Starting a New Business During a Pandemic: What You Should Know

As crazy as it may sound, a lot of new businesses are popping up despite the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the economy (and health) in the United States.

Startups can be found in nearly every major industry, and it seems as though the reason for this is opportunity. While the pandemic has certainly added a host of new challenges for business owners — forcing a lot of changes in the process — it has also opened up new opportunities.

If you’re on the verge of starting a new business or have just opened one recently, there are a few things you should take note of to ensure your business survives during and after COVID-19:

Getting Customers is More Challenging Than Ever

This is more for the short-term, or until the health crisis is dealt with, but convincing consumers to choose your business, product or service is more complicated than it was pre-COVID.

No longer can businesses rely solely on traditional digital marketing techniques, their USP (unique selling proposition) or their reputation to increase sales numbers. Many Americans have been left without a job due to this pandemic, and are struggling financially as a result. This means consumers will be more particular about what they spend their money on going forward.

As such, new companies have an extremely difficult challenge ahead. Not only do they need to build brand awareness (as any new business would) but they also need to implement never-before-seen approaches to their marketing efforts.

Instead of discussing why your brand, products, or services are great and what makes them great, you need to cover why they are necessary at a time like this.

Brick-and-Mortar Businesses Must Put Safety First

From restaurants and bars to auto parts stores and other retailers, if you’re opening a new brick-and-mortar business, implementing safety protocols is a must.

Consumers these days are focused heavily on their health and trying their hardest to avoid catching or spreading COVID-19. This makes it more challenging to convince customers to visit a physical location, where they could potentially expose themselves to the virus ripping through the country.

This is why it’s crucial your business has a range of safety procedures in place, including:

● Regular store cleaning and disinfecting

● Hand sanitizer stations

● Mask or facial coverage requirements (for both staff and customers)

● Temperature checks at the door

● Staggered seating and social distancing markers to ensure patrons stay six feet apart

You should also consider offering curb-side pick-up or contactless delivery options if your business allows for it. All of these protocols should be displayed in your marketing, on social media, and at the front of your location so customers feel better about making a visit.

The Old Digital Marketing Process Is Obsolete

Digital marketing involves a range of complex processes and tasks; most of which take a significant amount of time and money before they start yielding results.

Whether its paid advertising, SEO, email marketing or something in between, the old ways of approaching your digital marketing efforts simply do not work any longer.

Before COVID-19, businesses would sign lengthy contracts with digital agencies and come up with a long-term strategy that failed to take into account the drastic changes in market and consumer behavior that could arise.

As a result, many businesses were not prepared to scale down or pivot their digital marketing efforts, and continued to pay for services they didn’t need at a time when businesses were being closed and consumers weren’t spending money.

Fortunately, new businesses have the opportunity to approach digital marketing in a more simplified, scalable, and data-driven way through the use of AI-based solutions, like Winnow.

Market research and competitive analysis — which once took weeks to complete — can be accomplished in a few days. Bullet-proof paid ad strategies can be built quickly as well; using data to figure out how much you should spend, what audience you should target, and what content you should use in your ads.

What’s more? With Winnow, your campaigns are constantly tracked to ensure they’re meeting your goals and yielding the best ROAS (return on ad spend) possible. If not, Winnow allows you to make quick adjustments to right the ship.

Sign up for Winnow today to ensure your digital marketing efforts are pandemic-proof.