This article is tackling the concerns and conversations about the Coronavirus Effect and the new normal for small businesses and solopreneurs across the Midwest region’s Twin Cities area.
So! What does this mean in terms of the way you currently conduct business or handle your client and associate communications?
- Accessibility to timely data
- Prohibitive costs
Yes, there are tools, software, and resources capable of tracking real-time activities to some degree. For example, Google® Analytics accounts provide a ‘real-time user data’ snapshot of who’s on your site right now and who has been on your site over the last 24 hours. It can highlight the time of the day these visitors (users) were on your site, where they came from (geographically), and even what could have been the path that brought them there. Social media versus search engine results versus a direct go-to.
However, beyond Google® Analytics, the majority of any other reporting tool readily accessible to business owners and entrepreneurs (like Google® MyBusiness Insights or social media platform insights) will not provide real-time activity reporting. This means we’re reliant on ‘old’ data that is at, a minimum, one week old.
Additionally, those resources and software applications that do have the ability to provide real-time user behavior are most likely outside of the true small business owner’s operational and marketing budgets or capabilities because of the sheer size, depth, and breadth of the technology being developed and served. This is technology most likely applicable to larger companies like Coke®, Oracle®, Microsoft®, Mobile Exxon®, United Healthcare®, and Amazon® are just a few examples. If you’re a small ‘mom and pop’ business or solopreneur service or solution, you most likely don’t have the financial resources to invest in such robust data collection and reporting.
- Start with previous industry standards and adjust as you need. This will be a time for a lot of testing and adjusting.
- Be prepared to see missed marks and know it’s okay in the short term.
- Don’t panic. Stay calm.
- Keep true to your mission, your business, and your policies and those who trust in you will follow or come back once their personal situations are calmed as well.
- Keep the information flowing as if it’s business-as-usual but potentially with a new twist. If you can inform without alarming your client, they will follow your lead.
- Be part of the conversation but don’t obsess over it and don’t become an alarmist. Enter the conversation to take advantage of the new wave of trending content but in a thoughtful and meaningful way that speaks to YOUR audience and brings them value. It should be relative to you, your business, and your mission.
- Watch those weekly analytical and insights reporting resources, but don’t obsess over them. We have a moving target…now, more than ever before, that is moving even more quickly, fluidly, and unpredictably as our personal environments continue to change from day-to-day.
- Don’t dismiss your content and marketing strategies altogether because when this passes you don’t want to have to start from scratch and fight harder or spend more to be noticed in the market again.
Contact Back2Basics and we’ll help you walk through this to the other side. And, keep following our blog and social media profiles for additional tips and advice during this time.
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