Welp…it’s here. And it happened quicker than we expected.

I’m in as much shock as you…I figured we were cool…no big deal at the moment…and then it changed overnight. 

As a business owner myself, I’ve been thinking about what this is going to do to the economy. What things are going to begin happening.

The truth is that it’s really too soon to know that. I’m sure I’ll have more blogs about that, but I did want to write this one for now, because there are elements happening I wanted to predict solid strategies for. Strategies like what to do during this COVID-19 ordeal. While we’re currently sitting at home due to events being cancelled. While we’re scrambling to find out what moves to make because no one really expected this.

I’m writing this out of basic research we mostly know and natural human behaviour. I’ve often said that our “marketing niche” is marketing to people. There’s always a person behind a consumer transaction – there’s also always a person behind a B2B transaction. Human behaviour and people’s emotional response is what we want to follow. Thus, I wanted to send out strategic ideas for your business during this whole fiasco. 

Silver Lining for Economy: Lots of Refinancing

We’re seeing lots of interest rates dropping, so refinancing is at it’s finest. Heck, I’m doing it with my car right now. Why not?

What I predict is a lot of homeowners are pocketing good money or lowering their monthly expenses by a decent margin. If the economy goes down, there will be some who benefit. It’s mostly going to be those who made a lot of money through refinancing or their particular industry hasn’t been hit.

As money becomes tight, so do jobs. And when jobs become tight, so does margin of pay. All-in-all, labor will become cheaper. Profit will become easier to make for residential  service-industry professionals. What I see happening is a lot of homeowners not directly effected by the economy working on projects they’ve been wanting to for a while. Investing in lower cost options with the money they’ve made in this process.

Due to this happening, I want to encourage service professionals to get ready. Have your locals search, websites, and online platforms up-to-date and ready to rock. Work won’t come fast…it’ll be slow at first and then snowball. That is my prediction.

Stand aside from competition by having the following:

1. Solid messaging and branding on your local search listing (Google and Yelp)
2. Lots of pictures of your work (find them/take them, upload them, repeat. Dom it daily).
3. Ask for reviews (even if it means offering a reward for a positive review).
4. Videos – upload them to Facebook and Youtube – mostly YouTube. Put your web address, city address, phone number, and name in each description. Include proper keywords in the title of the video). 
5. Add online booking as an option (don’t worry about scheduling issues – use this as a way to collect info, then screen them before you go to their home. vCita also offers options like “request to schedule.” That way you’re not worried about getting an awful appointment setup.

This is the very start – but while you’re stuck at home, work or invest in getting this done/ready.

Facebook/Instagram Advertising

People are going to be on their phones a lot. They’re working from home – no boss staring over their shoulder. More time on social media is going to happen. And they’re also tired of hearing about COVID-19, so show them content that helps distract them. But you’ll need to pay to play.

As you post on social media, boost posts. Start a retargeting ad for everyone that watches your video or goes to your website. Find ways to stand out. Make content that with Inspires, Entertains, or Educates. 

Make Call-to-actions that don’t involve purchasing. Like “sign up for mailing list” or “download this brochure/E-book.” No one wants to hire you, so don’t try to grab dollars. Just grab attention. It’s about investing in retargeting and re-marketing opportunities. Not investing in closes, You’re going to need to be patient about that right now.

Create Webinars

Webinars are going to have a little bit of a comeback right now if you’re smart. People won’t mind watching it because they won’t have much else to do. It’ll be easier to grab attention. But you’ll still need to keep it.

Make webinars about the following:

1. Something that helps your target customers “conquer their day.” Don’t make it all about you.
2. Education about using your product/service in certain situations. 
3. Demo your service/product. Show them what you got. Sell the crap out of it. Just don’t make them feel like they have to purchase it NOW. They won’t. No one is going to be in a hurry right now. 

Just remember that if you do webinars, you’re going to want your email marketing ready to rock. The dollars come from email marketing after a webinar. Not the webinar itself. The webinar is your teriyaki chicken…the person that follows with the tray is the one who sells it 😉

Bring Things Online

With many businesses having employees work from home, they’re causing everyone to learn how to communicate and work through online means. That means more people will be familiar with video chat. More people won’t be afraid to do things digitally. So get your business ready for that.

I personally predict that businesses will keep some of this virtual infrastructure. They’re going to realize this is actually pretty cool – they just never wanted to try it before. Due to this, more are going to want to communicate with you online. This means more demo video opportunities, more webinars, more video education, more instant messaging going on. You need to prepare for online communication.

Start creating a library of “how-to’s” when it comes to your products. Create video learning for on-boarding new customers. Create automations that help your customers feel the efficiency. Make sure someone can schedule something with you online without talking back and forth. I suggest Calendly or TimeTrade (TimeTrade actually works with Google Business, so that’s cool).

Hustle in Preparation

Right now you’re not going to get a lot of business. Maybe some, but very few. Now is the time to work on content you’ve always wanted to. Now is the time to make sure you’re online game is up-to-par. 

With the way things are going, we may see months and months of having to primarily work online with each other. So get your business ready to work with people that are now used to working electronically. This seems silly to say in 2020, but OMG – so many people have no idea how to use Zoom and are freaking out. But Zoom is about to be learned very quickly – so get ready to know that platform too.]

Buying is going to happen, but it’s going to slow down first. So prep and brand during this time. Don’t focus too heavily on the close. They’ll close when they’re ready…so work on getting your customers ready to buy. Wait for the influx of work that comes in.

Best way to do this: focus on growing your email list and engage with your audience on a daily basis for a while (social media, emails, texting, webinars, etc.)