TIMES OF UNCERTAINTY

Customers value content that helps them make sense of all of the disruption going on around them. Small businesses should create and deploy content that helps customers navigate through times of uncertainty with greater confidence.

This simple message tells us that our marketing should not be directed towards the selling of our products or services but to give support, have understanding of needs and frustrations and to provide hope for a better tomorrow.

The COVID-19 along with several other disturbing issues will be with us for a while. The old normal is not going to return. That means you have to look ahead and “tell it like it is.” Don’t sell the past as a picture of the future. The new “good days” will be coming but not without a lot of bumps along the way and certainly not in the near future.

While earning a living is still the main goal of all small businesses, let’s not take a short term gain and lose a long term income. In other words, make sure that the benefits you offer (sell) are real under the present circumstances and provide a path to the future.

Examine the new normal: less driving, more online ordering, less human contact, more online communications, working from home, more online education, need for technical education,  a need for positive distractions, more concern for safety, more “bored” kids and adults, ongoing health concerns, more home and business deliveries, more clutter on the internet, more use of 3-D printing, artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

I am sure you can add to the above list, which are the uncertainties that are faced by everyone every day. Each of the items mentioned will change something that we have been doing for years and will bring unlimited opportunities in each category to grow new businesses to compensate for the changes.

New cottage industries are being developed which will grow into the giants of the future. Most of these industries are born to help the transition from the old to the new.

Several blogs ago I wrote an article on PIVOTING; it may be something each of us has to think about.

Let’s continue to grow our BizQuack community by communicating and supporting one another and sharing new trends and ideas.

Please send me thoughts and topics that you want to share or want more information on.