This is a very difficult time for a lot of businesses in the world, as all of us are facing a problem that just doesn’t seem to be disappearing any time soon. The COVID-19 pandemic caused special but necessary measures such as social distancing and lockdowns, resulting in a large number of businesses struggling to survive. In black swan events like this, it gets very difficult to stay afloat if your business belongs to the sectors that were hit hard by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. To keep your business running, you need to reevaluate all the aspects of how a business should be managed and how the negative effects can be minimized.
You are not alone. After discussing with thought leaders from various industries, here is a guide that is designed to help you get through this dire time and remain in business when others are closing down.
Overview:
- Resources and Funding
- Referral discount
- Optimize your digital platform
- Promote digitally
Resources and Funding During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Staying up to date with the latest news is crucial since you don’t want to be caught off guard. If your small business is already heavily affected by government measures, you should be on the lookout for additional measures that could help you go through everything with minimal losses. A good place to look for resources that help during times of crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic would be Google’s blog. Google has dedicated a whole week to helping small businesses. There are on-demand video training sessions that are completely free and can teach an entrepreneur just what and how needs to be done to keep a business profitable. The company has also introduced various new tools that were designed to help with small business growth.
Fundings During the Covid-19 Pandemic
Most businesses hit by the current COVID-19 pandemic struggle to keep a decent cash flow and remain profitable. A good way to find extra funds during this crisis would be to take out a loan, for example. Some governments offer financing programs. If that is not the case in your region, you may want to look into what banks have to offer. On top of that, it would be wise to come up with a financial backup plan both for your business and for your finances. Keep in mind that you need a plan B if you fail to hit your initial revenue projections. Build up your cash runway to ensure that you have a twelve to eighteen-month burn rate. Making your most important payments such as rent or mortgage should be a priority at all times.
Low Hanging Fruit
It is key for your business to go for your low-hanging fruits of acquiring and keeping customers during this period (COVID-19 pandemic). This allows your company to build up your cash reserve to do any outreach or pivot. One such method is referral marketing, it is more cost-effective than traditional marketing channels since it leverages your current client base to reach out to similar profiles who are their friends, colleagues, or family members of your customers who may be quite interested in what you have to offer. Referral marketing tends to rely on credibility and word of mouth. Therefore it is key to provide your utmost to your clients in solving their needs.
Focus on a Niche Market
You can either target wide or go deep and narrow into one segmentation of the clients you are looking to serve. Marketing is essential during this period if you want to gain an advantage. These are some of the questions you should look into :
- What are you offering?
- Who is your target audience?
- Who is your ideal customer?
- How will you price your products or services?
- How are you going to promote your business?
Finally, you can learn from your peers. You can look into the Facebook Ad Library which provides advertising transparency by offering a comprehensive, searchable collection of all ads currently running in your specific industry. Pick and learn from those who are working.
Optimise Your Digital Platforms
Fundamentally, there are three types of marketing channels:
- Owned (social media pages, blog, website)
- Earned (shared content, word-of-mouth reviews)
- Paid (third-party channels, display ads, PPC)
It is important to take full control of your marketing channels. This is the way to ensure that you are communicating the right message and that your message is received at the right time in the buying process. First, start by modifying your email newsletter. Keep messages brief and simple and remember that you have to stay in touch with your audience. Try not to add content that reminds your audience of the current situation. Second, make use of the various social media platforms to increase your outreach on a similar article. Capitalize on trending topics and fundamental knowledge while synchronizing them with your brand’s objectives.
Lastly, improving on your standings compared to the rest of the industry:
- Rearranging your CTA strategy to fit in with the current situation
- Increasing engagement by communicating across all channels
- Reevaluating your SEO strategy
- Sharing information about your brand that can help improve the relationship with customers
Promote Digitally
Follow the rule of Test then Scale. Fully cutting back on marketing might not be a good option in the long run. Instead, run small budget tests in various channels before scaling those which are more successful.
- Social Media
Your customers are now being online more than before. You can build brand awareness and potentially drive new leads by engaging and interacting with your customers through media posts and outreach.
- Webinars and Podcasts
People who attend webinars are looking to understand and find out about key insights into a specific topic. To make it relevant to the audience, you can talk about common pain points of the topics and the steps businesses can take to address and overcome them. Another outlet is podcasting. They are generally easy to set up and kick off Podcasts are also a great way to tell the world what your business is all about. People tend to tune in when they go about their day.
Wrap-up: Businesses Survival
Taking a step in either one of the areas mentioned above might be the help your business might need during the COVID-19 pandemic. As for compliance and tax matters, you can have Lanturn to help you manage them. So that you can focus on bringing your business back on track.
Want more details? Schedule a call with our experts.
