What Can You Do for Your Business During Lockdown?
We know that everyone is dealing with the lockdown measures issued for coronavirus safety differently. Amongst our client base we have seen hugely varied reactions. Some businesses have paused everything and almost gone into hibernation, while others have refocussed their activity and in some ways, are being more productive and carrying out more forward planning than ever before.
There is a lot of pressure, especially on social media, for us all to be productive and even learn new skills during this lockdown period. This is a little over the top and potentially detrimental to some; we’re all living in unique circumstances and the pressure to do all these things can be overwhelming when it’s likely you are already anxious about your and your family’s health, not to mention the health of your business.
So, let’s destroy that stigma and stop telling each other we should be using this time to learn a new language or complete a plethora of online education courses. Even if your business is partly or fully closed due to the lockdown, you can still work toward improving your business in this time. Here’re some suggestions if you do feel like being productive:
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Evaluate Your Branding and Communication
While business is slow or even temporarily halted, you have the opportunity to really reflect on how you communicate as a brand. How do you speak to your audience and are you saying the right things? Consider looking at some branding exercises and plotting how well your brand is currently doing at really understanding and representing the needs and desires of the target audience.
Take a look at your web content, your social media and your product descriptions. Are you answering your customers needs as well as you could be?
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Focus on Content
I’m not going to take you right back to the beginning, we all know by now that content marketing and depth of branded content is key. So why not take this time to review your existing content and set yourself a plan to start plugging the gaps? Not everyone is a natural born writer or designer. That’s ok. But as a business owner, it’s your role to be aware of the gaps in your content offering and take steps to addressing it.
Is your blog updated regularly with unique content? Do you have a blog at all? If you don’t, then you should have. There are no two ways about it. You don’t need to create the content yourself. Agencies like us exist for exactly that purpose. But consider what you need, what works for your audience and how much do you need to get on top of it. Perhaps even draft up a brief or speak to our content marketing team about what can be done for your site.
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Fix the Cracks
If you’re smart as a business owner, you will have a method or multiple methods for receiving customer feedback. But how good are you at actioning those pieces of feedback? Do you respond to complaints and issues one at a time? We call that fire fighting. Or have you stepped back to look at the most common issues as a whole and put actions in place to make your customer’s lives and your services better?
Now is the time to peel the plasters off and actually fix the broken parts of your process, your customer service or whatever it may be. Come out of this lockdown a slicker version of the business you already have.
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Don’t Wait
Most importantly, don’t wait. Take steps now and start working at them or appointing partners to help you before business picks up and you realise you’ve been left behind and genuinely achieved nothing over this period. Some businesses will come out the other side of this unfortunate scenario stronger and others will suffer in silence and potentially continue to struggle later on.
We work with businesses of all shapes and sizes. If we can give you any advice at all, please don’t hesitate to contact us.