Video Transcription:
How has COVID impacted small business marketing?
The pandemic has changed business and marketing in many ways. People ask me, “What should I be doing?” “How should I be adjusting my marketing?” There’s one thing that I recommend small businesses focus on first. And that’s your website! To find out why keep watching.
Hi, I’m Tom Malesic, founder and President of EZMarketing, and you’re watching AskEZ. This is where small business owners go to get real answers to their marketing questions.
Digital Is Dominating
Digital marketing is DOMINATING right now. It should be no surprise to you that foot traffic and in-person sales and trade shows, well, they’re all down or just gone, while digital advertising is surging. If you’re not marketing your business, digitally you’re not going to survive.
Your website is the center of your digital presence. All marketing points back to it; if your website design is bad, your digital marketing dollar that you’re spending is just going to be wasted.
You can’t rely on in-person sales and marketing tactics right now. You need to invest digitally and start with your website design.
E-Commerce's Unprecedented Growth
The other thing that’s happening is e-commerce has seen unprecedented growth. In the last six months, e-commerce has seen four to six years’ worth of growth. Sales during April and May has surpassed last year’s holiday spending.
More and more people want to buy online and reduce their in-person interactions. So think about it: it's not just products, but it's services too. We’ve seen tele-health, online fitness training, and even virtual real estate tours. You want to make it convenient and easy for people to buy from you.
If you don’t have one already, add a shopping cart to your website so that you can sell online and take advantage of the surge of online sales.
Customers Need to Know You're Open
Another reason why your website design is really important right now is customers need to know that you’re still in business. Normally, just having a website validates your business. Now, if there’s no COVID message or updates to your website in the last six months, I kind of assume you’re not in business.
Your customers may be confused right now, and you need to assure them and provide answers to them; your website design is one of the best places to do that. Most people will look there at some point.
Tell them you’re still open, how you do business, and what safety measures that you have in place. To help you with this, you can download our free COVID FAQ Checklist with questions that you can answer and add to your website.
Opportunity To Win New Customers
And finally, there’s a huge opportunity to win new customers. Buyer behavior is actually changing; studies have shown that 36 percent of people have tried a new brand since COVID, and most intend to continue using it.
You’re not gonna win them with your physical storefront or your in-person sales pitch right now. Your web design has to sell your business.
The two big factors that are convincing people to switch brands are that you have what they need and that you’re going to make it convenient for them to buy. Your website needs to tell people that you can solve their problems and make it super simple for them to do business with you.
So the thing that you can do right now is invest in updating your website design, so that it helps sell your business; otherwise, you’re going to be losing out on new customers.
If you haven’t updated your website design lately, especially since COVID, it’s time to take another look. I know getting a new website can be a daunting task, and that’s why I’ve put together the Ultimate Website Buyer’s Guide to help you learn exactly the questions you should ask so you can get the right web design for your business.
And if you like this video, don’t forget to like and subscribe.
