Now is the time to step up and prove yourself as a company that cares about its clients and customers.
Recently, I was reviewing an associate of ours’ website and noticed that there was nothing on there that indicated COVID-19 was happening. Nor that COVID had a state-wide directive order ordering businesses to close, nor how it affects their business for their customers. To be honest, this angered me a little.
The fact that SEO and marketing companies charge the prices they do and they don’t even reach out to their clients when there is a pandemic going on was infuriating.
Many local businesses are struggling right now and the way to get through this is good communication to everyone on both ends of the chain.
Communication is key
At Kow Abundant, we have been making calls, sending emails, and talking to clients about how we can help them through these times. Some clients have paused services which we understand if they are closing business, others have stayed the course, and some have even invested and increased marketing efforts during this time.
Invest in local Ecommerce
Ecommerce is seeing a boom right now in some B2C sales, some gaining as much as 7X return. For every dollar spent on marketing local ecom, some clients have seen up to 7 times return on investment.
Helping Local Businesses
As a free service for our clients, Kow Abundant has been offering free web development work to our existing clients to update their websites with COVID updates about their hours. This helps customers know if they are closed or open now.
Update Everything Online Now
We also encourage local businesses to give updates via social media, update their Google my business listing with the latest hours, and update their websites. Google has quickly made updates to make it easier to provide updates with a specific COVID-19 update section on your Google My Business listing.
Google Updates Algorithm
Google recently made updates to their algorithm as well. In light of Coronavirus and state orders for stay at home, Google has made changes to search listings. It is unknown at this time whether having COVID updates on your site directly affects rankings but it is known that if you update your listings you can avoid possible listed as auto-closed penalties.
Dropping the SEO Ball
Too many SEO marketing and website companies are dropping the ball right now. If your SEO or website company has not contacted you about your website and the COVID-19 situation, you have a problem.
Make sure that you provide updates to your customers on your website including your Google my business listing and social media about if your business is open, how you are addressing concerns, and if you are still taking online orders.
Keeping everyone informed is essential now and your marketing company must be on top of this.