Nailing the New Normal

 By Hector Cisneros

Image courtesy Pixabay

It’s been about a year since COVID-19 first reared its ugly head and made life miserable for all of us.  During the past twelve months, we’ve seen a government-sanctioned shutdown that caused some businesses to close their doors for good.  For all of us who somehow managed to survive, the ongoing pandemic has done more than put a crimp in our style.  It has changed the way in which we now do business.  If you’ve been having difficulty dealing with the new normal, I’ve got some tips that can help you thrive instead of merely hoping to survive.

1.      Here we go virtual again. – I’ve been in the online marketing business long enough to remember the pushback the web first received from many business owners back in the mid to late 1990s.  Back then the Internet was so new that many business people thought it was a fad that would soon fade away.  26-years later, the Internet is not only alive and well, but it has shaken the foundation of both our business and personal lives.  Sad to say it, but those businesses that already embraced the Internet in a big way experienced the least disruption from COVID-19.  In fact, some businesses like Amazon made a killing.  If you haven’t come to the realization that you need to increase your business’ virtual footprint, you may soon find yourself in serious financial straits.

Image courtesy Pixabay

2.      Building a better mousetrap in Cyberspace. – Everyone is familiar with the old saw, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”  This saying goes double in Cyberspace.  That’s because things like websites, landing pages, blogs, videos, and social posts can have a global reach.  If you’re struggling to get people to walk through your door, maybe you should start thinking of a way to take your goods to the people online.  Or you can use social networking to give the very people you want to entice into your business a reason to don a mask and make the trip to your establishment.

3.      Nobody likes to waste their time on windshield time. – Face it, nobody likes to waste their time driving across town for an appointment or to attend a networking meeting.  But that’s what many business people have had to do in the past to generate sales.  The problem with this approach is it limits the number of people you get to speak to on a daily basis.  But what if there was a way to vastly increase the number of contacts you made on a daily basis without having to spend one red cent at the gas pump.  Would that make your job a little easier?  Free teleconferencing could be the answer to your prayers.  Zoom, Goto Meeting, Livestorm, joinme, Google Hangouts, and skype are just a few ways that you can host meetings, 1-on-1 conferences, and webinars for the masses.

Image courtesy Pixabay

4.      Would your business benefit from live TV? – You bet it would.  The problem is the cost of daytime TV can be prohibitively expensive.  At upwards of $1,000 a broadcast, the cost of traditional TV advertising and infomercials is out of the reach of most businesses.  But what if there was a way for every business to have nearly unlimited access to video broadcasting?  Even better, what if you could guarantee lots of people would watch your broadcasts for pennies a view.  Would that get your creative juices flowing?  YouTube and Facebook offer ways to deliver live and/or prerecorded material 24/7.  Whether you want to focus on your products and services or you wish to deliver a weekly webTV show to engage your audience, there has never been a better time to create videos that can generate customers.

5.      Blogs can help you generate FREE advertising. - If you’ve ever done any online advertising, you know it takes a lot of time, money, and effort to create, launch and monitor the results.  Blogs take only an hour or two per week to research, write and distribute.  More importantly, blogs are multimedia.  That means they’re a great place to embed photos, podcasts, and videos.  Unlike websites that primarily rely on search engines to generate traffic, blogs get around this bottleneck by using social media to generate traffic.  This means if you already have a large following, blogging could be a great way to offer your followers long copy editorials that help you convert them into customers. 

6.      Now’s the time to put your social networks on steroids. – Like it or not, people are now much more reluctant to walk in the door.  That means it takes a lot more persuasion to give a prospect or a customer a reason to do business with you.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that most people are spending a lot more time online than ever.  Using your social nets to communicate with them is a good way to generate more business.  Building your social networks is a great way to capitalize on the new normal.

7.      Newsletters can even help you stay top of mind. – If you’ve ever sent out postcards to your customers, you know how important it is to stay top of mind to stay in business.  However, postcard mailings are expensive if you have a large list of customers.  Even worse is the paltry response rate most postcard mailings generate.  If you want to stay top of mind without breaking the bank, you should consider emailing a monthly newsletter to your customers.  Not only will it save you a fortune, but you can do much more with an online newsletter than you could ever do with a postcard.  You can provide much more information that would be of interest to your customers. You can embed links to videos. With an online newsletter, you can even include offers and coupons that will help you get customers to return to your establishment without realizing they’re being sold a thing.

If you found this article to be useful, share it with your friends, family, and co-workers. If you feel you have something to add or just want to leave a comment do so below.  If you would like a free copy of our book Internet Marketing Tips for the 21 Century click here and fill in the form on the page. It has been my pleasure sharing with you our view of the current state of search engine marketing. I look forward to reading your comments. Thanks again for reading and sharing.   

That's my opinion; I look forward to reading yours.

Hector Cisneros is CEO of Working the Web to Win based in Jacksonville, FL. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and YouTube. He is also the co-host of Blog Talk Radio’s “Working the Web to Win,” where he and Carl Weiss make Working the Web to Win simple for every business. Hector is a syndicated writer for EzineOnline and is an active Blogger, (including ghostwriting). He is a published author of two books, 60 Seconds to success (on sale at Amazon and B&N) and Internet Marketing for the 21st Century which you can get free by clicking on the link at WorkingTheWebToWin.com.