If your business is one of the many that is being forced to temporarily shut down due to the pandemic, now is a perfect time to be working on your business, setting it up for success once the crisis is past. Even if budgets are tight, there are steps you can take today to prepare for tomorrow.
- Search Engine Optimization – We always say that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. It can take time to organically rank for the search words most important for your business. Therefore, investing in SEO now, especially while your competition may be cutting digital marketing budgets, can help you rank higher so you’re better positioned once business returns to a new normal.Another way to think about investing in SEO is comparing it to the stock market. When stocks start to crash, some people panic, lock in their losses, and sell their investments. The smart investor sitting on cash doubles down on low-cost stocks for healthy companies and rides the market back up as things turn around. Think about SEO the same way. Invest while others are running scared so you will be positioned to ride the market back up.
- Connect With Your Audience – Now more than ever, your potential clients are passing time on their phones, tablets and computers. Use this opportunity to connect with them! You know your audience is limited in what they can do while staying home which means they are consuming loads of content by the day. Make sure that you are giving them plenty of content to consume. Write informative blogs and promote them on your website and on social media. Reach out to clients via email and newsletter blasts and let them know you’re thinking about them. Post informative social media content. For clients in need, examine ways your company can help them. Simply use this time to connect with people.
- Give Your Audience Something to Smile About – While it’s important to let your customers and the general consumer know that you are still operating, it is also important to realize that everyone could use a smile or laugh. Make sure some of your posts, blasts, and emails are about bringing joy to the world and helping people crack a smile or two. The bonds you will build with clients and customers during this scary time will not be forgotten.
- Positioning – If you are not bringing in new clients, customers, or leads with your current product or service line, think about refocusing your company’s efforts to new products or services that would help with critical needs. Many businesses are shifting to producing items in short supply like ventilators, surgical masks, hand sanitizer, etc. What can you do to position yourself in a needed way? Can you offer consulting? online training? A new product? Are their items you can produce to sell to consumers and others you can donate to hospitals, first responders, etc? Position your business for the pandemic.
- Company Updates – This is the perfect time to work on your business. Consider tasks like updating your website, sharpening your blogging skills, learning how to podcast or how to execute a video marketing campaign. Take this opportunity to train your staff on new skills. Now is the time to take a deep dive into all of the elements that drive your business and look for areas you can improve upon.
- Give Back To The Community – With so much suffering in the world right now, this is the perfect time to think about those in need. Include your staff in these efforts. Include their families, especially kids. This is an opportunity to teach important values to children and help others. Communicate these charitable efforts to your clients and customers. If they can join you, even better.
At Geektown USA, our business never slows down. Our clients span a wide range of industries. When one sector slows, another seems to speed up. Our clients are family. We’re here for you in good times and bad.
Any time there is a lull in Geek Town production work, we fill it with self-improvement time to improve our business in one way or another. We never have what we would call “down time.” Instead we refer to it as “opportunity time.” We encourage our clients to use this time as opportunity time as well. If we can help you, let us know.