Marketing in the time of COVID-19

For many industries and business owners, the full impact of the COVID-19 virus is unknown. What is for certain is that our society as a whole is likely to have a dramatic change in their day to day behaviours and how they go about their daily lives, which will have a flow on impact for businesses.

With social distancing currently encouraged, this may lead to a quieter time for businesses. Whilst that’s something that business owners in general may struggle with, nimble businesses will find ways to adapt to ensure they maintain good customer relationships which will help them recover when the crisis passes.

Many business owners may have more time than usual to spend working on their business vs in the business with a slow-down in meetings, travel, staff having to working remotely and potentially having less customer demand.

It may also be a time where you can adapt your offering, product or service to take in to account the changing needs of your clients or customers during this time.

How can you offer services virtually?

If you are not able to meet with clients or customers face to face, are you able to offer them support virtually. Perhaps offer a Facebook “live” session where clients or customers can answer questions. Run a webinar or post videos online for customers who can’t come to your premises. Think Gyms or Yoga Studios running online classes for their clients who can’t visit the gym.

Give your customers a chance to connect

Isolation can be tough for everyone. During the period of social distancing, there are other ways you can connect with our customers. Run polls on social media, allow people to ask questions and post the questions and answers on Facebook or Instagram stories. Reach out and create opportunities for your customers to connect to you.  

Tackle the bigger jobs that take time

If the impact of COVID-19 means you have more time on your hands, use that opportunity to tackle some of the bigger marketing jobs that get pushed to the side when you are busy. For example:

• Writing a library of blog posts or newsletter articles for future use.
• Doing an audit on your web site and updating the content, links, etc. and checking how optimised the content is for SEO.
• Conducting some research.
  • Reviewing competitors
  • Accessing and analysing industry research
  • Developing and distributing your own customer feedback surveys or customer needs surveys

Develop some free content assets to grow your database.

• If you’ve ever wanted to write a book or guide now is an ideal time. Create a useful piece of content that your customers or clients can download in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter to joining your database.

Conduct your own marketing review

• Get out all your collateral and review it for consistency, clarity and effectiveness.
• Analyse all your marketing performance data for insights into return on investment and performance.
  • Review your Google Analytics and Google Ads data to see where your web site traffic comes from and how well your website is performing.
  • Review your social media reports.
  • Review your email marketing reports.
  • Review your sales data and where your sales and leads come from.
  • Ask people in your network for their opinion on how well your business is differentiated from others and how clear your messaging is.

Spend some time educating yourself about marketing

With a wealth of online resources available, it’s a great time to educate yourself about marketing. Marketing Angels has a series of Free E-Guides available for download to help business owners understand more about effective small business marketing strategies.  

Work on your marketing game plan

In times of crisis, it can simply be too overwhelming to work out what to do next. Sometimes, working with an external expert can help you clarify the problem, what you specifically need to achieve and effectively brainstorm a solution. 

At Marketing Angels, we are well set-up to offer marketing mentoring or marketing workshops over Google hangouts, Facetime or Skype. Should you need help with your game plan in the time of COVID-19, we can assist and are happy to have an obligation free consultation at a time of your convenience.

Last but not least the most important thing during this time is that we all take care of ourselves and each other. Whilst it is an unprecedently challenging time, this will pass and many business owners and businesses will be more resilient and adaptable as a result.