Tag Archives: Covid-19

Can you grow your business during the coronavirus pandemic?

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How to grow your business during the coronavirus outbreak

How to grow your business during the coronavirus outbreak

I know, talking about growing your business during this crushing coronavirus outbreak may seem a bit inappropriate.

The reality is, we all need to make a living, at least those who can.

We are all looking into a long spell of economic downturn coupled with a humanitarian crisis that hasn’t been seen for at least a century.

Hence, all the more reason to keep at least some parts of the economy moving and maintaining the cash flow.

This Green Entrepreneur blog post lists 7 strategies that can help you grow a business, or rather, a new business during the coronavirus pandemic.

Every challenge brings a collection of opportunities with it, and so has the current coronavirus pandemic.

With most of the businesses coming to a halt, you have time to focus on content marketing and expand your presence on the Internet. It will help you reach out to the existing market, however much it exists, and it will also give you a headway when the world gets on its feet.

The above blog post lists the following things you can do to grow your business while you maintain social distancing and remain confined to your home.

Enhance your content marketing effort

You may like to read Is content writing and publishing same as content marketing?

The good thing about content marketing is that content can be produced and published digitally. You don’t have to invest in raw material. All the tools that you need to publish useful content are already there with you.

You want to publish videos? You can use your mobile phone.

You want to publish podcasts? Even these can be done using your mobile phone or a standard microphone attached to your computer or laptop.

Want to publish blog posts? You can write them yourself or you can hire a content writer or a blog writer.

Content marketing helps you in normal days and it also helps you in these testing times.

Businesses haven’t disappeared. They are just recuperating, or they are functioning in a different manner. You have to reach out to them and content marketing is the best way to do so.

Work at improving your SEO

In the regular hubbub of doing business content marketing and SEO often take a backseat. This is a good time to focus on improving your search engine rankings and increase your search visibility.

You may like to read 10 SEO content writing tips for your small business

The benefits of SEO come from many factors. As mentioned above, your search visibility improves. You get more targeted traffic. Your conversion rate improves. You get more back links because a greater number of people can find your content. You get more content to share through your newsletter.

There are various tools available that can help you figure out what sort of content you should publish to improve your SEO.

Invest in social media marketing

Facebook has nearly 2.45 billion monthly active users. At the time of the Covid-19 crisis, more people are logging on to Facebook to keep up with their loved ones and even to interact with their colleagues.

You may like to read 5 ways to make your content social media friendly

The same goes with other social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter.

Millions of your customers might be there. If you have never advertised on social media and social networking platforms, perhaps, now is the right time.

Be regular with email marketing

You may also like to read Email marketing dos and don’ts during the Covid-19 pandemic

Email marketing needs to be a bit different during a pandemic. Ideally it should be different always, in the sense that instead of continuously pushing your products and services in front of people, you must add value to their inboxes.

Keep in touch with your subscribers. Send them good information about how they can keep themselves safe. If you feel that a bit of information can help them work better during their confinement, share it with them. The key is, provide value. They are going to remember you for that.

Aside from these actions, I would also suggest you spend more time on LinkedIn if you’re providing B2B services, like I do. Almost all my content writing and online copywriting clients come from the B2B segment.

Email marketing dos and don’ts during the Covid-19 pandemic

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Email marketing during the coronavirus outbreak

Email marketing during the coronavirus outbreak

Businesses all over the world are being hit hard as the world reels under the scourge of Covid-19 (popularly known as the Coronavirus).

Thousands are dying. Hundreds of thousands are being infected. Businesses are being shut. Employees are being laid off.

At the time of writing this, there are almost 190,000 Coronavirus cases in the US and the death toll surpassing 12,000 in Italy (source). India has crossed the 1600 mark.

In this atmosphere of extreme chaos, how do you keep your business running?

By “keep your business running” I don’t mean promoting your products and services and asking people to buy them when they are in no position to buy them.

What I mean is, how do you maintain contact? How do you reach out to your customers and clients who may be affected by the pandemic, in various degrees?

What sort of emails should you send to your mailing list?

People are not interested in business offers because they are dealing with a much bigger problem.

On the other hand, you shouldn’t put a stop to your usual communication with your customers and clients.

In fact, this is the right time to inculcate a sense of normality, without aggressively promoting yourself.

Talk about the Covid-19 pandemic

Image source: Science News.

This Inc. article suggests that you should address the problem head on. Talk about the Coronavirus pandemic or the Covid-19 outbreak and how it is affecting practically everyone, directly or indirectly.

At the time of an outbreak, people want to be informed. They want to get the latest information.

If you have a mailing list, you already have a platform to raise awareness about the virus.

I often order medicines from an online medicine delivery service. Recently they sent a very nice infographic on how to practice social distancing and how to wash your hands properly to keep yourself from getting infected.

There was no marketing message.

Pretty much everyone is aware of the importance of social distancing and properly washing hands, but the infographics was pretty nicely done.

Inculcate hope amidst negativity

Everyone is stressed out. Even if people are not sick, they are confined to their homes. They are losing their livelihoods. Their sources of income are vanishing.

Whenever you come across positive news, share it with your mailing list, with your subscribers or your blog readers.

If new medicine is been discovered, let it be known to your customers and clients.

If immunity can be improved, let it be known to your customers and clients, how.

If there are examples of communities pushing back the outbreak, talk about it.

Spread positivity. Show genuine concern.

You can also share your own experience of how you’re coping with social distancing

Should you completely ditch non-coronavirus updates?

This blog post seems to say so.

Dismiss all non-virus stories out of hand. There is room for stories about other topics, just think through how they’ll be received in the current climate.

I personally believe as long as you are genuine, you can talk about anything. Of course, you have to be sensitive about the situation – not just pretend to be sensitive but be actually sensitive.

Everyone can relate to the need for carrying on. Everyone knows that the world is not ending. This dark phase is going to pass. People haven’t stopped working. They simply work from their homes.

They still have to use services. There are many products that they still need.

These days I’m continuously coming across updates on how you can use Zoom better.

I’m getting G Suite updates on how to work better from your home.

There are many cloud-based services that are promoting themselves because people need them.

More people seem to be inquiring about my content writing services because they think that while they wait at homes, they can work on improving their SEO and generate better content for their websites now that other things are on hold.

So, business, career, livelihood and marketing are realities of our times. People don’t mind marketing. But people mind if you just focus on marketing.

Instead, focus on providing help. Focus on being there. Figure out how you can help people using the business assets you have built.

Use your blog to publish useful information. Use your mailing list to disseminate useful information. Use your social media profiles to raise awareness.

We can deal with this. We will emerge victorious.