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Posted by Vishal Parmar
April 03, 2020
From the day COVID-19 became a pandemic, the lives of all have changed. Especially of those whose earnings have been shrunk due to coronavirus as travel businesses come to a standstill, schools shut down, brick-and-mortar stores close, and governments react. We all are stuck in our homes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Small businesses are contributing to the common virus prevention factor by reducing their sales or suspending many activities. But they have started feeling the toll on their brand.
People’s behavior change resulted in search behavior change. They no longer come to Google to find the solution to their problem. Most of them are keeping a watch on coronavirus updates and waiting for the news to bring an end to this storm.
That doesn’t entail failure.
More data and trends are emerging, giving plenty of room to small businesses to flourish despite all challenges brought by the COVID-19.
In this article, we’ll go through several tips that emerged in recent days and weeks – and offer actionable strategies for how businesses can adjust to the challenges and set their campaigns to survive the pandemic crisis.
Being an active LinkedIn member, I often notice how businesses are promoting their brand. The key difference I noticed is they are not selling products anymore. Instead, they are selling advice and wrapping their product within.
It’s not a big deal though. Online businesses often do this via content. They create content and wrap in their product directly or indirectly. But with pandemic on edge, users are not interested in reading general blogs.
Here’s what they are solely focused on:
If you can help with any of these ways, you can again set your business in motion.
Now don’t argue that your business is not relevant to any of this help. Because I have seen 100% irrelevant businesses are also sharing coronavirus-relevant tips that relate to their brand.
You can even increase your local visibility by helping your neighborhood through your business.
The surefire way to make people listen to your brand is by going live.
People are working from home. They have to maintain social distancing. Going live and talking with your users online will give them a break from daily loneliness. Also, they would appreciate whatever help you have to offer.
We are already noticing the impact of COVID-19 on Google Ads results from various industries – and the results are uncommon.
A lot of businesses are shifting their SEO strategies to an online model or live streaming where they meet with their customers and help them to achieve something without moving out of their homes.
While taking your business life is a tech-proof idea, many businesses are having a harder time figuring out what they should share and how to sell their products at the same time.
In light of social distancing, it is more complex to help customers at home and drive demand.
In such a scenario, you have to change the products you are selling, not the business.
Let’s say, you have an automobile business. Selling vehicles in a time of crisis sounds irrelevant or a bit selfish too. Even if you create the best Ad ever, you have pretty low chances to sell one. But you have odds in selling parts of the vehicle that people would like to buy to bite time at home with their close-to-the-heart vehicle.
Similarly, you can find more ways to sell your products that help users in some way without leaving the security of their homes. You can start with your neighborhood and can put the effort into Local SEO.
Determining the products or features of your business that are not bound to the crisis will help you keep your business afloat until the users return to normal life.
The pandemic is affecting almost all aspects of our daily life. It is something you have to keep in mind while creating your marketing strategy and content.
We are going through a highly sensitive time. People won’t like to be taken advantage of during such situations. That’s why if you go online to sell products under the name of COVID-19, you may end up harming your brand reputation.
For example, while scrolling through LinkedIn, I came across a post saying “we can develop your mobile app in this pandemic period”. It irritated me the most.
This may scare you to promote products as it feels like walking on eggs.
But you have to be extra careful and double-check your strategies and content, ensuring each message you send out is suitable for the current crisis.
Also, you have to maintain a highly positive relationship with clients while talking to them or publishing content to motivate them.
One mind shift that helps you craft empathetic messages is becoming a mentor instead of representing yourself as a brand. Try to navigate the world from the eyes of your customers. Share your knowledge with them and walk side by side.
Extending your current products or services beyond your business is also the right move to show your help and care for users.
Plan on Post-Pandemic Picture
While the end of the virus is nowhere to be seen, there are still many steps to take that can help businesses to bounce back strong.
One of these steps is seeing the big picture of the post-pandemic era and putting your game plan accordingly. Let’s just think about what it would be like after three or six months of pandemic-era. What would be the new challenges and opportunities? Probably, people will try to get back to their work. Jobless will hunt for new jobs. And so on.
At that time, you will need a landscape where there is a demand. Looking ahead and envisioning a demand will help your business to allocate resources that people are in dire need of. And your strategies must align well with what’s in demand.
