Things have started picking back up for businesses in light of the pandemic, but the economy isn’t out of the woods yet. For small business owners, times are more difficult than ever, which is requiring new skills sets to survive and thrive in this environment.
Brands are finding creative ways to market to customers and stay top of mind during the crisis. Here are four impactful ways small businesses are marketing to customers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Improving health and safety practices
People are concerned about safety due to the pandemic, and understandably so. Socially-conscious brands are realizing the need to help mitigate consumer fears about safety by increasing health and safety standards.
From a marketing perspective, these changes need to be communicated on social media, online, and in outgoing communications, so that consumers feel safe visiting your place of business.
2. Revisiting social media marketing
People are staying home more than ever before due to the pandemic, and this means they will be online a lot more. By ramping up social media engagement efforts and finding new ways to get in front of your audience on social media, you can stay relevant, even if people can’t visit you in person.
3. Increasing communication
You have likely developed a contact list of your clients over the years. Now is the time to use that list and increase communication with your customers, clients, and potential customers and clients.
Christopher Amos of No Boundaries Marketing recommends, “It’s important to communicate how you are doing business in a COVID-19 world. All too often, we see businesses with modified hours, some that require masks to be worn, products that are no longer available, deliveries that are taking longer, and so on. These changes in a business can have a direct impact on how consumers interact with them and have a high propensity to cause a negative experience if consumers are caught off guard. Using platforms like Google My Business, Yelp, social media, and your brand website are critical to a business’s success in a COVID-19 world.”
People aren’t going to want to do business with you if you only seem to care about promotion, especially during times of crisis. However, by being empathetic to the shared trauma we’re all going through right now and communicating information in a timely manner, you can build rapport with your customers and clients.
4. Improving SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of fine tuning your online presence to increase your rankings in search engines. The brands at the top of the search results tend to get the most website traffic, and oftentimes the most business.
SEO is more important now than ever before, as people flock to search engines to find valuable information, products, and services. Spending this time to improve search engine rankings will pay off for months and potentially years to come.
Some brands are relaxing when it comes to marketing during the pandemic, but that’s the exact opposite of what you should be doing if you want to stay relevant. If you’re creative and resourceful with your marketing strategy, you can build your business even bigger during this challenging time.
