Let’s face it...
Change is upon us.
With the national pandemic, the spread in the market place is becoming more drastic. Many people have received the call for furlough or unemployment.
If we’re being honest, some of my friends and family are now unemployed.
This is very unfortunate for them and anyone else who is experiencing this.
In the meantime, it is creating lucrative opportunities for others, like you and me!
So, if you’re interested in getting ahead of your competitors, you have come to the right place.
Every industry has a unique set of new problems to overcome.
Now, naturally, I selected four different examples that apply to different industries. That way, you can see what you can be doing.
Let’s dive in
Google Adsense and television advertisements have seen a decrease in demand. This leads to social media and all other forms of free content having a serious opportunity. This opportunity is from the quantity of content people are consuming right now.
First things first. Everyone is at home. They are working less. They are bored.
Heck, I even played 3 games of Catan this weekend!
But the good news is that our communities are consuming more content than ever.
Here’s the deal: If you want to get ahead of your competitors, entertain or inform your target audience. This will keep your company first in their minds.
In other words, fire up any and all social media accounts and start posting!
Use Buffer to easily schedule all of your content for any of your social media accounts.
Reducing your marketing budget is the worst thing to do now.
You see, Your desired audience is on most of the social media platforms...
And they are waiting for you!
Action Step: Post more content. Aim to double your social media posts next month. You can create a schedule on Buffer to plan and automate the entire process.
Let’s jump in. Companies that are physical storefronts are switching to accommodate the current situation.
Believe it or not, companies have made the transition from in-store pick up to delivery.
Some companies are delivering directly to their customer’s doorsteps!
These 15 major food chains realized how much value they could provide to their customers. So they set up a system where they could deliver food to anyone in a close area. This has allowed them to stay open and keep business running, almost as usual.
In the meantime, other restaurants did not want to deliver food to their customers. They offer curbside pick up instead. Still a great option to be able to keep the lights on.
My local Chinese place started doing this and I have been more than happy to go pick up some food from them!
With continued revenue from these transitions, a business (hopefully yours) is likely to survive.
At the end of the day, it does not matter if you offer deliveries or curbside pickup.
Action Step: Provide curbside pick up
Thanks to the federal government, our taxes have been extended. The new deadline for the 2019 tax year is now July 2020.
In the meantime, Turbo Tax decided to offer its services for free to the people. To any and all of us.
What a great time to be helping out anyone in the public!
Think about this. Not only is it morally correct to help people out in these bad times, but it is also a great marketing tactic! It is only a matter of time before the wellbeing of the public turns around for the better.
Here’s how it works: Everyone who used Turbo Tax for free will seriously consider paying for it. Maybe they were using some other software and now prefer Turbo Tax. But they never would have switched unless they tried Turbo Tax for free.
Heck, these potential customers will not want to switch to a different tax software again. Just to avoid going through the headache of relearning yet another software.
Next on the agenda if you are a SaaS, is consider heavily discounting or even giving away your service for free. This will entice your audience to use your service. They will remember how much they appreciated your hospitality during these times.
The point: when our world becomes normal again, your customers will remember the service that you so gratefully gifted them for free.
In other words, these customers will consider you first for their software needs.
Action Step: Offer your service for free or heavily discounted
As difficult as it is right now, I sure hope you are doing something to remain active. Not only will it help you be more productive, but you’ll also live a happier and healthier lifestyle.
Now naturally, all the public gyms shut down and people had to figure out a way to exercise. The most common thing was to buy at-home exercise equipment.
And as a result of that, home gym equipment is experiencing a serious surge in sales.
Well, as a matter of fact, Syracuse Fitness, experienced a 625% increase in sales overnight!
The at-home fitness equipment store from New York had a new problem. Reorder their entire inventory.
And here’s how it happened. When every public gym shut their doors, all the gym fanatics needed a way to exercise. Most of them decided it was time to buy some at-home equipment.
Action Step: Aggressively market your at-home alternatives for any activity
Now, at this point, you may be thinking about how great it is that these companies are growing. But wondering how you can implement what they have done to grow your business.
I went ahead and wrote this case study so you can take action in the same way other companies have.
Action Step: Post more content. Aim to double your social media posts next month. You can create a schedule on Buffer to plan and automate the entire process
Action Step: Provide curbside pick up
Action Step: Offer your service for free or heavily discounted
Action Step: Aggressively market your at-home alternatives for any activity
The most important take away?
Focus on improving your marketing efforts. This is single-handedly the best way to survive, let alone grow your business in these times.
Sounds impossible? It’s not! In this article, previous economic downturns are analyzed to understand what the best plan of attack is.
You see, the companies who plan to capture more of the market share will benefit from their efforts.
The best part is that these companies who reduce their marketing efforts don’t realize the longterm impact. So the companies (hopefully you) that increase their marketing efforts will gain the newly available market share.
What it all boils down to is that NOW is the time to get ahead of your competitors.
So go ahead, be the leader in your industry, and jump on these opportunities!
Which tactic will you try first? Let me know in the comment section below.