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We’re going through something that no one saw coming and that no one could realistically plan for. We’ve compiled some things to help you plan now if you have a little extra time to help you in the long run, later.

It’s interesting because “pivot” was my word of the year. Sometimes I don’t immediately know what my word is going to be when I set my yearly and quarterly goals, but this year, with everything that I wanted to accomplish, it just came to me. 

The interesting thing about it is, I think it’s 90% of everyone’s unofficial word of the year now, too. 

With all the hardships happening now with the COVID-19 virus and with businesses not knowing what they should or shouldn’t be doing, I thought it would be beneficial to create a list of things you can be doing now that will help you in the long-run. Here they are: 

Add a website bar to the top of your website 

This can be done through programs like Hello Bar or SumoMe. We use SumoMe for our website and it’s worked really well to entice people to give their email in exchange for a free piece of content. 

With the virus, we’ve been updating all of our clients’ websites with a small blurb or with a link that leads them to a more in-depth blog post. Here’s an example of what that looks like: 

Collect email addresses now

I was talking with a potential client yesterday about what they can do now while they have some “downtime.” One of my answers is to start adding opportunities to collect emails now. 

These can be with pop-up services as mentioned above or it can be a matter of adding clients to a spreadsheet or to an email program, like MailChimp. 

Even if you’re not ready to send out an email, start collecting! The HARDEST thing ever is to go back and try to collect emails when it has been two or three years. 

Ask for reviews now

When you’re in a down-time, reach out to clients to ask them for online reviews. Stagger the sites you mention in reviews too. As an example, if you want reviews on your Google My Business page and your Facebook page, and you have 5 clients you want to ask, send 3 the Google link and 2 the Facebook link. 

This way, it’s even across the board and you’ll keep everything updated. I am always asked which is the best to ask for reviews on – Google, Facebook, Yelp, etc. I always say Google is my #1. 

We recently had a client who received a negative review from a husband and wife on Facebook. We emailed the client to let them know and they asked if there was a way to delete them. The short answer is no, the long answer is, there are options. If you do happen to get a negative review on any site, here’s what you can do: 

• Ask for a ton of positive reviews from your current clients so you can push the negative one down
• Turn off the reviews (now called recommendations) on Facebook through your settings. If you do this, it will hide ALL positive and negative reviews

The client opted for the first option because they wanted to still show the positive reviews and push the negative reviews down. 

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Pivot to new things

One of the things I’ve seen through this time is that people are pivoting to help their businesses continue to succeed. Some of these have been truly inspirational and I want to share my favorites below: 

Local Florist

They are an inspiration to me because each week they have a flower happy hour and to keep with the social distancing theme, they offered a drive-through option. They’re also delivering their workshop materials to people’s homes and allowing them to tune in online at any time to watch it and complete the workshop item. 

Zoos

With human contact being such a huge part of this virus, zoos have started to show live feeds of some of their animals. This has kept them top-of-mind and allowed them to share their animals with the people who follow their page. Here’s a fun feed here. 

Dog Boarding

We have a dog boarding client and we were thinking of ways to help her gain business while everyone’s at home with their pets. She ended up coming up with a few great ideas. One was to offer her back yard to dogs who didn’t have a big backyard at home. The dogs and owners could come in the back fence and not be in contact with anyone. She’s also selling t-shirts online and an online course for teaching your dog new tricks! 

Realtor

To go see a house now is not going to happen. So why not give virtual tours online so people can come to you? That’s exactly what we pitched to a client who’s in the real estate world. 

They are having their agents go to the homes that would have normally been open houses and record themselves walking through it. Then, they post it on social media and share it with friends and family to spread awareness. 

There are so many different things you can do now to help your business in the long-run. Thinking outside the box can be hard, but hopefully you can take some inspiration from the above to see how you can do it for your business. 

As always, if you need any help with ideas or need someone to craft a marketing plan that gets you results – we’re here for you! You can book a 1-hour strategy session here or schedule a free 30-minute consultation for us to manage your marketing below!