coronavirus

The coronavirus outbreak has disrupted businesses around the world. Broken supply chain, social distancing and uncertainty have affected the demand as well as the supply of products and services. And the small businesses have suffered the worst hit as they are facing new challenges that require new solutions

Panicking, however, isn’t an option. You must stay determined to recover your business amidst this coronavirus crisis. But how?

Well, here I am going to discuss five tips for small businesses to recover from coronavirus. 

Let’s explore:

1. Dig into How Coronavirus Affects Your Audience

The first step should be towards helping your customers. Yeah, of course,you want to generate more sales. But, in these challenging times, you must have empathy and genuine concern towards the needs of your audience.

Find how taxing has this pandemic been for them. And dig deeper to unearth all the possible reasons for their day-to-day discomfort. Once you know how this virus outbreak has affected your target audience, you can design your strategy to address those challenges.

So, interact with your prospects and customers virtually. And try to figure out how you can put forward the value proposition of your products and services to help ease their pain.

2. Tweak Your Marketing Strategy

As you reposition your products and services, you should also tweak your marketing strategy to sync with the current needs of your audience.

Keep your customers updated about your current situation and how you plan to run your business. Also, create a Google My Business Page if you don’t have one and update your opening hours.

As you can’t reach your target audience physically, you’ve to find other ways to spread awareness about your products.

For example, beauty salon owners can create video tutorials about home remedies for healthy skin. They can also engage with their customers on social media and provide tips. Other utility service providers can distribute digital coupons or sell gift cards for the future use.

Through such online marketing tricks, you can retain customers and recover the losses soon.

3. Adopt New Sales Channels

As lockdown has affected foot traffic and in-store customers,brick-and-mortar businesses have suffered the most in this pandemic. And the best way to deal with the situation and increase sales is to find alternate sales channels online.

Instead of in-person meetings, you can interact with people through video conferencing software. And you can be in regular touch with them through messaging apps.

You must rethink your social media strategy, too. The aim is to build your online presence and find various online events to attend.Through online networking and webinars, you can find many new customers.

So, get creative, explore different channels, and provide as much value as possible.

4. Implement Paid Ads

People are spending more time online. And thus, you must try your hands on paid ads as well.

It’s because paid promotions help you reach more of your target audience and find you qualified leads. 

You can set specific parameters so that your products and services are shown to only those who might become a future customer.

Also, these days, advertisers are fewer and the ads are cheaper. So, find whether your audience is active on social media or busy with Google search, and set up paid ad campaigns there.

5. Prepare for increased Demand

Another thing to keep in mind is that once the crisis is over, you might find an unprecedented rise in the demand for your products and services.

Foodies, for example, will run over to restaurants and travel lovers will set their foot towards unexplored locations again.Your customers too, might come all at once.

So, be prepared to adapt to changing needs and increasing demands. Have a plan in place to bounce back from the crisis.

Conclusion

While you’re facing challenges in running your business in today’s difficult time, your customers also have worries of their own.

You have to be empathetic, and plan your marketing strategy in a way that helps them get out of this crisis fine. Put in efforts keeping in mind their well-being. And they will remember you for what you did and come back to you to grow your sales. 

Sanket Shah is the CEO of InVideo. He is changing the way the world creates videos via InVideo. 

Coronavirus recovery stock photo by Elkhophoto/Shutterstock