How to Help Your Business Survive During the Coronavirus?
Reading Time: 7 minutes It goes without saying that coronavirus is causing many difficulties in the business world, perhaps even bringing us one step closer to the next global economic crisis. Unfortunately, this will cause many businesses to shut down. Whether or not this will be true in your case is completely up to you and your staff. Here are several tips that can help you deal with these issues with optimal efficiency and save your business.
Table of Contents
1. Try going online
One of the things that a lot of businesses are doing nowadays is trying to go online in order to stay functional. It goes without saying that the coronavirus crisis might just show us how to live online. Working from home is something that a lot of people were doing even before the self-isolation trend and quarantine rules but now, the number of people telecommuting is at its all-time high. So, why not try sending your employees home and allow them to become a remote worker, at least for the time being. Other than this, you might want to try reinventing your own business and start offering online services instead. Even some stage plays are now streaming their performances for the audience stuck at home, so why not try to do something similar.
Keep in mind, nonetheless, that this requires a no small amount of adjustment of your tech arsenal. Fortunately, there’s a tool for everything. Video conferencing can be incredibly efficient, especially in a world where an average office worker spends about 31 hours every month in unnecessary meetings. Who knows, this might even boost your overall time efficiency. For those who are afraid that they will be unable to monitor the performance of their employees, there’s always the option of using employee monitoring software. When it comes to tech support, you can always turn to remote access software like TeamViewer and similar tools. Modern problems require modern solutions.
You could also use this period to migrate to the cloud, thus boosting the profitability of your business. Even without these unique circumstances, cloud decreases the security threats that you’re facing and boosts your bottom line, both of which are quite unique. Apart from this, it elevates the collaboration within your organization to the next level and supports disaster recovery. Sure, the disaster in question is not one caused by the epidemic but it’s safe to say that everyone is on the edge these days. Also, due to the fact that there are more people and organizations online than ever before, servers are overburdened as they are. The backup provided by cloud services is the only step of precaution that can keep you safe.
2. Increase your marketing efforts
At the moment, it seems as though people are not spending as much money, due to the fact that they’re concerned with the outcome of the potential coronavirus related economic crisis. However, some companies choose to try and save their business by increasing their marketing effort. Where is the logic behind this? Well, first of all, due to the fact that people are spending more time at home, the amount of content that they’re consuming is substantially greater, as well. This means that your content marketing strategy may be more effective and increase your own follower generation rate.
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Other than this, the competitiveness is a lot higher nowadays. Sure, a lot of business might not end up being victorious in this struggle but it’s not as if they’re just going to lay down and perish without a struggle. They’re increasing their marketing efforts and trying their best to make it, which is why the field is more hostile and more competitive than it ever was before. This is why you can make such a difference by increasing your marketing efforts. Also, during every crisis in the past several decades, it has proven that companies that don’t cut down their losses too much, tend to get better results once the crisis is actually over. In other words, even if you are interested in practicing some austerity, your marketing might not be the best way to start doing so.
Previously, we’ve mentioned the idea of offering online services or going above and beyond to deliver your goods to the doorsteps of your audience. Well, one of the ways you could enhance this idea with the use of digital marketing is by improving your local SEO. Keep in mind that, due to the fact that a lot of countries have a ban on large chunks of the international trade market, the majority of people are restricted to the local market. Other than this, when it comes to emergency supplies and services, people are restricted to local agencies, either way. This would also make the idea of hiring local digital marketers into a great idea. For instance, a Queensland-based business would do best with an SEO agency in Brisbane.
3. Start a blog
Speaking of marketing, you need to start blogging. Previously, we’ve already mentioned that people crave more content and this is probably the best way you can provide it to them. Now, the majority of companies already have a blog, however, chances are that there’s so much more room for improvement. There are so many benefits of blogging that you need to explore, seeing as how they’re a tool of promotion and an additional stream of revenue at the same time. You can use them for ads, use them to boost your own SEO rank and even use them as a sales funnel by directing your audience straight towards your e-store.
What you also need to take into consideration is the amount of time and energy that you should use on blogging. According to some of the latest statistics, you need to set aside at least 3 hours and 57 minutes on writing a blog (this was the industry average in 2019). Still, even last year, there were a lot of people who spent 6+ hours producing content. If there’s one thing that you can be sure about it’s that your goal is never to aim at average results. Aside from this, these are all pre-COVID-19 finds. Now, you have more time at hand and a potentially larger audience. In other words, you need to spend more time and more effort into making sure that your content is of the top quality.
Apart from this, you need to satisfy the quantity criterion, as well. You see, a sufficient number of links will allow you to create as many backlinks as possible, which is a crucial factor for those who want to raise their SEO rank and increase the average number of pages visited. Apart from this, you also need to keep in mind that it’s important for your credibility. No matter how good your post is, if your blog is virtually empty, people will have no reason to linger for long. In order for this to work, you may want to employ a couple of guest bloggers. Now that everyone has more free time, this shouldn’t be as difficult.
4. Understand your options in relation to employees
Managing your employees during the coronavirus is not an easy task. Sure, you can start by offering your audience a chance to work from home, however, is this really the only option that you have available? Of course not! If they are still forced to come to the office, you can provide them with flexible work hours. What this means is that they can choose the time of the day when they’ll come to the office, which should drastically reduce the amount of traffic in the office and make social distancing a lot easier. Also, properly sanitizing your office in this period is crucial.
Keeping them well informed is also incredibly important. If your business is experiencing difficulties, they deserve to know. Sure, you may believe that you’re protecting them by not breaking bad news ahead of time but it’s not like they’re not worried as it is. Businesses around them are getting shut down and their friends and relatives are getting laid off. In other words, regardless of what news you have to break to them, chances are that they’re already expecting something far worse. Be honest with them and you’ll do both themselves and your business a huge favor.
One of the things that you can also do to improve their health is to ask sick workers to stay home and even provide paid sick leave. This way, you’ll avoid an epidemic in your own enterprise. Keep in mind that this is important for morale, as well. Having a coworker sneeze next to them in a crowded office will ensure that your employees can’t focus on the job at hand. Moreover, your conduct in this situation is something that they will remember even after the situation blows off. Who knows how many crucial employees you may lose due to your own recklessness and disregard for their health and safety.
In conclusion
As you can see, the key thing is that you keep investing in marketing and putting people first. Sure, things may look quite frightening at the moment but the more you cut back now, the harder it will be to bounce back later on. The most important objective that you have, at the moment, is to avoid breaking the link with your audience. Persevering together in these crucial moments is something that will create a far stronger bond with your target audience. The same goes for your staff and their own brand loyalty.
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Maggie Holmes is a passionate blogger who writes on renovation, fashion, family, technology, and business. Her hobby is to surf the net to find amazing articles that can inspire her with some fresh ideas for article writing. She loathes being a common person who wastes her time. You can follow her on Twitter.
