4 Ideas To Help You Market Your Business During the Pandemic

Marketing has been a struggle this year, to say the least. For myself, almost everything I had been doing came to an abrupt halt back in March, when businesses and some government entities began to take the Coronavirus seriously.  Suddenly there were no more networking groups (in person), taking a client to coffee or meeting for lunch to swap referrals. 

As I had mentioned in a previous post, I was already considering moving to more of a virtual insurance agency, but the virus expedited that process. Since March I have spent a considerable amount of time working on the website for my agency. I have also spent a lot of time trying to find a way to boost my social media presence. 

My social media gurus and I meet talk strategy about once a month. We discuss strategies that will ultimately get my website more traffic, which in turn should convert to more sales. I wanted to share some of this discussions with you. 

1. Reverse engineering. Work backwards from your goal to find the steps you need to take. For instance, if your goal is to sell 100 more units (of whatever you sell) in the next year, then ask yourself what is needed to do that. Breaking it down, you would just need to sell two more each week. Could you do that by spending more on marketing, advertising or other promotional costs? Or is it a matter of increasing your activity, like getting up an hour earlier than usual and going to more networking events? By starting at your goal and working backward you can get a realistic view of what you need to do to boost your sales.
2. Get a landing page. If you want to get more business you have to have a way for people to contact you that is convenient to them. A landing page will give your prospects a quick way to let you know that they are interested in your services. Also known as contact forms, your customers can fill them out online and submit, which in turn sends you an email notification. My website and my Facebook page both have contact forms and I have gotten clients I never knew before. 
3. Have a social media strategy. As I mention in my book, all of my posts on various social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram are designed to steer people toward my website (the giant funnel). Once they are there they can do a number of things, like watch short product videos, get a quote on their own, or fill out the previously mentioned contact forms for more information. I've even included my calendar for my page visitors to use if they want to book an appointment. 
4. Find ways to work remotely. Sure, everyone is trying to figure out Zoom meetings at this point, and it can be hit or miss. Luckily for all, the customers on the other side of the screen are empathetic to your plight. Don't be discouraged by technical glitches. I also have begun looking for insurance carriers who have made the effort to help agents like myself work remotely. Web based applications, Docu-sign forms and other tools help me work with the customers without any concerns of spreading disease.

With promising signs that a vaccine is coming soon, I hope we can get back to doing business as usual in the near future. My own opinion is that some of the marketing and sales techniques we have used this year will stick around so I wouldn't plan on going "old school" soon. Remote sales are here to stay, so make the best of it and please, stay healthy!

Chris Castanes is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. He's also the author of "You're Going To Be Great At This!", a humorous look at sales. For booking information, click here. He's also the president of Surf Financial Brokers selling life and disability insurance in several states.