Published by Simon Brooks on 15th January 2021 | Digital Marketing, General Marketing

5 Ways to Market Your Business During Lockdown

At the time of writing, the UK is in the grip of a pandemic lockdown, and it’s looking like things are going to get worse before they get better.

If you’re in one of the sectors badly affected by this, our heart goes out to you.

But for you and millions of other business owners, there are rays of hope in all of this.

Where’s the hope?

The prevailing belief is that – while we’re certainly not over the worst – the beginning of the end both of the lockdown and the pandemic is nearly in sight.

The lockdown in all its versions has been kinder to C4B Media than many businesses. All our staff can work at home and are fully equipped with the tools they need to do their job.

So if you need marketing tips, advice, help or any other marketing agency service to set you back on the road towards the end of lockdown, reach out to us.

What you can be doing to market your business during lockdown

Our top 5 list of marketing activities to maintain during lockdown is:

  1. SEO Services: keep your website ranking
  2. Content Marketing: share your brand messages and expertise
  3. Email Marketing: keep in contact with your customers via email communications
  4. Social Media Marketing: keep posting updates and advice to customers
  5. Marketing Strategy: take a look and review your marketing strategy.

Let’s go into a bit more detail.

1. Use SEO to ensure your website can be found in Google

Most businesses have a website, but many can’t be found in search engines like Google. That’s because they aren’t ‘optimised’ properly.

This is where search engine optimisation or SEO comes in.

There are hundreds of search ranking factors, but some of the key ones are to make sure your website is:

  • Mobile friendly
  • Secure
  • Fast loading
  • Properly optimised for what your prospective customers search for
  • Linked to by other websites along with a good internal linking structure

For help with technical SEO, call in a specialist SEO agency and save yourself hours.

2. Create content to share your brand messages and expertise

Sometimes it can feel strange to “share knowledge”.

Sharing your expertise not only gives you promotion leverage but builds your credibility in your target market.

It basically shows that you know what you’re talking about, gives you credibility and earns you brand trust among customers.

When people trust your brand, they’ll buy from you.

What do we mean by “content”?    

To kick off your content marketing, start by making a short list of “what you know”. Your expertise. The stuff you’re good at. Remember, it’s not to give away any trade secrets, just to show you know what you’re talking about.

The beauty of content is that you can create once, use many times. This is called content recycling.

  • Write an article or blog

To start with write a 500 – 1000 word article that’s relevant to your products or services, and which aims to be of help to your target customers. Then put it on your website.

Example: Imagine you’re an accountant. Accountant expertise ranges from company accounts to profit and loss to VAT to tax returns. So a great article title would be something like “10 Tips For Completing Your Self-Assessment Tax Return.”

Once you’ve written your blog, recycle it inthe following ways over the subsequent weeks and months:

  • Make a video

Shoot a video of yourself on your smartphone giving a short, potted version of what you wrote in your blog. For best results, keep it under a minute.

  • Create an explainer

Go the next step with a video explainer, this time using your messages but with photos or graphics. Add a free backing track from a music library and use a video app to finish it off.

  • Research and design an infographic

OK, it might be a stretch for some, but infographics are a great way to visually communicate key points in an engaging way from a blog or piece of desk research.

  • Create a presentation

Create a presentation based on your blog, add your commentary and then host it on YouTube or Vimeo. Consider running a Webinar too using the presentation as a basis.

3. Keep in touch with your customers via email marketing

Why should you contact your past and current customers?

There are numerous reasons to email customers including:

  • Customer retention: if they’ve bought from you once they may or should buy again
  • Brand awareness: keep your brand and company name in their memory
  • Upselling: tell your customers your business is ready to serve them again
  • Special offers: make customers aware of special offers and discounts
  • Help: share your knowledge with customers via expert content.

If you have don’t have your customers’ email addresses, start collecting them immediately!

Or if you have lots of business cards, put them all in a free CRM database for easy access.

Then use a specialist email marketing platform such as C4B Messenger to send a personalised e-shot to your customers, or use a fully managed email marketing service and hire us for the whole process.

4. Build up your social media presence

Social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn may not be the first port of call for customers with an intent to buy.

But they are all used by potential customers either in their downtime or as a business tool, to a lesser or greater degree. The objective of social media marketing is to ‘come to the attention’ of these potential buyers while they are using social media.

Social media isn’t just a great way to build up visibility. Done right, you can influence future buyers to take notice of what you have to say.

It’s really important that your business can be seen and heard on these channels as part of your wider marketing strategy.

5. Review or write your marketing strategy

Without a marketing strategy and plan, your marketing may not be focused in the right direction, and you may risk wasting your budget.

Your marketing strategy should – in the simplest terms – include:

  • The benefits and unique selling points of your products or services
  • The profile of target customers you want to reach with your marketing
  • The persuasive messages and offers that will most appeal to and resonate with them
  • The methods of communication you will use to execute your marketing

Once your marketing strategy is in place, you’ll need a plan of action, maybe a monthly marketing plan, which shows what you will say, how, to whom and when.

Next steps

If you haven’t got time to focus on marketing and need a helping hand, ask the outsourced marketing specialists at C4B Media to fill the gaps. Our “done for you” marketing services can be customised to your business goals and budget – so you can focus on your core business.

Start by downloading our FREE marketing strategy questionnaire and you’ll soon be on the road to more visibility, more awareness and more leads.

Call us now on 01763 877110 or drop us a line at hello@c4bmedia.com.

About the Author: Simon Brooks

Simon has over 30 years’ experience in all aspects of strategic and digital marketing. He is a director and joint founder of C4B Media and has led numerous successful marketing projects for clients across diverse industries.

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