The widespread impact of the Corona Virus on the world has been nothing short of utterly devastating. The planetary scale pandemic since its outbreak about a few weeks ago, has caused an unprecedented plummeting of business and economic activities.

Due to the alarming spread-rate, a lot of countries have been forced to shut down all non-essential business exchanges and this has left a lot of business owners reeling in uncertainty as to how to mitigate risk, protect employees and still retain the customers’ attention.

If you are a business owner in this class and you have really not planned out ways you can mitigate risks, cut down on losses and get your business to stay relevant amidst the lock-downs and curfews, here are a few things you can implement right away:

1. Go Remote

You should really comply with any physical business activity restrictions placed by the government and shift your work base to the safety of your houses.

If you have several employees working under you then you want to avoid organizational loopholes by ensuring that there is an optimal (digital) means of communication set up so as to enforce cooperation and also monitor progress on all fronts as you would on a normal business-on-site day.

2. Shift all Marketing Strategies Online

The goal is to ensure that your business makes it through the pandemic without suffering any long-term damage to your brand or your customer base. If you have paid little or no attention to online marketing strategies for your business before now, then now is the time you really want to leverage on digital platforms to break through the noise, keep brand to consumer engagement, increase your online customer base and even pool in profit.

Anything from hosting online events and webinars to email marketing could prove to be the most effective way to make the most out of the situation and give your brand a popularity boost.

3. Communicate transparently with your Audience

It is really important to recognize that your clients understand that you are also affected by the Corona Virus situation. Hence, you should be open and transparent about what your business is facing at the moment.

Now is the time you want to let them know what you are doing about it, steps you are taking to mitigate risk and how you are involved with helping the community. This act alone is sure to bring a more favorable perception about your brand and distinguish you as an industry leader.

4. Drive Social Media Engagement

It is a fact that at this time, the bulk of the world populace (somewhere between 65% – 70%) turn to social media in order to have access to trending news and fresh content. It then becomes extremely important that you reach out to your audience regularly by creating content pieces around the situation. But be careful here, you want to make sure you don’t come off as “Unempathic” to your clients by being so aggressive with marketing your products, they are also as badly hit as you are. It’s a delicate balance you want to keep.

That’s why Bellafricana came up with a 30-day Challenge for Creative Business owners. This Challenge has presented the perfect solution to tactical marketing and a deeper sense of connection with the audience as a way of saying:” Take that Corona Virus! You’ve got nothing on us!”  Read more about the Bellafricana Creatives challenge here

Which of these Tactics will you try? I can’t wait to hear from you.