My prediction is that we’ll have another major pandemic in the next 5 years. Read here for 6 digital marketing tips to help your business thrive when that happens.

Chances are pretty high that we’ll see another pandemic in our lifetime. No one can say for sure when this will happen, but factors like urbanization, climate change, and distrust in vaccines are hastening the likelihood of another pandemic happening sooner rather than later.

The shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 public health emergency shattered many businesses. However, some businesses – like Digital Dynamo – boomed. During that time and since, I’ve learned some tricks that set apart the businesses that survived from the businesses that had to close. In this article, I share 6 tips for how your business can use digital marketing to keep generating leads and revenue during the next pandemic.

Jump to:

1. You have to make it easy for people to remotely see the value in your products and services
2. You have to make it easy for people to buy from your business (schedule consultations, purchase products or services, and other important conversions)
3. You have to build trust with your audience – even if it can only be done through digital channels

1. Truly showcase your products and services on your website

A screenshot of a product page on the Garmin website

One of the biggest services people contacted Digital Dynamo about during COVID-19 was website design. They were all behind the 8-ball – either they didn’t have a digital platform to showcase their products and services, or their website was doing a terrible job at it. 

When you don’t have the ability for people to see your products and services in person, you have to do everything you can to make them “pop” online. You do this by:

• Being detailed but concise: in the description of your product or service on your website, outline exactly what people will get with their investment: the dimensions of a product, a cash-back guarantee, the specific amount of time they will get from you, or any other perks.
• Adding case studies, testimonials, pictures and videos of what you’re selling to your site.
• Adding badges for certifications the product or service may have earned
• Allow user-generated content to be added (reviews, product use photos)

You DO NOT need to editorialize and drone on about the “supposed” value your product or service offers (e.g. “this product will change your life!”). If you show customers through the facts of the product and others’ experience with it what it can do, they will see its value without being deterred by your hard sell and hard-to-prove claims.

2. Invest in creating good visuals

A screenshot from the Rachel Karnovsky Psy. D. website. Photos by Deutsch Photography in NYC

When your customers can’t come to your store or meet you in-person, the visuals on your website are the closest they can get to “seeing” what your products and services are like. Words and copy can only do so much – the strongest motivator to get people to buy will be if they can visually comprehend what you’re selling.

But I’m not suggesting you take pictures on your iPhone and throw them up on your website. You need great visuals. Ideas for this include:

• High-quality images
• Lifestyle imagery and contextual photos
• Before and after photos
• Hosting a webinar
• 360 degree product pictures
• 3D interactive product renderings
• Videos of your products, or you in action with your service
• Infographics 
• Charts
• Trust Badges and Certifications
• Interactive tools

Another note on these visuals: yes you want high-quality visuals, but don’t add anything to your site that’s going to slow it down. In my research for this article, I looked at some big brand websites that, in theory had great product pages, but the elements on the page were so big that it took too long to load. The brand name for these companies is strong enough to overcome a slow website, but for us small guys, people won’t wait an extra couple of seconds for the page to load. Find the right balance of high-resolution elements and fast website load times.

1. Have clear calls-to-action on your website that “Don’t Make Them Think”

A screenshot from The Truth at Work website

One of the top reasons people will leave a website without buying (or performing some other high-priority conversion) is because they can’t figure out how to do it. It seems like an insane claim, but business owners overestimate their audience’s ability to figure out how to buy from their website. I often see “Buy” buttons buried, convoluted and confusing customer journeys, broken shopping elements that won’t let the customer check-out, and a frustrating lack of direction to the customer on what the next step is if they want to purchase services. 

If you want people to buy your product or service, you have to make it easy for them to do so. When people are on your website, “Don’t Make Them Think” – if a person needs to use more than two brain cells to figure out how to buy from you, you’ve already lost their purchase.

One example of “Don’t Make them Think” web design is The Truth at Work website, which Digital Dynamo recently redesigned. The founder of The Truth at Work, Kelley Joyce, is a career coach that also does career path tarot readings and sells a Career Oracle Deck. She was keen to make the deck an item that she sold through her website, alongside her career coaching services. To ensure people could find the deck for purchase on her site, we made it a top-level navigation item – now it’s hard for anyone to miss how to purchase the product.

2. Add a live chat widget to your website that connects customers to real human support

Live chat widgets have been shown to greatly increase purchases and conversions. But don’t slap an AI-bot chat on your website and think you’ll see results. Users will get frustrated and bounce if they can’t get ahold of an actual person through your chat widget.

We like LiveChat for WordPress websites, which provides easy-to-install chat widget software. It’s very customizable, and light (doesn’t have a huge impact on website speed). You can either use a desktop app to communicate with people who come to your site, or you can use the LiveChat integration with Twilio to have the messages sent to a mobile device that lets you communicate with customers through text.

During the COVID-19 public emergency, the companies that focused on customer engagement and trust – despite the apocalyptic atmosphere – were the ones that thrived. There are obvious examples of this from the big brands, like offering curbside pickup and free services that had previously cost extra. However, there are methods smaller businesses can use to ramp up their online audience engagement and trust now, putting them in a better position when the next pandemic hits.

1. Roll out a social media strategy that offers free tutorials, advice, and other valuable content

A screenshot from a Facebook Live on GLP-1s created by Baltazar Villanueva of Relentless Spirit Personal Training & Nutrition

A social media strategy that offers real value to your followers is actually something you should be doing pandemic or no pandemic. You will fare better than your competitors if you’re using social media as more than a platform to talk about your business. You want to create content that offers real value to users, like video tutorials, product hacks or advice, interactive quizzes or challenges, and anything that could be deemed as giving your audience something they’ll meaningfully engage with. By sharing engaging content, you will build a rapport with your audience, who will then in turn share your name with IRL (in real life) contacts.

My friend Baltazar Villanueva owns Relentless Spirit Personal Training and Nutrition based in Thornton, CO, and he has a great social media strategy. Multiple times a day he shares content to his Facebook followers that will help them improve their nutrition and workout routine. The true gem of his social media content are his Facebook Lives, where he gets on camera for 5 minutes and talks about topics in a down-to-earth way people can understand. These typically cover trending fitness and nutrition topics, like how GLP-1s affect weight loss and health, and he does them in his car between training sessions. They aren’t highly-produced videos, but that doesn’t matter; his charisma and actionable takeaways that can be used in real-life are what makes his videos worth watching.

2. Make sure your customer is the hero by celebrating their wins and replying to their feedback

Social media engagement should be a two-way street. Whenever someone gives your business or product a positive review, publicly reply to that message. Then take it one step further and make them the story.

One of Digital Dynamo’s services is StoryBrand Marketing, which follows the maxim that your customer is the hero of the story, and you (the business) are their guide. Think Luke Skywalker and Yoda; Neo and Morpheus; Dorothy and Glenda.

By making your customer the hero and highlighting the challenge they were facing, the solution they found through you (their guide), and their ultimate success, you draw all potential prospects into the funnel. So when a customer tells you your business helped them solve the issue they were facing, reach out to them and ask them if you can use their story in a video testimonial or case study.

Conversely, if they give critical feedback, engage with that too – in a respectful manner. If they have a legitimate gripe, try to rectify it. If they seem off-the-rails crazy, still try to rectify their complaint through means that abide by your returns or engagement policy. Just remember to be polite about it; in this scenario, your publicly visible replies are less about pleasing the complainer, and more about other prospects seeing that you have level-headed, kind people running the show.

We will almost certainly see another pandemic again soon (my predication: within the next 5 years). Now that we’ve been through one major pandemic, there’s no reason to get fooled again. Every business owner should be putting plans in place now to gird them against the next major – or minor – shutdown. Using the tips I outlined in this article are a good starting point.

If you need help getting your digital marketing strategy pandemic-ready, contact us. Our SEO for business, WordPress development, and StoryBrand Marketing are just a few of the services we offer that will help keep your pipeline full when the rest of the world is shutting down.