COVID-19 has the whole world’s attention, and social media usage is at its peak. Each of us is using it now more than ever to weather anxiety and find answers.
The ongoing ambiguity of COVID-19 has also caused many businesses to close, while others fight to plan for an uncertain future. If your business operations have been affected by the pandemic, it is essential to closely manage its online presence, offering accurate and up to date information to its audience.
Put yourself in the shoes of your customer—what kind of questions would they have, and where would they search for answers?
Online.
Updating your business information online requires making changes on several websites and social channels. The best way to ensure you’ve updated everything is by creating and following a business checklist. If you’re not sure where to start—we got you:
Update your Google My Business Profile
Even before your website, customers are likely to stopover Google for information about your business. Luckily, Google My Business (GMB) has many features that can be leveraged to communicate with your customers directly.
Share temporary hours of operation, changes in service delivery, new contact numbers, and any other announcements that impact your audience right on GMB. The Google Posts feature is also a great way to provide detailed updates about service as circumstances change.
If your business is temporarily closed, that can be updated on GMB too. Normally, choosing to display your business as temporarily closed would impact its visibility and rank on Google. However, this algorithm has been disabled during COVID-19, so clients can easily navigate Google to find that information. While that has been disabled, the Q&A feature has been re-enabled, along with the ability to have business owners respond to reviews directly.
Not sure how to make changes to your GMB? Follow this guide.
Consider updating all other websites or apps where your business is listed as well (Yelp, TripAdvisor), to maintain trusting relations with your audience.
Update your business website
Don’t just update your homepage either, create a sitewide alert bar or change the masthead. Then, build a landing page to provide updates about COVID-19 specifically. Your homepage would be a great place to showcase this information, but if people are looking for this update on Google, keep in mind that Google ranks pages, not websites. This means customers are led from their Google search to an interior page and not the homepage of your website. Adding an alert bar or masthead can help lead your audience to the correct landing page.
When you make changes to content, remember to include a date to indicate when you provided the last update. Your audience will feel confident in your business during this rapidly changing environment if they have frequent assurance from businesses directly.
Here are some questions for you to consider answering in your updates:
- Have your operations changed?
- What measures are in place to ensure the health and safety of staff and clients?
- If your staff has shrunk, how does this impact my services?
- What happens to my upcoming appointment?
- Has the event or appointment been cancelled? Is it becoming virtual?
- Are you offering anything new or different to clients in light of the current situation?
- What is happening to my monthly membership?
Update Social Channels
Each of your business’ owned social media channels should be updated to reflect the same information shared on the company website and GMB. Depending on the audience and how closely they follow you, social media may be the only place they need to look for an update because it can show up in their feed instantly. Post just as frequently about special announcements, product availability, and changes in service to keep your audience informed—just remember to mix in some positive and light content too!
This is a great time to provide shout-outs to other businesses in your community that could use the attention of your audience. Helping each other will bring your community together, and it’ll help you feel good too.
Check all existing ads and social scheduling apps to ensure your ongoing and upcoming posts are in-line with your current strategy and with the recommendations made by your government. Take this time to connect directly with your audience by tracking hashtags, asking your audience questions and running engaging polls. We’re all looking for something to do online, present the right content and you’ll easily attract attention.
Share your pivoted messaging through existing Facebook ad campaigns.
Many of your competitors have turned off their ads and may even suspend campaigns until things have returned to normal. If your business can afford to, it is a good time to pivot your current campaigns and share messaging about updates to your services in a more favourable market. During such unprecedented times, ads can be used to share thoughtful messaging and offers that can benefit people in the long run. If you can afford to lower the cost or provide discounts to your services, it would be good to do this and reach new customers. Slightly pivoting your messaging and approach for the short-term can help build a resilient community and trust with new audiences in the long-term.
Always use good judgement and prioritize safety, health, and community well-being in your messaging—be genuine.
Together, we can get through this
Whether you’re saving lives, stocking groceries, preparing meals, running informative live streams, doing curbside drop-offs or carrying out any other services in-between—thank you for everything you do to keep us moving along. Your hard work is keeping our society’s heartbeat at ease.
If you operate a business and need help communicating your messages online or if you are looking for guidance on current marketing strategies, reach out to us. We’re in this together.