With this drastically steep economic slow down many of our clients have been hit hard. Luckily most of them have run their businesses properly and have put aside reserves to rely on. So the question becomes what to do with your time and money during this downtime - do you spend money on marketing?   The answer is yes with two possible different plans of action depending on your current state of business. If your business has come to complete halt you would just want to focus on long-term marketing strategies.  If your business has slowed down but you’re still receiving some orders then you’ll want to focus on long-term and short term marketing strategies.

Effective long-term marketing strategies.

1. SEO (search engine optimization). Search results take time and there are two major factors that determine your Google search results. First, the number of pages of content included in your website - just make sure that these are quality pages of content. The second, is powerful links pointed at your website. So if your business has slowed down and you have time I would suggest reviewing your website page structure and figure out where you can add more content. You can add content in the form of a blog, case studies, FAQs and or detailed services / product pages.
2. Marketing plan. Most of us don’t spend as much time as we should on our marketing plans. Well, now you have time! Sit down and analyze what marketing strategies have worked in the past, put together some ideas for the future and map out actions on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Keep it simple!
3. Social media. Even though this is also a short term strategy if you’re not using social media right now then spend some time to figure out how your business could benefit form social.  If you’re a small business and you’re not used to posting on social media now is the time to start getting into the rhythm. If you are already posting then you can spend some time really analyzing your results and focus on your message for the future.
4. Building relationships. Relationships are key to most businesses as they produce referrals. Even though we are in a social distancing world we can still network on social mediaAnd the good old fashion phone call call.

Effective short-term marketing strategies.

1. Paid search (PPC). Paid search is amazingly effective, you just have to identify the keywords your clients are using to search for your product or service. Then you have to create search results that persuade them to click to view more. You can set these up with Google ad words or through Bing ads.
2. Paid social campaigns. First identify the audience you are going to target. Typically I would start with your customer base and then broaden your reach from there to similar audiences or those with similar interest. You can do this by setting up Facebook business manager. Social ads can be pretty inexpensive and effective depending on your industry.
3. Email marketing. Now is the time to be in constant contact with your current customer base. It is OK to ask for support.
4. 3rd party marketplaces. if you sell a product if you want to look at third-party market places for example Amazon. You can also run paid ads within Amazon that are very effective and affordable.

If you know your business will make it through this historic time you will emerge in a strong place as some of your competition will not. So in conclusion it is all about what you choose to do with your downtime. Hope this helps and feel free to reach out to us with any questions!