Being faced with a worldwide crisis over the past few months has forced many businesses to a turning point. Those who didn’t previously have an online presence or ecommerce functionality may have had a tough wake-up call…but now is the opportunity to fix that.

Here are some tips to help businesses recover from the damage that may have been caused by the pandemic, and set themselves up for success going forward.

1. Redefine Buyer Personas

Consumer behaviour has changed a lot throughout the pandemic and during quarantine. How has it impacted your customers? Redefine your ideal customers, or your buyer personas, keeping these new behaviours and needs in mind.

For example, if you have a physical storefront: can you accommodate ecommerce functionality that allows for both shipping and curb-side pickup options for those customers who want the option? If you run an exercise studio, can you adapt your business model to offer online or live-streamed workouts? Gyms may be re-opening in a lot of cities, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that customers will feel comfortable and ready to go in person.

Think of how your wants and needs have changed as a consumer yourself, and what you want and need to function in this new way of life. Listen to your customer’s feedback, if they’ve already given it. If not, send out a survey or a poll on social media and really try to understand what it is that they want and need from your business going forward. All of these insights will help you to redefine your buyer personas and any changes you need to make to your current digital marketing strategy.

2. Rejig Your Marketing Budget

This may have been your first order of business when quarantine began, but if not, now is the time to really look at your marketing spend for the remainder of the year and see if you can find some dollars that can either be saved or invested into other digital marketing efforts.

• Travel and conference attendance budgets have likely been slashed, but there are still a ton of free or very-affordable virtual conferences you may find interesting
• Re-assess your paid advertising campaigns: based on changes to your buyer personas, are you still targeting the right keywords as part of your PPC campaigns? If not, it might be wise to put a pause on your campaigns until you figure this out (see more on running a keyword audit below), or invest in a partner to help you manage your paid marketing strategy, as they will be more experienced in helping you target and manage your campaigns
• There’s no need to reinvent the wheel: now could be the perfect time to revamp and repurpose older content on your blogs or social media platforms
• Take a look at any tools or software you currently use: are there better, more affordable options out there? Can you consolidate a few separate tools into one? For example, if your company already uses GSuite for emails, can you make use of Google Meet video conferencing (which is already included) instead of paying for a separate Zoom or Webex license?

3. Run a SEO / Keyword Audit on your Site

If you’ve found that your buyer personas and behaviours have changed, then has that also affected what your buyers are searching for online? Use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to run an audit of your current keywords and their metrics, as well as suggested keywords. For example, if your restaurant now delivers, maybe instead of focusing on “italian food vancouver”, a new focus keyword phrase could be “italian food delivery vancouver”, as that will appeal to the increased population now looking for delivery or takeout options.

Once you’ve finalized any new keywords you want to be ranking for, update content and meta data to include these, or add them into your paid advertising campaigns.

4. Run a Technical Audit on your Site

With so many more users accessing websites vs. physical storefronts, it’s more important than ever to make sure your site is high-functioning and user-friendly. This is where a technical audit can be very useful in finding any potential issues – not only externally, but internally as well – and fixing them so that your site runs better and ranks higher.

You can use a number of online audit tools to scan your current site and report on any errors or issues, and make sure you pay attention to how mobile-friendly your site is (or isn’t!) as that’s something you’ll want to address right away. More and more users are accessing the internet via mobile phones or tablets, so your website needs to be fully functional no matter which device is being used.

5. Use New Tactics to Increase Leads and Conversions

As the economy recovers, customers are almost expecting most businesses to be offering promotions or discounts on purchases. That’s an obvious one to help increase leads and conversions. But there are a number of other tactics you can employ as well; here are a few ideas:

• running an online or social media contest
• running retargeting campaigns
• offering “free” quotes or assessments through site form submissions
• start a monthly newsletter and motivate sign-ups by offering a promo code
• implement live chat or chatbots on your site for visitors to get quick answers
• add customer reviews or testimonials to your site or products

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The pandemic will not last forever, but consumer behaviour may forever be changed as a result of it. Instead of waiting to see what might happen and the long-term effects, it’s best for your business to be proactive and meet your consumers where they are now.

Photo Credit: Lisa Bresler on UnSplash