For many, due to COVID-19, now is the time to re-shape our businesses. For those that can pivot, it may necessitate rethinking services and products and how we manage them – including moving online as much as possible.
We have already seen an incredible lift in online activities with a 34% increase of internet usage, a 18% increase in online shopping and a 21% lift in online take-away/deliveries.
"It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive
but those who can best manage change."
Charles Darwin
Ideas to help get your businesses more online:
1. Virtual/online classes, tutorials and meetings:
- Video is a great way to continue to interact with customers and allow your visitors
members/customers to continue to utilise your service.
- Virtual meetings, consultations, appointments - can continue online.
- Consider: Zoom, Skype, Youtube and Vimeo - they are all great, low cost options and easy to operate.
2. Product sales & shipping (E-commerce):
- Bring your business truly online with an e-commerce platform. Enable your customers to browse, order and buy online. Include virtual meetings if needed to assist the sales process. E-commerce plugins can often be added to existing websites.
- Platforms to consider include Shopify, Woo-Commerce, Big Commerce are easy-to-use e-commerce platforms.
3. Tutorials & downloads:
- Can you transfer your one-to-one or group training sessions to online?
As part of online training, you can also provide documents and worksheets. In some cases, you can also add a payment portal.
- Consider: Udemy, Learndash, Learnpress (all work with Wordpress CMS)
4. Webinars:
- To keep your brand top of mind and continue to add value to your customers, webinars are great to way to provide information. You can easily share screens, provide documents for approval, answer customer service enquiries etc.
- Consider: WebinarJam, Click meeting, Goto Webinar, Easy Webinar. All are low cost and easy to set-up. Some webinars can even be embedded into your website.
5. How to's:
- These can be like webinars but are often more engaging. 'How to do's' are one of the highest search terms on Youtube including 'How to: garden, cook, paint, fix, build, create ..etc'.
- YouTube is free to set-up and it's easy to record on your mobile device and upload straight to YouTube. Over time, YouTube may even pay you for your hits and audiences!
6. News sites:
- News sites can created to discuss key topics such as gaming, sports, technology, music, business, travel, food, movies and more. Whatever your interest, you could create a news site, based on your topic of interest.
You can share updates with your audiences, customers, members etc.
- Even basic Wordpress & Joomla type CMS platforms can become news websites.
7. Blogs:
- Blogs are great ways to create great content and then market it online in social media. They are also an excellent way to improve your SEO and help your business be found in Google - under relevant search terms.
- If using a CMS platform like Wordpress, they are easy to include.
Want to explore what your business can do online?
Need to reshape your business services or optimise your digital efforts?
BEAM can help. Chat with us to see how we can help digitise your business.