The world is going through radical changes at this time which will have significant implications long afterwards the coronavirus has ebbed and also the economy has been “reopened.” There's much talk among pundits, politicians, economists, and business people that we are going to face a “new normal” that is not the same as how the world has operated during the last century.
While there are lots of questions and unknowns, and it might appear to be the corporate world has been placed on indefinite pause with no end date around the corner, there are things that medium and small sized business people can perform right now to make the most of their downtime and get ready for the new economy.
Much of this preparation will be the form of learning and training, self-improvement techniques that anticipate exactly what the world may be like when we come out the other side of the crisis. And marketing your services or products now, so when the country does open support, you will be inside a stronger position to capitalize.
We've prepared the below listing of things you can do to help keep continuing to move forward and prepare for the restart of the economy. This list is as simple as no means exhaustive, but it is a good starting place for the types of proactive activities you can participate in to remain over the ever-changing business landscape.
Learn The way your Website Works and How to Improve It
Now, while individuals are not coming into your brick-and-mortar business (if you even have one) is an ideal time for you to revitalize your site. There are lots of sources that you can find online that will help you find out about how a good business website works and just how you are able to streamline it, speed up, and get it performing better in rankings and efficiency.
Here are a few good resources that people recommend:
Hubspot: Improve Your Website's User Experience
This article breaks down ten ideas to make your website perform better from the consumer experience (UX) perspective. Good UX makes people more likely to go to your site, make them stay longer, make them find out more content, making them more likely to buy things and inquiries with the site. A few of the recommendations from Hubspot are:
Optimize your page speed
One of the most frustrating things for purchasers will site and it takes too long to load. Attention spans on the web are short, and if it requires 5-10 seconds to pull up a website, your visitors may give up and proceed to the next Google listing. That may sound drastic, but the web is really a cutthroat world and you've got to do what you ought to keep the customers happy.
According to Section.io, an additional five seconds of page load time can increase your bounce rate by a lot more than 20%. Stuff you can do to speed up your load time include compressing all of your image file, use little-to-no self-loading multimedia content, set external links to open in new browsers/windows/tabs, and be careful about the ads on your site: avoid resource-draining pop-ups and self-loading multimedia ads.
Use bullet points, images, and good calls to action
These all belong to the heading of making your website simpler to read. A site that is accessible quickly to the eye through streamlined text, quickly-readable information, and easily-understood content, can speed up time that the customer receives value in the site–and also the quicker you are able to hook a potential customer, the more likely they are to be a sale.
Breaking your site up into summary sentences makes your site faster to scan through than a big block of text, using images (compressed for speed) attracts views and keeps interest, and taking advantage of good calls to action result in the buying decision process that much easier.
OrbitMedia: Methods to Improve Your Website
This web design company includes a great listing of ideas for creating a quick, snappy website that increases conversions and brings repeat customers returning.
Make something Proposition
A value proposition is a vital element of a website for the reason that it tells, quickly at the beginning, why you're on the site and what they offer. They cite Joe Pullizzi, the founder of the Content Marketing Institute, to explain exactly certain requirements in a mission statement.
Website Navigation
Navigation on the site has two major purposes: first, it makes it more convenient for people to navigate the website and find exactly what they're looking for. But second, and just as important, it can make it more convenient for Google to catalog your site–it will help your search rankings. By doing something as simple as making your navigation simpler to follow, you can improve your rankings and customer experience.
These above tips in website improvement aren't even a hundredth part of the advice you can find online for improving your website, but think of how great it will likely be in the future through this downturn in the economy and have a a lot more intuitive, user-friendly, searchable website that can improve your conversions.
Advertise on the internet, Facebook
Today, 65 percent of small to medium-sized businesses purchase Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. Google ads may be the primary platform for PPC advertising, but Facebook is also a huge contender, and both offer great return on investments. Google Ads provides a ROI of $8 for each $1 spent. So even a small investment of $25-50 can go a long way.
And the good news is that Google and Facebook ads are less costly at this time than they have been in a long time, and Google and Facebook are generally offering free ad money.
Facebook is offering an amazing $100 million in grants to small , medium-sized businesses to help in the days of the COVID-19 crisis. To become eligible, a company needs to be for-profit, have between 2 and 50 employees, have been in business for over annually, have observed hardship from COVID-19, and become in or near a location where Facebook operates. For more information about applying for this grant, make use of this link.
Google can also be offering Ad credits to businesses impacted by COVID-19. They're offering an astonishing $340 million worldwide in ad credits, included in an $800 million package to assist SMBs, which can be used at any point in 2023.
If you haven't used PPC ads before and wish an introductory course, visit the Neil Patel online marketing blog to have an overview about how you will get started.
Learn and Improve Your Own People/Leadership Skills
During this downturn is also a great opportunity to take a moment to study better people and leadership skills. All businesses live and die on their ability to manage people, through getting together with their clients, suppliers, and employees.
The quarantine may well be a wonderful time to read a few of the classics of economic and leadership books, such as old staples like
- Good to Great,
- Crucial Conversations, and
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
This article in Forbes highlights 8 of the most popular business books of the last year.
Studies show that the most successful CEOs are the type who read, which shouldn't be surprising because these are impelled people who are both wanting to obtain a competitive advantage but also humble enough to understand they don't know everything.
CEOWorld reports that CEOs read primarily non-fiction, but additionally pay attention to speeches and lectures, such as TED Talks, and university courses. They likewise have a reason to do effort, so they are more likely to concentrate on entertainment that can help them advance their careers than you are on TV shows or movies.
Consulting firm McKinsey published an article by what CEOs, managers, and business people can be doing now to handle the crisis and get ready for the near future, and a part of that is what Stephen Covey called “sharpening the saw”: you may either go crazy sawing in a tree having a rusty, dull blade (overworking and burning the candle from each side) or you can sharpen that saw and also have a more effective tool which will get the job done in half time.
McKinsey's six topics for sharpening the saw of the company in this downtime are
- Set up a COVID-19 learning-response team
- Protect employees in in-person programs
- Adapt in-person learning delivery
- Promote and enhance digital learning
- Explore alternative digital-learning strategies
- Practice and prepare for multiple outcomes
As you can observe, these steps are not just about teaching the SBM owner and CEO, but additionally about using this chance to train staff and employees, encouraging them to learn and grow in this downturn too.
Learn How To Identify and Hire Congrats Candidates
When this pandemic is over and also the company begins “reopening” you will see an excuse for rehiring a lot of unemployed workers, and today would be a wonderful time to learn how you can find out the best candidates and find out in case your company is poised to draw the very best talent.
You're likely to possess a wealth of options to select from as so many people are out of work, but exactly how would you separate the very best in the rest?
The New York Times wrote a great article about finding and hiring the right person for your organization. After interviewing 500 hiring managers, the author came to three conclusions about the hiring process–three takeaways.