6 Ways To Optimise & Adapt Your Business Digitally, Right Now
For both people and businesses, there has never been a time in any of our lives where digital media has played such a vital role. While often lamented as increasing anti-social behaviour and social isolation, in a world of social distancing, social media is currently proving to be the thread connecting friends and family. The same can be said for business; businesses are staying afloat by pivoting their strategies towards online, and becoming more active on social media and on emails to update their changes in operation and connect with customers.
So, in the midst of a pandemic, and with potentially some extra time on your hands, what should you be doing to adapt your business digitally - for now, and to prepare for the future?
1. Update Your Digital Presence
If you’ve been slack with making your digital visibility and viability a priority, now is the time. Many businesses have had to adapt, temporarily closing their bricks and mortar stores, adding online delivery options, ecommerce stores, and turning in-person workshops into virtual workshops.
And with no foot traffic, and changes to your business, you will also need to communicate this.
There are various ways to do this:
- Via your social media channels
- Your website
- Via eNewsletters
- Via updating / optimising your Google My Business listing.
Need some help with creating an ecommerce site, or getting your message out to your customers? We can assist, so please reach out.
2. Don’t Cut Back on Digital Marketing & Creating Content
With increased isolation comes increased engagement. Many small businesses may be considering cutting their marketing budget down or completely, but we suggest you don’t as your marketing dollars will likely go much further.
Verizon recently reported a 20% increase in web traffic in just one week. As these impressions increase, and your competition changes, your CPC is likely to decrease. In a nutshell, this means you'll get more bang for your buck. This provides a good opportunity to capture more traffic via your Google Ads, SEO (blog posts and any content on-site as well as off-site) and social media marketing.
You can use Google Trends and other tools to see what topics and search queries are trending and use that as a guide to what to focus on for now. If you need to, adapt - but don’t stop.
3. Focus On Your Customers
It’s important to continue building and fostering relationships with your customers at this time, and the best way for this at the moment is through social media.
Ask for testimonials for your social media and Google My Business accounts, and make sure thank customers on their continued support. Think about ways you can help your loyal customers in this time. Offer rewards, offer a giveaway or a give back initiative. If not now, think about how you might be able to celebrate them once business has re-launched.
If your business is thriving, and some of your customers work in businesses that are struggling, think about ways you can help through sharing and championing what they do, and the importance of supporting your community where you can. What can you give away for free right now that many would appreciate? Think courses, helpful tips and cheat sheets, even free delivery.
4. Try New Digital Platforms & Tools
If you’ve been hesitant to do so in the past, now’s a good time to adapt your business digitally by trying some of the digital platforms relevant to your business.
You might want to try Facebook or Instagram lives or even TikTok. It’s important to stay connected, and there’s never been a better time to experiment!
5. Upskill with an Online Training Course
This could be a great one for you as an individual, your business, and also for your staff with lots of companies offering free or low cost courses at the moment. Ever wanted to learn photoshop? Or have someone in your team with skills to use it? How about web development, or coding? You could even study an MBA online. Udemy, Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning offer a wide range of reputable courses. Adobe is also offering free Creative Cloud membership for three months to those who already have subscriptions.
6. Plan For Now, and Into The Future
If digital has not been your priority and you’ve found yourself struggling to adapt quickly, now is the time to review and revise. Revisit your branding, your strategy, your approach, your business goals - and get ready for re-launch.
Things to review now include your website (Can the design be improved? How about the functionality? Is it optimised for mobile? ), on-site content (is it SEO optimised? What else can you write now that will add value? Is it all up-to-date in terms of the services your offer?)
Look at your branding. What can be improved? Does your brand position still ring true? While you may not be able to do much in terms of say, taking new team photos right now, use this time to research new ideas, and plan for things to do in a few months’ time.
Record what protocols you followed during this period - what worked, what didn't? How can you better or more efficiently implement these if you experience a similar issue or downturn in business in the future?
While much is unknown, it pays to be as prepared as possible and adapt your business digitally now so you’re ready to go as soon as business picks up again - and it will!
Need Help To Optimised & Adapt Your Business Digitally?
We've got lots more digital advice on website builders, copywriting for SEO, and search and social ad strategies If you need assistance with any of these, or setting up an ecommerce store on your site, app development, social media marketing, or anything else to help you adapt your business digitally for now and the future, we’d love to hear from you. Connect with us to find out how we can help, ask a question, or even just to say hi!