Actionable Strategies To Promote Your Business Post-COVID 19
The coronavirus pandemic has shaken the human population to its very core. Businesses all over the world are suffering a major crisis, with many going bust. The stock markets are going haywire, millions have been laid off, and financial anguish is rampant.
Your own business has likely already suffered losses and there’s surely a need to switch things up in order to survive, and eventually, thrive. So, how do you bounce back stronger in a post-COVID-19 world?
Simply put, you need to focus all your business promotions on digital. Consumers are now shifting online for both essentials and discretionary spending, so that’s where you need to promote your business. As such, there’s a rapid transition to online shopping and it is only being furthered by the COVID-19 crisis.
Plus, once businesses start to reopen, it is very likely that consumers will be cautious about visiting crowded stores, with all the social distancing guidelines in effect. Even your own employees would prefer working remotely, at least for the time being. All this means that you must have your core focus on creating a compelling digital experience.
To help you effectively promote your business online in a post-COVID-19 world, here are three strategies you should consider implementing right away:
Upgrade Your Business Website
So you have a business website but is it truly top-notch? Probably not. Your website was already a key element in promoting your business, and now it’s more so than ever. Thus, it is time to review and upgrade your website. First, be objective and think about these questions:
- Does your website load fast enough?
- Do you find your site intuitive and easy to navigate?
- Do you like the look-and-feel of the site?
- Is the content engaging and persuasive?
- Does your website look credible?
- Does it work well on mobile devices?
It is extremely likely that your answers to these questions would be along the lines of a “no”, and that’s fine. That’s the case for most of your competitors too. But in order to stand out from them and promote your business effectively, you’ll need to consider your website as the most pivotal aspect of your promotional strategy.
Start with your website’s loading speed, which is critical to producing a strong digital experience. Ideally, your site shouldn’t take more than three to five seconds to load. But if it does, it’s time to shed away bulky images and unnecessary elements. Minimize HTTP requests, use a content delivery network (CDN), enable browser caching and image compression – whatever it takes to have the fastest loading website.
Next, make sure your site’s structure and design are easy to understand, responsive (adapts automatically to the screen size on which it is loaded) while also being visually delightful.
Moreover, don’t cut corners on content quality, and ensure all your content and landing page copy is top-notch – detailed, well-researched, original, readable, actionable, and grammatically and factually accurate.
Plus, it’s a good idea to do some competitor research to know how you stack up against the competition. Check out their websites to see the user experience they provide and what promotional tactics they’re using. Try to pick up on their positive aspects and further improve on those for your own website.
Earn and Showcase Social Proof
Word of mouth is one of the best forms of marketing, and during these times of crisis, it has moved online. If you wish to sell more and create a snowball effect for your business promotions, wherein your customers do the promotions for you by referring your business to their network, you need to garner more and more social proof. In fact, 76% of consumers trust online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends.
For instance, why does the name “WordPress” come to mind when you think about starting a blog? Because you’re fed up of hearing how great it is from people in your network and even strangers all over the social web. It is a brand championed by millions. In fact,
So for effective online promotions, you need to prove that what you’re offering is genuine and of high quality. Showcasing social proof on your website in the form of customer reviews, testimonials, social media shoutouts, and influencer endorsements is a solid way to reassure prospective customers that your business is reliable.
One way to earn more social proof in the form of user-generated content (reviews, testimonials, shoutouts, and so on) is by hosting contests on social media. For example, a hashtag contest on Instagram provides an incentive for consumers to publicly tag and praise your business (and consequently, endorse it). You can also personally ask customers to leave a sincere review on review platforms like Yelp or Google My Business after a week of their purchase.
You can also consider offering time-limited coupon codes and discounts as an incentive to spread the word about your business. Simply put, people already strongly relied on customer reviews and social proof when deciding on a brand, and now in these troubled times when everything has moved online, these aspects are more important than ever before.
Automate to Cut Costs
A great aspect of digital promotions is that you can automate a lot of your operations to cut costs and increase profits.
For instance, you can set up chatbots on your website and Facebook account to automatically answer customer queries, take orders, and cut down customer service costs. A chatbot essentially enables you to automate customer service conversations. Your team can take over and continue as a live chat for more complex issues.
Chatbots can be trained to respond to common questions and provide quick solutions, 24/7. You can auto-respond directly from your Facebook page with a Facebook Messenger chatbot. Furthermore, Facebook also offers Message Ads that open conversations with customers. You can use the messages objective in combination with click to Messenger ads to generate leads, answer questions, drive transactions, provide promotional coupon codes, and offer support.
If you’re running a service business that offers appointments, consultations, or sessions, you can use online booking solutions to automate scheduling those appointments in a way that conforms with social distancing norms, while also facilitating online payments.
All this reduces the need to hire extra employees just to make appointments and answer common customer questions – which helps to reduce your expenses and improve profitability.
Conclusion
As businesses slowly start resuming normal activities, people are still going to prefer digital over in-person activities as much as possible, at least for the foreseeable future. So if your business was more focused on offline promotions, it is about time you start concentrating all your efforts on online promotions and adapt to the fast-changing consumer behavior.
Start by following the three actionable strategies discussed above to establish your online presence, provide an excellent digital experience to your customers, and cut costs.
