5 Practical Tips to Keep Your Online Business Going in any Economy
How are things going for you and your business?
This unusual period is a worrying time for many. Some people are prospering, some are doing okay, and some are finding it a struggle. Wherever you are, now is the time for practical actions to keep your business going.
Here are some of our thoughts on what you might do:
Free download: A template for your SWOT analysis
1. Keep being visible
The coronavirus pandemic is definitely an unusual challenge to deal with, both personally and professionally. However, like any other crisis period, it is temporary. Many businesses might choose to pull back on communications or marketing to their audiences, but there are some good arguments to be made for staying visible.
Firstly, there’s the fact that a pandemic is temporary. A key goal for most businesses is to come out the other side strongly and keeping up your communication and/or marketing efforts with your audience is one way to do that.
Why? Because it helps to ensure that you’re not forgotten. Most businesses work hard to build up an audience and it doesn’t take long after dropping out of site to drop out of the minds of that audience.
There are several examples we can draw from over just the last century of crisis periods. The Great Depression is one example, with the story of the rival cereal companies, Post and Kelloggs. A New Yorker article describes how Post did the “predictable thing” by reigning in expenses, including marketing budget. Kelloggs on the other hand, doubled its ad budget and released a new product - Rice Krispies. By 1933, Kelloggs had grown their profits by over 30%, even while the economy tanked, and became the predominant cereal company. Post remained behind...
Secondly, if you keep up your visibility in ways that are helpful or reassuring to your target audience, it’s a great way to keep up goodwill. In the better times to come, you want people to come back to you, remembering how your business conducted itself during the hard times.
Concerned about marketing budget? Work with what you’ve got. Continue to do things like send emails to your list and post regularly on social media. If you have the time and ability, post to your blog as well.
Is what you offer relevant in some way to the coronavirus situation? For example, if you offer some kind of product or service that makes social distancing possible? Or perhaps you simply let people know that your business can and does operate remotely.
2. Find what your customers need
Here’s a question for you: how can you help the clients you have with the needs that they have now? What about any new potential clients? Evaluate what you’re offering - does it still work for your clients or is there something else that they need more? Is now a time to adjust course slightly, or even pivot to remain relevant?
While you’re pondering these questions, consider whether anything might change during future phases of the pandemic situation. Is there something that might be needed then that you should plan for now?
In the world of Squarespace websites, we can think of a few examples of the sorts of things that customers might need now:
A viable way to do business online, especially if they largely relied upon brick-and-mortar before.
A way to boost the capacity of their website, especially if they’re now getting much more online traffic.
New functionality, for example shopping carts or setup of an online store.
A new website design. Perhaps they’re quiet right now and see it as an ideal time to take care of tasks such as website maintenance or redesign.
A branding initiative. Perhaps they need to brand themselves as a business or service that operates digitally.
Now might be a great time to conduct some market research to find out what people need. Survey your current clients and perhaps ask on social media or in networking groups. There is still plenty of need out there that Squarespace agencies or freelancers can serve, it’s a matter of discovering how you can help the most.
3. Generate leads
A great way for your business to stick around in the future is to keep working with the future in-mind. We know, this can be difficult if you’re facing a crisis: many businesses are very focused on the here and now, trying to stay above water.
However, lead generation is one thing you can do to help ensure your future. If you can put some of your time into generating more leads now, you should hopefully have a pipeline of potential clients once the crisis situation calms.
What can you do?
Keep networking and talking to people. You might meet someone, or someone who knows someone, who could use your help.
Use and promote lead generation techniques on your website. For example, maybe you have a “lead magnet” - a piece of useful content that you give away in exchange for an email address. Now might be a good time to assess and devise a new lead magnet that helps people with an urgent problem they have right now.
Build your email list. Give people a good reason to sign up for your newsletter by being helpful and relatable.
Offer and promote a service that you know people will need as soon as they’re able to get going.
4. Take the time to strategize
When was the last time you evaluated your business? Now might be a great time to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis and strategize for different possible scenarios.
People often worry the most about things that they perceive they have no control over. Businesses also tend to be weakest when they’re in a position of being reactive, dictated to by the situation they find themselves in.
Planning and strategizing help to minimize that “reactive” scenario by having plans prepared for different situations. A kind of “if this, then that” for your business. Strategizing also allows you to focus on the things you can control in a situation that may otherwise seem stressful and out of control. It definitely helps you to make good decisions if you can approach the situation from a calmer viewpoint!
Look at the biggest challenges you face and evaluate options for managing them. For example, if one of them is financial challenges due to coronavirus, a next step might be to contact SBA about coronavirus funding options.
5. Create new assets for your business
If you find yourself with extra time on your hands, consider how you might create something that helps your business in the future. Maybe it’s something that promotes your services better (how many people badly need to revamp their own website?), or maybe it’s a new product or service you can sell. As an alternative, maybe there’s a new skill you can learn that will help you to grow your business.
We’re not going to say “you should be productive” along the lines of Shakespeare churning out plays during quarantine, or Sir Isaac Newton discovering gravity - people already tend to put enough pressure on themselves. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming, this idea that if you’ve got a quieter period, you should come out of it with something huge.
What can you do to avoid being overwhelmed, yet come out with something useful for your business? Start out with the small things. This can help to get you on a roll with achieving and to develop plans to work on anything bigger.
Download our SWOT analysis template here
Final thoughts
This is a challenging period for everyone on some level. It’s not easy dealing with a widespread crisis situation of which you have no previous experience.
As a business owner, it can help if you look for the practical steps you can take. This allows you to have some level of control at a time when things may seem chaotic. We hope you can find something in these tips that you can apply.
Lastly, stay well! Look after yourself and do what you need to keep physical and mental health. We appreciate you being here and hope to have you back.
