COVID-19 put a sudden, and very drastic, halt on the way businesses develop their marketing strategy. For several weeks, marketing during the pandemic was not a priority. But now, as more shutdowns and stay-at-home orders lift, the question of how to market is a topic of great discussion.

For small businesses, this can be even more difficult. How can small businesses attract new customers during the pandemic? Nine professionals share their best marketing strategies for small businesses during COVID-19.


Inbound Marketing

As a communication technology service, we have seen that much of our marketing during COVID-19 has been primarily focused on inbound marketing. Getting our name out by utilizing social media and our own blog, we’ve been able to share our services with teams from all sorts of industries who have been working remotely. The best strategy for us is to provide examples and experiences of how our services specifically solve a problem caused by the pandemic.

Fran Yardley, Threads


Long-Term SEO Strategies

I’ve accepted that businesses are hesitant to commit to anything during a pandemic. Business is slow. As a result, we’ve shifted our marketing focus to attracting customers down the road. We’re doing this by focusing on small business SEO. Since SEO typically takes 4-12 months to see results, the timeline of an SEO campaign aligns well with an anticipated rebound. By investing our marketing energies on a long-term SEO strategy, we’re optimistic that inbound leads will be more sustainable and predictable in a post-pandemic world.

Brett Farmiloe, Markitors


Blogging

One marketing strategy that has proved to be successful is blogging. By creating content for people to interact with that supports our purpose and mission, we’ve seen an increase in website traffic and inquiries. Simply providing a good or service isn’t always enough. Content marketing has allowed us to improve brand experience by offering helpful information about relevant topics to our customers.

Megan Chiamos, 365 Cannabis


Be Conscious and Competitive

Cruise America RVs provide safe, reliable vacations that offer control. The one consistent theme from our customers is they want to get outside and they want to be responsible in the current environment.  We haven’t marketed toward COVID-19 as we are very conscious of the stay at home orders, but for those who want to escape into the outdoors with their family, an RV provides them with a safe way to do it while creating a memorable vacation. Offering our service at competitive rates with many locations has also helped us garner more business.

Randall Smalley, Cruise America


Email Marketing

The marketing strategy that is working the best for me during COVID-19 is email marketing. Surprisingly, my email open rates, click through rates, and conversion rates are all up. I’ve taken more steps to engage people, such as sending out surveys and asking them to respond to my emails. People appreciate this human touch now more than ever.

James Pollard, The Advisor Coach LLC


Keyword Research

Landing pages and a good SEO strategy – capturing popular keywords around new COVID-related issues faced by our target clients, such as dispersed employees or managing virtual assignments has been a key way of driving traffic to our website and in turn, conversions in the form of new business inquiries.

Rosalind Smith, Mauve Group


Content Marketing

We’ve been extraordinarily fortunate to already have a robust content marketing program running leading up to COVID. And even as businesses and economies have been shut down, we’ve ramped up our content publishing – including videos, podcasts, articles, and emails – remaining consistent in our messaging and brand positioning. Despite a slowed economy, we’re seeing an uptick in new clients due in part because of our consistency and growing types of media in our content marketing strategy.

Mike Jones, Resound


Free Trials and Extended Trials

Working in a Cyber-security company that offers digital assets or services,we offered our customers free services for a few months. The idea behind this strategy is to attract a lot of potential leads that would want to pay for your service later down the line.

Rameez Ghayas Usmani, PureVPN


Podcasts

Podcasting offers entrepreneurs a lot of opportunities to increase traffic to their business websites. if the business owner can’t launch their own podcasts, they can appear as guests on podcasts that discuss the things they are passionate about. For instance, if your small business makes software that facilitates remote work, you can launch a podcast about telecommuting. Alternatively, you can apply to be a guest in a future episode of a podcast like RunningRemote, SaaS Marketer and so on. Each time your brand is mentioned on a podcast, more customers feel compelled to research your brand. In fact, some influencers will invite you to their podcasts, websites, or shows.

Chioma Iwunze, Time Doctor