It is hard for anyone to predict how life and business will change over the coming months as the country tries to return to normal. However, it remains important for online retailers to plan ahead in terms of getting sales and marketing back on track. Therefore, it’s worth considering what you can do now to prepare for a resurgence in traffic and sales, and to get ready for starting your marketing up again if you’ve had to make big changes to operations.
Some tough decisions have had to be made for all businesses globally due to the coronavirus, whether this Social Media and Website Content: What To Share and When Forward planning in a situation like this should be seen as an opportunity to think about how you present your brand on social media. It is absolutely fine to promote your products in a way that considers our current way of living and is sensitive to the situation, both before and after lockdown. After all, everything isn’t going to go back to normal straight away, and customers aren’t going to feel like it has. Just as you have been sensitive to the mood during lockdown, you should equally consider how to be sensitive to the mood when lockdown ends.is closing your business temporarily, moving operations online or finding new ways to work
It goes without saying that any content that was planned in advance that doesn’t suit the current climate is not worth putting out there now, and you’ve likely already set this aside. But in terms of relaunching, you could plan when and how to use this unused content in the future. When will you publish it to your website and how will you present it on social media?It is worth using this time to utilise platforms such as Instagram to provide inspiring content that many consumers will aspire to recreate when purchasing your products. This sounds like planning for the current situation, but in fact it is actually setting a great foundation for planning your relaunch, as you aren’t pushing sales explicitly, but are stilling leading consumers on the path to purchase
On top of using content you had previously been unable to post, you could also think of an innovative way to appeal to your consumers when things begin to become normal again. For example, something that many online home and clothing retailers are doing is creating a ‘Stay home’ section on their website and listing products with a lockdown angle for example, loungewear. This idea could be adopted for relaunching, to suit the type of activities that people will begin doing again, such as socialising. For a clothes retailer, this may be a ‘Get back out there’ section once restaurants, bars and clubs open again. This can be reflected on your social media so people can see that you care for the situation at hand.
Looking for events that coincide with your ecommerce business, such as London Fashion Week for clothes retailers, can be a great way to draw inspiration and plan ahead. The next London fashion week is going to be held entirely digitally, and will merge its womenswear and menswear shows, its organisers have announced.
Review Your Paid Advertising As part of changing your marketing strategy during the pandemic, you may have paused or reduced any paid advertising you had running, either because of an anticipated reduction in sales and traffic, or because your business is experiencing a higher demand for products even without the added volumes paid advertising would bring. Here at Strategists’ World our highly experienced team can offer help and advice on your current marketing strategy and identify areas where improvements can be made. With cost effective packages to suit companies of any size we can take the hassle out of managing your online presence and help to ensure your business puts it’s best digital foot forward now and in the future.