We know that the world is been a little crazy over the last few weeks. Although this can be a time of uncertainty, it is also a time of opportunity. Our Executive Producer put together a quick “how-to” for staying relevant during social distancing and continuing to in the future.
Send out weekly emails.
Your customers are just as uncertain as you are, so give them the answers to the questions they haven’t asked yet. It is more important than ever to tune into their needs and this can be done through weekly email updates. Your customer needs to know you’re open. They need to know how you’re handling the situation. Are you an essential business that can still provide house calls if need be? Same in B2B, make sure they receive emails from you as well. While your email blasts about support are much appreciated, it’s much more appreciated to know how you’re running your business and will continue to as the climate changes.
Create blog posts.
Now is such an important time to be in front of your clients. Blog posts can assist your weekly emails by providing the content you’d like to relay to your consumer. Link out to relevant news articles. Use a resource like Help A Reporter Out (or HARO), to find what large digital and print journalists are searching for someone like you for a story. Use Google ads and other native advertising platforms to be found on local news sites, as well! The more timely content you can put out that can also be supported by additional credible websites, the better your chances are of increasing your search engine rankings. Continue publishing even when this is over to hold down your spots.
Stay on social media.
Your social platforms also present an opportunity to get in front of customers and clients. You can use it to expand on what you wrote about in your blogs or email but broken down into shorter snippets that people can follow along with. And of course, change the climate of the conversation! Become brighter. Offer advice and free resources. Now is a great time to serve your audience. Once you’ve served then you have a clearer opportunity to sell. Additionally, this is the time to be responding to social media comments. If someone asks a question or leaves a review, be there for them! Start a conversation. They will be so eager to come back in when your doors open again.
Record daily video segments.
Did you know that video performs better on social media? That’s not just because our brains process video 60,000x faster than text, but because social platforms push them harder. More than 85% of internet users watch online video content monthly on their devices. A new study speculated that pandemics cause a spike in consumed media due to the amount of time people now spend at home. If you’re not putting out a video daily – you could be missing out on growing your audience. I suggest putting out a quick little introduction every time you get a surge of new followers, talk about your day-to-day or how you problem solve, and just ask how your followers are doing. You’ll get a response.
Begin your podcast.
Start your podcast! Seriously. If you’ve been waiting for an open window to start recording, consider it wide open. Begin by creating a schedule, and topics you’d like to cover, add guests you’d maybe like to feature, and just get it going. There are tons of home equipment we can recommend to you and video tutorials from us that can show you how to get started. 144 million Americans listen to podcasts, and 74% of them are here to learn something new, so start educating them!
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to get yourself in front of your audience, but these are some of the ways we can help you get there. The Sparq team is always willing to give advice and start conversations with you, so please reach out.
