
Why it’s more important than ever to stay visible
Whilst you may be experiencing a downturn in business during this time or you may be thinking of mothballing the business in readiness for the end of the crisis now is most certainly not the time to go quiet on your customers.
Actually, quite the opposite.
A good policy would be to implement a newsletter or series of emails to your customers if you aren’t already doing so. Use it to communicate your ability to help customers and any changes to how you regularly provide them with your product or services.
This is a good time to focus on your existing customers, provide excellent service, make sure you retain your important relationships and top customers. Let any key relationships know you are still there and how you can be of service now or going forward.
Ensure you communicate clearly and consistently and if you remain open for business make sure they know and make it easy for them to purchase your product and services.
Use your social media presence to keep your customers up to date and if you typically don’t use social media, it may now be time to build an online presence. Build a Facebook page, set up a Twitter account and organise a LinkedIn account.
When it comes to networking it used to mean all coffee, handshakes and business cards. Now, it is all about immediacy so besides existing customers think about using your online presence through your website,Fa cebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn to push generate interest in you and your business.
Don’t forget the power of word of mouth and offer incentives for referrals if this suits your business model. Think about differentiation, what makes you different from every other business in your sector. Be creative and find new opportunities to market and sell. Given the current conditions, what service or product can you provide right now that would resonate with customers?
Consider new ways to deliver your service or
product. This might be through home delivery, mail or through virtual web-based services. Offer a cut-down or “lite” service during the epidemic and above all try to think outside the box.
How about setting up a group meeting, sales presentation, and special promotion using webinars. You could offer tutorials, demos either live or as webcasts or podcasts for immediate download.
You could use advertisement sharing with complementary businesses, find ways to share referrals and take advantage of affiliate marketing tools to drive new customers to your website or business such as Facebook advertising or Google AdWords. Whatever you do make sure you measure all your marketing efforts to see which ones are cost-effective.
Whilst new customers can help grow your business this can sometimes be the most expensive strategy for generating additional revenue. On average it costs eight times the amount of money to acquire a new customer as it does to retain a current customer so think about your perfect customer and consider severing any relationship with those customers that bring you down. If nothing else this will free up valuable time for you to explore new opportunities.
These are extraordinary times and businesses are naturally finding it difficult and, in some cases, almost impossible to continue trading in their current form. It would be tempting to simply wait for the situation to improve but I believe that right now disappearing from view is not an option.
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