Digital Updates You Need to Make During COVID-19
A lot’s changing—fast—these days. As you adjust business hours or temporarily close, you want to make sure that your online presence reflects your new current schedule. Coronavirus is pretty much on everyone’s mind all the time right now, and your clients and prospective customers will expect you to mention it on your website. You also don’t want to be spending unnecessarily on ads that are promoting intro offers or services that just aren’t relevant right now.
Here’s what you need to make sure you’re updating:
1. Google My Business
You’ll want to make sure that anyone who searches for your business online sees accurate information. If you’re live streaming classes (learn how to live stream here) or selling products online, you can create a post on Google to reflect that.
2. Your website
You’ll want to update your website in a few ways:
Homepage: You’ve properly optimised your website to direct people to purchase an intro offer or book their first appointment. Now’s the time to share any announcements and updates you have regarding your business during COVID-19.
To do this, add a banner at the top of your homepage. This is an alert that shouldn’t blend in with the rest of your website. You want this to grab the attention of visitors to your site. On this banner, you can let clients know if you’re closed or have reduced hours/services. Link this banner to another page where they can get more information. This is a great way to communicate even daily changes.
Pop-ups can also work. Mindbody certified consultant Connie Holen recommends having the pop-up appear immediately (even though normally you might want to be a bit more subtle). There’s no need for a time delay on getting this status to visitors!
Note: You don’t want to completely update the content on your homepage. This could hurt your search engine optimisation (SEO). You can add a note up at the top of the page, but you do want to preserve the other content you’ve had in place.
Pricing: Think about offering some COVID-19 special pricing. Clients aren’t sure when they’re going to be able to visit your business in person, so cutting them a break on pricing is more than fair (plus you want to lift your revenue and bring in some cash at this time). Looking for a little inspo? Check out Turnstyle Cycle and Bootcamp’s coronavirus pricing.
Additional pages: If you’re live streaming or offering different services during this time, you might want to add a separate page that shares details about how your clients can take advantage of these.
FAQs: You’ll want to make sure you address how your business is taking extra care at this time. Share what steps you’ve taken to ensure both the safety of your clients as well as your staff. Also share any new offerings you have here (video, product offerings, special pricing, gift cards).
3. Social channels
Update your social bios to reflect your current business status as well. Update the link in your bio to send people to any live stream options or COVID-19-specific pricing pages. With social media, you can share even more about how you’re working to keep everyone safe and how your clients can continue to support your business in the interim. In our recent webinar, Holen advised business owners to “show that calm presence...they’re looking to you for leadership.” Your clients are more likely to seek out reassurance on social media than other platforms, too. This is a tough time, and your business can bring a welcome message to your community over your social media accounts.
4. Ads
If you’re closed, there’s no sense in running your standard intro offer or new client special ad on Instagram or Facebook. You can turn these off, or—better yet—create a new ad that promotes your live streaming or other COVID-19 offerings. It’s not impossible to get new clients from your live streams. McAlister Training has even seen new clients from their live stream offerings.
Each time something changes with your business, run down this list and see if there’s anything you need to update. And, remember, this is temporary.
