Marketing Tips: 4 things every business must do during lockdown

At Yachting Pages Media Group we are passionate about marketing – we love to help businesses flourish and fulfil their potential. It’s what we do.

We understand the predicament businesses currently find themselves in. The world is in the midst of a global pandemic and economies are grinding to a halt. It’s a difficult time and careful decisions are being made by business owners to ensure they can begin operations again as quickly as possible.

In these uncertain times one thing remains sure, however: marketing is key – even in a crisis.

With this in mind, we’ve decided to share some key marketing tips and advice in a new series of articles, specifically designed to help you help your business during these challenging times.

In the second article of the series, we outline the four things your business must do to turn lockdown to your advantage.

What your business should do during lockdown

Survival is the key for businesses right now, but we have already established that continuing your marketing – paid or otherwise – is vital for both short and long-term success. If you aren’t communicating now, who do you expect to be selling to when economies get moving again?

There’s a lot more your business can be doing right now, during the lockdown, to ensure it is primed and ready to go when restrictions are eased.

1. Don’t slash prices – increase value

Some businesses may still be enjoying some trade right now, which is great, while many others will find there’s no money coming in at all. Whichever camp you’re in, it may have crossed your mind to reduce prices, following the logic that it will attract more business in the here and now.

It’s a natural inclination in a situation as intense and intrusive as we currently find ourselves in, but this method poses a number of difficulties. You can quickly find yourself in a destructive, downward spiral.

It’s worth remembering that the recession we’re going to experience in the months ahead will be unlike any other. There will still be plenty of people with money to spend in the superyacht world, it’s just that the industry has come to a standstill for a while. When things get going again, which they will, those purchasers won’t need a price reduction.

Alternatively, the best thing your business can do is add more value to its products/services. Look at everything your business offers and question whether there’s more you can offer on top of the basics. It doesn’t have to be a physical product, it could just be offering some advice or more contact time – anything that is of benefit to your customers.

Play role reversal and think about what your customers could want from you.

2. Rectify any deficiencies

There’s not a business in the world that doesn’t have ‘holes in the bucket’ with which money falls through. There are obvious culprits such as wasteful costs, but others can be attributed to inefficient marketing – or not enough marketing at all. Now is the time to rectify the problem.

For example, do you get enough conversions through your website? Do you struggle to chase leads quickly and effectively? Do you not do Google ads – or have ones that offer little ROI? If these, or indeed any other questions, apply to you, ask yourself what needs to be done to put it right.

Normally the excuse is you haven’t got time to investigate, but spare time is in plentiful supply right now. If you aren’t using some of it to help your business, why not?!

Seize the opportunity to develop your website, enhance your communication channels, better get to know Google AdWords – the list is endless. If you don’t do it now, you never will.

Believe us when we say there isn’t one business that hasn’t got at least one thing they could improve. What’s yours?

3. Create personable content

A really easy thing your business can utilise during lockdown to keep your brand active and engaging is creating personable content. This can be in the form of articles for your website or through amusing social media posts – or a combination of the two in an ideal world.

Not only does this maintain communication and interaction with your customers, but it can help with all manner of other things too, including SEO. This obviously has a wide range of benefits, with the main one being that it helps your business to rank higher on search engines for relevant keywords.

Whilst you could easily write this content yourself should you wish, it also represents the perfect example of Employee Generated Content (EGC). Asking your employees to write this has two benefits: It keeps them connected with you and the business, but it also gives them a sense of professional fulfilment that they are likely to be craving right now.

The content could be as light-hearted as a list of must-watch Netflix series, or it could be suggestions of hobbies to master during lockdown. Anything like this ticks all the boxes: It’s sociable (as in perfect for promotion on social media) and gives your customers something to engage with.

You could even take it one step further, and put a poll out on social media asking your followers to suggest which Netflix shows make the list – but beware, this is not advisable if you do not already have a very active social media audience. If you don’t, the poll will fall flat on its face and do more harm than good.

4. Be ready for the new dawn

Despite how desperate the situation is right now, things will get better. We will come out of this on the other side and it’ll be a case of getting back to normal.

That’s the moment we’re all waiting for, but don’t just wait for it: Be prepared for it.

Don’t be too fixated on the here and now. For a start it’s good for your mental health to think about the better times that lie in wait, but also because you can ensure your business is ready to burst into life as soon as possible.

How do you get ready for it? If you’ve gone through all of the above and have paid attention to our other top tips, you can be confident that your business is in a good place. Not only will your current customers feel as if they’ve been looked after, but your business’s marketing output and operational functionality will be much improved. If anything, it’ll be better equipped than it was pre-COVID-19.

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For more marketing advice to help your business flourish during the pandemic, visit our comprehensive Marketing During COVID-19 library. For assistance in improving your business website's SEO, contact us today and learn more about our specialist marketing services.