You survived the pandemic and subsequent business shutdowns or lockdowns that affected your business negatively. Now, with inflation and supply chain issues, calling what you’re going through a “business slump” is an understatement.
However, you can do a few things to jump-start your business, attract new customers, and bring back old ones — without spending too much money! Every business has it’s good times and bad times; feast or famine; flood or drought, but this economy has truly been a crisis for many businesses.
There are many Reasons for a Business Slump…
Your business may have been going through one before the pandemic hit and the virus was the last straw.
- The economy, the elections, national news, a weather event? You can’t do much about those except wait. This is where that rainy-day fund comes in. However, you can plan ahead!
- Have you been avoiding online marketing like social media or content marketing because you find it overwhelming and confusing?
- You never recovered from the pandemic slump that many businesses suffered through.
- You’ve set up social media profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc., but rarely post onto them.
- You haven’t updated your website since…. wait! You’ve never updated your website since it was created years ago. If your site hasn’t been updated since June of 2019, you’ve got an SEO problem for not keeping up with Google’s algorithm updates.
- If you have an updated website, you haven’t written a blog post in over a month… or is it over a year? Or does your site even have a blog?
- Have you had to pivot your business and are having difficulty getting the new concept off the ground?
- Are you a brand new startup that just managed to get by in the pandemic crisis?
Next, do you really understand your target market?
You need to clearly define and get to know your target market(s)…
- What are their pain points (problems) that you, your product, or service can alleviate?
- Have their pain points changed due to the virus situation?
- Maybe you have a whole new target audience.
- Do you need to educate your target about the benefits of using your product or service?
- Do you know what your target market is going to enter into the Google search box when they have a problem that you can solve?
Third, is your online presence functioning as it should?
- Are potential clients finding you? Where do you come up in Google search when someone searches for what it is that you do? Who does come up on the first page? What are they doing that you’re not?
- What are they doing when they land on your site? Do you have a call-to-action where you can capture their email address in exchange for an ebook or other giveaway?
- Have you tried sending a monthly newsletter to keep your name “top-of-mind”? Are you following up with marketing emails after they download the freebie?
- What about your social media network profiles? Are they set up correctly and are they painting a positive image of you and your business?
- Are you creating fresh content — blog posts, videos, graphics, or podcasts — at least 3 times a week? Then are you sharing them on the social networks?
- Are you actively engaging with potential clients and referral sources on the social media networks? Is your social media following growing steadily?
- Do you have a strategic marketing plan to reach your target with today’s media?
“If you’re not adding new followers on social media, you’re not growing.”
~Mark Cuban
These are tough questions that need to be asked. Moreover, you need to come up with the right answers. If you have more “nos” or “I don’t knows” as answers, then you need to make some changes.
What You Need to do to Jump-Start Your Business
- Decide if you want to or have the budget to hire a specialist or consultant to guide you in the right direction, make your website functional, and properly set up your social media profiles.
- If you have the budget, check out my services, then click here for a free 15-minute phone consultation and analysis of your efforts.
- If you don’t have the budget, you need to learn how to do it all yourself or train someone on your staff. Hey, if business is slow, you’ve got the time.
- The least expensive option is buying my ebook and learning on your own. It’s your total digital marketing strategy solution. It’ll walk you step-by-step through setting goals to social media hashtags. Then if you need help learning how to do something like blogging on WordPress for SEO, we can do a 1:1 session.
Let’s start with a FREE 15-minute consult!
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