Many business are predominantly offline businesses. You know what I mean, those bricks and mortar places like restaurants, cafes, pubs, shops – the kind of places you see on the high street. Even services business can be mainly offline, such as personal trainers, hairdressers, or beauty therapists.
The savvy businesses will all have an online presence too. Have a read of local businesses need to be on line too to get an idea of why your business needs to get online. It’s about extending your reach and about making people aware of your business, which is very often referred to as brand awareness.
Currently we are facing unusual times, and many businesses will find themselves having to pivot and adapt to the situation. Social distancing or full lockdown is in effect in a number of countries. The knock on effects of this may last for quite some time. Businesses need to start to think about how they can adapt and possibly look more to an online solution.
Here’s how businesses can embrace the online world and how they can adapt to a lockdown situation:
Restaurants, cafes and Pubs
You can use social media as a quick and easy way to get a presence online. It’s free and you can use it to share images of the restaurant itself, food, people in the restaurant. You can also share reviews, your menus and opening hours. If you add a website, you could also take table bookings online, sell items, or set up a takeaway or home delivery service. Don’t forget Google My Business and Bing Places so that if people are searching locally, they will find you.
For lockdown situations
If able, you could offer a takeaway or pick up service for meals or drinks. This could be as simple as letting customers know online and giving a phone number or asking them to email or DM on social media. Think about other value add content such as recipes.
Shops
Again, social media is the quickest and cheapest way of getting online. This will let you share information about the shop and your products. Adding in a website could allow for selling online. Ensure you use Google My Business and Bing Places so that you can be found locally.
For lockdown situations
Can you offer a delivery or pick up service? You don’t always need an ecommerce solution for this but you could make people aware of the service on social media and take orders over the phone.
Gyms
With social media you can give the usual information about your gym, with photos of the gyms, the services you offer, opening times etc. You could also share videos of warm up exercises. Get your free Google My Business and Bing Places listings set up too.
For lockdown situations
Although people may not be able to visit your gym, you do a daily live on social media of exercises to keep you active. You could post up videos of workout routines. You could even swap the gym subscription service to online and run classes as Zoom calls. Personal trainers could also use Zoom, or similar tools, to run 1:1 sessions with their clients.
1:1 Coaches, Teachers, and Trainers
Social media would work really well for reviews and for short videos about what you do. Taking bookings online and allowing customers to see when you are free can be a real advantage. A website could allow you to also run a subscription service. With 1:1 services you need to ensure Google My Business and Bing Places listings are set up.
For lockdown situations
You could run all of your 1:1 sessions on Zoom or Google Hangouts. Both have free versions and are quick and easy to use. The Zoom video can also be recorded so the client can play it back. If there are a lot of people having to sit at home then running some free taster sessions may get a lot of interest, either as Zoom webinars or simple social media lives.
Hairdressers and Beauty Therapists
The visual nature of social media can be used to good effect, showing before and after photos, reviews and sharing information about the products you use. A website would allow online bookings and maybe product sales.
For lockdown situations
Doing online tutorials of your service could works, such as plaiting or make up application. You could even try some social media lives with a step by step how to session or maybe answer questions live.
Tools to help adapting to online business:
- Zoom have a free video-conferencing plan. Its free tier allows unlimited one-to-one meetings, as well as group sessions lasting up to 40 minutes and involving 100 participants.
- Google is waiving the fees on the premium version of Hangouts Meet to assist businesses and schools operating remotely. The paid version of Hangouts Meet will be free until July 1. Some of the premium features businesses and schools can benefit from the most during this time include an increased limit of 250 participants per call.
- Loom are removing limits on the free plan, halving the costs of the pro version and extending trials to 30 days. It’s also now free for education.
- Microsoft is offering a free six-month trial globally for a premium tier of Microsoft Teams,
Contact Us so we can help you to adapt your business during this difficult situation.
We offer a free 30 minute consultation, so why not fill out the form or call us on 07570 026548