We are all waiting for the government to ease the lockdown restrictions but the reality is that life won’t return to normal for many businesses for quite some time.

In our previous article we discussed why it’s important not to stop marketing and promoting your business during these challenging times. Your website should be at the centre of this. It’s a focal point where you can communicate in detail with your customers about your business and what you are doing. Don’t neglect it as your customers will most certainly be looking and how you act now could affect how your business comes out of this crisis.

With this in mind here are some ideas and tips for you to consider.

Don’t Turn off Your Website

First of all, don’t disable your website. This may seem obvious but disabling a website could damage search engine rankings when it comes back online. For information see Google’s guidelines here https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/03/how-to-pause-your-business-online-in.html

Are You Open?

If you are open for business tell people. Don’t assume your customers know this. If you aren’t open, again tell people but tell them that you’ve not gone and that you’ll be back as soon as you’re allowed to open. Make sure you have a section on your website explaining this. Above all reassure your customers.

Operating Differently?

Not all businesses can, but some businesses have been able to pivot and offer their products/services in a different way. Some businesses have completely changed what they do or have seen the opportunity to add additional products/services. If you haven’t already, think how you can change your business. Think radically and you’ll be amazed at what you can do. Can you offer things online? Can you make deliveries instead? Can you operate at different times? If you can then do it – just don’t break government restrictions and guidelines.

Make sure you change your website and explain what and how you are doing things differently. Don’t forget to add any new products to your website.

Unavailable Products and Services

Of course, if there are products or services you can’t offer during this time then make sure your website reflects this. For example, don’t leave products labelled as ‘in stock’ when you are unable to fulfil orders.

Offer Help

During these times, businesses that offer help to a struggling customer base will come out stronger. Being generous will pay dividends and will be remembered by the type of customers that you want to attract in the long term. Again, think radically about how you can help, such as giving time for free. At OwlTree we’re offering free consulting sessions aimed at helping businesses make the most of what can be done and promoted digitally.

Reinforce Your Brand

Keep posting content, keep posting on social media and be positive! Tell your customers about the ideas you’ve got for the future. If you haven’t already, start a blog or news section on your website.

Plan For After Coronavirus

Start thinking now about what you can do and what you can offer your customers when we come out of this. Don’t leave it until restrictions have eased or you’ll run the risk of being left behind. Use your website to tell people what you will be doing – depending on your sector it may give people something to look forward to. Right now, that’s a real positive.

For OwlTree, April was busier than ever. We’ve been helping clients pivot their websites but we’ve also seen a record number of new enquiries. We think this is due to a number of things such as realising that their online presence isn’t as good as it should be given that more potential customers are looking at them online. They’ve probably always known how important it is, but now they’ve got more time to look at it properly.

Keep Positive

Lastly keep positive. We will come through this. Things may look a lot different but together we can make it through.

If you want to take this time to look at a digital project or want to take advantage of our free consultancy slots then please get in touch. We’re here to help.