You Must Pivot: Changing the Way Small Businesses Communicate Their Message During the Pandemic

An interview with SEO Expert, Trevor Stolber

Knowing how to pivot your business’s online presence could save your business from the ill fate that so many SMBs have met because of COVID-19. Staying in touch with customers and informing them about changes in your operating hours and offerings keeps your business current and relevant. 

The challenges that business owners meet are keeping in contact with their customers; shifting their products and services to meet today’s new demands; and adapting to the new and evolving customer experience. 

To learn more about how small businesses can rise above the noise and survive the impact of the pandemic, I caught up with Trevor Stolber, SEO expert and CEO of Stolber.com. Stolber leads a burgeoning digital marketing agency, representing heavy hitters in a variety of industries.

Read on for powerful tips and recommendations for small businesses navigating the COVID-19 waters. 

Here’s Trevor Stolber’s advice:

Logan: How have small businesses been most heavily impacted by COVID-19?

Stolber: “For some of our local service-based clients we heard things like "the phone completely stopped ringing" and some businesses were forced to completely close. This is obviously very impactful. Many but not all niches saw traffic declines. There were some winners, too, but this was very impactful for a lot of the small businesses we work with.”

“We were moderately impacted by the COVID crisis and had several clients pause their campaigns. I am happy to say that the majority have already resumed their campaigns and that we didn’t have to cut anyone’s hours down, a lot of businesses in our industry and others were not so fortunate.”

Logan: How should small businesses “reopen” in their online presence? In other words, how should they communicate the reopening of their business? Is it best to use certain social media platforms over others?

Stolber: “Google My Business introduced a lot of features and tools to communicate COVID-related messaging. Social media saw massive increases, too. There is a lot of noise there, but it's still one of the best avenues to put your message out on.”

“There were also a lot of creative ways to reopen or adjust operating practices with video, virtual events, or vouchers issued for future opening.

Also, you should never underestimate the power of listening to your customers. Ask them what they want and what their concerns are. I credit Stephan Bajaio for giving me some great advice on one particular client-- to shoot a video walking customers through how they can safely interact with their business. He advised me to lead the client into a show don't tell model, and it worked out great!”

Logan: Are there any budget-friendly marketing tools that business owners can use to stay in contact with their customers? 

Stolber: “Many major SEO Tool providers offered discounts and opened up their training courses. Email lists and social media are still great cheap ways to keep in touch with your customer base.”

“One of the more important things is to adjust your messaging - the game changed and so should your messaging. This was one of the biggest and quickest shifts in consumer behavior.”

“Traditional analytics can't keep up. Google Trends, explodingtopics.com by Brian Dean, and alsoasked.com by Candour are great free tools for finding opportunities.”

Logan: Are Google Ads and Facebook ads worth it today, or should they wait until the crisis is over?

Stolber: “This is interesting because ad spend crashes but so did CPC. This does leave an opportunity. Both platforms also offered and are giving out decent funding for existing customers. They are still worth it given that as long as the messaging and content changes to adapt.”

Logan: How is your company helping SMBs pivot during this crisis, especially in dealing with closures?

Stolber: “Early on in March we realized how significant and impactful this would be to our clients. 

We did four specific things for our customers and also helped out with a lot of pro bono work for others.

1) We have (and still have in place) an across-the-board 10% discount.

2) We published a lot of general advice on how to market during this crisis.

3) We worked individually with clients brainstorming some unique and creative solutions to help them continue business amid the instability. 

4) We offered free social media marketing to all our customers.”

“We also helped several companies through Lily Ray’s initiative to connect digital marketing professionals with businesses in need of assistance.”

Readers, what tips would you add to this list? How has your company been affected by Covid-19? Please leave a comment!

For more valuable SEO advice, follow Trevor Stolber on Quora and Linkedin. Also, check out Stolber.com for more SEO tips and advice.

Lisa Logan is a freelance content writer and content marketer. Contact her at [email protected] or via Linkedin at https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/lisalogan1/.

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