Updated: 19 March 2020 18:52 Thanks to Petr Krauz for valuable comments and additions to some sections.
The Archetix team is trying in this period to help clients, smaller and larger companies, whose plans, work and income have been significantly complicated by the current COVID-19 situation. Let us look at what can be done. Not sure what to do with your employees? Have you not used online selling? Do you have lots of internal things you never found time for?
You can find the managers’ overview at this address and it will immediately let you assess your website on the basis of Google Analytics data.
You can find the video guide to the managers’ overview here (in Czech).
The Assumptions Our Recommendations Are Based On:
- The situation will last for months before the market stabilises
- People buy only essential goods and services; willingness to buy luxury and non-essential goods is falling rapidly
- The restart after restrictions are lifted will be slow, and now is the best moment to prepare
- Simply increasing advertising budgets (mainly search) will not help you, because people are simply not searching
- You have employees who cannot perform the tasks you hired them for and whom you do not want to, or we do not recommend you to, let go (shop assistants from closed branches, etc.)
We will keep updating the article as new information and experience from the field come in, so write your opinions in the comments! We definitely do not have a monopoly on wisdom. Your current situation may also show some steps to be completely pointless. Everything is also closely connected with the maturity of your marketing.
The Company’s Position
If your Facebook and your company’s official pages are silent about the current situation, change that. Take a position, speak out, inform your customers whether you are operating normally or what measures you have taken. Write how you are trying to help with the current situation and what activities you are getting involved in. Call on customers to stay calm and to respect the instructions that follow from the government regulations (face masks, going out, personal hygiene).
Deal with Long-Term Campaigns
Consider your big campaigns such as TV, radio and print, which can make up a considerable item in your marketing budget. Prepare the data showing the contribution of these campaigns in past years. Simply put, the growth in direct and organic visits after ads aired. If you do not see a significant increase even now, you probably cannot expect one.
Branch Staff – What About Employees?
Has your shop closed and you do not know what work to give your employees? Not everyone necessarily has to stay at home; involve them in other activities. Your employees are the ones who know your products and services best. There are certainly things where they will use this knowledge.
Try looking at the development of your website. Content and the search engine optimisation associated with it are among the long-term and continuous activities for which the whole team suddenly has more time. Do not pause work on your online presentation – after all, it is the only thing that still works when a branch is closed (reduced demand for services).
Focus on completing product and service page texts, creating a blog (as advised by Petr Krauz), preparing reviews, taking and updating photos, or creating a glossary of the technical terms used in your field. Work in the frequently asked questions from the customer line, or schedule social media posts. Think about your current content – could it not be developed or adjusted according to your strong selling arguments?
You can do all of it now – once branches open or demand for your skilful hands increases, the web presence will go to the back seat. Perhaps as it has been until now.
You can also move some employees to warehouse logistics, packing or transport (watch out for legal aspects, driver training, officers, etc.).
Invest in employee training, even in these difficult times. You will have a team where people can stand in for each other, with experienced people across multiple segments of their daily work.
Immediately fix the weak spots of the website and reinforce its strengths. Use our managers’ overview and fix the bottlenecks of the website right away. At the same time, discover the strengths to build on.
You can find the managers’ overview at this address and it will immediately let you assess your website on the basis of Google Analytics data.
You can find the video guide to the managers’ overview here (in Czech).
Invest in Employee Training
Kick-start your HR and create clear education plans for your employees for the next three months. A number of companies are opening their courses and moving their training online, whether for free or at reasonable prices. That way you will improve your expertise. You will have a team where people can stand in for each other, with experienced people across multiple segments of their daily work. We are preparing a list of recommended resources.
How to Get Online Selling Running – an E-shop
We have a lot of experience and are able to help resolve your online selling situation. There are simple systems for setting up a simple e-shop, such as Shoptet. Together we are able to create such an e-shop.
Use Your Customer Database
A mantra repeated among marketers – a repeat purchase costs you 5x less than acquiring a new customer. Use your customer databases. If you use mailing, check that you have in it all the contacts who agreed to mailing. Try sending some emails to the inactive part of your customers too. We recommend doing at least a simple RFM segmentation, or at least segmentation by “dumb rules” such as the date of the last purchase, bonity (total purchases over a certain period) or the size of the purchase. Set intervals and start reaching out to the most promising customers (high bonity, historically large purchases, have not bought for a long time). Do not be afraid to approach them directly and find out where the problem is.
Emphasise the information about your customer club and the advantageous purchase at the present moment.
Minimising Losses
Many people are at home at the moment and are looking for products online. If you can be found on the internet, customers can buy from you even in these unfavourable times. Do not think about an e-shop right away. What about a simple Google Form for reservations where people order goods and you hand them out through the window? Or a customer line where they can dictate the goods and you prepare and deliver them.
New Opportunities
Creating an online form of selling can be a new opportunity to raise earnings in the future and to spread awareness of your company. It does not have to be only about a website, but also about social networks and listing the company in various registers.. There are plenty of opportunities for you and your company, you just have to use them.
It Is Really for Everyone
It does not matter what industry you work in. An ideal solution for making yourself visible on the internet in a meaningful way can be found for everyone.
How Will It Reach People?
Need advice? Not sure how to handle the technical side of the above steps? We can also help to make sure your information reaches customers at the right moment, in the right place and at the right time.
We are trying to help and are available in the areas of analytics, technical support for running an e-shop and website, content and campaigns. We believe we can help small companies and sole traders as well as established players to bridge this difficult time.