9 Top Digital Marketing Tips For SME Businesses During a Pandemic

28,April, 2020 By Tanya Smythe

Effective & Simple Steps For SME Owners Across London & The Home Counties

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Struggling with whether or how to continue your digital marketing in the current climate? The following 9 top tips will help you.

• Summary of the 9 Top Tips
• Recognise Things Have Changed
• Communicate
• Provide Value
• Running Paid Ads
• Ad Copy & Extensions
• SEO
• Optimise For Multiple Channels
• Track Website Data
• Recognise When You Need Help

The phrase, “May you live in interesting times”, often attributed to being an interpretation of a traditional Chinese curse, but believed to be from an analysis of a speech in the late-19th-century, by Joseph Chamberlain, couldn’t be more true today. We’re unquestionably living in uncertain and unprecedented times, at least in modern memory, where there are challenges to both our personal and business lives. However, this shouldn’t mean that things have to stop, instead, for now at least, we need to do things differently. The way we conduct our business, how we communicate with our teams, our customers, our family and friends needs to be adjusted. It’s not business as usual. There will be a new norm. 

Whether your company has briefly stopped all business, has chosen or been encouraged to work remotely, how you approach your digital marketing presence will have changed in reaction to this present health crisis.

Whether you’re managing your own online marketing activity or you’ve engaged a digital marketing company, the following’s a list of 9 tips, for how SME business owners across London and the Home Counties can continue to market their products or services.

9 Top Tips – The Summary:

1. Recognise that things are different for your clients – advise your clients that you’re there for them. You “have their backs”.
2. Communicate – if you’ve changed what you’re doing or when, inform your customers. Keep messaging, clear, concise and accurate.
3. Provide Value – this was never truer than now.
4. Running Paid Advertising – check any running paid ads – click-through rates (CTRs) may have changed, and not for the better!
5. Copy / Extensions – make sure your ad copy and any extensions are appropriate. It’s sensitive to people concerns.
6. SEO – consider allocating resource to review/enhance your on and off-page material.
7. Optimise for multiple channels – ensure you’re able to engage with your market, consistently across each digital platform.
8. Collect Data – who’s visiting, where they go, what they do. This will inform your ROI.
9. Recognise when you need help – no business is an island. When you need help, ask for it.

That’s the short version! Now to expand on each of the items above:

Now more than ever, it’s vital to recognise that it’s not BAU for anyone. 

Many organisations, small and large alike, are seeking financial assistance to assist with covering payroll, costs, and pay debts. There are many who’ve been required to close, have lost a substantial percentage of customers, have decreased to skeleton teams and/or a 100% remote workforce. And if you’re like me, while working from home, we’re now also homeschooling the kids.

In unprecedented times like these, it’s vital to recognise that it’s OKAY to strike the pause button on advertising non-urgent matters. Think about moving your focus to ways in which your service can assist current customers amid this health crisis. Regardless of a cutback in businesses that can remain open right now, it is encouraging to see lots of substantial firms advertise their items while recognising the effect that COVID-19 is triggering on our everyday lives.

If you’ve not done so already, devise a top-level strategy, with realistic goals and KPIs to measure effectiveness. Adjust as necessary as this will also help to maintain momentum.

However this pandemic is impacting your business or industry, in general, be sure to share announcements with your clients. This keeps you agile and maintains momentum. One of the benefits small and medium-sized companies have to offer to their clients, over the larger organisations, is their agility and ability to adjust quickly to changing demands.

A simple email or social media post will advise clients that you have their backs and that your company values a lot more than just its bottom line.

Ask your customers how they are, what assistance you might be able to offer.

Have you changed what you do or when? There have been several examples given by the News statations, of companies re-purposing their operation to focus on the production of PPE equipment and clothing. This wasn’t something that they’d produced previously. Still, the material they have enables the creation of these items. As a result, their business is open, working all their regular hours and some extended times.

Equally, if your hours of operation have changed, let your customers know that you’re still open, how and when they can contact you. In addition, to letting people know when they contact your business, you’re able to update your description to offer more information regarding any additional safety measures you are taking or if there are changes in services. Update your Google My Business profile to reflect the changes in hours and/or description.

There are multiple methods to inform your customers of these changes; you could pin a banner to your website, send an email, or put a post on social media platforms. Consider engaging a local marketing agency who offers social media services. Alerting consumers of your business’ existing tweaks of processes will relieve any anxiety they may have, and inform them of any limitations in services before them getting on the phone and making an enquiry.

A handy tip: if you are providing items that are flying off the proverbial shelf, make sure you have sufficient stock to meet demand. To stop this, you can temporarily exclude these items from your shopping campaigns; that way, you are not at threat of showing an ad for an item that you no longer have. For brick-and-mortar services, adjusting your strategy might imply minimal spending plans or pausing particular campaigns. This was a strategy recently adopted by the supermarkets to bring a level of control to matters.

The goal here is to help you adjust your messaging accordingly so you can continue purposeful, quality interaction with your audience and stand firm with your customers. As always, but particularly now, communication should be kept clear, concise and accurate.

During the current climate, buyers, whether as consumers or on behalf of their business, are being more cautious. That’s probably unlikely to end one the current challenges have passed. 

This will make it harder for some business to secure sales. However, it does create an opportunity. Think about those things, that to you, might seem to be very obvious or not particularly important, but which, to someone else, actually is a great insight or something that they do could do themselves. 

In the current climate, differentiate which of your products/services are fundamental essentials and which are more discretionary. It’s more vital than ever to understand the distinction and align your marketing messages accordingly. You don’t want to be the only service of your sector trying to sell when everyone else is providing support.

An excellent example is when major supermarkets limited items, prioritising delivery slots and setting aside particular opening hours for the elderly and keyworkers. This is a less convincing, but more subtle method of selling your services or product. 

Alternatively, think about creating and telling a story and building relationships with both existing and potential clients. Do this deliberately. Aim to create content about your products or services, set the story so that it engages the reader, or viewer (if using video) and they become vested in your business. This will help when they’re choosing from whom to buy. Building trust is critical.

Thankfully, the power of the internet and technology has helped to put the word out and share one’s story. Mix things up a little in how you communicate, try to do things differently, bring in humour, the goal is to stand apart from your competitors, even when allowing for social distancing. 

This pandemic is a good pointer that it’s much simpler and less expensive to market to existing clients versus getting new customers. The critical question here is, “What else can you do to help your existing clients?”

• Can you offer extra service or products? 
• Can you speed up your delivery, perhaps for an additional cost? 
• Can you provide more with a bulk discount? 
• Can you partner with another business to improve your product and services? 

Individuals want to feel like you’re treating them with respect, offering solutions that help address their challenges will enhance client loyalty. No one is going to ignore COVID-19 in a hurry. It will be talked about for years to come and individuals will have stories to outline brand names, experiences, and possibly your customer support – make sure it’s for positive reasons!

Let’s by no means overlook what’s going on, on the homefront, whether that’s trying to work from home, at the same time as homeschooling the kids and all the other usual more mundane home activities. Striking that balance between home and work can be tough at the best of times and particularly so, now. That’s the bad news! The excellent news is that this is also a distinct chance that comes perhaps once in a lifetime. Consider it as an opportunity to buy Google or Facebook ads when others are cutting their advertising budgets or, maybe, to raise the profile of your business and associated products or services.

Now is the time to start of increase, not reduce your marketing efforts. Focus resource on either essential services/products or building brand awareness. This is how you can gain a competitive advantage in the months and years to come. Trade conventions are not a choice with the current constraints; however, there are multiple tools readily accessible to us all, even on our phones, to raise awareness of our business and brand.

It is essential to remain on top of how shifting markets may impact your paid search and paid social accounts, from altering click and impression volumes to changing expenses. Paid ads reflect the market, it’s not the market itself. If someone’s promoting expensive watches and the search trends for these items have dramatically reduced, leads and sales are likely to follow suit. Know your numbers, be this number of visitors, price per click, per impression, per lead, per conversion, etc. Your budget and associated costs will change accordingly. It’s vital to stay on top of your CTRs (click-through rates) and any/ all CTAs (call to actions). If you’re working with a web marketing agency, speak to the team managing your account to obtain a current report as to your PPC services.

At this point, if you do have to lower your budget, consider briefly suspending non-essential campaigns and focus ad spend on branded terms due to the higher quality traffic they naturally receive. For those SMEs that have tight yearly spending plans, the reallocation of ad invest towards more effective marketing campaigns could be vital to their success

In addition to updating your profile, it is worthwhile to update your advertisement copy and extensions to show any modifications. This is specifically crucial if you have any callout extensions mentioning your company hours. There has been a lot that has taken place as a direct or indirect outcome of COVID-19.

The tone of your copy is critical. Misjudge it, and you could, unintentionally, come across as unaware or ignorant. 

The present crisis has affected people on an individual level and globally, so the risk of unintentionally coming off as insensitive and even exploitative is higher than ever today. With social networks communication at a peak, one little error could have far-reaching and long-term negative consequences for your business.

With that in mind, change unimportant propositions like “more dog walks” or “more diners in your premises” to something more neutral, like “more leads,” or more prompts, like “more web based orders.” Reword inappropraite CTAs, like “join now” for facilities that are closed.

Use words to reinforce the security of your audience, such as: 

• contact-free, virtual, remote, at home, downloadable, shipment, online. 

Don’t forget to examine your automated emails or set up posts for importance and appropriateness.

Everybody is having to make adjustments right now and settling into new rhythms. You won’t (and should not) make the above changes to all of your copy unilaterally. Start with top-trafficked content and brand-new content moving forward. Develop a spreadsheet of the changes you make so you can monitor what to change back when things begin to settle.

Things will go back to regular sooner or later. A new normal, however a normal nonetheless. This virus may be a brand-new era, and your messaging and deals may change, but your copywriting standards need to be the same. You are still supplying information, including worth, and communicating to your audience that you are in tune with their requirements.

Some will have, opt of choice or necessity, paused or decreased online marketing with PPC, be this Google, Facebook Ads or other and moved that spending over to SEO. With this method, they can make enhancements to their organic rankings that will help them surpass their rivals when the pandemic is over. If you have turned off ads and you can manage to continue to buy marketing, then I’d highly advise reallocating that spending plan to enhancing your search rankings. A competent digital agency will be able to provide you with SEO services.

Some enhancements can be made to both on and off-page aspects of your website. Now is a great time to review these, to assess how well they’re working. Unlike PPC, the changes made to your website, or other digital platforms will remain long after they’re made – and as long as they’re relevant. They don’t end when the paid campaign stops. Ensuring your site has been optimised will help with organic traffic and your presence on the search results page.

If you have a brick-and-mortar organisation where you’re no longer able to see customers/patients in-person, then see if you’re able to generate revenue or generate leads or set consultations through other methods. For instance, can you change your delivery techniques during this pandemic: Lawyers/Accountants can use virtual meetings instead of in-person consultations and the same goes for financial consultants, as well as other professionals and specialists.

A business that typically offer in-person services, should consider promoting products rather than their services, considering that they can’t see individuals in-person; one such example is spas. Other organisations might be able to provide discounts for payment up-front. For example, could your business provide a “bond” where consumers can pay £75 to get £100 worth of your product/service in the future when the activity resumes?

The beauty of social media during this pandemic is its ability to develop sociability through digital platforms. A change in regular, work settings and social distancing has been difficult for lots of people. We can and will continue to interact with each other with the aid of the internet.

With more of us spending considerably more time online and the various digital platforms, your business must be able to engage and interact accordingly. Ensure that you’re speaking with one voice, giving a clear message across each of these “touchpoints” with your company.

Selling does not always mean aggressive emails. Being active on your social networks platforms will subconsciously remind individuals of your brand and let them know you exist if they need your business. Likewise, it’s easier to promote your service naturally as you aren’t straight out asking people to buy from you. If, for example, they see your product and services on Twitter, it’s their choice whether to get in touch.

• Visitors: 

 Your website may be the best thing since sliced bread, but, some visitors will simply come and go, with little to no engagement. Track the bounce rate, where they arrive and exit. Find a means by which to engage these visitors, either when on your website (chat-bots are a good example) or offer a free, useful e-book, which is available when they share their email. You can then start to build up a relationship.

• To Determine What’s Working or Not

It can be a challenge to determine what exactly is going on when people visit your site. With the appropriate data, you’ll be able to make informed decisions about your key metrics. Without the data, it’s very much speculation; you won’t know where to focus resources and scale to get the best ROI. 

It’s all well and good to recognise and be aware of your customers’ challenges, but what about your business? Don’t overlook it!

It’s easy to get caught up in the current melee, but you must keep in mind that your customers will still exist beyond the current challenges: how you treat them in the meantime will really make a difference. This ties into the peak-end rule theory the idea that we only keep in mind the most extreme feelings we experienced in a particular scenario rather than all the pleasant and negative emotions in between.

Identify where you need help and reach out to those who can help. People respond to requests for support.

Summary:

1.  Recognise that things are different for your clients – advise your clients that you’re there for them. You “have their backs”.
2. Communicate – if you’ve changed what you’re doing or when, inform your customers. Keep messaging, clear, concise and accurate.
3. Provide Value – is the 
4. Check Any Running Paid Ads – Click-Through Rates (CTRs) may have changed, and not for the better!
5. Copy / Extensions – make sure your ad copy is appropriate. It’s sensitive to people concerns.
6. SEO – consider allocating resource to review/enhance your on and off-page material.
7. Optimise for multiple channels
8. Collect Data
9. Recognise when you need help

This pandemic will pass, business will continue, albeit, probably in a new normal. We all need to ensure that we’re engaging with and providing value to our existing and potential clients.

If We Can Help You, Please Don’t Hesitate To Contact Us
Email: info@digitalmarketingsurrey.co.uk

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