This is an article “Making Your Presence Felt in the Next Normal” by Marc Primo Warren
Building a startup from scratch takes an enormous amount of courage. However, it takes more than just bravery to weather the current economic storm brought about by COVID-19 and emerge victorious in the next normal.
In recent months, small businesses have truly become the soldiers of commerce who have shown the world how ingenuity, determination, and, of course, courage can create success out of any challenge. Today, startups have encouraged more consumers to adapt e-commerce and curbside pickups so we can help jumpstart the economy. But this is not to say that shifting to the new normal happened overnight and, most certainly, rounding the block to the next isn’t either as more flexibility and leadership is required to survive the continuing crisis.
Since the pandemic broke out all over the world, here are some of the great takeaways we have learned from startups in terms of boosting your brand’s online presence.
Customer’s needs should be a priority
Whether or not there’s a crisis, placing your customers’ needs at the top of your priorities should be automatic. However, with COVID-19 changing the way businesses go during these difficult times, so do customer expectations. Today, more consumers are buying their needs online and your online presence needs a bigger boost to get your brand out there and sell products.
But how can you improve your search rankings with so many companies jockeying for position in the various search engines online? One way to boost your online traffic is by focusing on how you connect with your current customers who, by the way, now prefer chatbots over call center agents. With all the lockdowns and social distancing in place, consumers are smart enough to expect that transactions can go faster online so all you have to do is up your social media game and content marketing in your landing pages, while adding real-time customer service features.
Nurturing your relationships with your customers and providing for their needs immediately is definitely key to improving your online presence both in the new normal and the next.
Expand your platform to build trust
If you’ve already started your digital transformation prior to 2020, this won’t be the time to slow down your efforts as more commercial transactions are poised to transpire within the online space by the next normal. In fact, 68% of consumers had expected companies to be digitally capable as early as the pandemic’s onset in March. Of course, a huge spike in companies that went digital followed this trend with 40% of companies initializing their efforts to scale out of the 87% who say going digital is a priority.
Figuring out which online channels you should build your presence on to generate customer trust is as important as communicating your views and how your brand can address your customers’ needs. Exercise empathy and be consistent with your brand’s stance on current social issues and challenges so that people know how you want to help. Soon, those you’ve tapped in multiple online platforms who share your values will become your on and offline ambassadors and keep you at the top of other potential customers’ minds.
Put the right tools in place
Digitalization continues to evolve and you can well expect major changes by the time the next normal comes into play. Keep yourself abreast of what new technologies are available to establish better connections with your customers, suppliers, and partners. There are a number of great innovative tools right now for telecommunication, e-commerce, data security, and marketing that can help you build a holistic brand profile for your customers’ appreciation.
Investing on automation and social listening software will give you an upper hand on which direction consumers will be treading when the next normal happens. Make sure you have established features that give your customers real-time help and quicker service or product deliveries and amp up your engagement tracking and lead nurturing efforts. This way, your digital game will still operate smoothly and your online presence continually improve as the tides keep changing.
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