When we talk of viral marketing, we normally mean creating content that spreads across the world very quickly; now, however, we are living through a time when a real virus has seemingly brought the world to a stop. Nevertheless, with governments around the world stepping in to make sure people still have their wages coming in, many people’s immediate financial futures are safe. The question for businesses, therefore, is how to sell online to customers who they’d usually meet face-to-face?
Whether you’re a B2B or B2C enterprise, many sales funnels still have elements where you meet the customer, whether it’s in a boardroom to discuss consultancies or in a shop to exhibit products and offer assistance. With lockdown laws coming into place across Europe and the rest of the world, understanding how to sell online and how to communicate your product benefits online are going to be the key skills which determine those businesses which survive and thrive, and which fall victim to the coronavirus catastrophe
Indeed, for those businesses which manage to continue trading, there could be huge benefits in just 12 or 18 months time, when the world returns to normal. Famously, Cadbury’s were the only British chocolatier to continue production through the Second World War, for example, and look where that decision meant they ended up in the immediate aftermath and they retain a huge market share today.
In this crisis, knowing how to sell online is crucial. It’s one thing setting up your ecommerce store correctly, and ensuring that the purchase experience is easy for your customers, but how do you get them to your site in the first place? That’s where digital marketing comes in. Our experience in bringing customers to ecommerce sites in a host of industries informs the predictions that we have for successful digital marketing approaches during the coronavirus pandemic.
Stay Social While Distancing
Whilst people everywhere work from home, or are not working completely, there is likely to be a surge in daily active users on the most popular social media sites, who are not only keeping up with friends but these sites are also used as real-time news outlets, with updates often breaking on Facebook and Twitter before they are announced by government officials. On these platforms, you can put branded messages in front of tens of millions of users, both organically and paid-for, in an environment where users expect to interact with company updates. An increase in usage coupled with a scaling-back of budgets by some companies might lead to opportunities for some incredibly cheap clicks.
Reach Out To Bored Customers
In the hustle and bustle of life in 2019, many marketers saw email as history – clogging up inboxes that busy workers had no time to read. Now, though, that may all have changed. People have been given time back – they are no longer undertaking lengthy commutes, and days at home might mean they are more likely to open their email notification as it comes in. A slowdown in business trading might lead owners and managers to more eagerly refreshing their inbox, more interested in that which arrives. It’s all part of the digital sales funnel and learning how to sell online means understanding all the places in which you can generate a lead.
Sofa Surfers
On lockdown, there’s only so long before the boredom kicks in. There are only so many video calls with increasingly distant acquaintances before you realise that very little news is happening, and plunging yourself into the Internet provides respite to the monotony of daily life. Impulse purchases are likely to be made on everything, from kit to master new skills to board and video games and home improvement tools, and everything in between. Knowing how to sell online is about knowing where to sell your products, and having a great inbound SEO strategy combined with paid-for adverts on the world’s biggest search engines means that you could find your next customer amongst the 3.5 billion daily Google searches. It’s also crucial to keep your business information on search engine records up to date, such as you Google My Business profile, so that internet users can’t mark your business location as permanently closed whilst you trade online.
Much will become clearer over the next month, but what we do know is that people are more heavily relying on technology than ever, and even the most technophobic of customers has now been thrust into a world in which their social needs can only be satiated by technological solutions. Once this crisis is over, they may not return to old habits, instead realising the benefits of operating online. Setting your business up for the coronavirus world does not mean investing in the short term – learning how to sell online lays the foundation for your business success in a post-COVID-19 world.
Start selling online?
For limited time only for just £500 you get your eCommerce store off the ground with AsOne in just a couple of days. Find out more
AsOne’s expertise means that your business can get online as quickly as possible, capitalising on the business that is still very much to be done. Our commitment to digital business development means that, whilst we work together, we’ll teach you how to sell online, and how you could adapt the delivery of your services to a new world. Call us on 0161 368 9100 to move your business forward today.
