The Covid-19 virus has been declar a national Future Proof your disaster. Resulting in strict quarantines and safety precautions being implemented locally and around the world. This has put a strain on many businesses. Of all sizes, and many believe that the worst is yet to come.
Neil Patel, in his recent article on the topic shares the following:
- In China the virus caused retail sales to drop by 20.5% and the unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 in February.
- The virus is expected to lose the travel industry 820 billion dollars. Virgin Atlantic just asked their staff to take an 8-week unpaid leave.
It’s estimated that in total COVID-19 will cost the global economy $2.7 trillion.
And not only are people losing money but they are losing traffic and conversions.
What should you as a business owner or Marketing Manager do during such tough times?
Opportunity to Cut Marketing Spend? Future Proof your
When economic times are tough, the first step businesses usually take is to cut their marketing budgets in an attempt to reduce costs singapore email list and minimise business losses. Marketing is usually seen as a luxury, and as not having a direct benefit to the bottom line.
This might appear to be a good way of saving money during tough times, however, it is not the answer. By panicking and switching off your marketing. You will negatively impact your business in the long run by drying up the sales funnel…leading to a knock-on in reduced sales down the line.
Or Opportunity to Grow?
“Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful” Warren Buffett.
Instead of killing your marketing spend, you should view this as an unprecedented opportunity to reach your customers while most typos and syntax errors of your customers are at home under lockdown, and many are turning to social media, videos and the internet more regularly for support, information and entertainment.
‘Fortunately’ for us, this disaster has hit us during the digital age which is all about connectivity – allowing businesses to interact with customers online; maintain customer relationships and future-proof their businesses.
This strategy will allow your business to be top of mind, during the storm and once it has passed.
Below we explore a few practical ways you can take advantage of this unexpected opportunity and come out ahead of an otherwise unfortunate situation.
1. Set up a Productive Office Space
If you haven’t worked from home before, this is the first thing you’ll need to get working for you as we all know how distracting TV and fax marketing social media can be, especially for those not used to managing their own time, in their own homes.
What I learnt early on as an entrepreneur, is to set up a work space for yourself where you aren’t distracted by TV and social media. The space that you should create should be neat and organised with minimal distractions.
Switch the TV off! Create a to-do list starting with the most intense work, and ending with the lighter tasks.
Get up early, shower and get dressed as if you are going to work. If you’re going to work from home, you need to make sure you actually are able to work from home!