HOW TO MONETIZE YOUR BUSINESS DURING A CRISIS?

Below are tips that will help you to monetize your business irrespective of the season. Before you take any action for the growth of your business during or without crises you have to read the following tips carefully.

WILLINGNESS TO ADAPT IS THE MAJOR WAY

If you’ve read the book “Who Moved My Cheese” you know that there were four mice in the book: “Hem, Haw, Sniff & Scurry.” Two of them saw their cheese pile was getting smaller and smaller. They saw the writing on the wall and knew they needed to accept the change, and adapt. 

The other two mice never noticed. They did not pay attention. So, when their cheese pile was empty they didn’t know what to do. 

For you, it’s important to look ahead. See and accept that change is happening whether you want it or not. 

How will you adapt your marketing strategy to overcome the uncertainty that comes along with this change?

THE "SOFT SKILLS" SIDE OF MARKETING

No matter what type of marketing you’re going to do, there are some universal truths to keep in mind. First, let’s start with some tips that you may find to be common sense, but they’re worth mentioning anyway. 

• Be human. Have compassion and understanding. If you’re not a patient person, learn to be. Times like this can be stressful for both you and your customers. Be a breath of fresh air. 
• Offer resources. Help others. Maybe your best marketing is recognizing a need and delivering a new solution.
• Be thoughtful. People want off of social media because their feed is full of #Coronavirus #Covid19 posts. It is creating more fear and people are looking for something positive, so be the light. Give them something to look forward to. Help them to “slow their scroll.”
• Be clear and communicate often. Certainly, don’t go “dark”. 
• Be smart about what you are saying. Are you helping or hurting? Are you being the “salt” or are you “stirring the pot”

WHO ARE YOU MARKETING TO?

When marketing at any time, but especially in a time of crisis, you need to decide if you want to market to attract new customers or if you want to market to your existing clients.

RETENTION MARKETING

In a time of crisis, your best bet may be to focus on what you already have - your current customers. For you that could mean creating a loyalty or VIP program. While most of the time coupons and discounted services are frowned upon, now may be a time to make an exception. If a coupon or discount gets your customers back in your door - by all means, get them back in your door! 

Social media and email are two great platforms to use for retention marketing. These platforms allow you to easily and inexpensively stay in touch with your current clients. Remember to be interesting and relevant while also being transparent and compassionate. In relation to the Coronavirus, tell people how they can still do business with you during this time, and educate them on the precautions you are taking to make it safe to do business with you.

When doing retention marketing, because your audience already knows, likes, and trusts you - this is a great time to utilize video. Put yourself out there by sharing your knowledge, tips and experiences. Just remember to be open, honest and helpful - always. Because people get to hear and see you, there is no better marketing medium to show empathy than video. Post your video on social, in a blog, and in an email campaign.

ABOUT BOOSTING FACEBOOK POSTS OR OTHER PAID DIGITAL ADVERTISING

This is a moment when we need to pull in some of that common sense we talked about. Are your customers hurting and your ads will be insensitive during this time of crisis? If so, turn them off. However, if you can be helpful, solve a problem and do so while being empathetic, then - by all means - keep going! 

What makes sense for you AND your audience? Do that! So many times people react far too quickly and without much thought. That is when we most likely make our worst decisions.

Don’t turn off your ads too quickly. Maybe all you need to do is rework them a bit. You could have a different product or service to offer your prospects that will make more sense during the crisis. Maybe only the messaging needs to change. Either way, think about what it is that you’re promoting and how it fits into the crisis.

Boosting posts on Facebook could be a great solution for you. If you’ve created posts and folks are engaging with them amidst the crisis, promoting those posts can be a great opportunity to extend the reach and engagement. 

TAKE YOUR BUSINESSS ONLINE WITH THE PROPER TOOLS

Yesterday, we let all of our staff know they could go home. Bring your computer and monitors with you and take care of yourselves. We want our team to know we care about them as well as our customers. 

Truett Cathy, Chick-Fil-A Founder, was known for his approach to doing business. It was all about the people. 

So, let your team know you care about them and they’ll care about your customers. Your community will know you care about your team and your customers will feel that same love, dedication and loyalty. 

Not all businesses are able to do this, we understand. But if you can take your business - or even part of your business - online, do it! Here are the tools we use and depend on to maintain our business while operating remotely.

1. Zoom. We use Zoom for not only teaching webinars, but also for internal and client video meetings and communication. It’s a must-have for us! Zoom is widely known and appreciated. The mobile app is a winner, too!
2. Breeze. Well, Breeze makes our management of projects and clients - a breeze! This is our project management software where we keep track of projects, tasks, and project communication, time tracking and deadlines! All in one place!
3. Slack. Without Slack our email inboxes, texts and more would be overflowing. Slack allows us to communicate internally in private messages or in group messages. It is a beautiful piece of software with a lovely mobile app that keeps us connected everywhere! 
4. Dropbox. Where else would you save and share files? Well, we do use Google Drive (as mentioned below). It’s easy to utilize and widely adopted in the business world. Keep your files “in the cloud” and organized! 
5. Google Drive. I’m not sure we could exist without Google Drive. We use it for organization, document creation, spreadsheets, slides/presentations, forms and more. Our entire team has access and it is a vital part of how we do business.

With these tools we’re good to go no matter where we are in the world!

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