While there is a breadth of online resources available to small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be hard to sift through everything. We’ve come up with a simple guide, organized by seven common COVID-19 objectives, including:
Every business is different, so this is not a prioritized plan of action or an exhaustive list. Our hope is to give you some solid starting points and sound advice from trusted sources, so you can stay on track with what is important to you.
Post-peak update: You can see data-backed patterns among digital agencies that are surviving and thriving in 2020 to pull any key takeaways that you can apply to your business.
Though we may be past the preparation stage, ongoing protective measures are important for businesses still operating and for reopening those that are currently closed.
The Chamber of Commerce is one of the reputable resources for ensuring your business is up to COVID-19 safety standards.
It’s important to communicate to your customers the status of your operations, what safety measures you are taking, the best way to get in touch with you for questions or concerns, and where to find updates. Make sure you’ve covered all of your channels, including:
Make some kind of modification to your homepage to ensure customers you’re on top of your COVID-19 response.
For help with what to say, here are some resources:
You don’t need to update all of your online listings, but as consumers rely heavily on Google for real-time information, this is one to prioritize. To make edits to your listing, go to google.com/business and make sure you’re logged in as your business account, not your personal gmail account (which you could be if you’re using a home computer). Here is what to update:
You can now set a “temporarily closed” status on Google My Business.
Convey information through the “From the business” section of your Google My Business listing
Use Google Posts to communicate with customers right on search engine results pages.
The coronavirus has caused drastic shifts in both consumer needs and business goals. It’s important to adjust your marketing strategies and messaging accordingly—not just to stay relevant, but also to prevent coming off as insensitive. Between coming up with new ideas and auditing existing campaigns, there is a lot involved with this, so below you’ll find a link to our extensive guide as well as some takeaways.
If you’re still running ads, we have a post providing Facebook and Instagram ad strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you’re not, you should know that Google is issuing ads credits to small and medium-sized businesses. You can learn more here.
There are both pre-existing and new coronavirus-specific options available to help small businesses manage cash flow and bear the financial burdens brought on by this outbreak. For example, the CARES Act Paycheck Protection Program. These lists will help you to identify what’s applicable to your business:
Understand the financial help available to you. Courtesy of our CARES Act blog post.
Also, SCORE (the Service Corps of Retired Executives) provides free remote one-on-one mentoring, plus workshops, webinars, and help with applying for loans. You can view their coronavirus resource page to learn more.
Even if your business is able to keep operating with your employees at home, that’s still a huge adjustment. Working remotely comes with its own set of requirements and considerations. Here are some resources that can help you with maintaining output, morale, and connectivity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
There’s no shortage of content available to describe the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, but Wordstream has been doing its own data collection and analysis from a small business perspective. You can hear some insights in our special COVID-19 episode of the Goal Talk Podcast, and you can view our view our findings in the below posts:
COVID-19 data from a marketing perspective can help you pivot accordingly.
There is a lot to be done in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but resources are available to help you with what is within your control. Do the best you can, and take things one moment at a time. We’re all in this together.
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