While it’s a very tough time for everyone at the moment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there are still things you can do for your business while in lockdown.
Whether you’re a sole trader or have a full team, Do not accept defeat! Be proactive, change does not equal failure.
The key things to think about are what aspects of your business or products can be adapted to provide products or services during lockdown?
Here’s 8 tips for business marketing for lockdown:
1. Look for gaps in the market & adapt
You might already have an existing product or service that, with some changes, could be made into an even more profitable asset. For example, take Netflix, the entertainment giant who successfully identified a market gap that its competitors were not filling. Instead of wading through the aisles of a brick-and-mortar video rental store, Netflix customers could browse its impressive array of DVDs online and receive them via mail. But, they didn’t stop there. They expanded their offerings to include streaming services and, more recently, producing blockbuster tv shows based upon their own customer viewing data.
Do you have a current product or service that can be adapted to better fit the market? Or, do you have a competitor whose product or service you can do better?
Can you distinguish your business from your competitors? What’s your Unique Selling Point? If you don’t know, you should. This is an important point for all businesses, regardless of a pandemic.
2. Sell online
If you don’t already, start selling your goods and services online. The amount of purchases online has gone up more than 800% compared to before the pandemic. Your target market is looking online right now and there are many aways to get their attention.
There’s also a lot of Shopping Cart website software available today that makes it easy to get your Ecommerce site up and running in no time.
3. Engage with your target audience
To be able to attract your target audience and ultimately sell to them, you need to understand them. Find out what they want, how you can solve their problems and fulfil their needs.
You can do this via Social Media, simply ask them, run a questionairre and ask for feedback and reviews. All businesses should have a thorough understanding of their target market from the start-up phase.
4. Write Blog posts on your website – often
One of the most important things you can do for your website and ranking is actually quite simple – write blog posts. Keep the content on the subject of your business and this can include and sales or specials, news, new products or services, why your business or products are unique or better (compared to your competitors) and any related subjects to your business market. For example, if you sell natural skincare products, not only could you write about those specific products but the benefits of some of the ingredients.
Always try to provide some insight into your market place or solutions for your customers. What do they need, what do they want and can you solve a problem or answer questions for them?
Try to write at least a couple of posts a week for search engines to notice – new content is very important for your website ranking!
See more about blog posts for your business here.
5. Get socially creative
Use technology and the fact that many people are at home to your advantage. As many people are at home, they will now have more time to tune in to your Instagram or Facebook pages, your eCommerce shops as well as online workshops and masterclasses. This will help you get your business out there and attract new audiences.
Be creative and authentic with your social media pages. Make sure you engage and interact with your audience. Platforms such as tick tock and the reel feature on Instagram, has helped businesses connect with thousands of people.
6. Be only 1-click away from your customers
More people are online, browsing and shopping. This is the perfect time to make sure your website is up to scratch. Also make sure your website is perfoming well for SEO, including page speed – a slow website won’t even get looked at. Once they are on your website, is it easy to navigate? Make sure it’s easy for your audience to find information, to contact you or buy something from your website.
This is the perfect time and opportunity to showcase on your social platforms. Unveil your business and interact with your customers.
Interact with your customers via email, phone, or social media. Keep new and existing customers educated and informed on your offerings and provide them with opportunities to buy vouchers or put down deposits towards future spending when you reopen. Continue building those relationships because they want to hear from you, they want to support you, and they will want to spend their money with you for a continued service.
7. Research Competition
Identify who your key competitors are and keep an eye on their marketing initiatives. Are they attracting more followers? Are they doing more advertising? You need to make sure that your target audience finds you before your competition or at least chooses you over them.
Checking out the competition will help you understand your place in the market and what you may need to do to improve your own marketing performance.
8. Advertising
Now is a great time to experiment with Advertising & Promotions, more people are at home, using the internet, watching TV, reading mail. Now is the time to re-introduce them to your business, product and service. Launch new products, a special offer, a special promotion, online advertising. Whatever your budget you can try advertising, not all need to be an expensive TV ad.
Social media platforms like Facebook offer quite cost-effective advertising and Google Ads will give you a $100 credit for adverts if you’ve not used them before. Digital advertising like Google Ads is called Pay Per Click (PPC) – you only pay when someone clicks on your advert. People are out there searching for what you have to offer, make sure they can find you!
If people don’t know you exist, your business won’t survive.
Whatever your business, there are many free and easy ways to attract new customers and engage existing ones. You just need to put in a bit of time and effort.
For any advice on the above post, or a free, no-obligation consultation get in touch.
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