a flow of traffic and social interaction due to the time spent on social media by quarantined individuals.
2. Email Marketing
Do you already have a list of subscribers? If yes, time to make a strong email campaign to follow up on them, see how they are doing and offer them comfort in times of need. Presenting them with options on how to stay safe, tips and tricks to avoid spreading the disease and such. Customers love to be nurtured, feel their are cared for.
Think about your upcoming promotions and set a few emails to go out in the coming weeks. Giving your customers some incentive to choose you over the competition can make you some good sales in times of financial uncertainty.
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Optimizing your content should be your top priority. Take a look at which pages are performing the best and worst and optimize the bad ones. You can even take a look at the focus keyword of a page that has been performing badly and edit it to reflect a new search intent.
When going through your Google Analytics, check-in the behavior/all pages section and check all pages that aren’t getting good traffic… those are the pages you’ll want to optimize and boost ranking for.
4. Social & Google Advertising
You’ll see a rapid increase in social media advertisement in times like this since most advertisers know there are more eyes on their ads. With everyone being home and on their PCs, laptop or mobile devices scrolling through various platforms now is the best time to get started or relaunch your ad campaigns.
Google offers in-depth advertising (PPC – Pay Per Click Advertising) to get people started. Bing does too, but has a very less traffic due to the market being dominated by Google. You can also make social media ads through Facebook ads manager (Business Manager) or simply post on your preferred social media platform and boost the post.
Marketing Efforts During Coronavirus – What works and what doesn’t
- Social Media Hashtags Strategy
While there’s the uncertainty of how Instagram handles the exposure of hashtags that represent a health crisis, doing a test phase with #coronavirus #stayhealthy #socialdistancing #covid2020 and such can’t be a bad idea. We will go in-depth in an upcoming post once we have made our assessment on the subject with a test account.
- Consistency in Social and Web Presence
Even if your business is currently closed or operating at much lower capacity (from home per example), you should keep posting on social media and adding blog content. Digital marketing and coronavirus shouldn’t affect your consistency. Your followers, customers and potential clients will see you as still there for them. Without being salesy, you can make posts that reflect the present situation and as mentioned above, using the hashtag trick or at least try to make it work with a certain restraint.
Keep posting blogs, brush up on old posts and editing them to reflect current keywords people are searching for is perfect in this time. In times of crisis like Coronavirus, people’s search approach will different and also a rather different type of product or service. This is where your strategy needs to be adapted to reflect the customer search behavior.
Social media, on the other hand, could and should be used to nurture your following by sending messages of understanding and unison in such hard times. Digital Marketing and Coronavirus does not mean that you have to let go, it’s the absolute opposite. You have more time on your hands most likely, depending on the industry you work in of course.
Take advantage of that time to really optimize your website, grow your following on increase your engagement rate.
Why You Should Continue Your Marketing Efforts During Coronavirus
You’re on board with the idea, but you still need to understand what is in it for you, your business and your brand. Let’s summarize it down here:
1. Stay on top of your competition
Imagine that within the coming few months, you come up with 10 pieces of content relevant to your industry, revamp your website and gain 1000-1500 followers on social media.
That would definitely help your business right? That’s one good reason. While your competitors might be sleeping on the opportunity to lift their brand, you definitely should.
2. Get to dive deep and learn about who’s your clients
You might not be fully aware of whom you’re actually targeting, but now is the best time to go in-depth about who’s searching for your products or services and how you can target them. Go in analytics, check your pages, see which has the longest time spent on and which have the highest bounce rate (people going in and leaving right away).
That can give you inside knowledge of what people like and dislike from your website. Lookup websites like Uber suggest, where you can type in any query and it will give you the search volume per country.
3. Start nurturing potential leads
If you’re in the business to business industry (B2B), you might wanna reach out to other businesses in a similar situation and see how you two can make something happen on the business front.
If you’re B2C (business to customer), you can prospect, potential clients, if you have a mailing list, or make an enticing landing page promoting an offer or a service/ebook that will give them value. Grow your mailing list, it will pay off later.
4. You’re Opened during Coronavirus? Let that be an asset
If you remain open during the COVID-19 crisis, you need to let your clients and potential clients know. People have the assumption that everything except important businesses will be closed. If you own a business that provides cloud-based training sessions for yoga or meditation per example, make a promotion to have public learn more about your service with a 3-day demo or first-month half-off.
