The online world, whether it’s digital marketing, e-commerce retail or virtual resources, is proving itself more valuable than ever before.
As a small business owner or employee, have you considered how you need to rethink or simply start utilizing digital marketing in response to a crisis?
Here’s a look at how local businesses can use times of crisis as a way to update and improve upon digital marketing connections with their customers.
Personalize emails
It’s important, no matter the circumstance, to remind your customers of how essential they are to your business.
This is especially true, however, when you cannot easily interact with them in-store or on-site. In this case, digital marketing serves to build connections that may be lost due to a lack of face-to-face interaction.
Extend your thanks and your thoughts to customers by recognizing them as individuals through personalized emails. Whether you personalize these emails by simply including the customer’s name, or by individually writing emails, this is a great way to connect.
Advertise your safety precautions
Safety is a top priority right now and it also determines whether customers want to purchase products or services from your business or not.
Nearly any online touchpoint to customers should be used to address customer concerns regarding safety and sanitation needs.
So, if you’re posting on your social media platforms, create a post that outlines the precautions your business is taking to protect its customers and employees.
An additional tip to help ensure users and followers will see your informational post is to try pinning it to the top of your feed. This will keep that post at the top of your social media page for as long as you choose to have it pinned.
The same goes for your website, emails or advertisements. With these different digital marketing measures taken, you can ensure that the majority of your customers can be reached and informed about your best safety practices to ultimately choose your business of competitors.
If you run a restaurant, for example, remind your customers of the preparation precautions you are taking such as wearing gloves and masks while cooking or consistently sanitizing cooking supplies and equipment.
This is all vital information for your customers to know so, we recommend sharing it through a social media post that pictures an employee working while taking these precautions or by outlining your safety measures in an email to customers!
Ramp up online customer service
With the current number of online orders and purchases increasing, your online customer service should be able to meet the growing demand.
Consider this an opportunity to use new forms of customer service like chatbots! Chatbots are one of the biggest digital marketing trends for the year and a great way to stay ahead of other businesses when it comes to having a functional and digitally advanced website.
With artificial intelligence becoming a part of mainstream digital marketing, it only makes sense to make a natural progression into using programs like chatbots.
Especially in times where face-to-face communication is nearly non-existent, providing additional forms of customer service should be a top priority. In the case of chatbots, your business can utilize them to power computer programmed chat responses on your website. You also have the option to interact through social media messaging services like Facebook messenger.
Or, why not try video conferencing? If you have potential customers who are considering buying into one of your products or services, this is a space that allows more personalized consultations or simply a closer connection to resolve customer questions or concerns.
Offer live updates
Grow your social media presence in times of uncertainty through live videos. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook are a great source for interacting with followers live.
Again, this is a place to resolve concerns, answer questions, offer suggestions or simply discuss new and ever-evolving information about your business in real-time.
The personalization that we mentioned earlier also comes into play with live video streams as they allow users to feel connected to you as a business leader and addressed on a personal level.
To learn more about going live on Facebook, click here.
Final thoughts
Digital marketing is always an essential part of your small business and as times change and the digital world becomes one of our limited ways to connect, your digital marketing strategies will as well.
To meet the current landscape of small business communication and marketing, offering personalized emails, advertising your safety measures, increasing customer service outlets and utilizing live streams are just a few new and improved ways to meet your customer’s needs.
Follow the links below to read some success stories from local businesses that have used RevLocal's digital marketing services to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on their business:
For more information on how RevLocal can help your business in the face of rapid change, click here to request a demo from one of our digital marketing consultants.