Coronavirus is certainly a new challenge that all business owners are facing these days. Social restrictions and regulations are significantly impacting the bottom lines of many businesses, and many owners are even facing the prospect of permanent closures brought on by the impacts of the virus. However, while the economic damage caused by COVID-19 is certainly something that needs to be considered, prioritized, and tackled, it is likely the case that your business was facing some wicked problems before the virus hit.
With this in mind, it is not wise to use the coronavirus shutdown as an excuse for not dealing with other, potentially solvable, problems with your business. For example, many business websites are significantly lacking. Even at the best of times, it is easy for owners to become complacent with their online presence and neglect to make the necessary updates that will allow them to truly stand out and reach new customers.
In this regard, it is important to adjust your perspective and use this temporary downturn to your advantage. Let’s look at how your business can start to think differently about your website marketing and how you can start to do better in the post-pandemic environment:
Do A Website Audit
To give your website a much-needed update, it is important to know where you are starting from and what you are working with. Taking some time to conduct a thorough audit of your website will help you get a better sense of what needs to be done, or what can be done. Some things might stand out immediately now that you have more time to take a look at your pages.
It is important to be objective when assessing your site. It is easier to simply shrug your shoulders and say that everything is fine because fixing it will take too much work.
It is important to be objective when assessing your site. It is easier to simply shrug your shoulders and say that everything is fine because fixing it will take too much work. However, you likely have the time to make adjustments now. Motivate yourself to think of all of the ways your site could be better and write out a list.
Content And Blogs
If your business does not yet feature a regularly updated blog on its website, then now is the time to get started with one. Blogs are a great way to engage with your audience and to keep them informed about your business. Even posting about trends and happenings in your industry on a routine basis will keep traffic flowing into your site.
Pages that are updated regularly with new blog posts simply appear to be more professional by virtue of having the appearance that you care about your site, and your customers.
If you already have a blog that you are using to keep your customers informed about your business, try brainstorming new content ideas that you can use for future posts. Perhaps there are topics and areas of your industry that your audience would benefit from learning more about that you have not had the time to explore before. Delving into these topics and posting regularly throughout the coronavirus downturn will ensure that your customers know you will still be there when this is all over.
Reviews And Testimonials
Your business pages will reap a lot of benefits if you dedicate a part of your site to customer testimonials and reviews. Positive reviews about your products are a great way to demonstrate social proof. They show new customers that many other people have found your products to work well and satisfy a need. Reviews can also offer helpful advice for other users, such as tips for using your product or new ideas for how to use it. If you take the time to read through reviews that your customers post, business owners may also find helpful suggestions for how to improve their products and processes in the future.
Positive reviews about your products are a great way to demonstrate social proof.
Search Engine Optimization
There is a never-ending list of tweaks and changes that you could make to boost your site’s performance in the search rankings. Unless you are already at the top for all of the relevant keywords that you are targeting, there is always more work to be done.
The more effort you put into SEO, the more noticeable your business will be online.
Take some time to research how well your site is performing in terms of SEO. Learn more about useful techniques for boosting the prominence of your page. Take on the easy changes first but do not neglect more complex and technical tools either. The more effort you put into SEO, the more noticeable your business will be online. And with a stronger presence, you can certainly expect sales to go up.
Contact Information
At the very least, your business pages need to have clearly placed contact information for getting in touch with you. Many businesses locate this information on a separate page, though others include it in the navigation bar to make it easy for customers to find.
To make it even easier for your customers, you also need to consider adding an online chat feature to your page. You can either make this process partially automated, with the help of a chatbot, or you can handle the responses yourself. Either way, this method makes it easier to stay in touch and provide assistance to your customers in real-time.
Make The Most Of This Opportunity
As businesses start to reopen, it is important to be at the top of your game as a small business owner. Consumer demand has been and is currently pent up and waiting for the moment of reopening. Once business activity starts to reignite and social restrictions are lifted or relaxed, there will be a flood of opportunity to seize hold of. There is no way of knowing precisely when all of the restrictions that are currently hindering your business will be revoked; however, it is certain that the more effectively you use your time now, the better the chance will be that your business will come out of the downturn ahead of the rest.
Businesses that have used this period of relative stagnation in economic activity wisely will be rewarded.
Those businesses that have used this period of relative stagnation in economic activity wisely, such as to improve their website marketing, will be rewarded in the coming weeks and months. Make sure that you are on the winning side of the coronavirus pandemic and invest your time in bringing your website to a higher standard.
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Additional Resources:
How to Use Instagram Marketing for Your Business
Successful Young Candy Entrepreneur Shares His Sweet Success Secrets
Customer Engagement Online Strategies