How Can Small Businesses Go Virtual During COVID-19

The pandemic is having a devastating impact – from decreasing revenues to having to let go of competent employees, small business owners are faced with tough decisions. This pressure is even higher for brick and mortar operations that need to pivot their products and services to survive the crisis.

If your business has been more dependent on customer walk-ins, the above statistics may resonate with you. I’ve spoken to many professionals like accountants, dentists, physiotherapists, and storeowners in my network who have lost more than half of their revenue over the last quarter. They are confused, worried and a bit lost!

How do you bring back your customers, and continue to grow? This is a tough time for any business, I agree! But why not use this challenge to convert your business into one that operates completely online. The key reason is that while the customers may have stopped walking into the store, their needs haven’t taken a back seat. In order to win back your customers, you need to ADAPT TO THE NEW NORMAL AND TRANSFORM INTO A VIRTUAL BUSINESS.

The best and the fastest way for you to pivot in this new direction is by leveraging technology and transforming the way you interact with customers and realign operations from taking payments to shipping products.

Based on my experience of working with small businesses around the globe, I’ve found seven key areas that are critical for a successful transition.

1. Leverage lead generation channels:
   It’s time to think beyond traditional ways to reach your target audience. Your go-to-market plan should include multiple touchpoints to reach and influence your customers. Be it through an email campaign, social media engagement, or paid advertising there is more than one venue to interact and create a continuous leads channel. Select them based on customer preference and build a campaign that is consistent across all platforms.
2. Select the right digital tools:
   Whether you’re offering consultations online via Zoom meetings or selling a product through your online shop, customer experience is of paramount importance. If the experience is good, you can create a set of initial promoters for your products that act like silent spreaders in their network. Identifying the right virtual platforms and apps is important; it should bring comfort and ease to the customer. You can't select a technology that is too hard for the customer to use and prevents you from giving him a good experience. Do your research, compare the pros and cons, and make sure to run trials before going onboard.
3. Revamp marketing message:
   Taking your newly secured value proposition to the market, and informing and educating your prospects are part of the new change. By revamping operations you are only accomplishing part of the solution, the other part is to revamp the marketing efforts and find new ways to reinforce your value offering it in the target group.
4. Go full circle:
   Taking feedback from customers, finding loopholes and fixing them fast, once you go virtual, will make your solution more relevant and trusted. We all love to use and talk about products or services that have solved our problems and bring joy to us. That’s a goal worth pursuing because it will not only build customer trust but also establish your brand equity in the long run.
5. Polish your policies:
   As you go through the transformation exercise, take time to revisit your company’s online privacy policy. With the new laws like GDPR and CCPA that protect consumer data rights, your privacy policy and terms of use should be transparent, easy to understand, and applicable across the digital platforms – website, apps, and tools.
6. Explore ways to increase conversion rates:
   Constantly optimizing your website design, SEO content, and inbound market strategies for the conversion is of paramount importance because consumer preferences keep evolving over time, and if you don’t evolve with them, you may miss out on potential growth for the business.
7. Design solutions that can truly benefit your customers:
   The current consumer is under a lot of stress because of the uncertainty that surrounds his/her health, financial situation, and the environment he is in. It’s important to understand his state of mind and align your services that bring him ease and comfort. For example, your online store can create special discounts for the elderly who are severely affected by this pandemic. Being sensitive towards your customer will not only let you stand out from the competition but also generate enormous goodwill for the brand.

CHANGE is always hard because the road ahead is unforeseen and uncertain. But we need to adapt to the new change of doing business virtually. If we adapt to the new normal fast enough we can not only save our livelihoods but also look at new ways to grow, together.

Let’s EMBRACE, ADAPT, and CHANGE.