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4 Marketing Strategies for the COVID-19 Crisis

How to Market During the Pandemic

From connecting in our relationships to running our small businesses, COVID-19 has transformed the way we live, work and socialize. I do feel fortunate that my family and I are healthy and safe, and I’m trying to find the positive opportunities in all of this.

That’s why I recently shared an article called “How to Pivot Your Small Business Strategy During the COVID-19 Crisis”, on our website.

I am also hearing from many small business owners who are wondering whether or not to stop marketing during COVID-19. That article showed entrepreneurs how to market during the pandemic, including ways to create a crisis marketing strategy and to:

Help customers rather than simply selling to them
Focus on online events and offerings
Plan for future growth
Empower employees

As we continue self-isolating to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, I wanted to follow up with some other effective ways to keep your business running smoothly and successfully.

Here’s 4 marketing strategies to consider:

1. Focus on Digital Campaigns

With the shutdown or slowdown of most brick-and-mortar businesses, entrepreneurs are relying more than ever on digital strategies. A big part of brand marketing during this pandemic and into the future is going to be shifting most (if not all) of your small business online.

In fact, Larry Kim from Mobile Monkey just wrote, “One new customer closed their brick and mortar locations nationwide and found web traffic is up +150%.”

According to Klaviyo, an email marketing platform that taps into a network of 30,000 businesses for insights, 22% of brands said they’re spending more on ads. And 66% of brands that are spending more on ads are also seeing increased efficiency, with a reduced cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM) and cost per click (CPC).

If you’re wondering how to market during the pandemic, consider using Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Instagram for Business or LinkedIn Ads to direct traffic to:

Well-researched and useful blogs and videos
Online products with free shipping
Virtual services you can offer, whether that’s financial therapy or online music lessons
Gift cards that can be used now or in the future

That said, don’t be afraid to pause campaigns that aren’t relevant right now, or that you think may turn your customers off.

Part of brand marketing during this pandemic is knowing when to re-strategize and pivot, rather than continuing with an ad campaign that’s not going to resonate with-or even offends-your target audience.

2. Update Your Google My Business Listing

Your customers and potential customers are counting on you for the latest information about your small business. If you’re closing your company temporarily, whether you’re changing the hours you’re open, or offering curbside pickup right now, you need to let people know.

Using Google Posts can be a great way to update people on everything from reduced hours to gift card purchases. Here’s some guidance from Google on how to best change your profile.

And don’t worry about SEO implications when you’re editing your profile. For example, marking your business as temporarily closed will not affect your search ranking, and Google will still display you in the search results.

If you don’t immediately see the changes that you make to your Google My Business profile, don’t panic. Google has said they may review updates for quality before publishing.

3. Don’t Stop Posting on Social Media

Even if you have to completely shutter your business for the time being, stay active online. In addition to tools like Google My Business, customers look to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram channels for the most up-to-date news. It looks really bad to have outdated posts or information languishing on your social media pages.

Some of the updates you could share include:

Your crisis management strategy, including the steps you’re taking to protect your employees and customers (sanitizing workstations, not letting sick employees work, ensuring employees wear gloves, etc.)
Changes to hours or business policies (for example, only letting one person into the store at a time)
If you’re taking online orders and/or offering free shipping
If you have private shopping or curbside pickup options
Uplifting quotes or personal messages

One of our clients is offering private shopping appointments and curbside pickup for customers. Malary’s in Cloverdale, BC is a good example of a small business that’s pivoting during COVID-19 and providing customers with a little TLC.

4. Be Careful What You Share

There is a lot of misinformation circulating on social media, and it can be dangerous to give your customers the wrong advice (not to mention hugely damaging to your reputation).

Here’s an example of poor marketing strategies for the COVID-19 crisis: A yoga studio in Delta, BC was shut down in March following complaints that the facility wasn’t following social-distancing. Not only that, but they sent out a newsletter claiming that hot yoga can help prevent getting COVID-19.

So map your crisis management strategy out and think before you send out that article to all of your email subscribers or repost something you saw in your Facebook feed. Use trusted sources for coronavirus resources, like the World Health Organization or the Government of Canada.

For example, rather than forwarding one of the articles on homemade hand sanitizers that are circulating, consult this list .

READ: “Finding Your Purpose During Self-Isolation” on our website:

Stuck at home? Now is a good time to figure out your purpose! Our lives are so busy, and we rarely have a moment to just sit in silence and reflect on our life journey and how it has led to where we are now.

For many of us who have chosen to self-isolate, now is a good time to take advantage of the quieter environment to discover if your precious resources are being used to maximum effect.

Whatever your marketing strategies for the COVID-19 crisis are, always look to your brand for guidance. Your brand vision, mission, and values should always be your “North Star” as you stay active online and let your customers know that you’re here for them-now and in the future.

5 Key Strategies to Boost Visibility of Android Apps on Google Play

With a galore of highly intuitive mobile apps available on Google Play, it becomes difficult to optimise your app and fetch a steady number of downloads. To make your app successful, it is essential to research well and come up with a unique strategy for presenting your app as more performing and better than the rest.

Adhering this fact, here are some of the most productive optimisation tips for boosting visibility of your app on Google Play.

Research and Place Targeted Keywords in the Description and Name

Keyword research has always been an important part of a process which, includes any optimisation strategy meant for a search algorithm. Try to use the set of keywords which, are relevant to the app. Moreover, try to pick a set of keywords which, enjoy the highest Traffic Scores and support the changes to gain a high rank as well.

Boost the Visual Appeal of app

While considering the concept of App Store Marketing, using imagery that serves the interest of browsers is a key strategy to work on. You will have to choose the screenshots which, accurately convey the main features of your app. This, in turn, will offer a good reason to users for downloading your app.

Track Your Progress

It is important to check the ranking of your app for the targeted keywords by using different performance measurement metrics. The different types of measurement metrics help in offering clear insight about effectiveness of the optimisation strategies thereby, allowing users to know their market standing.

Build an Attractive App and Get Good ratings

Build an app which, provides great value to your investment and your app will get optimistic reviews. Getting favourable feedback from users will help in improving the ranking of your app at search result pages of Google Play thereby, helping to drive consumers for making the final decision.

Release Promo Videos

Before buying an app, consumers mostly prefer to see how an app functions. Marketing at Google Play over the Apple Store comes with a huge benefit of including a YouTube clip of the app in action. This serves as a brilliant opportunity for showing customers what the product is, how it works and how it serves as a unique choice and most importantly the reason which, drives people to download it.

A well-built app directs impacts the various performance metrics related to the product. This certainly includes the download growth, number of downloads, installs, number of ratings and usage frequency as well. These facts and figures help in understanding how well the mobile app is performing and whether it requires any type of improvement or not while, optimising it on Google Play.

Top 7 Tips to Starting Your Business Using Virtual Business Strategies

Most entrepreneurs wanting to start a business make the mistake of using their savings, maxing out their credit cards or borrowing from family, friends or banks to get started. The reason they fall into this trap is because mistakenly they believe this is the only way they can become business owners.

It is important to understand that starting a business in this new Information Age and Knowledge Era, does not require the large funding previously needed in the old, traditional Industrial Age business model. This means the entrepreneur has the ability to start a profitable and reputable business with little to no money out of pocket.

If you are currently planning to start a business, consider the following 7 tips to start a virtual business instead of an offline one. Even if you already started a brick-and-mortar business, you can still apply these tips to your back-office operations:

Use cloud technology for all your back-office systems. In other words, use all internet applications rather than technology hosted in your PC
Set up your entire communication channels using cloud technology
Set up your entire accounting department using cloud technology
Set up your entire customer support using cloud technology
Set up your entire human resources using cloud technology
Set up your entire marketing department using cloud technology
Set up your entire sales department using cloud technology

Don’t delay starting your business because of lack of funds. Hundreds, if not thousands of highly successful virtual businesses get started everyday. In the next 5 to 10 years, all if not most businesses will be run this way. By the simple act of implementing new business model strategies from the start, you have puts yourself miles ahead of the competition.

In cases where the business owner fails to adapt to this new information age business model, the speed to business failure greatly accelerates. If you talked in today’s terms, it would be like using telex machines and telegraphs to conduct day-to-day operations.

A virtual business allows a company to be geographically dispersed. It allows it to meet and support its customers wherever they are located. Employees can work from anywhere, at any time, at any pace; all accessible, networked and coordinated via internet applications.

You can see an example of a real sustainable, successful virtual business (100% virtual and paperless) at http://groupbenefitagency.com

As you can see, with a virtual business, all you need is a computer and internet access to get you going. Anyone can start a virtual business in minutes. You don’t need major start up capital. You don’t need investors. You don’t need to risk months or years trying to break even. You don’t even have to gamble your savings. You can implement sophisticated systems. You can hire the most qualified personnel from anywhere in the world. Most importantly, a virtual business allows you the free time to have a personal life too!

Learn the Strategies From Those Who Really Know Internet Marketing

The biggest secret of successful online entrepreneurs lies in their income, effort and time leveraging mechanism. A lack of leveraging strategy implies hours of burned energy to achieve minuscule and negligible results. You are trading time for money if you don’t have a mass and perennial distribution system to take care of your information and product dissemination.

The income trap syndrome occurs when for instance you put in 10 hours of time and effort and get remitted only for those 10 hours of work that you could handle. This means you have merely traded time for money and you can expect to earn only for a maximum of 24 hours a day since you obviously don’t have more time. A complete contrast to this phenomenon is the wealth creation by the use of technology and other focused marketing systems through which you work for 10 hours and generate income worth 100 hours by cognitively leveraging time and efforts. This is how you can truly create permanent wealth and not mere temporary income.

Running an online business on autopilot is a sure-shot mechanism of achieving success in the online business domain over a long period of time. It’s an on-going process where you set up the business once and reap its benefits for years to come. An online business on autopilot generates passive or residual income for the entrepreneur through which continuous income is generated thus giving the business the power of leverage. If you put your business on autopilot, this allows you to have a number of businesses operating simultaneously. You can sell informational content in your area of expertise to a market eager to lap up any specialized knowledge that is relevant to them. Network marketing wizards while imparting superior training on autopilot online businesses have changed the fortunes of online businesses overnight by reaching out to the target customer base quickly and efficiently. Learn the technique of moneymaking while reaching out to a focused group by a mechanism that repeatedly seeks to sell on your behalf. Never ever doubt you could do this and you will succeed.

Though you may be intimidated by the exhaustive stock-pile of information available on the internet on online marketing strategies and skeptical of the incredible success stories, you could be the next example of a starkly successful entrepreneur with the right marketing technique. Anyone can do this, even you!