If there’s one thing that COVID-19 did to the business industry is pose even more challenges to business owners in an already competitive and at time cutthroat realm. With disruptions in the supply chain and the increased anxiety of people to go out of their homes to personally buy goods or avail of services, entrepreneurs are forced to make drastic and quick changes to their business model and approach to stay operational amid the pandemic.
If you’re among the millions of affected business owners and you’re scratching your head thinking of ways how you can make your business stand out, you’d be happy to know that there are some simple tricks you can apply. These techniques use a combination of digital technology and some time-tested business tricks that the most successful companies employ to great effect.
Here are four hacks to make your business rock throughout the COVID-19 crisis:
Implement a smart marketing campaign
Have you ever wondered why some promotional materials are highly appealing to you while all others are bland? It’s most likely because the ad campaigns you liked the most have a marketing team that knows what exactly their target market wants.
No less than the American Psychological Association paved way for a dedicated Consumer Psychology Division back in 1960. The people involved in such pioneering efforts focused on defining a market, knowing what it wants, and then devising a marketing campaign that focuses on satisfying those wants. It’s a discipline called behavioral marketing or marketing psychology and it has proven to be a highly viable and effective way of capturing people’s attention and making them buy products or avail of services.
As such, be sure to hire a company that can employ this cutting-edge marketing approach to help your brand stand out and capture the target audiences.
For example, you could be an ad agency doing white label SEO. It’s understandable to outsource the job to a more experienced SEO agency, but make sure your partner also understands customer behavior and the buyer’s journey. You’d be surprised how many providers don’t have real know-how and skill in this area.
Find ways to establish and maintain a strong online presence
While before the pandemic, you most likely have marketing campaigns posted on social media channels and your website, you need to double down soon on your online marketing initiatives to reach out to your clients.
This is due to the continuing health and safety concerns of many American consumers and clients about COVID-19 transmission, particularly in crowded areas. As such, many of those who would otherwise personally go to commercial establishments to get the products and services they need choose to just stay home and order things online. Without a strong online presence, your business won’t stand a chance of succeeding.
For this, you must have a dedicated web marketing team to handle all your online campaigns. You can also tap an SEO company to make sure that your website’s articles and blogs will rank high in search engine results pages. It may cost you a considerable amount of money but the marketing mileage you’ll get out of it will make your financial investment worth it.
Practice corporate social responsibility
One of the brightest things that happened during the pandemic was the great number of businesses that went out of their way to contribute something to COVID-19 response efforts.
Among others, wine and liquor makers transformed their production facilities to produce alcohol and hand sanitizers instead, which were in high demand during the onset of the pandemic. Other businesses offered discounts and prioritized healthcare workers, while others gave out free products and made monetary donations to federal agencies and humanitarian organizations.
As the crisis is pretty much ongoing until now, you still have a lot of chances and plenty of time to practice corporate social responsibility in any way you can. While it’s true that business donations and other efforts of similar nature are tax-deductible, they’re just icing on the cake. The bottom line is to make your clients and the local community see and feel that you’re not just after making profits but helping out others as well, particularly in such a trying time.
Make your business client-friendly
One simple and highly effective technique to make your business shine is to ensure its client-friendliness. This can be done in several ways which, when put together, create a positive image of your company in the eyes of your target market.
For example, you should offer cashless payment options such as credit/debit card and electronic wallet payments. If your business deals with products, then offering easy checkout and deliveries are a must. You should likewise have dedicated personnel to handle queries and even complaints, so clients know that your company is proactive and responsive to their concerns and needs.
Just follow these simple tricks and you won’t get it wrong in your quest to establish a dominant presence in the industry.
