Marketing During COVID: 3 Commonly Asked Questions
There are a lot of questions swirling around right now. From, “How am I supposed to be my kids’ teacher while also working from home?” to “How in the hell can I keep some money coming in if I can’t leave the house?” it is a stressful time to be over the age of 2 right now. The good news is, nothing is forever—but even a 30-day stint of not being able to do your job can feel like forever. So today, I wanted to answer 3 marketing questions that you might be asking yourself right now. Because, you, your family, your employees, and your business are all looking for some answers to help guide you through the challenges we are facing. Read on for my answers to 3 commonly asked questions and use them to develop a plan for yourself!
Should I be marketing my business right now?
Yes—you should be marketing your business right now! I know that a lot of people are struggling (emotionally, financially, professionally or for a host of other reasons that are all okay), but a lot of people are not. So, my advice here is to not assume that no one is searching for services or in the position to pay. People are spending obscene amounts of time on the internet and many are using any extra time they have to check projects off their lists—you definitely won’t book any new work if you don’t tell people you are still around and doing your thing.
When you do market your business, be mindful of your messaging because it is anything but business as usual. Make sure that you are striking the right tone and creating content that is sensitive to the current state but not dwelling on it.
What marketing tasks should I be focusing on?
If you are feeling unsure of where to start, there are 3 things you can do (well, 7 if you haven’t done these ones yet). First things first, if you have never written a marketing strategy for your business, this is absolutely the time to do that. Not only will you finally get this foundational task done, but you will be writing from a unique position—figuring out ways to navigate your business through and beyond this difficult time. Whether you build a plan that assumes your business is fully funded or a version that runs on a lean budget, you’ll have taken an important step towards making your business more resilient.
The next thing you should do is review and update the copy on your website. It can be as straight forward as adding a timely message to a page or two or a more intensive audit (making important SEO updates and honing in your brand voice).
Lastly, you can do your future self a favor by creating a few templates for yourself. (Because you know you get a little jealous every time you see a super tight and well-executed brand!) Build yourself templates for creating branded pins on Pinterest or story slides for Instagram. And, no—you don’t need to be or hire a graphic designer to do this. Use Canva to crank these out!
I have time to write a bunch of blog posts right now, what should I write about?
Building a backlog of blog posts is one of the best ways to spend your time right now. And, if you can prep enough blog posts to publish something new twice a month for the rest of the year, you’ll be sitting really pretty. Definitely start with writing fundamental posts that have a keyword or phrase with good search volume. Here are a few example titles:
Should I hire a wedding planner?
How to address wedding invitations
How much do wedding flowers cost?
Then, start preparing galleries from your best 2019 weddings. The goal here is to share one new gallery a month for the rest of the year, so (as I am writing this in April), that means prepping 8. Be sure to write an introduction paragraph and rename the image files to optimize them for image searches.
Want more ideas? Write a post about what it takes to reschedule a wedding (focused on why it’s important to hire a team of professionals and the value of your experience) or share advice about what couples can continue working on even if they are on a “planning pause.”
