COVID-19 | smallbizdream blog

Spending your hard-earned money on expensive marketing or ad campaigns is out of the question when you have razor-thin profit margins.

And while businesses are beginning to open up, we’re not out of the woods yet and businesses are still reeling from the effects of extended lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions. But the good news is, we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and businesses are gradually opening up once more.

So how exactly can we market our business and spend zero dollars in the process? Let’s start with the most obvious one – accumulating social capital.

Spend Time Building Your Social Capital

No matter what business you’re in, building relationships is essential. It’s hard to imagine running a business with no thought of gaining people’s trust and maintaining good relationships. How much work you put into building your social capital will determine how successful your business will be.

The great thing is you don’t have to spend much money accumulating social capital than you would making friends as you go about with your day to day activities. And you need not look further than good old social media.

Facebook is particularly interesting – usage is at a record high. But unlike before, people aren’t just spending time on Facebook ‘social not-working’; they’re actually using it to find local businesses and checking on people to know how they are. Local businesses are also cranking up Facebook posts like never before, promoting their businesses through Facebook Page invites, shares, and being actively engaged for most of the day.

YouTube time has also increased. We’ve seen this before COVID-19, but even more so today as people are hungry for good, reliable content from news to entertainment and everything in between. You can be the go-to guy by sharing your experiences and expertise. So for instance, if you’re into food business, talk about how you can save on food by planning your meals and recycling leftovers so nothing goes to waste.

Offer Something for Free

If you think about the cost of getting a new customer, you’ll quickly realize how inexpensive freebies and giveaways can actually be. Besides, people will remember you more if you’re giving something out. Things like mugs, T-shirts, umbrellas – they’re not only useful, they double as a marketing tool by itself. But what if you don’t have money to go around?

One of the most effective ways which is still true today is offering ‘gated content’ to your target audience. This could be a free e-book, whitepaper, research, exclusive access to a live webinar, or a complimentary item or service which they can avail by signing up to your mailing list. This often goes along with a CRM and a content marketing strategy. Always remember to use ‘double opt-ins’, like what we do with our Small Business Dream Sales and Marketing Automation, in keeping with GDPR laws.

Other options include hosting a ‘mini-contest’ on social media via Facebook Live or newsfeed posts. Sounds simple, but it actually worked on many small business with little to no marketing budget. Check out this blog post on creative ways to run Facebook contests if you need some ideas and try one yourself.

Content Marketing

As the name suggests, you use content to promote your business, albeit more subtly compared to using traditional ads. It’s an age-old practice and comes in many forms from old-school TV shows and soap operas to blogs and YouTube videos. This requires some dedication on your part to deliver content consistently and you might also need to learn some SEO so people can actually see your posts.

It will take a while to rank organically, but there are workarounds to get more people to know about you quickly. When it comes to text-based content, guest posts are a great way to get exposure. Some sites allow you to post a link to your website at the very end. Content marketing always works best when used with other methods such as social media and email marketing. Same goes for YouTube content. But on top of this, you’ll need a CRM/sales and marketing automation to organize and execute your marketing plans.

Joint Venture with other Businesses

We’ve talked about this in one of our blog posts about joint ventures. The idea is to find complementary businesses with a huge list of people who might be interested in your product or service. In return, they get a percentage on every sale you make. You get the list, they get their share – even Steven.

The biggest draw is you don’t spend on anything until you make the sale, and even so, it’s just your own way of returning the favor on things which would have cost you more, i.e. ads and other marketing expenses. The key is to look for businesses that can benefit from what you have to offer and are not a direct competition to yours.

Restaurants can joint venture with delivery services and apps like DeliveryBizConnect. Insurance companies can joint venture with auto and real estate. Even content creators can become joint venture partners by allowing some type of promotion on their blog or YouTube channel, kind of like affiliate marketing. So yes, you can definitely market your business without spending a single dime if you know how to joint venture.

Showcase Your Work

Part of your portfolio should include your most notable works as well as testimonials from your previous clients. Just by looking at your works and hearing what others have to say about you almost instantly wins people’s trust. One of the most popular ways is to create a LinkedIn account for your business. It functions as your virtual business card and is a great networking tool.

Another popular option is to use free website builders and CMS like Wix and WordPress where people can marvel at your work. Note: just by having a professional-looking website is a statement in itself. It speaks a lot about you and your business and why they should trust you.

You can get testimonials and user recommendations for free and they are extremely powerful in promoting your business. They provide context to your product or service. They make your business more relatable because people are able to put themselves on the shoes with those who share the same problems and experiences as theirs.

Testimonials should be posted on your website, Google Reviews, Facebook and Yelp if appropriate.

Ask for Free Small Business Advice

We want to reach out and talk with you through our FREE 45-minute business consultation where we can discuss some solutions to get you through the pandemic.

We layout every possible means to keep you in business, whether it’s through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, email series, sales funnels, landing pages or business directories.

Can’t go to the office? Download SBD Sales and Marketing Automation App for your mobile and keep tabs on your business in the comfort of your homes.

COVID-19 has started taking its toll on millions of small businesses. Doors are closing and people are losing jobs. Luckily, some countries are finding ways to buy business owners some time with mortgage deferrals, wage subsidies, and low-interest loans.

Other businesses are looking into other options like branching out to serve immediate needs of customers like health, food, online selling, and delivery services. Let’s look at some ways to get you through the lull during COVID-19 lockdown.

Make Good Use of Your Time

Remember when businesses were bustling with activity and you didn’t have time honing your craft or learning something new? COVID-19 came about, and suddenly you’re left with very few customers, not enough cash, and too much time in your hands. Time well-spent can turn things around for your business even in difficult times. You can still be productive by learning some skills to tide you over until you’re up and running again.

Learn New Skills

Skills that make you money are worth its weight in gold. Think of it like storing up assets or training for an Olympic event. Here are a few things you can learn at home during COVID-19 lockdown:

1. Copywriting. Instead of reading about the doom and gloom in social media, why not learn something that would actually make you more money, or at least save you hundreds of dollars in marketing budget? Copywriting is a multi-million dollar industry and it’s not going away anytime. Hint: you don’t need an A+ in grammar school to become a successful copywriter. You can find dozens of free copywriting tutorials online so you can put that extra time of yours into good use while waiting for the pandemic to die out.

2. Vlogging & Podcasting. Big media companies used to have the monopoly in broadcast. But with YouTube and podcast’s growing popularity, that may no longer be the case. YouTube has made it easier for average users to create professional videos at home with a stable internet and a decent smartphone. Take a look at some examples on YouTube with around a thousand to 10,000 views. You’ll be surprised to see how even the simplest setup (home studio, green screen, whiteboard and pen, etc.) can rack up more than a thousand views on YouTube. So it’s definitely worth looking into with so much time to go around.

3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM). If you’ve never heard of CRMs and sales and marketing automation, now’s the perfect time digging into it. Check out our comparison blog post on Infusionsoft vs. Hubspot vs. Small Business Dream if you want to have a good grasp on how CRM and sales and marketing automation works for small businesses. We created a system that can take your small businesses from zero customers to getting hundreds of leads, customers, and referrals. However, it’s not a silver bullet so you need to put in some hours learning on how to make it work for your business. If you need help learning about CRM, don’t hesitate to schedule a FREE 45-minute consultation with us and we’ll reach out to you in every way we can.

Build a Following Online

Most people are glued to their monitors and smartphones, so you might want to put out some good content your audience would appreciate during these long periods of isolation. It doesn’t always have to do with what you’re selling. It can be anything from keeping yourself fit during lockdown, e.g. cardio and bodyweight exercises, to indoor games to keep your kids from going out.

You’re not concerned about selling anything at this point, but it’s more about adding value and building an audience while your business goes into hibernation. Ideally, you’d go for the ones that are more likely to give you traffic, i.e. YouTube and social media. After some time, you can slowly work on your newsletters and autoresponders for your CRM and sales and marketing automation.

1. YouTube posts. Video tutorials, walkthroughs, and customer reviews are some of the most popular videos on YouTube right now. Think of any tutorial related to your business. Do a cooking demo. Walk them through your car tune-ups. What’s your take on a certain product, and would you recommend it to your viewers? Keep them interested and be as creative as you can be. Look for examples in YouTube if you’re a bit camera-shy to give you an idea on how it’s done without focusing much on you.

2. Social media posts. Curate some good content over the internet and share it on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Find something positive and uplifting, useful or informative. However, just be mindful about your posts from other sources. Always fact-check for veracity and credibility. Better yet, you can share your own blog and YouTube posts. Try repurposing some of your old blog posts or do some of the things mentioned above (no.1). Create a business page for your posts so you have something to go back into when you’re ready to build a list, i.e. getting contacts for your CRM. We’ve created our proven and tested LinkedIn strategy to help you build connections on LinkedIn using Small Business Dream CRM.

3. Email Newsletters. People rarely read emails these days. Good news is, it’s not going away and it can still be an effective follow-up tool even if it takes you three to five years before making the sale. You don’t have to rush on this one since you won’t be sending too frequently (anti-spamming laws won’t let you anyway). Just one newsletter per week and setting your autoresponder to send one for each month goes a long way to keep you in touch and top-of-mind during the lull. Here’s a quick tip: you don’t have to start from scratch. Look up your inbox for old newsletters from your previous subscriptions and make it your own. Improve on it. Customize it for your own business. Play around with your CRM’s email builder and autoresponder and create email campaigns for your subscribers. Ask us if you need help setting up and we’ll spend 45-minutes of our time with you – no strings attached.

Get Everyone On Board

You don’t have to do all these things on your own. In fact, if you can get everyone involved, you probably won’t have to lay off your employees who are counting on you for their survival. (If it’s possible, borrow some capital for your running expenses and try to recoup them when business goes back to normal. This might also mean cutting their working hours in half.)

Get them to learn CRM with you and help you with some marketing stuff. We’ve come up with a LinkedIn marketing strategy and put it down in book form, “LinkedIn 5-Step System: Generate 10 fresh qualified leads in 10 minutes for you small business,” which you can download here for FREE.

Think of it like training your employees on a payroll. You might not get as many sales as before but you’re investing on skills which will pay off eventually. Just hold on to it. You’ve invested a lot of your time and resources building up your small business and you can’t let a few weeks or months of inactivity take it all away from you.

Struggling to Keep Your Business Afloat?

Why not spend some time with us? Schedule a FREE 45-minute business consultation with us and we’ll reach out to you in every way we can to help you with your small business.

Take a look at our 5-step Rapid Sales Growth Blueprint where we lay out every possible means to rapidly grow your business, whether it’s through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, email series, sales funnels, landing pages or business directories.

Want to stay mobile? Get our SBD Sales and Marketing Automation App for your mobile and keep tabs on your business everywhere you go.