As a full-service digital marketing agency, we work with many small businesses that have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. From implementing site tracking and identification to increasing lines of communication, there are a variety of marketing strategies you can implement to keep your business running efficiently and successfully. Below, we’ve listed our top 6 marketing strategies to get your small business back on its feet quickly.
1. Increase lines of communication across social media, website, and email
With many businesses’ hours being affected by COVID-19, communication is critical to keep customers updated. We recommend posting any important updates to your social media channels, website and sending via email. Whether it’s posting about updated hours, a business opening date, a new phone number for delivery and take-out, or even special offers or deals, posting them to your Facebook and Instagram accounts will help keep your customers informed and engaged. If your business hours have changed, post them to your website in an easily accessible spot such as in the website menu and include any information related to your business updates and COVID-19.
2. Implement site tracking and identification
Retargeting past website users can be a powerful digital marketing tactic. Retargeting gives you multiple chances to re-engage perspective customers. In fact, website visitors who are retargeted are 43% more likely to convert (Criteo). However, retargeting requires the ability to identify past visitors. This is where site tracking and identification comes in. Tools such as 4cite and Hubspot can be placed on your website to capture not only who your website visitors are, but also what pages they are viewing on your website. You can then further retarget to these website visitors through email or ads.
3. Take advantage of free tools to maximize proficiency
Updating your website with free software, tools and widgets can not only help maximize proficiency of internal team members but also website visitors. Integrating free tools such as Calendly, an automatic scheduling software, can make scheduling appointments easier and simplified. And with the rising demand for remote working, using all-in-one tools such as Go-To Meeting, Microsoft Teams and Zoom provide an easy to use interface to enhance productivity and performance.
4. Generate more customer reviews
Did you know only 3% of customers consider salespeople and marketers to be trustworthy? (Hubspot). The first spot customers are looking for truthful advice and opinions are customer reviews. Right now is an optimal time to capture and generate more customer reviews. Not only do they enhance your company’s credibility, but also help improve SEO efforts. While SEO includes a variety of factors, building and maintaining review responses can help you climb higher on Google. We recommend building Google reviews regardless of what industry sector you’re in, but also select review engines depending on what services you offer. For instance, if you’re a travel company, Tripadvisor, for restaurants, Yelp, and for hunting/fishing outfitters, CastnBlast Advisor. These examples are all great customer review engines for generating more reviews.
5. Review and clean list - list hygiene
Ongoing email and address list hygiene is necessary for improving deliverability and maintaining the quality of your database. This entails cleaning out inactive subscribers, hard bounces, seasonal addresses, no-longer valid addresses, spam traps, deceased/nursing home contacts, etc. While it may seem like a daunting process, list hygiene is an important factor in getting to your audience’s inbox.
6. Evaluate and maximize lead generation
Maximizing lead generation can be done through various tactics, but the most effective is through marketing automation. Through marketing automation, you can identify website visitors, target based on past behavior and nurture them through the sales cycle. Triggered emails allow you to personalize your messaging and stay in front of your prospect. You can automate your social media interactions, sales follow-up and retargeting campaigns. Marketing automation is an effective method to grow your email list and generate quality leads from visitors who are on your website.
Traktek Partners, a Boston website design and digital marketing agency, provides digital marketing strategies that help your business succeed. Whether it’s email marketing, social media marketing, SEM or SEO, our goal is to grow your brand and effectively expand your business. We'd love to connect with you on your business challenges and how we can help! Check our calendar to schedule your consultation with Traktek's Digital Marketing Experts.
