9 Great Ways to Market Your Small Business During a Global Pandemic

As a small business owner navigating the treacherous waters of a global pandemic and what it means for the future, you may be struggling with ways to market your small business in an ever-changing economic landscape. There’s no question that our entire way of life has been upended, but there is hope, there are ways to build your business and even grow your business during a global pandemic.

Ways to Market Your Small Business During a Global Pandemic

Marketing is About Creating a Relationship

First, it’s important to understand that ‘marketing’ does not immediately lead to sales. Right now is not the time to focus on ‘selling.’ The full scope of marketing involves a relationship exchange. It is a way to determine and meet the needs and wants of your ideal client and attract them to your business. Marketing can in some cases lead to immediate sales, but this is not what we’re focusing on here. Marketing, especially now during these trying times, means filling a need for your customers by providing a service or product that they are looking for. In some cases, they won’t realize they’re looking for that product or service until you tell them that they are.

How to Identify What Your Audience Needs

There are myriad ways to identify what your client needs. In a perfect world, you could do all of the research, buy all of the books and take all of the marketing webinars. We’re no longer living in a perfect world, however, and determining what your audience is looking for is easier than ever right now.  With essentially the entire world on lockdown, at home, the vast majority of people are online telling everyone what they need via social media. By simply going online and engaging with your community, you can determine what it is, exactly that they need.

You need to only position yourself in such a way that you’re able to meet that need for them. How do you do that? The following list provides 9 great ways to market your small business during a global pandemic.

9 Ways to Market Your Small Business During Difficult Times

Create a Course or E-book

You’re likely a subject matter expert in your field and as such, have more information on your hands than you know what to do with. One simple way to market your small business is to create an online course or e-book to share your knowledge with the world. You can choose to offer your course or e-book for free as an opt-in to your mailing list, or sell it for a small fee. The choice is yours to make, depending on your end-goal. People are looking for ways to occupy their time or learn something new. What better way to serve your audience than by teaching them something new.

Start a YouTube Channel

YouTube is an interesting place. Many of us flock to the site for information, how-to videos, and entertainment. If you’ve been toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel now may be the right time. There are plenty of YouTube professionals like Sunny Lenarduzzi and Tim Schmoyer who offer free videos that will tell you all the amazing ways to market your small business on YouTube.  A channel is a great way to build brand awareness and help people see the ‘face’ of your business.

Go Live on Facebook

Many small businesses have taken to Facebook live to share with their followers, a wide variety of content that relates to their business. Cake decorators, chefs, and restaurant owners are doing real-time cooking videos. Bookstores are posting read-aloud and book review videos. Consider the nature of your small business and how you can ‘go where the people are’ with regular live Facebook videos.

Host a Twitter Chat

Much like Facebook, users are flocking to Twitter for their world news and entertainment updates. Make use of the space by hosting a Twitter chat in your niche. Invite some of your ‘competitors’ to join you or co-host. This is a great way to build community and grow your audience. Again, consider your niche and how you can help serve your audience in some way. See what they’re asking for across social media and address those issues.

Schedule a Zoom Call

Love it or hate it, Zoom has been the frontrunner in terms of providing a valuable service during this time of isolation and quarantine. Family members are able to reconnect, companies are able to hold meetings (which still could have been an email, by the way) and people of all ages are using the service daily. Much like hosting a Twitter chat or presenting a Facebook live, scheduling a Zoom call is a great way to market your business and fill a need for your audience.

Promote What You Love

Everyone is online, we’ve established that. They’re looking for groceries, toiletries, activities for the kids and everything in between. Now is the time to go full-on with your affiliate marketing endeavors. Sites like Share-a-Sale, Cactus and CJ Affiliates represent a wide variety of companies, services,  and resources that you can share with your audience. Make use of affiliates marketing. People are looking to buy online since they’re mostly unable to shop in person.

Offer Educational Content for Students

Three weeks ago when the majority of the country started reeling from the reality of kids being out of school for the long haul, companies stepped up to the plate with resources to help entertain and educate children. If your business fits, consider providing some educational content around your niche for students. It could be a series of videos, book recommendations, a list of links or anything that could help students around the country. You may think your business wouldn’t fit, but consider that high school and college students are looking for things to do and learn beyond their regular studies. Consider teaching them how to blog, learn the basics of photography or social media marketing; all are valuable skills in our online world right now.

Guest Blog for Other Websites

One often overlooked, but simple way to market your small business, especially during a pandemic, is through guest blogging. Content creators, especially within the travel niche are desperate for content to share with their audience. Reach out to bloggers you know and ask them if they’re welcome a guest blog post from you. Ensure that it fits their niche; you may need to tweak your angle to be sure that it’s timely and fits in with current events. Guest blogging allows you to grow your community and build your audience.

Don’t Forget to Pitch

When it comes down to it, there’s still something to be said for pitching. Agencies and brands may not have much to offer and many have reduced their rates, but there are still opportunities out there. Make time each week to send out a few pitches. You can reach out to your warm market and send cold pitches as well. It truly can’t hurt and you may be surprised at the results.

We’re in unprecedented times but there are still opportunities to be had. While there may not be as many monetary opportunities and some customers aren’t in a position to buy right now, it’s important to remember that it won’t be like this forever. The manner in which you find new ways to market your small business now will lay the foundation for your future growth and success.

This post contains affiliate links