COVID-19 Chaos: 5 Actionable Ways to Strengthen Your Business

With the quick spread of Coronavirus everywhere in the world and considering its negative impacts, Australian experts have estimated a global GDP loss of $2.4 trillion.

Let’s face a brutal truth.

Businesses from almost all sectors have been affected severely because of Novel COVID-19 disease.

Credits: neilpatel.com

With the impact of coronavirus on business sectors, 27% of companies predict the pandemic to have a medium to high impact on their ROI while 30% expect moderate to high impact on their supply chain. 

In such a scenario, you might be anxious and worried about what the future might hold for your business in the marketing sector. 

You don’t want to see your successful company losing its power amid this corona pandemic and are looking for ways to strengthen your business in such challenging times.

And, guess what?

You can preserve your B2B sales and sanity amid this pandemic by implementing some of the following profitable strategies.

Let’s dive in.

Prioritize on the Well-Being of your Employees

Your employees are responsible for your company’s success and now it’s time to protect them during the corona pandemic. 

While designing a crisis plan, consider the well-being of your employees and find ways to help them in case of an emergency. Since COVID-19 is a community transmission disease, it’s not safe for your employees to gather in office. 

Hence, depending on your business sector, consider work for home policy for your employees. If your business operates in software, it’s easy to make work for home arrangements for your employees. 

Keep your employees updated about the latest developments in your sector via online meetings and assure them of the secure future despite the crisis. Offer extra financial help for those employees having more family responsibilities or poor financial background.

For example, Twitter is offering additional expenses to parents during the daycare closures due to the Corona outbreak. Additionally, the company continues to pay labor costs for its contractors and hourly workers who are unable to perform their responsibilities from home.  

Take Efforts to Retain the Existing Customer Base

Loyal and lifelong customers are your real assets. Currently, they too are suffering from the impacts of Coronavirus. 

According to Melissa Agnes, Social Media Crisis Manager and Consultant,

 “When it comes to crisis communications, if you always focus on building a relationship with your customers, fans, and followers, you will always find yourself communicating in the right direction.”

Hence, focus on keeping in touch with your customers regularly. 

This doesn’t mean to send automated or discount emails, cold calling emails, etc. Craft some personalized and contextualized emails and send them to your existing customers who genuinely want to hear something encouraging from you amid tough times. 

For example, Skol Marketing, a web development agency in Minnesota, has crafted an email related to COVID-19 and assured its clients to help during the crisis. 

Friendly and helpful, isn’t it?

If you are in the e-commerce sector, inform your customers about delays or cancellations of product deliveries amid crisis. Let them know when they can except product deliveries. This will reduce their frustration and avoid them from looking for other services. 

Besides, continue with your content production process and marketing campaigns. Keep sharing your current ideas, innovations, and developments with your customers. Let them know how your productive actions differentiate from competitors during challenging times. 

Connect with your audience via social media and engage in conversations. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc. are common platforms where currently people are discussing COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on their purchasing decisions and lives. 

Listen carefully to their conversations, understand their problems and try to create a discount plan for them to ease their life. 

There are a lot of ways to also find new customer in this situation of epidemic

find out here how to find new prospects in this situation

Work Smart to Drive More Conversions 

Driving conversions during challenging times are tough but possible. 

Coronavirus had forced all Chinese companies to stop their routine businesses but some smart business owners changed their sales strategy to avoid losses. 

For example, Lin Qingxuan, a leading Chinese cosmetics company closed nearly 40% of its stores across China amid the corona crisis. 

However, the company’s 100+ beauty advisors became online influencers using various digital tools such as WeChat to connect with customers and increase online sales. This strategy resulted in 200% sales growth in the Wuhan region as compared to previous year. 

This not only benefitted the company and its customers but also those employees who otherwise would have lost their jobs during such pandemic. 

Your business can also save a lot of costs by taking advantage of COVID-19 resources as many companies are offering their products and services for free

Improve your Online Presence via Apps and Webinars

With many people confined at their homes during the outbreak, there has been a significant increase in download volumes of games and video apps. 

After the outbreak in China between January 20 and Feb 2, video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou have witnessed an 18% growth in their followers. 

It’s a great opportunity for you to introduce your apps, videos, or games based on the nature of your target audience. 

You can also create an app related to coronavirus that will help people to stay alert from contracting the disease. 

For example, the Singapore Government launches an app named ‘Trace Together’ that uses Bluetooth signals to track the virus based on the infected person’s recall and memory of their traveling places. 

Ensure Your Services Are Beneficial Even Post Crisis

Don’t assume everything will be the same after the pandemic subsides. Along with focusing on sustaining your business during the outbreak, it’s also necessary to have a plan B ready as things may not happen as expected post-crisis. 

Since the majority of the population is confined at homes, they might have connected with some online services similar to yours. 

For example, if you are providing financial services through a personal approach, today customers have preferred you over automated ones because of security, trust, and reliability reasons. 

However, with home confinement, they might have taken help from automated and remote services that offer the same security and reliability (and sometimes in less price). 

You are making a mistake if you assume that the same customers will return to you after the pandemic ends. Hence, adapt to the modern web-developments services in your field and come up with similar service patterns offered by your competitors. With this, you will remain the top choice even after the outbreak ends.

Maintain Faith that You Will Prevail

Times are challenging but the crisis is temporary. 

The recession during the last decade was very challenging for many countries and companies. However, today’s top companies had stayed strong and emerged with more knowledge and experience. 

Remember, you aren’t expected to look for profits at such times. Focus on maintaining human connections, balanced work culture with clients, and helping everyone to cope with tough times. 

If you study the above strategies carefully, you will surely find your way to sustain your business despite any tough times. 

Stay Safe and Take Care!