Regardless of your industry, the COVID-19 pandemic has ushered us all into uncertain and unprecedented times. Cities are shutting down and business may be slow, but it doesn’t have to be all bad. Take advantage of your newfound free time to redirect and ramp up your search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing strategies.
Interview employees & customers
Take some time to interview your employees, clients and customers about their experiences with and knowledge of your company, products and services. It’s important to maintain social distancing, so we recommend using Zoom, Google Hangouts, or other video chatting software with recording capabilities.
These interviews will give you information to reference when creating blog posts, social media content, and press releases over the coming months.
Conduct a mini content audit
Take advantage of this slow period and conduct a content audit. By analyzing your webpages, blog posts, emails, videos, infographics, and presentations, you’ll be able to see what performs best, and what you may need to improve.
Depending on the results, you may want to take the opportunity to upload fresh content, refine and redirect your call to actions, and add links to new products and services.
Plan webinars
Right now, all we’ve got is free time. Take advantage of this by holding webinars! You can introduce new team members, company products and services, or answer frequently asked questions. The possibilities are endless! A recent survey found that 91% of professionals say webinars are their favorite content format for learning.
Clean up files and administrative content
There’s always administrative work to be done. Sort and organize your email inbox. Clean up your desktop. Delete files you don’t need anymore. This also may be a good time to read any marketing articles or books
you’ve been putting off, clean up your SEO, or conduct research on ideas and pitches for the future.
Record videos
Videos not only captivate consumers, but they’re also great for SEO. They can help you target long-tail keywords, trigger snippets, and appear in relevant search results.
Once recorded, you can take screenshots to use in future social media posts, and can also take quotes from the transcript to use in future captions, press releases and printed marketing materials.
Online Reviews: What are people saying about you
If you missed a review from 2016, leave it. But be sure to reply to recent reviews. We also recommend creating a policy you can use when replying to both positive and negative comments going forward. Take the time to craft a few template responses that well represent your brand.
If possible, train an employee to take on this task, showing them what you expect as far as providing effective customer service, as well as analyzing the value of the review and providing monthly reports.
Pursue digital options
Now more than ever, it’s vital that your company embraces digital marketing, which includes everything from social media to online shopping. The more you can offer customers digitally— without face to face interaction — the better you’ll fare during this crisis.
Update your Google My Business profile
Many local customers may still be trying to support you and your business. Make sure your store hours, business description and contact information are up to date. Google My Business is also a good place to share any relevant changes or precautions you and your staff have taken to combat COVID-19.
Spruce up your website
Take a look at your content, check your links and re-evaluate your site navigation. This is also a good opportunity to test your website on different browsers and mobile devices. For more on this, check out https://dezinsinteractive.com/spruce-up-your-website-this-spring/.
Consider developing an outreach strategy
Depending on your type of business, it may be appropriate to reach out to customers during this pandemic. This is especially important if customers are used to hearing from you regularly by email, text messaging or social media. You don’t want to lose that.
Get creative and think about what you can offer them during this time, whether it be a reassurance, social connection, or tangible assistance or services. How you handle customers during challenging times is just as important, if not more important, than how you handle them during regular service.
Take a deep dive into your data
Break down your analytics and sales data. Determine what you know about your customers. How old are they? What cities are they from? Are they finding you on social media or heading directly to your website? With this information, you can regroup, readjust and redirect your marketing efforts.
Keep calm & optimize on
This is not the time to panic. Actually, this is the time to take a deeper look at your web content from a Google perspective. Continue to write blog articles focusing on keywords and phrases, look at for your images, review your company’s meta title and description. Find out how to make sure your site is ADA Compliant. Play with Google Paid ads, the cost can be very low but the experience can be priceless.
Keep focus on the larger picture
This is a very stressful and trying time for us all. The more you can do to feel focused, purposeful and helpful the better not just for you, but all those around you. Change your perspective and look at this as a time of opportunity to put yourself ahead of your competitors.
If you would like more information, or if you’re not sure where to start, feel free to reach out to us at info@dezinsinteractive.com or call (225) 615-8358. We’re all in this together.