User Review
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Website Housekeeping
I originally built my photography website in 2016, and for the last two years I’ve been meaning to redesign it but could never find the time. COVID-19 gave me that time and the first thing I did when the lockdown kicked in was to do a total redesign. I’m not suggesting your site needs anything quite so radical but now is a good time to do those website jobs you’ve not been able to find time for, to finetune your SEO, to add those optimisation plugins, or just do a general spring clean. Here’s a great blog post on that subject by seo.com.
Blog Posts
Blog posts are another task that often gets put off in favour of more pressing jobs, but now is the time to get writing and filling up your content library. You can write, for now, to help your audience handle their coronavirus-related issues; or you can write for the future and get that content calendar filled up for the rest of the year. And as with the content audit, think about optimising and repurposing old posts.
Automation
Everyone’s been telling you to automate your marketing for years and you know you should do it, but setting it all up takes a lot of work and you’ve never had time. Well, now you have to look into automating as many of your marketing tasks as possible. Look at:
Website signups
Email marketing
List segmentation
Chatbots
That should be enough to get you started, and by the end of your efforts, you should have turned your website into a smooth-running lead nurturing machine!
Learn New Skills
Automation is just one of many new tricks you can learn during lockdown. Maybe your boss has been on at you to create a short onboarding video for ages and you’ve no idea where to start? Maybe you’d like to do your own graphic design instead of outsourcing it? Or maybe you want to improve your CV with some new certifications? Now is the time!
And with many online education providers making their courses cheaper or free at this time, it’s never been easier! Online education providers such as Coursera and EdX have made hundreds of courses free of charge, while marketers should also look at Hubspot’s range of online certifications which remain free and are of considerable interest to savvy employers.
And don’t forget our regular webinars on various topics related to digital marketing and transformation!
Think Differently
As Henry Ford once said, “Do what you’ve always done and you’ll get what you’ve always got.” So now is the time to think about trying something new and adding some new flavours to your marketing mix. Think about adding some new social media channels – you may not be active on Pinterest or Snapchat, but chances are some segments of your audience are. Never done a podcast or a webinar? With people stuck at home bored, now is most definitely the time!
Look at what your competitors are doing, and if you see something you’re not familiar with, give it a go.
Get Ready For the Recovery
With China getting back to normal life, and several European countries starting to ease their lockdowns, it’s time to start thinking about what will happen when / if normal service is resumed. Are you and your team ready to start handling new leads again? Are you going to be as busy as – or busier than – before? Will your old marketing methods still work? Is your pricing model still feasible? Do your goals and targets need revising? Look out for future posts from us about continuity planning and how you can make sure you’re ready when your customers are!
I hope some or all of these ideas have inspired you and that your lockdown suddenly got more interesting and productive! Please follow us for more regular posts on lockdown marketing, and check out our working from home resources.