Keeping Your Business Healthy During The Coronavirus Outbreak
Marketing
March, 11th, 2020
Keeping Your Business Healthy During The Coronavirus Outbreak
Digital Marketing During Coronavirus Outbreak
Everyone I know is worried right now with growing concerns regarding the current flu, and especially with the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This is creating a lot of uncertainty in the stock market, and due to so many unknowns, is creating some panic from individuals and businesses alike. It is especially important to understand the role digital marketing can play to not only help your business survive and keep the economy strong, but also flourish.
This outbreak has managed to create so much panic that sporting events, concerts, and many other public events have been canceled throughout the country. In fact, Google announced that it will have its employees work from home temporarily. Even Harvard and other colleges and universities in the greater Boston area have closed temporarily. With so many events being canceled due to the outbreak, and fear of crowded public spaces, this is an opportunity to promote and sell your products and services online.
Creating a website, or maintaining an website is an especially important first step. More important than that is marketing your product online through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or by using SEM as a supplemental, while organic rank and local SEO grows. To be clear to those of you who are new to this, organic rankings are natural searches; that is, you come up high on search engines without advertising. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, and involves paying for specific keyterms. This is more costly in the long run, but is great when used short term as you build organic ranking for important keywords and phrases.
Another important step to marketing your business online is through Social Media Marketing. This gives your company the opportunity to communicate directly with your customers. A blog is another good way to educate and inform your visitors. Whether it’s to promote a sale, or you just want to offer help in how to use your products, this is a great way to communicate and support your marketing and branding efforts. Best of all, you can do this yourself, without the need of hiring a marketing company!
No matter what you do, a combination of these items mentioned are a must if you want your business to survive when there are natural disasters and other unseen events which often hurt small businesses. All of these things are even more important today than they were just a year ago. While many large businesses can often survive in a crisis, this is especially difficult for local small businesses, who rely on exposure. If you own a store, and nobody is coming in, you are essentially paying to have somewhere to go during the day. This is especially true if you have employees. In times like this, you can find new places to sell online, helping you to keep going while this crisis is being managed.
Whatever your business offers, I would not use this public anxiety to unnaturally inflate your prices or spread fear. While there will likely be shortages, and certainly some costs will go up, that’s understandable. But sometimes when businesses use this as a means to gouge Americans, it can backfire. You don’t know how long this will last, and gouging people at a time of crisis is a sure way to demonstrate you don’t care about your customers, and they will remember that. However, when costs go up and your costs are higher, if you explain that honestly to your customers, most will understand and respect you for it.
I type this while I personally have a sore throat after meeting with a client who recently traveled. These outbreaks are serious issues considering the spread of a disease we are not familiar with, nor have a vaccine for. This is a very scary and tragic event for so many of us. However, we can’t let fear, or lack of patronage destroy our hard work and our businesses. This is a time when we, as business owners, need to learn new ways of doing business. Whether you hire a company like ours, or do this on your own, I highly recommend focusing more of your attention on the things mentioned in this article. There is no more reliable means of keeping a business growing online without these things. In fact, when all this blows over, you may find that you have increased your revenue and created a new channel to market to!
This outbreak has managed to create so much panic that sporting events, concerts, and many other public events have been canceled throughout the country. In fact, Google announced that it will have its employees work from home temporarily. Even Harvard and other colleges and universities in the greater Boston area have closed temporarily. With so many events being canceled due to the outbreak, and fear of crowded public spaces, this is an opportunity to promote and sell your products and services online.
Creating a website, or maintaining an website is an especially important first step. More important than that is marketing your product online through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or by using SEM as a supplemental, while organic rank and local SEO grows. To be clear to those of you who are new to this, organic rankings are natural searches; that is, you come up high on search engines without advertising. SEM stands for Search Engine Marketing, and involves paying for specific keyterms. This is more costly in the long run, but is great when used short term as you build organic ranking for important keywords and phrases.
Another important step to marketing your business online is through Social Media Marketing. This gives your company the opportunity to communicate directly with your customers. A blog is another good way to educate and inform your visitors. Whether it’s to promote a sale, or you just want to offer help in how to use your products, this is a great way to communicate and support your marketing and branding efforts. Best of all, you can do this yourself, without the need of hiring a marketing company!
No matter what you do, a combination of these items mentioned are a must if you want your business to survive when there are natural disasters and other unseen events which often hurt small businesses. All of these things are even more important today than they were just a year ago. While many large businesses can often survive in a crisis, this is especially difficult for local small businesses, who rely on exposure. If you own a store, and nobody is coming in, you are essentially paying to have somewhere to go during the day. This is especially true if you have employees. In times like this, you can find new places to sell online, helping you to keep going while this crisis is being managed.
Whatever your business offers, I would not use this public anxiety to unnaturally inflate your prices or spread fear. While there will likely be shortages, and certainly some costs will go up, that’s understandable. But sometimes when businesses use this as a means to gouge Americans, it can backfire. You don’t know how long this will last, and gouging people at a time of crisis is a sure way to demonstrate you don’t care about your customers, and they will remember that. However, when costs go up and your costs are higher, if you explain that honestly to your customers, most will understand and respect you for it.
I type this while I personally have a sore throat after meeting with a client who recently traveled. These outbreaks are serious issues considering the spread of a disease we are not familiar with, nor have a vaccine for. This is a very scary and tragic event for so many of us. However, we can’t let fear, or lack of patronage destroy our hard work and our businesses. This is a time when we, as business owners, need to learn new ways of doing business. Whether you hire a company like ours, or do this on your own, I highly recommend focusing more of your attention on the things mentioned in this article. There is no more reliable means of keeping a business growing online without these things. In fact, when all this blows over, you may find that you have increased your revenue and created a new channel to market to!