C-19 Business Survival Tips
As harsh new economic realities hit business owners dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, it’s important to deploy clear thinking, resourceful problem solving, and C-19 business survival tips to help ensure your business makes it through this global crisis. If you are able to develop a product or service offering that’s in high demand and thrive, that’s ideal. The main goal of this time is, first and foremost, to SURVIVE and live to fight another day. We’ve been observing what businesses are doing to survive, and we’ve put together a compilation of the main strategies that will help businesses survive this worldwide pandemic.
C-19 Business Survival Tip 1: Deliver Your Products To Your Customers
Given that lockdowns are occurring in most states in the union, the number one strategy that will help businesses survive is to shift the business model to home delivery of goods your customers want or need. Here’s how to do this:
Step 1: Develop an organized list of the products that will be most desired by customers who are essentially in quarantine
Step 2: Reach out to your customers with cost-effective marketing tactics, including Email Marketing, Phone call outreach, and simple flyers. Let them know what you have, take phone or online orders and payment up front – and start delivering your products to the porches of your customers.
Step 3: Stay in touch with your customers, and highlight new products each week.
Step 4: If you have, or can get access, to much-needed products your long-time customers need, add those into the mix. Examples include toilet paper, cleaning products, and protective masks.
As you shift your business to home delivery, make sure you deploy affordable home delivery routing software to make the process more efficient. This type of software makes your delivery operation more efficient, which will save you money and make you money. First, more efficient routing of your home deliveries saves fuel & vehicle maintenance costs. Second, more efficient routing means you can shoe-horn MORE deliveries in each day and each week. Those extra deliveries you’re able to make could mean the difference between having enough revenue to survive or shutting your doors. See the next section for highlights of a route optimization software company offering free use of its home delivery routing software.
C-19 Business Survival Tip 2: Have Your Business Provide Help During the Pandemic
All sorts of great stories abound in terms of what businesses are doing to help people and other businesses survive the pandemic. Here are some examples:
PBS’s Masterpiece Theatre Offers “Feel-Good” Programming: The program directors at PBS shifted programming and started running some favorite shows including their acclaimed remake of “Little Women.” PBS announced these shifts in programming so that viewers would have a chance to watch heartwarming, feel-good shows as an antidote to all the bad news on the airwaves.
Tech Company Offers Free Home Delivery Routing Software: OnTerra Systems recently announced that it is offering its RouteSavvy Home Delivery Routing Software for free through June 30 to businesses shifting to home delivery of products so their businesses can survive. OnTerra also is offering free training to teach business owners how to use the software. To get this deal, business owners or managers just sign up for the RouteSavvy Free 14-day Trial, and they’ll get the full functionality of the software, plus free training, for the next 3 months.
Comcast, Xcel Energy & Others Defer Action on Delinquent Payments: As it became clear that many suddenly unemployed workers were going to have trouble paying their bills, Comcast announced that they would not shut off phone & internet for unemployed folks who could not pay their bill. Xcel Energy announced they would not shut off gas & electric for newly unemployed folks who could not pay their bill. Not every business has deep enough pockets to take these kinds of actions. But bigger corporations are taking the lead in offering these types of deals.
Professional Services Firms Offer Free Advice & Information: A host of professional services firms & individuals are offering free, expert advice to help individuals and/or businesses survive the C-19 pandemic. Examples include:
- CPA firms offering free tax advice
- Marketing agencies offering free marketing advice
- Fitness trainers going online with free home exercise regimens
- Professional chefs offering free recipes…and more
The bottom line is that your business may have a product or expertise that could help people and businesses navigate the economic hardships of the coronavirus pandemic. Take a look at your business offerings & determine if there’s something you do or a product you sell that would help people during this time of crisis. Offer it for free, or at a reduced rate to help people get by.
C-19 Business Survival Tip 3: Deploy Email Marketing
Since face-to-face contact is at odds with today’s social distancing requirements, email marketing is one of the most cost-effective & visually appealing ways to stay in touch with customers & prospects. Sign up for an email marketing service is fast and it’s cheap: usually about $20 per month. Load your customer & prospect contact information into the contacts list. Develop a colorful, branded email template, and start getting in touch with your customers through email marketing. Examples of the types of emails you can send are:
- Special offers of products or services
- Information to help your customers survive the shelter-in-place orders (Recipes, pretty pictures, links to travelogues, tips on how to “McGyver” a needed item using household items, and more.)
Of note, DeWinter Marketing’s been in business for 23 years. Over those years, we tried a lot of email marketing platforms. And we chose Constant Contact as our email marketing platform of choice for a lot of reasons:
- Ease of use
- Lots of great design templates
- Multiple levels of functions ranging from basic email marketing to surveys & event signup
If you need to deploy email marketing & just need some help, DeWinter Marketing will help you get signed up, arrange for you to pay for your own account, and then we’ll create a simple email template with your logo to help you get started marketing to customers & prospects. Contact DeWinter Marketing if you’d like to start email marketing, and we’ll help you sign up and pay for your own account, and we’ll get you going with a good-looking email marketing template, and the hour we spend to help you is FREE.
These are just some examples of how businesses are either shifting their business model, or diving in to help others survive the current economic challenges, and the intent of these C-19 Business Survival Tips is to get you thinking about what you can offer to help your business and other businesses.
The DeWinter Marketing Team sends you all good wishes to stay safe & healthy as you navigate these trying times.
Need help with marketing or PR strategy? Contact DeWinter Marketing & PR – Denver to boost your brand & generate leads.
