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Editor's Note: Vanessa Marzán Toro is an expert in strategic communication, a specialist in non-verbal language, a consultant and a speaker. The opinions expressed in this article are specific to the author.
(CNN) - Our reality and daily life have been interrupted by the arrival of the coronavirus. The same has happened to the economy of thousands of small and medium-sized companies worldwide. As an expert in strategic communication, I share with you some simple recommendations to restructure the communication plan of your business and thus try to face this new reality.
1) Analyze how your product or service can add value or assistance in the current crisis and adjust your sales message. For example, you sell tea. Before, your sales message could have been focused on the fact that teas were fresh and handcrafted. Now, your sales message should focus on those teas that are drunk hot and boost the immune system. If you sell food, instead, focus on communicating about those dishes with high nutritional values, even if they were not the most popular before. Consumers' priorities have changed, so their communication plan must also change.
- LOOK: The importance of social distancing to contain the coronavirus
2) Right now, and due to forced inactivity, your customers have time to listen and pay more attention to your product or service. Take advantage of these weeks to upload “blogs” to the cloud and make educational “facebook lives” about what it has to offer.
3) Adjust the advantages of buying your product in all the communications of your company. These days, it is much more useful to offer, for example, “home delivery” or by post in your ads and social media posts.
4) Take advantage of time at home to update your customer database and start sending new email communications to them. We never found the time to create a database with the business cards they give us at the business meetings we attend. This could be the perfect time.
5) If your service or product is in high demand at the moment (soaps, disinfectants, vitamin supplements), include a phone line to answer questions or concerns. And don't forget to add a contact email.
6) Offer your services “online” and communicate it. If you are a consultant, tutor, advisor or graphic artist, offer your services by teleconferences or “face time”. There is no reason for you to stop generating income.
7) If you cannot offer your products or services “online”, then make special offers in presale. This could work very well with dinners, stays, gifts and clothing. By implementing this strategy you could receive money now while your business is idle.
8) Start working and coordinate your work schedule for April and communicate the spaces you have available to clients and future clients.
9) Communicate the settings in schedules and services by text messages to mobile phones. It is a highly effective communication channel that will activate your clients to search for it on social networks or to purchase your product both online and by mail.
The only constant thing in life is change, and those entrepreneurs who do not have the will or ability to adjust to it, are destined for failure. Let's look outside the box and identify opportunities as we face the crisis. The communication plan of a company never falls into "social distancing". It is time to maintain continuous communication with your target audience. If you don't, your competition will.
coronavirus