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Uncovering COVID-19’s Effect on SMBs Current Marketing Efforts

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SMB marketers, Covid-10, Pandemic

What was assumed by many to be a short course of localized illness Covid-19 has now ravaged the world for months, its also affected SMB’s. Most industries reeled with the effects of the pandemic as our global economy further stumbles.In any case,as life continues so should a business – failing to adapt can spell the end of even top performers.

The reason? Consumer behavior is changing, especially affecting SaaS-based small and medium businesses (SMBs). The global lockdown forced SMBs to do a reality check on focusing efforts on purchasing customers. Marketers are now facing new challenges of branding and planning out a marketing budget.

One study revealed that 69% of brands are planning to decrease ad budget spend in 2020 because of the pandemic. At the same time, almost 73% of SMB owners fear a decrease in domestic demands.

Marketers will need to adopt new strategies that will focus on boosting online presence like switching from shared to vps hosting to ensure performance and uptime as well as acquiring, educating, and nurturing customers. If you’re not online yet, consider doing so to boost your business.

Marketing strategy shift

Before the pandemic, the marketing funnel is the basic inverted funnel. The focus was on converting, and then converting them into customers. Marketers focused on generating awareness and converting visitors into leads but the ultimate focus would be in converting interested leads into customers.

Things have changed post-pandemic because of the behavior shift brought by the pandemic. Currently, your target buyers won’t buy immediately because of the new constraints in purchase behavior. Consumers across the globe have experienced income decrease, causing them to spend less.

Online event surge

SMB marketers are now focusing on awareness drives and engagement activities.Before COVID-19, physical events are the norm when connecting with prospects – now it’s ZOOM or other virtual meeting places. We see a surge of influencers, CEOs, and VPs of marketing taking to live streaming to offer valuable resources. Hosting webinars is another avenue to keep the interaction going on.

Improved focus on customer service

The situation called for new ways for businesses to operate their customer service. Much like everything else, COVID-19 changed the face of traditional customer service. Now, agents are most likely sitting at home answering and making calls.

People are craving quick information and guidance to make purchase decisions. They focus on changing their behavior patterns and shift entirely a product’s utility, and also to trust other available brands.

During this time of uncertainty and desperation, service agents need to provide correct guidance quickly and in-personal manner.One of the customer service tools that you should start using is live chat software. Apply it and watch your customer satisfaction skyrocket overnight.

The impact of COVID-19 will continuously change the customer’s priorities and strategies of SMBs marketers. The shift will be quick and drastic, but not impossible to adapt to. Therefore, it’s vital for businesses to act with wisdom and make practical decisions, including unorthodox plans, updating technology from shared hosting to vps hosting to give your customers more security and your site more juice to run smoothly, and many other strategies used by other adapting companies. Most of us are experiencing this for the first time – let’s emulate what’s good and shun what’s bad.

 

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