24 Jan 5 Business tips we’ve learnt during Lockdown
During the current economic uncertainty; in addition to the general concern for everybody’s wellbeing, we’ve put together a few tips we have found to be true at this time, to help us all prevail!
1. Maintain Customer Engagement
If you are struggling to deliver your product or service, can you diversify some aspects online? We have seen clients beat the previous years sales, even when they have had to diversify their products completely due to the lockdown.
If this just isn’t possible and can’t supply for your marketplace currently, it doesn’t mean you can’t maintain and grow interest in your brand.
Continue boosting your brand awareness and keep leads warm by offering discount vouchers to be used later in the year, running giveaway competitions, or providing content in exchange for email sign ups.
Some restaurants have actually sold future offers for when they do reopen. This has been successful because customers want to support heir favourite businesses and also take advantage of offers.
Your brand’s reputation doesn’t lie solely with your product or service, the content and advice you provide can go a long way!
2. Keep Spending on Advertising
If (a big if) you can still provide your products or services, do not stop your ad spend unless you absolutely have to! We are seeing the cost of advertising on both Social media and Google ads drop significantly due to lack of competition.
You may assume people are generally less inclined to buy given the economic uncertainty, but as footfall diminishes, digital landscapes thrive. In fact, UK internet usage has almost doubled during lockdown so your online presence has never been so important.
We have seen huge increases in Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) since COVID hit the planet.
3. Time you may never have again
Running an SME business rarely leaves much time for marketing, so if you find yourself with a little more time than usual, this is a perfect time to get ahead. Taking a few moments to analyse your online presence, before making any big decisions, could make all the difference to how you bounce back.
Many people are on furlough and maybe able to spent time consuming content they were never able to before. Capitalise on the increased chance of being seen by your target audience by taking stock of your website analytics, ad performance, email database and social media content for opportunities to improve!
You could also take advantage of www.free-review.co.uk to provide an expert second opinion on your current online presence.
4. Show that you Care
It is difficult to find anyone that hasn’t been affected by the pandemic, whether it’s family, friends, customers or suppliers. 70% of businesses have had to furlough members of staff, while thousands of businesses have had to close down for good.
This is a quintessential opportunity to show gratitude and generosity to your customers and the rest of your network. Do what you can during this tough time; offering to pause contracts to help with cash flow, offering free advice, or simply a call to ask how they are doing. You’ll find out who your friends are in times like these, so show that others care and it will be remembered more fondly, long after the lockdown.
There were many of our clients that were unsure of what the short-term future held, so asked to pause all non-essential work. Some even had to close down for good, but the vast majority appreciated our understanding approach and once they had a better understanding of their new trading environment, they came back to us with even more drive to grow through Digital Marketing.
5. Review your Strategy
Strategy. Strategy. Strategy.
If you have a clear strategy in place, please review it, as this will probably have been affected by recent events. If you haven’t got a written Strategy that everyone (that needs to know) knows about, then this is a great time to do so. We have revised ours and you can create a simple A4 document outlining:
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Diagnosis
The current state of play e.g. SWOT
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Goal
Make sure it’s SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound).
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Who
Your target audience – what are your buyer personas?
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How
What tasks are involved? E.g. Email Marketing, PPC etc.
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Why
A brief explanation so that everyone knows why this strategy has been chosen.
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Guidelines
These are the do’s and don’t’s for your strategy. For example, whats channels to use, whether to discount, what will the total budget be and the target cost per acquisitions etc.
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Measure
The KPIs you are going to measure success by and how often (weekly/monthly/quarterly) e.g. reach, web page traffic, leads, sales etc.
The purpose is to ensure everyone is working in sync and has confidence in what they are doing.
SME Support
We’d like to take this opportunity to offer our support to small businesses during such inauspicious circumstances. Thankfully, we are still going strong and determined to succeed by growing others. If you’re an SME in need of more help & advice, please feel free to contact us.
Furthermore, we are offering a FREE digital marketing review, analysing your online presence, and detailing your strengths and areas for improvement. Find out more below!