Staying Afloat Amidst The Brink of Economic CollapseIntroduction The future is arriving faster than anyone have ever anticipated. Thinking about what transpired a few months ago, we all bear witness to the changes that occurred since then. From the way we interact with each other, the way we work, the way we communicate, all the way to how we do business. It’s crucial to be aware of these factors as they affect your clients, their behavior and their journey as buyers. Naturally, following these changes, there should also be a shift in your priorities. Your top business priority right now is to stay afloat. Striking the right balance between risk and opportunity in order to find business stability. As a business owner you have to think about the future. It’s not going to be easy to find a steady Footing. A majority of businesses were not prepared for this major hit and as we're seeing right now, there are costs. Having further understanding of the risks your business could Face in this unexpected event will allow you to assess and control your actions to avoid and treat those risks. e Reduced Consumer Access * Unemployment « Loss of Business Profitability * Going Out of Business Having stated all these, one thing remains the same throughout these changing times, everything still starts and ends with your customer. With this in mind it’s important to have a clear understanding of the current state of the market, get to know your buyer's journey all over again and how to meet them at each point.407 sy Roy of global experience a drop will spend less eo UTM y CaM eT e-LINe} CoN Tm mace experienced a tere) atolleaeKe Uae} Cole) MMe usehold bills [aoe BE) It’s important to know the numbers so that you'll have an idea why buyers are behaving the way they do and how you can take the appropriate actions. The Importance of Acting Now The first step is to survive, to keep afloat, to navigate your business through the chaos. After finding stability, the next step is to figure out a way to thrive. But first, you have to find your balance in the current situation. Get your business out there, be seen by the right people and establish that you're better than the competition. It’s not the time to hibernate, it's not the time to take a step back. It’s the time to think about the next step, this is the time to prove your business’ resilience. Maintaining your business’ visibility and accessibility is an important factor in acquiring a balanced Footing in this economy. Others are putting a halt in their marketing campaigns in the hopes of saving Funds, essentially hibernating while waiting For the storm to pass.This is an unhealthy business move for two reasons: People still need products and services. Things will get back to normal. The economy has affected how people buy but it doesn’t mean they have stopped buying. People will still need the products and services that you offer. When they do, you have to make sure to be there so that they can find you. One thing's For sure, you have to position yourself as a brand that’s above the competition, this is where your marketing efforts should Focus on. “Position yourself as a brand that's above the competition” Four challenges that your business is facing: Adjusting to customer's buying habits Safety centric Customer Experience Customer Engagement Initiating Empathy marketingHow To Start Reinventing The Future of Your Organisation: The fact is clear, businesses are losing money, potential sources of income will be getting scarce and people will be spending even less money over the coming months. However, this struggle is only going to be the new norm if you allow it to be. To reinvent is to continue to move and function but in a different way. There is a solution to this problem. And to get to it, you have to keep on moving forward and keep your visibility high. Simply put, now is the time to be savvy with your internet marketing, pay attention to your online visibility and employ SEO. This strategy will shine even brighter after the market recovers. If you act now and maximise your efforts on the right digital optimisation strategy, you will find your website sitting on top of relevant keywords and generating high-value traffic when the economy turns. The global business landscape continues to change and evolve by the day. You will have to speak with your marketing team or rely on tools like Google Trends to see how many people are looking for your products or services. However, to stay afloat, you will need to invest in smart digital marketing opportunities.1. REDEFINING YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE Se Need ERO Reena CMR Renent Mune Meant aie this includes trends, shift in the demand curve and more. Buyer personas eee etal Rell meee ra eRe Mele cet ttre iat tats of your clients. Having a clear buyer persona allows you to segment your reel a RY EA a eso) oa Mele -In LT elt OU meen ne ee In updating your buyer persona you have to walk in their shoes and think why a buyer would look for your brand and website. How are they going to access it? Is it through desktop or via their mobile devices? Are they tech savvy? Tip: A/B testing is a great way in Finding out what your actual clients behave and perform.Review their psychographics. Knowing the age, gender, ethnicity, employment status is one thing, that’s the demographics part, you have to dive deeper and aim to reach a broader audience. Now is the time to look at the psychological angle and see how your audience behaves. PSYCHOGRAPHICS attitudes = Ask these questions: * What are their pain points? * What makes them respond? What are their priorities at the moment? ° If they are already your client, why did they convert in the first place? In the process of updating the buyer's persona, you have most likely gone through the buyer’s journey. This is the process that your target audience goes through to reach the point of decision which is to purchase. For example, right now, a majority of buyers are online. Whether they're looking for information about a particular product or service, or they're intending to make a purchase.Mapping out all stages of the buyer's journey is crucial in determining how your customers or potential clients get from point A to point B. Just like a journey that people take in real life, uncertain situations can arise that can lead people to take different routes or just not push through with the journey at all. You have to be on top of these factors in order to adjust and develop a strategy that will close a sale. 2. OPTIMISING WEBSITE Your website is an important source of business at the moment. It will be your most hardworking employee in these coming months. With the current tren cn aed coerce cota eemeed ceeea nti ay Oem oe cutie mrs SiR TRC cit for you 24/7, generating leads, educating potential leads, directing leads to your physical store if you have one, closing sales, processing sales and more.Run a website Audit. Awebsite audit is a Full analysis of your website's health. It shows your site's strengths and weaknesses, what you're doing right, and what things you need to improve on. To know exactly what you need to change or improve on your website, conduct a web audit first. Update Your User Interface (UI). Your website is the face of your business online. It should be backed by an efficient UI. This involves a responsive and visually-pleasing design. If First impressions last, then you want your website to impress your visitors off the bat. Whether it’s a website for a restaurant, a law Firm or aSAAS company, have it aligned with the color schemes, images, icons and buttons used. Make sure that it looks good no matter what device users are viewing it on. Tip: Do your own research. Visit your Favorite websites and observe what you like about them. Ask yourself if you can replicate the same UI for your business. Q hu?Optimise the User Experience (UX). UX or the user experience defines the effectiveness of your website. IF UI is about how attractive and user-friendly your pages are,then UX is all about how easy it is to use the website. Can users navigate the website and find the pages they're looking For? Did they get the information they need from the site? The goal is to engage users. Whether it’s to get them to stay longer on your website, to sign-up or to make a sale, an optimised user-experience will greatly affect the end goal. Increase Site Speed. Everybody wants a website with a quick loading time. You don’t want a potential client to bounce from your site just because the content wouldn't load. Tips: e | We recommend using Pagespeed Insights to check your website’s performance. * You can also make the pages load Faster by reducing your image size.Improve Landing Pages. Landing pages are your ‘conversation’ pages. These need to be one of the most visible pages when someone Googles a keyword related to your business. Whether you're going to be using SEO or Paid Advertising, it’s best to design a landing page that will move the potential client into action. The key here is to optimize each aspect of your landing page so that Google can see them as relevant to your audience (See SEO Page). Here are the list of elements you should optimize: . Keyword . Unique Value Proposition * Main Title * — Multimedia Content * Supporting Headline or H2 . CTA * — Value Proposition3. SEO Google processes over 3.5 billion searches. As of May 2020, it’s come up toa PLN RUM eee Le ORM Oy (Ue Seen eel This means that people are using the web more to find information, order the products they need or order services like takeaways or deliveries which explains why cloud computing services and other web services are in high-demand. With the spur in demand for online services, more and more businesses are finding opportunities online and are populating the online market. You can just imagine how many new websites are emerging now and how many blogs alone are getting published today. Just in March 2019 alone, over 4.4 million 1) CofeM oTes eMC RM NUL eR NIN RCN AM TROLLS ReelThe main purpose of SEO is to make your website rank on search engines NUS Melee Rol Keel aoe A Le ol haven't incorporated SEO into your digital marketing strategy, then now is the Yaa inne on SEO is not just a ‘for now’ solution. If done correctly, SEO will continue to Re Me cue aca eee let VAeR ort Ro ACU See ee) Here are some actionable steps you can implement on your own so you can stay visible to customers and potential clients amidst the current economic situation: Improve Clickthrough Rate Clickthrough rate is the measurement of how many people clicked on your website when they landed on search results. This indicates that your website is performing well, as people’s queries match the information on your website. The challenge here is to get the attention of those customers to click on your website once it appears on the search results page. Google HiThe goal is to attract the right people to click on your site, For that to happen, you have to adjust certain elements. Write Catchy Titles and Descriptions Your website's Meta titles and descriptions are among the elements that have a direct impact on clickthrough rate. These appear on search results whenever users type in their queries. Think of these as a preview of the information that customers will find on your website. ° — Your titles and descriptions should be engaging, attention-grabbing, and relevant to what your customers are searching For. e Donot settle for something generic when writing these — think of the value they will get simply from looking at your titles and descriptions.Rich Snippets Rich snippets provide your customers with additional information and tell them exactly what they will find if they click on your link. You can use different types of rich snippets for on-page SEO, depending on the content that you want to showcase. Here are some types: Reviews: sx» Shows a star rating from an aggregate of reviews or an individual review from users. Product Markup: Provides information such as price and product images on specific products. Organization: Allows businesses to display information such as their address, logo, and contact information to help search engines understand what the business is about. Video: IF you have important videos on your Page, you can use this structured data to help search engines understand what your video content is about.Add Breadcrumbs chavy woe sours soe ce conc 1» Detail Product SAMPLE PRODUCT 4 DESIGN Breadcrumbs make it easier for your customers to see the path of your pages, from your homepage to the specific landing page on what is appearing on the search results. This makes it easier For them to navigate through your site. The easiest way to add breadcrumbs to your website is through the Yoast SEO plugin. Once you have installed this, you can go to the Advanced options and enable breadcrumbs to activate this on your pages. Do a Quick On-page Content Audit This is a great time to look at all the content assets you have on your website and determine if these are performing and driving the right people to your site. You will need Google Search Console and Ahrefs as SEO tools to audit your on-page content. Mark the ones that you will revamp—we suggest starting with those that are already generating traffic from your website.However, you have to be critical of which content pieces you will reoptimize. You can use the following as guide questions for your on-page SEO content checklist: ¢ Which content pieces have the highest impressions and clicks? * What queries are these content pieces ranking For? e What content pieces have the potential to get more traffic? * — Which content pieces are important for your business? Pay Attention To Your Internal Linking Strategy Link building plays a huge part not just in off-page SEO but also in on-page SEO. Link building is known as a strategy that adds value and authority to your site by having other reputable websites and pages link back to yours. It's important to know that links also play a huge role in the on-page side of SEO. Links provide contextual relevance for different pages and strengthen the value proposition of service pages. These allow users to navigate the website and get a better sense of what the information you offer is all about. However, an internal link building strategy requires some thought. You do not link one page to another simply because the content seems similar. For a more effective internal link building strategy, here are some pointers: . Use top-performing queries as anchor texts when linking pages to one *® another. Diversify your anchor texts and create long-tail variations.DER aU rey For example: “keyword” search. This will yield UL en ae ilar SU om Main anchor text: on-page SEO Anchor Texts: On-page SEO strategy, checklist for on-page SEO, On-page SEO tips site:nameofwebsite.com keyword Q Once you've implemented these on-page SEO tips, you can start seeing an increase in your website's performance. 4. RESHAPING YOUR CONTENT STRATEGYPerea e ental Cae eee nt nears RC en eee Rhee ce OS RR ea eUM aut ULM te arlita celta oS COUN Ce AAO Leela RLS femelle Determine your content marketing goals right now. Are you a retail store who wants to educate potential clients about your online products or maybe you're a medical practitioner who wants to drive awareness and trust into your name. Make sure you have a clear goal and that you understand what you want to achieve. Once again, one of your main goals is to close the gap between your business and your target customers. It sounds simple yet much more complex in practice. Because in essence, you want your target customers to take the same action which is to Awareness Consideration Gera e en) Ro Li8 purchase your product, but they are all at different stages of the Funnel.The marketing funnel simplifies the buyer's journey from the moment their needs are triggered, to purchase decisions, to the point of conversion, and Finally, their journey towards being repeat customers or advocates. Check how much you can change from your previous content marketing plans or from the point before the economic shift. What you essentially want to do is revisit your original content marketing plan and then eliminate anything that doesn't go with your current business goals. IF your target market is suffering From the current economic crisis, then you have to spend time re-creating your strategy and invest your current budget in their needs. IF your target market is active and isn’t experiencing much effect from the current economic crisis, then you can continue with your previous content marketing campaign. i = - Create content that targets every section of the marketing Funnel. Your marketing Funnel can be used as a guide to your content creation. This means that different content should be created for lead generation (awareness), to when they're doing research about your products and competitors (consideration), up until they convert or decide. Eventually, it will end with content for a great conversion campaign that will turn loyal customers into advocates.Some content marketing strategies that you can use today: Blogging. More people are surfing the web now than before. To gain more knowledge, to educate themselves, or to check and compare products, buyers are now going online for information and you should be there to provide it to them. Your blog not only increases brand awareness but with the right strategy, it helps draw in the right clients. It promotes awareness and shows visitors that your knowledge about the industry is legitimate and that you are a credible source of valuable information. Here are some of the most popular types of blog content: e How-tos e Interviews *° Infographics ° Listicles * Statistics * Guide * Case Study * Checklist * Product Reviews * Live Video ° Product News * — CollaborationLive Videos with less physical interaction, people have to innovate in order to connect with each other. Live video has been a major trend all across the globe. In Italy alone, Instagram and Facebook Live views doubled in the first week of March 2020. Ona global scale though, Facebook aline has 2.60 billion monthly active users, with 95 percent visitors accessing the platform through mobile devices. This is a great opportunity to jump in and start promoting content through this channel. Tips: . Build a habit and do live streams at a specific time. . Share tips or deals with the people who joined the live. . It's also a great idea to host online gatherings. It’s a way to come together and build a community with your customers and your potential clients too. Come up with ideas For shows that Fit your brand which people will certainly enjoy as well. Whether it’s an online zumba class on Google Meet or a DIY class on Zoom. This is one kind of interactive content that can get a user to share to another. Always relay positive messaging as you want your customers to feel safe and supported. However, it's important to note that you should never take advantage of such tragic times to profit.At the beginning of this ebook, we've discussed that now is the time to really edge out the competition. The whole point of your marketing campaign is to prove that you are the best among the competition. Locally or otherwise. To do that, you need to pull all the stops and stay visible to your customers. You've finished optimising your website, and you've begun your SEO campaign. You've also prepared and optimised your content strategy. Now, you want instant results, to quickly be spotted by customers. Maybe you have anew product you want to promote or you simply want to knock a CeoTu ny Xle Medel MeN UMEDA MMMM UN eM or-dCeMLeh ne ae Reel Can Paid ads present an entirely different ball game compared to Search Engine Optimisation. In SEO strategies, you apply strategies to build your presence organically. Paid ads take this to a new level by helping your business appear not just on Google results but other channels, such as Google Display Network and social media advertising platforms.PAID ADS: Adwords or Google Ads work instantaneously. You can start a campaign now and generate sales after a few hours. Here are the types of Google Ads you can use for your business: Search Network Ads. These are ads that appear with Google search results or on other sites once a target keyword is used in the search. Google Display Network Ads. These are ads that show up on people’s favorite websites, youtube or when they're checking their Gmail account. ADSShopping Campaigns. These are placement shopping ads that appeal in different visual formats. Shopping ads show users a photo of your product, plus a title, price, store name, and more. Google Hi Google shopping, ‘Ads Paids search Text Ads Organic ‘Search ResultVideo Campaigns. IF you've watched videos on Youtube then you have seen this ad a lot whenever you start watching a video or in the middle of a video. Video Campaigns let you show video ads on their own or within other streaming video content on YouTube and across the Google Display Network. a ne App Campaigns. These are For app advertisers as it makes it easy to promote apps across Google's largest properties including Search, Google Play, YouTube, Discover on Google Search, and the Google Display Network.Google Search Network Google Display Network Fo ni: Play Store Youtube —_ n: : - a - — = = = — No matter the format you choose, the goal of Google Ads is to get you the call, email or site visit that you need by making them click first. For service-based businesses, you'll need a landing page where users who will click the ad will be directed to. The landing page will collect contacts and convert traffic into leads.Unlocking Your Website's Revenue Potential Pree ee eee (example of a landing page Note that once a user clicks and is transported to your landing page, you have to offer them something of value that will encourage them to sign up. These are called ‘Lead Magnets’. Lead Magnets are free items or services that are given away for the purpose of gathering contact details or information. Examples include ebooks, free consultation, whitepapers, trials or subscription.For product-based businesses, you have to lead them right to the product page. Make sure that you have high quality photos representing the product that you’re selling and that the description is accurate. chavy mone | amcurus | me | moa | com . Ez SAMPLE PRODUCT DESIGN yhom- rea DETAIL DESCRIPTION One thing you need to understand: Paid advertising is not a stand alone jative in driving your strategy. It’s part of a holistic digital marketing customers down the sales funnel. By using it alongside SEO and social media, you are giving your business more leverage over your competitors.in P a Social media has completely changed the internet, as well as the way people communicate and interact with each other. Social media usage has been steadily growing over the years, however it has significantly increased since the beginning of the pandemic. More individuals are seen on social media whether it’s reading news updates, connecting with their Friends or Families or browsing For mere entertainment and it’s For this reason that businesses are turning to social media as a means to boost their online presence and sales. Social media ads are a gateway to your website. It’s more than just pushing users to click. It’s getting to know your audience and forecasting what their actions will be so that you can nudge them in the right direction until they take the proper action. Here’s how social media advertising works: 01 Finding the right channel For your business is important. Go where your audience is. You can ask your clients what social media channels they Frequent or you can look into what the competition is doing, and see if they're doing it right. You just have to focus on one or two social platforms. You don’t have to be present on all social media channels. Just pick the ones your target market uses and focus your efforts there.Understand how your target market uses social media. Remember, people don’t use social media to buy from you or anyone in the first place. So, for social media users, you also have to map out the buyer's journey. Figure out why your target market is on social media in the first place. They're there to mingle, be social, to have Fun. You have to be aware of their social media behavior so that you can position yourself well and form your social media strategy. Planning your social media campaign. Before you start planning, you have to first outline the goals for your social media ads. Goals for your social media ad campaign: * — Generate Leads * Drive Traffic * Increase Customer Engagement * Grow Followers Design your social media content strategy. After you've defined your goals, you now have to come up with the messaging and theme of your campaign. This is similar to how you create content with the buyer's journey in mind, the only difference is that the behavior of users in social media differs depending on which platform they're using. For example, Twitter is mostly useful For public figures, celebrities or politicians, while Facebook and Instagram are good for business, both small and enterprise, this is why it's highly recommended to start with Facebook ads and Instagram ads.Most local businesses -- who don't have thousands and thousands of Followers yet -- will heavily benefit from an ad approach, so consider this when designing your content strategy. Create a content calendar where you can put your unique ideas into action. Some useful tools that can help you with creating an effective content calendar are: Asana and HeyOrca. Tip: Posting content and utilising ads work hand in hand. Expecting to drive organic traffic to your social media post won’t be enough anymore unless you have a large following. IF you're a local business, an ad approach coupled with a content strategy will work best for you. Create content that you can post on the page, and at the same time, invest in running an effective ad campaign, whether it’s Facebook ads or Instagram ads, to drive people to your landing page. Create a campaign map that's well planned to the point that it lets you envision where potential customers or viewers are going to be directed after they click your ad. AKnNi7. Nurturing Existing Clients Nan p mene ke nea ee Cen ene e inte urement oe ict you've attracted and closed clients, the next step is to make sure you keep them -- turn them into brand advocates. There are more advanced nurturing strategies but here are the Fundamentals that you should keep in mind: In Axadra, we make it a point to communicate what we will deliver to the clients because we believe that by relaying the deliverables the client is clear about what services and results they will be receiving. This is important, otherwise, if a business gives false expectations to the client and fail to deliver, there's a big chance that client will never come back. It’s better to over deliver than under deliver.Make sure that your business structure is carefully structured in a way that you have the ability to control expectations and outcomes. If you're in retail, make sure that the photos you provide are exactly the same as the product. Make use of the description to properly define what is included when a client decides to close a sale. When it comes to services, make sure you provide a detailed contract with services offered, objectives, goals, deliverables, and timeline. Set time frames and meet deadlines Just like giving them what they want and setting expectations, you want to make sure that whatever you're providing them is delivered right on time. You should never leave a client guessing. Something as basic as providing a timeline and meeting deadlines will enhance goodwill and trust. If by chance you can’t meet a deadline, it’s always Proper to request for an extension and offer an apology. Over communicate Always keep clients in the loop. From the beginning, up until the point of completion of an order or service. This is a crucial time to make your clients Feel safe and cared For. Always give updates, never forget to Follow up and ask for Feedback. This will aid in improving your Future interactions with clients and can aid in giving you ideas on how to improve strategies in dealing with them in the long run. Establish a bond Your best advocate is a happy and satisfied customer who believes in your company’s reputation and integrity. Word of mouth is still the best and most effective form of marketing. A faithful client will go out spread word about your company so make sure they're always satisfied with a purchase.Connect with your customers By now, you know that the buyer's journey doesn’t end with a sale, thus, you will need to communicate with them and make sure they don’t Forget you and the wonderful service that you've given them. There are a ton of ways you can connect with them, whether it's through email, with a blog, a website or social media, utilise these channels to update them or send out useful content that will engage them. Personalise Personalisation is a powerful way to connect with your clients and also stand out from the competition. Study shows that our brains become excited when we hear our names being called. Dale Carnegie even said in his bestselling book How to Win Friends and Influence People that ‘Names are the sweetest and most important sound in any language.’ Names humanise your way of doing business with your clients. With personalization, you're letting them know that you're talking to them as an individual and not as a collective group of clients you are only reaching out to for business. We now live in a digital age where it’s easier to record the information of past clients. Go above and beyond by sending them personalised messages, may it be a special offer just For them, a holiday or birthday greeting or however you see fit. It can even go as far as checking up on them if you get wind of a clients’ personal struggle through social media. Be sincere and empathetic as these are Factors will let your clients know that they are not merely a source of income For your business. However be careful to draw boundaries, it’s still important to maintain the balance between personal and business relationships.CONCLUSION The global crisis has left many businesses scrambling or abandoning marketing initiatives to avoid losses. However, it is not the time to be reactive and let anxiety do the decision-making. If anything, this is the best time to reflect on what you can do for the future of your business. Even through economic turbulence, businesses can still thrive. The digital space now exists, unlike before where it’s hard to reach out to customers and Rete ack Cn ace coche ainiaeresscon it products and services, even customise orders if they want to. It all Falls on you to deliver what needs to be done on your part. It’s now up to you to take the necessary steps in order to be seen. There's no reason not to. You can do it alone or ask for professional assistance if you need guidance on a particular campaign.Wine Cer mae uucarlaCUnCe ance N rots icc Deen Re enn ees RT rem Crs td Peet area teckel es Staten eeu ects act h te nes NIM melee net Kemet ele fae Mu elem ail eCR (o think it may seem. People are going through a lot at the moment. The way they react to certain matters will be different. This can mean that they may not react favorably to your products and services too. What you can do is to Peo Te ele A Relea Mae lea e e el mole mC Le) Prue Mie) Met RN aces celta tate It is possible to thrive at such critical times, you just have to take the Dataset aoe