COVID 19: BUSINESS TRENDS AS A RESULT OF A WORLD PANDEMIC

When the world shut down in 2019 due to a pandemic that shook its very foundations, we knew things were about to change. Transport systems were left vacant, hustling cities became ghost towns and the interaction between humanity was put on a hold. In order to sustain a flow of economy on a global and domestic scale, one other thing had to change: business. Join me in discussing the ways businesses have adapted to a new business world.

The idea of working smarter and not harder should have been the idea most people had in mind from 2019 onwards. By implementing a strategy whereby minimal action yielded maximum results, the business world could overcome challenges such as downscaling-of-staff or working-from-home environments. To those looking at starting their own business in the nearby future, it’s important to highlight that many of these businesses that once functioned off many chains and systems have since simplified and still managed to keep their doors open. Not only have some of them kept their doors open, but have seen an increase in revenue. Take Apple for example. Less is more.

Getting towards the end of the pandemic, we hope, thinking out the box has become more important than ever. Slapping a “too good to pass” price in the consumer’s face just isn’t going to cut it anymore. Creativity in entrepreneurship has become the difference between good and great. Due to an increase in business competition, it’s been said amongst entrepreneurs that meeting the same deadlines or creativity benchmarks has become twice as much effort since the start of the pandemic. Making more noise than your competition is the key to attracting more attention. This can be done by updating marketing measures (that are relevant during this times) by considering social media as a platform or by realigning your approach to doing business instead of just ‘sweetening the deal.’

Selling with purpose is an essential step to your entrepreneurial success. As discussed before, it’s too easy to lower the price… but this defeats the objective of your business — the largest possible turnover. Identify your product and the quality you’d like to deliver with this product. From there you can align it with your long term goals. One other way to make ‘selling with a purpose’ a little easier to grasp is to adapt the idea of social selling. Social selling is the practice of nurturing a relationship or ‘tapping into that personal sphere’ of your potential client — this is typically done through establishing common grounds prior to doing business with the consumer — “There was one time this product came in really handy. Try it for yourself!” or even post-business support or follow up will do — “How are you finding the product? Any Queries? Don’t hesitate to give us a call!” You might ask what can building a familiarisation with a potential customer do for you? Well, it encompasses the consumer to come back to you. Psychologically, it is far easier to go back to a place where one feels as if they are not estranged as opposed to going to a new environment. We’ve all heard that saying “Its easy to achieve your goal, but staying on top of it is the challenge” Guys, it’s the same concept. Attracting your consumer once gets you through this month. By keeping that consumer coming back, will get you through every month.

Covid-19 saw a huge shift from a personal interaction to a cyber one. We can draw this conclusion by looking at companies that drastically increased in revenue such as video telephony software — Zoom; online shopping giant — Amazon; and technology powerhouses Microsoft and Apple. How are we, as a business, now going to capture the trust of a consumer behind a computer screen? By directing the right marketing material down the right social media avenues was pretty much all we had. Have you ever punched something into google and for the next few days you’ve got all these offers on the same thing? This was with the help of advert cookies — which was a massive contribution to effective marketing. This ensured that the right audience was exposed to the right content, greatly increasing the probability that the advert would result in a positive lead. Half your job was already completed with positive feedback and results from previous consumers (also likely to be returning consumers.) Studies have shown that previous customer success over customer support is king. Think about it, deliver a good product — user friendly, premium quality… you’ve made good progress in ruling out the need for a good customer support system. I never said, rule it out completely, however getting things right from the beginning greatly reduces the chance of unhappy customers. Also remember that a bad review has a greater negative impact than a good review has a positive one.

Videos and pictures are the most powerful things in an internet business world right now! Effective communications by webinars or podcasts will definitely do more good than harm. It’s important to remember that the human eye is more coaxed more to imagery and colours than plain old black and white writing. Not only can this be used to the customers benefit but to yours too. Video tracking allows you to see exactly what audiences are being reached as well what adverts are being skipped. Yes, you guessed it… skipped adverts are probably not as successful as ones that aren’t. Subject titles with the word video are also far more likely to grab the attention of viewers and in turn a positive result money-wise.

Team work makes a dream work under a strong and positively influential leader. I love the word synergy. It’s so powerful and in my mind immediately screams things like, togetherness, team work and team success. Bring your team together and motivate them to create the most amount of synergy possible. Without any team, big or small, a good final result will never be reality but always remain a far fetched dream. Understand that everybody has a strengths and weaknesses and it is the leaders responsibility to allocate duties in accordance with those.

So tell me, how do you envision your first or next steps to business success in a post-pandemic world? How are you going to stand out in a world where everybody is trying to stand out? Get in touch and let me know!

naima@closerconsultancy.com