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In the past few days, the entire world has changed. 

Schools, restaurants and bars have closed down. Non-essential services are urged to open up shop online. People all over the world are staying inside their homes in hopes of limiting the spread of covid-19. 

For small business owners, the impact of this kind of shift can be devastating. It’s important to pivot to a digital strategy quickly, and marketing during coronavirus might be the last thing on your mind — but it’s those who seize the opportunity to reach their customers in a different way in this digital season that will come out on top when all of the dust settles. 

In this article, we’re going to share some of our recommendations of how to approach your coronavirus marketing strategy in this season, as well as the one thing you need to focus on (and fast) to survive the ramifications of what this global pandemic means for business owners.

 

Marketing During Coronavirus: Our Recommendations

Recommendation #1: Innovate, Don't Exploit

In an ideal world, this would go without saying — but the first thing we’ve noticed since coronavirus was coined a global pandemic was that many business owners around the world looked for opportunities to capitalize on fear. 

One business owner made a bulk purchase of dollar store hand sanitizer and is selling them to those without for $6 per bottle. Rolls of toilet paper are being listed on websites like eBay, Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace for obscene prices. Companies are creating "new and improved" versions of the basic face mask to convince people that what they have isn't enough to protect them.

 

In times like these, it’s important to remember that exploitation is never a good long-term sales strategy. It’s never wise for your business to take advantage of people to make a quick buck, especially in the long run.

In this season, it’s your actions, and the way that you show up FOR customers that will be remembered in the years to come. 

Take a tip from companies like Scholar's Choice who are innovating by sending parents free guides and resources to help use time home from school wisely, while also getting a foot in the door with their ideal target market. 

Recommendation #2: Invest in Digital

The importance of having a digital presence for your business has been more apparent than ever before in this season.

Around the world, small business owners are being forced to hang the “closed” sign on their doors and are retreating home, unsure of how to continue operations and where to begin when it comes to taking their product or service online. 

First of all, if you are in this position, the team at Profitworks wants to help. Please send us a message by contacting us here and we will find a way to support your business through this season. 

Second, we want to help you take the right steps to making this transition to an online storefront and making it well.

If you offer a service that could be turned digital for a season (i.e a cross-fit studio with digital workout classes), innovate and find a way to provide value online! If you do not yet sell your product or service online, consider opening up a Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce or Magento storefront.

For those of you that do already have an online storefront and website, this is your opportunity to optimize it and drive traffic like never before. 

Here’s two simple ways to invest in digital:

1. Get Serious About SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

Many business owners are now spending unprecedented amounts of time at home. May we suggest using this time to invest in search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website by improving your website’s visibility in search engines. 

This involves on-page SEO and things like page load times, mobile friendliness, H1 tags, meta descriptions, keyword research, content quality and more. It also involves off-page SEO, and things like social media or influencer marketing. Finally, you’ll also want to consider technical SEO, including things like site maps, indexing and more. To view a complete list of the items you’ll want to consider, download our free SEO checklist here. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed and not sure where to start, send us a message here and we’ll help you out. 

At this time, it’s not clear how long the season of coronavirus is going to last, and when the recommendation to self-quarantine will be lifted. 

The opportunity? Your customers still need products. The challenge? They need to be able to find them online.

Optimizing your website for search engines is the first and most important thing that you can do to ensure that customers can find you when they’re looking to make a purchase online.

I’ll give you an example.

On day 5 of quarantine, I realized that I was likely going to be spending a lot of time inside, or outside walking the dog. I knew I needed to get the dog a smaller harness and that I would have to order one online given that all pet stores in my area are closed. 

I Googled “dog harness free delivery” and scanned the top 3 results to see which website didn’t have a spending threshold before shipping was free. Luckily, PetSmart was in the first spot and I found exactly what I needed. I placed the order and received it within a couple of days. 

 

 

If the PetSmart website had not been optimized for the keyword “dog harness free delivery”, it’s not likely that they would have ranked in the 1st spot on the search engine result page (SERP), and I likely would have chosen the company that was. 

The same is the case for your business. You need to start taking a look at your website and carefully considering the types of keywords that your target customer might be searching when looking for what you offer. Consider things like free shipping, fast shipping and customization when it comes to the things that customers might be looking for. 

If you’re new to keyword research, don’t worry -- there are tons of free resources to help you identify the keywords that customers will be looking for including Google Keyword Planner, Ubersuggest, Keywordtool.io, Wordtracker and Amazon Alexa Rank. Start by listing out the products or services that you offer and tackling those keywords first, then consider what other keywords customers might be using like “where to buy [insert product name here] online”, or “fast shipping [insert product name here]”. 

To target an even broader audience, create new pages on your website that are designed specifically to pull new traffic into the website and convert those users into customers. For example, a company looking to target individuals looking to buy dog harnesses right now might create a page targeting the keyword “best accessories for dogs” to pull me into the website and sell me on their product. Get creative!

The results of SEO are typically not immediate, and it may take extra time to reap the rewards when most websites are experiencing downturns in traffic -- however, the investment that you make in this season is what will set you up for success in the next, and having the right keywords on your website will influence how well you’re able to generate revenue from your website both now and later.

At Profitworks we have a team of SEO experts and are happy to help you with next steps. To contact one of our team members to get immediate, affordable SEO help, click here.

 

2. Bolster Your Online Presence

Outside of SEO, there are a few other marketing methods we’d recommend leveraging in this digital season to drive more sales on your website, and fast. Here are three that we'd recommend:

Boost Your Advertising

What we often see in economic downturns is companies really scaling back when it comes to their marketing and advertising initiatives. Fearful of retaining revenue, ad spending is often the first thing to go.

It may sound backwards, but, that’s the exact opposite of what we would encourage you to do. 

For those in the position to do it, actually ramping up your budget for advertising is one of the best ways to get easy and fast results.

 

 

According to Forbes, there are a number of studies that prove that there are advantages to maintaining and even increasing your advertising spend in a weaker economy. In the study, advertisers that maintained or grew their ad spending increased sales and market share during the recession and afterwards.

When times are good, you should advertise. When times are bad, you MUST advertise.

The companies that are weak going into this downturn aren’t going to be able to do this, and will either go bankrupt, be bought out or bailed out through government funding. In all of these cases, there’s less competition for you to fight against when it comes to having your product or service noticed by customers.

Depending on your niche, run Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google AdWords, Twitter Ads, YouTube Ads or LinkedIn Ads to drive more traffic to your online store. 

It’s the businesses that are able to step up are the ones who will win in the long-term. 

If you have the extra cash on hand, consider maintaining or increasing your advertising spend to create a long lasting boost in sales and market share. 

Get Loud on Social Media

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are spending more time than ever at home, and as a result, more time than ever on their phones. Every time that someone opens up Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for the latest coronavirus update, more often than not, they’re also scrolling through their feed to see what else they’ve missed since the last time they checked (ahem… 5 minutes ago).

What this means is that your business should be seizing the opportunity and the increased desire that customers are having to consume content by actually creating it for them!

Don’t contribute to the fear on social media — instead, serve as a positive voice and create a community around your product, service or brand. Leverage Instagram Stories to share fun Q&A’s, polls or Instagram Live to share a “behind the scenes” in the life of a business owner. Share posts to your newsfeeds about what’s new in the shop, feature a specific product, or offer something for free to create value (i.e a free gift for purchases over $50). 

More than ever, people are looking for things to do on social media — and people to talk to — and if you can make YOUR brand a voice that customers want to hear, it will work wonders for online sales during this time and beyond.

Install a Website Chatbot or Live Chat

All of your customer service representatives may be at home instead of working the till, but that doesn’t mean they can’t offer great customer service during this season! Consider adding a free chatbot to your website to answer customer questions in real-time. 

Chatbots can be pre-programmed to display information based on what customers ask, but you can also get simpler, live chat versions that allow one of your team members to have a real conversation with the customer and personalize their experience.

With a chatbot, your website user can ask you a question about your product or service and get the information they need immediately, improving the likelihood that they’ll make a purchase instead of dropping off and finding another company that can serve them faster. Not only that, but the ability to speak one-on-one and increase desire for a product or service make their chances of converting go way up!

 

Conclusion

The effects of coronavirus on the global marketplace are drastic and long-term. 

After reading this article, our hope is that you feel less hopeless about your next steps in responding to these changes, but that you feel equipped to start taking them in the right direction.

As a small business ourselves, we are hoping and praying that the coronavirus can have as limited of an impact on individuals and businesses as possible (including you!).

We know that the rapid changes happening in the world and the marketplace right now are overwhelming, and we understand the felt need there is to pivot to a digital marketing strategy, and fast.

At Profitworks, we want to help as many business owners through this season as possible, and would love to speak to you personally about how we can come up with a plan to make this happen for your business, at a price that works for you. 

If you would like to speak to one of our marketing experts over a cup of coffee digitally, please reach out to us here and we’ll be in touch with you as soon as possible.