Co-existing with the coronavirus is indeed a bitter pill to swallow. Despite the way many people perceive the crisis, it’s not going to be the end of the world!
There’s a silver lining…
The gradual recovery in China, after more than 2 months of community quarantine and total lockdown, is a clear sign that this pandemic is temporary.
After months of staying inside their homes, China’s working force has finally resumed in offices, factories, and public establishments.
Several businesses have re-opened and operated again. Steady as it may seem, it gives a glimmer of hope for countries that are still in the middle of fighting the pandemic. We’ve put together a concise coronavirus marketing guide for small and local businesses to help you find the way forward.
You can track the progress of Coronavirus in the US and stay updated on best practices and recommendations here.
Shifting Priorities
In the US, authorities have taken full control of monitoring public health. Consequently, it is inevitable that the economy could take a backseat. With an estimate of $ 2.7 trillion of the projected global economy lost, business owners are getting apprehensive.
Yet, COVID-19 is a critical crisis for a reason. It’s a life or death situation instigating health over wealth prioritization. Drastic measures such as strict home quarantines are justifiable and need to be urgently implemented by the government to flatten the curve.
Knowing all these facts, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are now turning to other means of sustaining their businesses by relying heavily on digital marketing.
Government Response to COVID-19 Financial Crisis
Under the threat of the potential recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the US Senate signed the legislation on an emergency coronavirus relief package earlier this week. This package includes free testing for COVID-19, extended family and sick leave especially for companies with employees of about 500 or less, and additional funds for food security
State officials have also conducted some calculations on the economic effects of COVID-19 among local businesses through an emergency business damage assessment survey. This tool will be instrumental for the state to formulate and appropriate relief actions for the business sector.
Our Recommended Coronavirus Marketing Ideas
Here are 10 Coronavirus marketing ideas you can use to keep your business afloat amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
1. Increase your Online Visibility
The necessary social distancing has warranted the decrease of walk-in customers particularly for small businesses. However, customers are never completely gone; they just have to take another route to reach your business. Hence, an online presence is key to survival nowadays. If you don’t have a website, social media accounts (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), and other digital marketing tools, this is the right time to sign-up. Capitalizing on these platforms will ensure your online visibility. Maximize their use and keep your business up and running.
As COVID-19 poses a threat to people’s way of life, it is helpful, especially for your usual customers to know that it’s business as usual, even if it is in a virtual setting.
2. Upload Your Products/Services Online
Since people are not able to visit your store, why not bring your products and services in their own doors and initiate delivery services and online payment?
This is perhaps the most adaptable strategy so that your business stays operational.
A store that sells digital and even concrete products benefits the most but it doesn’t necessarily mean that services fall second in this scheme.
However, for industry-specific businesses, a higher level of creativity is required in identifying other sources of revenue. A Digital marketing agency can offer services to help you out with the steps.
3. Maintain a Connection with your Customers
If you have an existing email database, make sure to inform your market audience about the significant changes in your operations.
Focusing on your current customers ensures that even after the crisis is over, you can rely on their loyalty.
You can even ask some of them to write positive reviews about your services or products during this time.
You can also pre-sell gift cards to be used once your business physically resumes. Restaurant owners, inform your customers if you have delivery or online purchasing services! Show your audience why it’s safe to continue ordering from your kitchen. Upload videos on Instagram and Facebook showing your disinfecting efforts.
By doing so, you can ease the concerns of your would-be patrons that there is a risk with purchasing from your restaurant during this time.
4. Conduct Mini-Audits To Improve Your Business
Now is definitely the best time to audit your inbound sales, cost analysis, market trends, and even projected gain or loss. If you didn’t have much time before then take advantage of the time you have right now. You can start by evaluating your campaigns on whether or not they should be paused or pursued. Assess elements of your website from visual imagery, widgets, to language tone.
Basically, take the time to clean up or fix problems on your online platforms.
Need help analyzing your data and finding a strategy to move forward? Our Marketing Consultants can help you develop a strategy to get started right away.
5. Coronavirus Marketing Strategies Hit Different
Whether you’ve already got marketing strategies in place, or you’re thinking of starting up, you have to think about tactful ways to approach Coronavirus marketing. Don’t just boost posts and tell people to buy from you.
You have to study, plan, and use strategies and tools that could help your business reach your audience. The best strategy for Coronavirus marketing during this pandemic is to highlight the needs of the people. Then find a way to establish trust and confidence for your market.
If you haven’t used much social media marketing or SEO, these are the tools that you must highly consider. Right now, people are cutting expenses greatly in this area as they want to save money. You’ve got to think about the future.
Those who do well now and invest their time and money into digital marketing, are going to reap the rewards on the tail-end of this outbreak. The rest will be playing catch-up for a long time.
Meanwhile, if you have been using these digital marketing strategies, it is best to schedule your activities such as SEO keyword search, blog posting, and email marketing.
6. Boost your Social Media Presence
Researchers have seen a significant shift in consumer behavior since the community quarantine was implemented.
Social media usage continues to increase as people have nowhere else to go and nothing much to do inside their homes.
In digital marketing, this is a great opportunity as you know full well where the customers are these times. Social media marketing offers multiple ways to reach them.
Facebook, for instance, could boost your brand awareness through Facebook reach campaigns guaranteeing the expansion of your market. Don’t try to sell too quickly to your audience. You want to establish your brand in their mind while they’re scrolling through their feed.
Be conscious of what they’re going to be seeing, and plan out your content accordingly.
For example, in NY they’re currently dealing with a horrendous situation, chances are they aren’t worried about getting new “All-Weather Floor Mats” to protect their car interior, especially when no one is out on the roads.
That being said, if you target people in states that aren’t as hard hit, you can promote that same product but tailor your message to the current situation. “Rubber mats that are easy to clean and disinfect. Protect yourself from stubborn bacteria from hiding in your car” (Obviously make sure it’s a legitimate claim!)
Consistently posting will also allow you to build brand awareness among varied audiences. Keep them engaged with news related to your business and how they can help you in your operations. Explore other features of social media such as live streams and daily stories.
A great method to keep your audience engaged with your brand is to provide them with updates on the COVID-19 case and provide some advice specific to your industry.
Coronavirus marketing extends beyond just running ads to sell products. It requires you to leverage the current situation and provide meaningful information that can help your audience make more informed decisions.
7. Double Down on Your Website’s SEO
Consistent search engine optimization (SEO) on your website is instrumental in attracting organic traffic. Updating your optimization strategies and content marketing at least on a weekly basis helps in placing you on the top ranks of the search engine results pages (SERP).
Monitoring keywords for related trends and anticipating future information that your audience may look for enhances your visibility in multiple platforms.
SEO is your primary tool to ensure customers are still coming in. If they can’t come to your business physically, they’ll be coming to you digitally. You need to rank well for key terms so that they can find you!
Pessimism may have halted your other competitors from pursuing their SEO campaign, but optimism can secure your competitive advantage.
You may have noticed an uptick in Coronavirus marketing related content on our website, why? Because it’s trending highly on Google. People are looking to agencies like us for guidance on what to do and how to survive this storm.
Our responsibility is to put out high-quality content to help all businesses thrive. Local, small, medium, or even enterprise businesses can benefit by implementing coronavirus marketing ideas to drive traffic to their website.
For a limited time, we’re actually offering great deals on our SEO services for small and local businesses to help them through these difficult times.
8. Invest in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC advertising is an effective strategy in increasing traffic to your website. The varied responses of businesses on the economic possibilities of COVID-19 led to a reduction of cost-per-clicks. This opens a window of opportunity for hopeful business owners to move ahead of the competition. A small price to pay can go a long way in increasing online sales especially now that consumers focus on online purchasing. If you are new to PPC marketing, you can always venture into Google Ads, Bing Ads, and Pinterest.
The most common PPC platform is Google Ads. You can target users based on the specific keywords you want to show up for when they search online. As opposed to SEO, you don’t need to wait months to rank organically with PPC. You can essentially “Skip the line” by paying for a “fast pass” and enter into an auction with other advertisers. The winner gets to showcase their ad at the top of each search result page.
For a limited time, we’re offering a great deal on our PPC services for small and local businesses to help you generate revenue and immediate traffic.
9. Explore affiliate marketing
Employing services to widen your market from experts, influencers, and regular customers can help greatly in driving sales.
Affiliate marketing is a strategy where external entities are known as affiliates market your product or service via affiliate links from one website to another. It is a mutualistic approach as they earn a certain percentage from your profit.
This strategy is very industry-dependent though. It won’t work for everyone and you really do need to have an infrastructure in place to benefit from this. Restaurants can take advantage by offering a promotion where the customer can receive a gift card of a certain dollar amount when they get a friend to order a meal. You could go a step further and initiate a two-prong deal where both participants receive something for free when they bring a friend too.
Ordering online is essential for this. Please don’t invite patrons to your place during this time, we’d all like to be able to see the sunshine again once this virus fades. Sooner rather than later!
10. Highlight How your Business Helps
It is important that people can still see your value as a business establishment. Uploading content linked to how your business can help will inform your audience that your product/service is indispensable during these times.
If you are a restaurateur, provide content on how to sanitize your place based on your operational practices. Or you can also confirm that your business makes significant adjustments to still accommodate customers such as delivery and pick-up services. If you have a realty company, post helpful content on tracking COVID-19 cases in specific local areas and how people can protect themselves.
If you sell specific products, promote how they can be useful during this crisis. It is important for clients to know that in your own way, you are contributing a solution to the COVID-19 dilemma.
Invest In Coronavirus Marketing Today
Survival, in the general sense, can only be achieved when we learn to adapt. And adaptability truly is the demand for resilience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
The digital world opens its door widely for SMEs who aim to sustain their operations. The best thing about it is that even during post-quarantine; it will still secure brand awareness to a large number of audiences.
As the business pace is slower than usual, take the time to plant some seeds, so that if the COVID-19 pandemic is over, you are ready to reap the fruits of your efforts. This is your chance to overtake your competition and cement your place in the digital world.
Here’s some food for thought on how important it is to take advantage of digital Coronavirus marketing during times like these. These companies were founded during the 2008-2009 financial crisis:
- Groupon
- Uber
- Airbnb
- Quora
- WePay
- EpicGames
- MakerBot
It’s time to double down and believe in yourself. You’ll make it through this, and with the Cares Act coming out right now, you absolutely should bring on board a digital Coronavirus marketing consultant who can assist in the development of your coronavirus marketing strategies. Take advantage of the stimulus package to grow your business and not only survive, but thrive.