Five Tips On Surviving a Business Quarantine
In a world where social distancing, self-quarantine, and staying indoors are suddenly the new norm, many businesses are facing an economic shock. Whether your organization is a startup or a well-established company, you have to strategize appropriately to keep selling. People still need your services and products, so how can you keep your business running and services available? Now is the time to strengthen your online presence, build up your marketing, and get yourself ready to operate in a whole new way. Below are some tips on surviving a business quarantine via digital marketing for business from all of us here at Simplemachine.
1. Optimize Your Website
Your website is going to be your business’ lifeblood during this crisis, so the first thing you need to do is make it the best it can be. Do you know how well your site functions when you’re browsing on a smartphone? Not everyone takes different browsing methods into account when building their web pages, and that’s a mistake. Most people use their mobile phones to search for and buy products online, so that channel should be your priority. However, you can expect to receive traffic from pretty much any internet-enabled device, so be sure that your design is adaptive to tablets and laptops as well. If you’re not sure of how to do this, Simplemachine can handle all of your mobile optimization needs for you as part of our digital marketing for business services.
Further, you’ll want to make sure that your site is loading at a reasonable speed. The more images, videos, and other bandwidth-heavy content you use, the more you’ll slow things down. If it takes too long for people to get where they need to go, they might leave your site altogether, so test this metric frequently and do whatever you can to help lower your load times.
When you take these considerations into account, you will be able to create a site that offers a consistently pleasant experience for all users regardless of how they come across your business online.
2. Work On Increasing Your Website Traffic
During this pandemic, online shopping and research are more common than ever. People no longer have the option of crowding into physical stores; if your business is going to survive these times, you’ll need people to be able to easily find you online. Invest in improving your rankings in search engine results so would-be shoppers can find you right away. SEO is relatively cheap to implement and can produce impressive results, so there’s no reason not to fine-tune your keyword strategy at this critical time.
You can also help to drive traffic simply by offering your customers a better deal than what your competitors have to offer. Customers are likely to visit and complete a purchase on your website if you make it worth their while with things like free or flat-rate delivery or lower prices. You need to communicate the benefits your clients will get from shopping with you through your website, so remember to highlight all of the selling points you’re using in your site’s copy.
3. Try Out Content Marketing
If you want to take things a little further, you could look at investing in content marketing. This strategy involves releasing content like blog posts, infographics, videos and more in hopes of drawing in interested people and exposing them to your company. When people enjoy the content you put out, they are more likely to buy from you in the future when the need arises. The idea is to establish your company as an expert in the industry that can be counted on to provide quality products or services.
If you’re not using content marketing already, now is the time; it’s an excellent way to reach people at a distance and build a stronger reputation. You don’t necessarily have to be a professional writer, graphic artist or videographer to make content that people will enjoy, but if you want a polished product that will stand up to anything your competitors are putting out, getting a professional to do it for you is best. This is a big part of Simplemachine’s digital marketing for business clients, and we’d be happy to create some content for you so you can see what a difference this technique can make.
4. Use Social Media Platforms
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other platforms are a staple of many people’s daily lives, and use of them has only gone up since the start of the quarantine. Social media isn’t just good for catching up with your friends and family while you can’t see them in person, however; it’s also a big part of digital marketing for business.
Social media marketing will enable you to create awareness of your products and their availability. You can post on these platforms to keep your customers informed on new products, their prices. You can also combine social media marketing with the content marketing mentioned above to get more traction from the blog posts and other works you have already made. If you link your social network profiles to your website and embed your content on all social feeds, you’ll have a small marketing ecosystem running that could feed your site a consistent stream of potential customers.
You’ll have to post relatively frequently (usually several times a week) to make social media channels work for you, but overall, this is another relatively simple path to higher sales through digital marketing for business. For those who do not feel up to the task themselves, Simplemachine also provides extensive social media marketing services that will get the job done for you.
5. Use Proper Imagery And Language On Your Site
The imagery and language you choose for your website play a significant role in your digital marketing for business success. You want to grab clients’ attention and compel them to take action. However, times like these call for extra sensitivity and discretion when it comes to the words and images you use. Things like a photo of a huge crowd of people or calls to go and get together with friends and family are likely to be considered inappropriate and in poor taste at the moment.
This quarantine period is expected to be temporary, but it still makes sense to modify your presentation a bit while it is still going on. Choose compelling pictures and language that strike an optimistic, hopeful tone and avoid referring directly to the pandemic to make sure your campaigns remain in good taste. If your product or service can be used in isolation, now may be a good time to subtly highlight that fact.
It’s a fine line to walk, and if you’re not sure about how to successfully do it, it’s best to consult outside help. Simplemachine can review and rework the language and imagery on any of your digital marketing materials to ensure that none of them will alarm or offend potential customers at this time.
Don’t Let Your Business Fall Behind
There’s no denying that this pandemic presents some unique challenges for all industries, but your business does not have to suffer due to the quarantine policies. You need an excellent and thoughtful digital marketing strategy now more than ever, and Simplemachine has the expertise you need to make it happen. Contact us today to get help developing or improving your online marketing approach at this critical juncture.
