A successful business requires one simple thing – Passion – Teresa Collins
Business world changed drastically after 2019. Covid-19 pushed us to follow new normal, social distancing, nationwide lockdown which created a major impact in all kinds of businesses. With the growing new variants of covid 19, we know this pandemic is not ending anytime soon. This created a huge challenge for most of the business to keep their financial wheels up and running. So it was a roller coaster ride till now from adapting, surviving and thriving. What next? Do we need to simply pick up where left off or need to move our business to comfort zone. It’s time to create “New Normal” for sales and success? To answer this question, this discussion is meaningless right now as we’re in a strong position to redefine success and strategies in the new ways.
Here are a few tips for business success during the pandemic:
Hosting Virtual Events:
As social distancing is new normal, customers may continue to be in oscillation about in person shopping. So as a business owner, you must look for various other options to host business events and conference virtually. It is one of the best ways to engage and interact with the customer over a regular interval of time. Virtual events are more accessible for the large number audience and it is effective too. Webinars on topics relevant to your industry and business can involve high profile speakers for clarifying user queries.
Wondering how to create a successful virtual event for your business?
- Review your event and goals efficiently
- Select your virtual event platform
- Keep your attendees informed
- Content for your virtual event must be video conferences, live streams, live chats, webinars & more
- Engage your attendees
- Gather their feedbacks quickly
- Generate social media buzz about virtual events
- Promote your products, services & sponsors
- Help your customers understand the importance of virtual networking opportunities
Build Your Customer Relationship:
Customer is king. Business always relies on its customers to grow and during this pandemic, it is essential for any business to maintain those customers. Customers are spending more time than ever online & started working remotely. So business owners must use this opportunity to collaborate with customers effectively. Social media & email marketing is one of the best ways to stay connected with customers.
Make Strategic Marketing Plan:
Every pound matters when everything is sticking to a new normal. All your marketing efforts must be targeted and data driven to provide the best result. With the advanced tools & technics, it is possible to integrate your entire communication channels and gain useful insights out of it. If you are a small business owner, it is a good idea to get help from the consultant or hiring agencies that can analyze and boost your profile across all social media platforms. Effective marketing plan begins by knowing your customers.
Boost Your Social Media Presence:
Social media is a boon for small and mid-sized organization during pandemic. 21st century paved ideal way to engage with audiences. Make sure you identify & choose your communication channel effectively. Common social media platforms are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn & more to promote your products & services without any geographical barrier. The beauty of using such social media channel can help to re-promote your business content & drive people towards you. Social media is a powerful tool to trend in the digital world. Social media presence refers to the visibility a brand & connects with the community in a hassle free manner.
How to improve your social media presence:
- Engage your audience
- Manage your community
- Stay active & be consistent
- Stick your brand & emotion
- Track your competitors
- Measure your engagement ratio
- Leverage trends
- Post buzzy content
- Promote your post based on aligned with current events
- Listen to your audience
- Optimize your profiles for SEO & SMO
- Use tools to measure social media insights
- Embrace new features of each channel
- Understand your customer needs
- Include your icons in the website
- Build & Integrate social media strategy
- Use hash tags often
- Tackle your customer complaints effectively
- Optimize your accounts for engagement
Get Deep Into Data:
There is a great saying for any successful business it is important to turn data into information and information into insights. From the anomalies we can understand data is both granular and high frequency to analyze emerging patterns. Due to covid 19 outbreak, there is different shift in everyone’s interest. Collecting this type of data helps to study behavioural pattern of target audience. With the proper data in hand you must reconfigure your business model based on demand & supply. Ask basic questions to create & deliver the best result.
Take Your Business Online:
With the transformation of business from offline to online, many retailors want to boost their success. Before taking it online, do much needed keyword research which helps you to stay ahead of your competitors. With the help of search engine optimization and right key word selection you can drive targeted buyers to your website. Other than this pay per click is one of the most trusted and easiest ways to get organic traffic your brand new website.
Advantages of digital transformation:
- Improved efficiency
- Improved productivity
- Better resource management
- Resilient to change
- Improved customer engagement
- Improved responsiveness
- Innovation in creating new opportunities
- Improved revenue
- Data driven customer insights:
Opting to Direct to Consumer Model:
Too many hospitals and medical offices rely heavily on organic social media for their digital healthcare marketing strategy. Organic social media refers to posting images, updates, events, and other content directly to Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, and it’s a viable technique for growing your brand and informing patients about new developments.
If you observe closely, you will find crop of small business are due to business to consumer (B2C model). So we can understand roughly 80% of the businesses directly sell to consumers. Wondering what they will be selling. To keep it simple, it can be anything you imagine. Say thanks to transformation of the global digital infrastructure which supports everything from pick up of goods to delivery through various online platforms & services.
Say YES to collaboration & partner programs:
Working with top influential experts & SMEs helped many businesses to survive the pandemic. And more importantly, many small business owners collaborated with other businesses to create stability & supported each other to rise together. Partnering or collaborating with other business can improve your brand value & expands your customer base. Covid 19 pandemic helped many small businesses to know & understand the importance of utilizing growing opportunities.
Implement Covid 19 safety measure:
Most simple & essential thing to be taken care during this pandemic is implementing covid-19 safety measure. Familiarize yourself with all relevant protocols and guidelines as an important priority. Build a genuine safety net and be ready to face post crisis strategy.
Adopt best fit hybrid model:
Hybrid model is one of the important adoptions to survive in pandemic. Having a business model which mix traditional and non-traditional methods for product sale is highly valued. With the improved competition & accommodation, pandemic have made all business types to adopt hybrid business model. This model acts as game changers as they promote collaboration & generate more quality leads.
Don’t make assumption about your market:
It terms of market mood and sentiment should be carefully observed because of long term ramification. As a business, you shouldn’t wait for changes before proceeding with your plan. It is obvious that every business should able to discover new shifts in market & understand buyer’s persona.
Implement short term changes until the situation becomes normal:
A brand always refers to the company how people connect with it. So it is because mandatory for business to connect with every customer aspect of business & grow together. From employees to customers it becomes your responsibility to create a more positive impression.
Wrapping Up:
We all know life is uncertain. Many businesses started to operate with social distance. Big congratulation if you’re one among them. It’s okay if you’re not one among them. Nothing wrong in thinking about how companies can adapt to the changing needs of consumers.