Following on from Friday’s blog Questions you need to ask during COVID-1 Crisis I am being inundated with businesses seeking advice on how to get a stronger online presence now we are slowly but surely going to be stuck at home.

It is so important to understand marketing at times of crisis. Forbes talks about it too, when a recession comes don’t stop advertising. Take the example of Kellogs, during the great depression, the majority cut back on spend, whilst kellogs doubled spend, profits raised by 30% and it became what we know today the market leader. What is your marketing strategy?

Here is a simple plan to be strategic!

STEP 1: Communicate with existing and potential customers and clients to:

• Build confidence
• Be accessible
• Take opportunities
• Adapt by understanding needs

Do this by either email, your website, picking up the phone, sending texts, pinning a post on your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages, posting on instagram/snapchat and potentially all of the above.

Let them know what is going on, ask them what they need, we are in this together, see how you can help each other. Make it easy for them to contact you, perhaps adding live chat to your website.

STEP 2: Adapt products and services to be able to sell online.

Think about the audience, your potential and existing clients, what is the perfect service or product you could offer right now, online? Package it, make it easy to buy, i.e. what is it, how is it going to solve my problem, how much is it and how do I buy it! Create a simple graphic for it with tools like Canva and Ripl to share on emails and social media.

STEP 3: Did you have any events or face to face time planned? 

Depending on your products/services, can you move online? can you hold webinars? or live sessions on platforms from Youtube to Zoom, GoToWebinar to BigMarker?

STEP 4: Provide a list of FAQ’s clients are likely to ask.

Here there is an opportunity to take over position zero in google, be top, be the answer Google Home or Alexa gives when someone asks a question. Add FAQ’s to main pages of your website, mark them up using FAQ Schema and watch the traffic roll in. You can read much more about voice search over here, although the prediction is not quite there yet.

Step 5: Get out there

Just like you would network face to face, you need to be there. Think about your audience and decided where they might be, consider some of the following:

• Join Facebook groups
• Join LinkedIn groups
• Post on Snapchat, twitter, Instagram
• Email Marketing
• Facebook Advertising
• Instagram Advertising
• LinkedIn Advertising
• Google PPC / Adwords
• Send out a Press Release
• Start Blogging
• Start Vlogging
• Start doing Live Video
• Be resourceful, be helpful, give advice, help people, be seen as the expert in your field.
• Make sure your google.co.uk/business listing is up to date (and fully complete)
• Optimise your website for SEO to gain ranks in google and that all important traffic.

Most importantly, be scrappy with your marketing, don’t overspend, be clear about what it is you are trying to achieve, be sensible, take time out for your own mental health. Discover opportunities, try, test, fail, test again, succeed!

How we can help?

• We have teamed up with other businesses during this crisis to offer non billable expert advice, join our Facebook and LinkedIn groups.
• We are offering 30 minute video calls to give free marketing advice. 
• To help people get to know zoom, and to get people working together, we will be running an “elevenses” on Monday at 11am-12pm for anyone to dial in and have a coffee and chat to friends and peers to work together in times of crisis – let us know if you want an invite.
• We offer 1-1 training & consultancy https://fleek.marketing/workshops-training prices start at £175+vat per 2 hours. Minimum of 6 sessions.
• We offer SEO audits from £497+vat these are FULL of value and help you put a plan together.
• We build websites, they typically start from £4k, but can easily go up to £40k depending on requirements.
• We run social media, content, blog campaigns, average spend is £1500+vat per month
• We run social advertising and google advertising campaigns, average management fees are £450+vat per month, plus media spend.
• Hire me 4 half days a month as a marketing consultant to work on marketing strategy for your business
• Hire me as a speaker for your event, or to run training webinars. 

Other resources:

• Facebook small business grant, $100m for 30,000 businesses due to COVID-19 
• Working Remotely – LinkedIn – Free online courses for working remotely.
• COVID-19 Crisis: Questions you need to ask yourself right now
• How to write an eye catching blog
• 99 Digital Marketing tools
• Digital Transformation in the events industry
• Spring clean your marketing 

Be positive, be calm, and look for opportunities.