Businesses around the world are having a tough time with the covid-19 pandemic. Here are some tips to help your business find the solutions to some of your biggest problems.
Get the perspective of someone from outside your business
On top of working with your staff to discuss how you can make your business more successful, it would also a great idea to work with someone who is from outside your business. This person will be from a different industry and have an employment history which is unlike anyone who currently works for your business. Consulting with someone who sees the world through a different lens has the potential to help your business find solutions to your problems in ways you may have never thought of.
Praise and nurture your most loyal customers
It is important to show gratitude towards the people who love your business and reward them for their continued support. When a happy and loyal customer posts on social media about the positive experiences they are having with your business they are essentially giving your business free advertising. Human beings generally speaking trust the opinions of their friends more than what they trust the opinions of a savvy marketing campaign.
If your customers leave positive comments on your social media posts or leave positive reviews on Google make sure you respond to these comments in a friendly and enthusiastic manner. Be grateful for the support they give you and they will be willing to support you even more in future.
Use Social Media More Strategically
Social media is an excellent place to gather data about your customers that can be utilised to enhance your relationship with them. By utilising social media to tell a captivating story you humanise your business and sound less desperate to make a sale. Businesses should aim to use social media with the intention of building an online community that is passionate about the products you sell.
The best way to entice your customers to purchase your product through social media is to create a call to action by posting content that is either humorous, educational, entertaining or evokes strong emotion. It is important to share content that adds value to your customers life and most importantly entices your social media followers to join the conversation around your products by leaving comments and sharing your content with their friends.
Keep an email database to remain in contact with your customers
It is also a good idea for your business to keep a database with the email addresses of all your customers and send out a newsletter on a monthly, weekly or fortnightly basis depending on the nature of your business. Sending a personalised email to your customer especially on milestone dates such as their birthday and offering a discount on you service or product is a great way to maintain and re-attract customers via email.
Be prepared to adapt to change
2020 and the covid-19 pandemic and thrown the entire world into chaos. Businesses have had to adapt successfully to unexpected and unavoidable change. Many businesses have failed and had to unfortunately permanently close.
Due to the closure of their physical stores clothing retailers had to upgrade their online stores to continue selling their products. The types of stock clothing stores were selling online also had to evolve. Instead of predominately offering clothes that customers would purchase to wear on a night out at the clubs, retail stores began to move towards a shift in selling outfits that customers would feel comfortable with wearing around the house during the lockdown. This example highlights the significance that a business must be prepared to adapt to sudden change in the age of covid-19. Adaption is the key to any small business that is aspiring to remain successful during one of the most unpredictable periods of human history.
For a period of time cafes and restaurants were only allowed to serve take-away products. Since customers weren’t allowed to dine in for a meal, hospitality venues had to re-access how they distributed their food to customers. Many cafes began to sell everyday products such as; milk and bread for a price similar to the supermarkets. This was a very intelligent business decision to make due to the difficulty many Australians faced with purchasing essential items in supermarkets as a result of many customers panic-buying. Many restaurants sold un-cooked pasta and un-cooked meats for customers to take home and cook due to a shortage of pasta and meat being available in supermarkets.
Experiment, test and measure
The tools and technology that businesses use to promote themselves in constantly changing. It would be a great idea to test new ways of marketing. You can try changing your tone in communications, experiment with new channels or different social media platforms or try to target a different audience.
When embarking on a change make sure you establish a measurement framework for your marketing activity. For example; 20 percent growth in web traffic or 30 percent increase in Instagram likes.
Be strategic in assessing the short, medium and long-term impact. As you learn what works for your customers and your brand, you can advance and evolve your marketing tactics.
Gain Valuable Insight with a Business Management System
Choosing to implement a business management system – or upgrading your outdated software – is a huge step, but the long-term benefits of making such changes are definitely worth the short-term inconveniences.
An effective business management system connects different areas of your business, streamlining workflow and eliminating bottlenecks. This has the capacity to give you real-time insight into your financial performing, inventory and staff activity. This insight can be utilised to make it less difficult to make the right business decisions. Having all your data stored in the same place functions as a central source of truth for your business. When everyone in your business is using the same numbers, errors are reduced. This saves time and gives your staff more energy to spend elsewhere.