Companies are scrambling to try to weather the COVID-19 storm. It will take all your strength to navigate these unchartered waters, but this is not the time to bunker down and hide from the world.

I get it. Your business could have supply chain issues or maybe you’re hibernating until the coronavirus clouds clear. But if you stay in contact with your customers and remain visible online, it will make it much easier to pick up where you left off when the climate improves.

Know your business

Use the time to take a step back to look at what your brand stands for. Be clear on what your business offers customers.

What do you do that others don’t? Everyone claims to offer great service or superior products. So ask yourself, what is your real point of difference or how are you better?

Working through this might not be a quick process, but once you have this nailed down it will make it a lot easier to start creating your marketing strategy and content plan.

Be visible without selling

There is a difference between badgering and communicating. If you try the hard-sell approach at times like this, you’re likely to see audience barriers go up quickly.

The idea is to engage with your community and let them know that your brand is still active, so that you’ll be top-of-mind when things start to improve.

Show your company culture. Think about how you can be conversational.

Be honest and transparent. Let people get to know you and know how they can contact you.

It all starts with content

Everything starts with having great content that people want to see. I know, easier to type on a blog than put into practice, but it’s true. Quality content trumps sub-standard quantity every time.

Think about how you can show your company culture in your web articles, emails or social media posts. People want to see your brand’s personality.

Keep your brand style consistent. Develop your style guide if you don’t have one already and stay true to it.

If it’s topical, informative or entertaining, you will get attention from the audiences that mean the most to your business.

Have a human presence. Include photos of your team, clients using your products or show how your brand can make people feel.

Add motion or video to make your content even more eye-catching.

I should mention at this point, you don’t need to splash the cash to make it happen. There are great free photo sites for images, such as Pixabay or Unsplash.

PicMonkey and Canva have templates for all digital channels that are a big design shortcut.

And Google is your friend for finding social media marketing tips.

Start with organic content and you can consider putting money behind your campaigns once you feel more confident.

It doesn’t matter if you have 10, 100 or 10,000 followers, every connection you make is an investment in your company’s future.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you’d like any advice on your digital marketing strategies. Be seen and be proud. You’ve got this!