Category: Blog

Coronavirus (or COVID-19) has had a significant impact on everything from global supply chains to foot traffic to how work gets done. Small businesses can take on these challenges by thinking differently. Here are some ideas to help you on your journey.

1. THINK ABOUT DELIVERING VALUE DIFFERENTLY (AND REMOTELY)

Think about how you can deliver your product or service differently (and for now remotely). This will also allow you to reach a wider audience once the dust settles. Some options include contactless delivery, in-store pickup, online coaching, and virtual conferences.

2. FOCUS ON BUILDING YOUR AUDIENCE RATHER THAN REVENUE

As businesses and consumers start to conserve, it might be easier and more pragmatic to focus on building your audience rather than trying to sell. This approach will allow you to build trust first, which is critical when engaging remotely. Furthermore, you will have a huge advantage when the economy picks up again.

3. NEED MORE STEPS IN DIGITAL

You will need to take baby steps with your prospects because it takes time and effort to build trust remotely. So think about adding a lot of value upfront in exchange for a micro commitment. Tools like LeadBx offer brandable ebooks that your website visitors can download in exchange for their email address. This allows you to deliver value quickly, build trust and stay in touch with your prospects after they leave your website.

4. USE TECHNOLOGY TO CONNECT AND ENGAGE

Leverage technology to engage and interact with your audience. For example, you can connect with your team using tools like Slack. Once you master these tools and skills, you will also save a lot of travel time and cost.

5. BE LEAN TO STAY IN BUSINESS LONGER

Stay lean to stay in business longer during these uncertain times. Be resourceful and try to find less expensive alternatives. However, do not cut too much from revenue-generating functions such as advertising, marketing, and sales. For example, as your competitors pull back on advertising, you can reach a broader audience for a lower cost. Agencies like Enspire360 offer unlimited marketing services for a flat monthly fee.

6. ENGAGE AND BUILD A RELATIONSHIPS REMOTELY

Forget about meetings, conferences and networking events for now. Think about how you can engage virtually through social media, webinars, email, phone and of course video conferencing. Tools like Calendly allows users to find available times and book an appointment.  Zoom and Google Hangouts Meet allows you to use video conferencing.

7. WORK WITH THE WINNERS

With all the changes, some categories are bound to do well. Examples include remote learning, remote web access, security, telemedicine, digital media, e-commerce, cashless payments, etc. Think about how you can service or partner with these companies.

8. IMPROVE YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICEThis is a perfect time to take a pause and reevaluate or even redesign your offering. For example, think about managing your risk exposure by diversifying suppliers or using alternate delivery channels. You can also take the time to gather customer feedback and suggestions. A tool like Survey Monkey can be very helpful in gathering feedback.

9. SHARPEN YOUR FOCUS

Going back to the fundamentals and focusing on your core offering can help you better align scarce resources and also give you more confidence and a sense of purpose. Furthermore, you can go deeper if you are not stretched too thin.

10. OVER COMMUNICATE

During uncertainty, it’s critical to communicate proactively and often with your employees, distribution partners, suppliers, vendors, and investors. This is also a time to show empathy and build a stronger bond that will allow you to work through these challenging times as a cohesive team. It’s ok to not have all the answers but make it a two-way dialogue by asking for ideas and suggestions.

11. LOOK FOR NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Such a huge and quick shift in market dynamics and human behavior opens up new opportunities. Extrapolate the current trends to see how you can take advantage of the shift in thinking, behavior and buying patterns. 

We hope you found this article useful. What other ideas would you add to this list?

Did you know that 96% of your visitors will leave your website without making a purchase? Here are some improvements you can make to generate more leads from your website.

1. ADD TRUST SIGNALS ON YOUR WEBSITE

Trust is important for any transaction but it’s even more critical when your visitors can not see you face-to-face. By including testimonials, awards, recent work, partners, customers served or accreditations you can start to develop trust. You can also build trust by staying engaged and providing valuable insights at every interaction.

2. OFFER SOMETHING OF VALUE IN EXCHANGE FOR CONTACT INFORMATION

A great way to convert some of your existing website traffic into leads is to offer something of value, such as an ebook, in exchange for their contact information. With LeadBx you can easily add an ebook popup on your website with brandable ebooks to generate new leads. Your users can view the ebook in a rich online experience or simply download it for future reference.

Apart from gathering their email address that you can use to stay in touch, you have also established yourself as an expert by delivering useful content. Furthermore, your ebook has your contact information so that your prospects can find a way to contact you when they are ready to make a decision.

3. MAKE FORMS EASY TO FIND AND SIMPLE TO FILL OUT

Make it easy to find and fill out the contact forms from any page. More and more sites display the form in the footer or the right rail. Make the buttons and fields big so that it’s easier to fill out the form on a mobile device.

Here is an example of a form and contact information in the footer of a website:

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4. DISPLAY YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION

Prominently display your office address and phone number or an interactive phone icon for mobile devices. This can help build trust and will make it easier for your prospects to reach you through other channels.

5. LOOK AT THE DATA TO FIND HIDDEN OPPORTUNITIES

Look at the data to understand user behavior on your website. See what pages are getting most of the traffic and ensure that those pages have the right type of information to get your visitors interested in what you are offering. For example, if you see that most of your customers are viewing your blog articles to get more information, how you can include a call-to-action or a short form on those pages.

You can also think about how you can gently guide your prospects down the marketing funnel by displaying other related articles or pages which take them a step closer to sales. Also, make sure that these pages display the phone number and have easy access to the contact form.

Here is a marketing funnel and what to focus on at each stage:

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6. CREATE OR CURATE USEFUL CONTENT

Develop useful content with your audience and their challenges in mind. Instead of creating new content, you can also curate content around specific themes or topics, such as: Top Blog Posts for Business Travel or Best YouTube Videos on B2B Lead Generation.

Think about organizing your content to include sufficient details while still making it easy to scan and consume the content.

7. HAVE AN OFFER WITH TEETH

Your visitors may need a little push to get in touch with you. A great offer such as a free 30-day trial or a limited time 20% discount may just do the trick. Ask your visitors to provide their email address to receive the coupon. This allows you to send them other offers in the future.

8. THANK YOU EMAIL

After your visitors enter their email address, it’s critical to send them a properly drafted thank you email right away. Research shows that these Thank You emails have twice the engagement and open rates of regular emails.

9. TEST LANDING PAGES

Create a different landing page for each segment. The copy, images, and call-to-action should be designed specifically for each segment. You should create multiple versions of the landing pages to see which version gives you the highest conversion. There are several tools such as Unbounce and LeadPages that can allow you to set up and test landing pages quickly.

10. OPTIMIZE YOUR WEBSITE FOR SEARCH ENGINE TRAFFIC

Optimize your website to increase search engine traffic for relevant keywords. Simple things like doing proper keyword research, using those keywords in the content, internal links and alt tags can all help. Try not to trick the search engines, which are getting more and more sophisticated. Here is the list of 60 best SEO tools that you can use.

SOURCES & RELATED ARTICLES:

• https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/optimize-website-for-lead-generation
• https://marketingland.com/creating-best-lead-gen-website-235778
• https://neilpatel.com/blog/lead-generating-website/
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/271918
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/04/05/seven-ways-to-generate-more-leads-from-your-website/#6b131bc45b95
• https://blog.wishpond.com/post/81396364370/21-ways-to-generate-leads-from-your-landing-page
• https://www.leadfeeder.com/blog/18-ways-to-generate-more-b2b-sales-leads/#gref