Ten Things You CAN Do During the Pandemic
How do your ideas, beliefs, and values translate into value for the Ideal Client who purchases your services? In other words, how do you attract people you want as your Ideal Client, and repel the ones you don’t? That’s really all that marketing is.
It’s not hard, and it is not about presenting yourself as something you are not. It is exactly the opposite: presenting the real you, with all your quirkiness, humor, and maybe even vulnerabilities, so that people come to know, like and trust you.
It’s not about being seen. Being seen means exposure, and we all know that exposure can kill us. And I used to say that before there was a viral health crisis!
It’s not about “likes,” which is a “vanity metric” and doesn’t mean that you are converting your admirers to buyers. It’s about connection and engagement. It’s about building great relationships, and great relationships lead to a great business.
Two months ago we were out shaking hands, networking in person, meeting people for lunch, and getting paid to entertain families and their guests at special events. Yes, people were paying us to do what we love!
Now because of the COVID-19 shutdown, our whole world is different. We are obsessed with cleanliness; schools and workplaces are shutdown; families are stuck together 24//7; and we need to wear masks when we go to the grocer or the post office.
This is a difficult time, and we are not sure how the future is going to play out. People are scared, depressed, lonely and fearful. Maybe you are feeling all those things. In the past we provided joy, laughter, smiles, memories and fun. I encourage you to find a way to STILL do that for your contacts…since that is what they need right now. All is not lost! No, you cannot paint faces or twist balloons at a party, but you can be close to your ideal clients’ and continue to solve problems for them.
But it involves you getting out there, with your voice, your message and being of help. Ask yourself: How do you want to be remembered, when the pandemic is over?
So what can you do during the pandemic to grow relationships and your business?
Ten Things You Can Do During the Pandemic to Grow Your Business
- Be sensitive: everyone is confused and off balance. Stay in touch, but don’t shamelessly self-promote, and don’t share your worries or desperation.
- Be a source of knowledge: address any outstanding or future needs related to bookings, deposits, refunds, or cancellations proactively; don’t wait for the client to come to you.
- Create personalized information and resources:FAQ’s, hand washing diagrams, photo collages, memes, GIFs, even recipes can be helpful during a quarantine. How about free classes or a story time activity, or teach your clients something they can use in a personalized tutorial?
- Find creative ways to keep in touch: everything is virtual, so consider a virtual happy hour, virtual coffee, virtual open house of your art studio or virtual tour of your kit.
- Consider personalized gifts and handwritten notes: You know how to paint, draw, cartoon or twist. make a gift, a painting, or send a handwritten note telling your VIP clients that you miss them. Don’t forget their birthday, anniversaries or other special occasions just because you can’t be there in person.
- Use Social Media wisely: with a strategy, with goals, with a planning calendar, and without self-promotion (promotion should only be 20% of your total posts on all platforms)
- Connect on LinkedIN: make a profile, enhance your profile, search for the people you want to be connected to…especially if they are your Ideal Client
- Give and ask for testimonials, ratings, rankings: a good strategy is to give, give give and then ask for a review in return.
- Update (or create) your website: everyone is online right now for everything, don’t miss out on getting into the digital space with a home base to call your own.
- Establish an email marketing plan: Create a newsletter and send it out on an email service provider. Create a free download, so that prospects will give you their email address to receive it, and then start communicating with them.
If you don’t know how to do these things, I can help. I am a business development and marketing coach for creative professionals. I teach classes to help artists and entertainers with relationship marketing. Please see below for my next small group session: Rev It Up, Roadmap to Revenue, a small group class for those who want to establish a consistent marketing plan for their business during the Pandemic.
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